Summery picnics outdoors and out with the doors!

 We have residing in our house this evening a couple of wine specialists from Portland, Oregon and two lovely older British clients.....a superb summer evening where we all lingered in the garden and enjoyed the warm balmy evening... dining on picnic foods of salmon quiche, cold meats and salad followed by French cheeses and Eau de Vie drenched slow poached peaches....sipping chilled Chablis as the sun slipped behind the stone buildings....a delight...

Meanwhile Liliana has spent the long weekend practicing riding her bike on the stones...

The 2CV has been dragged out of the garage for a clean up and made its way, with the top flipped, to it's first summer brocante...

A great day out at Marcilly Sur Seine...where I picked up the most ginormous bunch of rhubarb to substitute my poor plants that are doing their best supply to demand! Try it cooked with a bit of sugar and stirring in sliced strawberries at the last minute...warm with Greek yoghurt it takes breakfast to another level...

And the building project gets ever closer to completion...down and out with the old glass doors!

A few snaps of our garden as it starts to blossom...

The clematis in full glory

Pansies and petals...

Nou Nou enjoying the early spring sun

The first roses emerge

The Garden Room framed with clematis

The wisteria makes a showing...

Herbs a plenty...chives..

Peonies bud up...a personal fav...

and look at Geoffs beautiful iris'....happy in France

The raspberries are multiplying like mad....

and the ever faithful strawberries...

Fire! Fire!

This is an unusual post but I just wanted to share a gem of advice that I was given last night!

Over a glass of wine after dinner with my lovely British guests I discovered that they both worked for the fire service...one fighting fires and one answering those dreaded 111 emergency calls from panicked callers!

An intriguing occupation that must require great patience and calm clear responses in order to get the right services to the right place as soon as physically possible while trying to gleam as much information about the situation from someone in the hot spot!  So being my usual inquisitive self I was very keen to know if there was any pattern to the main causes [and therefore preventions] of most of the calls that they went out to....and here is what you may not know but you must know!

Any electrical appliance [typically dishwashers, dryers or washing machines] that you put on just before going to bed [and who doesn't!] remains on 'standby' throughout the night after the load has finished causing it to be a sitting duck for causing a house fire...all it takes is a small internal fault and the electricity surging through the machine gets hot and bursts into flames! Smoke fills the house and unless you have working [!] smoke alarms installed you could find yourself in serious danger! NOW this may sound really dramatic but according to these seasoned experts this is, alongside arson, one of the main causes of house fires...

SO in order to prevent this from happening you should install a timer to cut the power to the said machines as soon as the cycle has finished....just like a Chrismas tree timer...simple cheap and it could save your life!

Cooking and cleaning...

Pavlova time on the eve of the arrival of a group of 8 from Sweden....a long weekend in Europe and holiday smiles everywhere...lunch and dinner tomorrow and then off to the brocante Thurs in Villevenard! Close enough to walk...ride...or cycle and the home of the fabulous Champagne Nomine-Renard it should be a fun day out...will keep you posted...

Alberto back today after going AWOL on Monday...made up for lost time by bringing his son along and now the scaffolding is all down and out and we are finally back in our room after sleeping rough in the lounge...marae style for over three weeks!! Now that is what I call progress....

Just the clean up to deal with..this is our bedroom floor!! And now onto downstairs...

Some before photos...hope to have it all finished by the end of the week...off to the Brocante!!

Progress update....moving downstairs...

So all is a bit chaotic but we are slowly moving forward..the new steps are old news and are now enjoying the gorgeous newly plastered and sanded wall in our bedroom...Mike is onto the painting phase and then all thats left to do is 'the big clean up' and we can move back in! Nothing like a bit of plaster dust to entertain a girl for a few hours!! Oh Joy!!

Meanwhile the 2CV needed a new MOT so the arduous journey to the UK had to be undertaken...a noisy wee car that is not brilliant in the rain Mike and Amelia bravely ventured forth in inclement weather and after all of the boxes were ticked and the paperwork in place they arrived safely home to sunshine and warmth...so now the car is now up and running for the summer brocante jaunts...

Liliana and I meanwhile stayed back to make Alberto coffee and cheer him on...ever smiley Liliana was very happy to be back at school and she made the big step of riding her bike to the bus-stop...a short journey for man but a big step of independance for our baby! Well Done Lou!