Scavenger hunt

Scavenger hunt

organised by

green thumb Made with love

 

My  photos for March.
I've had to do a lot of digging in my photo files to submit this time,
as I'm still not  well  and I'm now waiting to go into hospital for some treatment.
So please excuse my effort.



M. for mushroom.
This is a field mushroom which we often collect during Sept and Oct,
 it's the first time I've seen one as big as this.
I made cream of mushroom soup with it.

Mr France found this in September in the farmers field which is next to our boundary.

 

 

 

Our guests table set  for breakfast  in La Petite Maison.

 

 

Some Holly berries on the trees near our house.

This was taken in the late evening last summer
 of the Monastery in Rocamadour lit up.

 

This grate is our French 'Godin' wood-burner. with the door open.

 

Mr France working on the deck he built this time last year.

The chimney breast, which we built in our guest house .
 The bricks where from inside the old bread oven which unfortunately
 we were unable to save, it was too badly damaged.

 

 

Some antique cutlery I found at a Brocante

 when we first arrived in France 24yrs ago.

 

Some troughs and a hanging basket
 with Surfinas and trailing Geraniums
 on our summer balcony.

A cold  crisp morning ,
showing the frost on the ground and white on the tiles of our well.

A souvenir from our visit to the Basque  region in France, which borders Spain.
This was my ticket from our ride on Le Petite Train up the mountain.
The views were fantastic.

It's difficult to find a coloured door in my region of France.
Most of the properties are old stone cottages and have heavy oak doors ,
which are usually protected with a stain and not paint.

So this is my painted door.

I hope you liked seeing my contribution.

à bientôt

Barbara Lilian












          












           

My decision on using the sheet music.

In my last post I asked for your opinion whether I should use the book of music which  I found in a brocante After reading your interesting comments, which I'm extremely grateful to have received. Then chatting on face book, and emails from friends  it was almost 50/50. It wasn't easy to make my decision.
I did a lot of research into the book of  the opera music & also gave it a great deal of thought, it took me 10 days of pondering to be exact, before I plucked up courage to deface the book, a vintage book at that !
I hope I'm not going to make any enemies by doing this ?
As I  found  that the book was not valuable and knowing the music would never be played,  I didn't feel too guilty, added to that a lot of  you were thinking on the same wavelength as me. So I have neatly pulled out a few pages to make cards, decorations and a few little gift bags. All will be shown later in the week.

 I did some research on the fashion in France and Germany during the period when the music was written.
After I'd pulled out the first double pages, I wasn't sure if  it was guilt, but  probably it was my  vivid imagination, but I began to get a vision of a lady sitting on a stool at the piano with a gentleman standing nearby ready to turn the pages of her music. The lady dressed in a beautiful crinoline gown, her hair in ringlets. the gentleman looking handsome in a long jacket and slim fitting trousers & knee boots.

In case your imagination is not as vivid as mine here are a few fashion images for you.
1840-1850

Western style

French fashion 1840

German style

and as you all love the way the French ladies dress

this is what they were wearing in 1840.

Hope you enjoyed seeing the fashion from the period of my music book.
and
come back again soon to see my decorations.

à bientôt

Barbara Lilian

My fantastic music find for a decoration.

Look at my fantastic find, from a Brocante shop in a small town near where I live.

I was wandering down a side street looking for ideas for Christmas, when I saw the sign Brocante. The door was open and the owner was sitting in a comfy chair, soaking up the sun that was shining into his doorway,

I decided to go in have a browse. 

Knowing I had some ideas in my mind for making some decorations using sheet music, in my best French I asked if he had any pieces of sheet music, he said he thought he might have a few books of music, but wasn't sure if he could find them, so could I wait while he went out to the back of his shop. 

I had plenty of time so I looked around and saw lots of things I would have loved to buy, but as I was with Mr. France who hates old and dusty things, if it's not brand spanking new, he calls it junk.

I thought this was not the right time and I'd just wait to see if the owner could find any sheet music.

A few minutes later he came back with this book and asked if it was of any use.

Now as I hadn't gone out suitably dressed for rummaging about in a brocante shop, I had to be careful as he might think I was a collector or maybe a  dealer, as he could have put a high price on it. 

Also being English and smartly dressed in a small town didn't help, I was wondering how much he would say he wanted. I looked at it, as if it was of no use to me, but wanting so much to have this lovely vintage book.  I could see the pages were thick and not flimsy like the books of today. I asked how much he wanted, for it, thinking I was going to have to barter with him. I couldn't believe it when he said 2 euros. I couldn't get out of the shop quick enough, in case he changed his mind. 

Now that I have the book at home and have looked at the lovely design on the cover, even though it's torn and tattered it tells a story. It's the music for a comedy opera, written in German and French. 

I'm sure it's not valuable, but I almost don't want to tear the pages out from it, just to make decorations.

I never deface books, so now I'm in a dilemma, do I tear out the pages 

 or should I try somewhere else that might have sheet music ?

Do you ever feel like this when you touch something vintage ?

 that's so worn because it's  been used so many times.

The tattered cover.

I can't read music, but to me it looks as if it's quite lively.

That was yesterday and now I'm still wondering, should I use it for the decoration I want to make,
 or keep the opera music book ?

I'd love to have your opinion to help me make up my mind

à bientôt

Barbara Lilian

My garden in June.

A little while ago I gave you an idea of what my garden looked like, well now I can show you how it's looking  at the end of June. Hope you like what you see.




This is a selection of the soft colours.

 

This year we have not had the best of weather, a cold May & a rainy June. We were wondering if summer was ever going to arrive, as mid-summers day has been and gone. However it's finaly arrived in full force, it's hot with clear blue sky and the plants are beginning to look healthy and are blooming well, so I'm happy. I've always been a sunshine girl.
Today the floral committee from our local commune arrived with their clip boards. I told you about my first experience of this, not long after we arrived to live in France. After 22 yrs they have not changed very much.
However I did notice that they had a a new member who knew her flowers. The others are quite happy just chatting about everyday life, as long they can have a look around, they're quite content. This committee has to pass first, they select 2 or 3 from the commune to be entered into the department competition, then a week later the horticulturist committee comes to judge, that's when the important part starts. The  local French people seem to be very curious , I'm not sure if it's because I'm English, but now we have lots of English in our area, so I can no longer think of it as 'Un coin perdu'  (a place miles from anywhere)



Surfinias
If you don't know this flower, it's certainly one to have for it's heavenly perfume.
& the vibrant colours. these are planted in troughs so they tumble down over the balcony.

The pale mauve flower is  double Surfinia.
Look at the lovely marbling on the petals
This one is my favourite.

In a few more weeks these troughs will be totaly hidden

 by the profusion of the flowers.



 This antique wine bottle corker was found in a brocante.
I've had it a long time
but now found just the place to show it off.



Hope you liked what you saw.

I'll be back again soon showing more of my hanging baskets as they progress.

A bientot

Barbara Lilian