Tag: France

October in France (again!)

But this time with The Small Persons.

Mishmash of seasons – spectacular light, weirdly blue skies, lizards, temperatures around 27 degrees, ripe quinces…..warmest October since 1945, when records began. (And the second warmest October was last year…)

A magic slice of summer, no frosts yet at all. But of course there is a downside – there are daffodils with leaves a foot high, and lilac bushes with not only leaf buds but four actual flowers….in NOVEMBER?? This has got to be bad news for next spring. Rather scary. We’ll see.

Drawing a veil….

Some difficult months – not helped by the random popup ‘memory’ feature on the iphone – thanks, Apple….

But after some debate SpinningStreak has decided to resurface, and maybe I’ll hide behind her for a while!

September in the Auvergne

I spent the last few weeks keeping an indigo bath on the go – temperatures in the 30s definitely helped to prolong it. These pictures are a mixture of indigo and logwood on merino, alpaca, silk and one skein of linen.

The hedges looked pretty strange at times.

Made a good start on the cosy stuff as well – though it is always a bit weird to be working on winter items in 34 degrees.

Crescent scarves next on the list – need a stock of those because they seem to go down well as gifts.

Apparently I have entirely forgotten how to edit these posts – can’t even shift the images around any more. So, apologies – but if I mess around wasting any more time I know I will just delete the lot!

Soon be possible again?

Fontainebleau – and forest – last November. Just made it before the NEXT lot of travel restrictions kicked in.

After a very different Christmas dodging Covid (unsuccessfully, as it turned out in the end…) I can’t help feeling excited at the prospect of getting back to France again soon. But maybe this is premature. I’m enjoying being back at work but actually I still don’t feel anything like normal, so perhaps I’d better conserve energy for the moment – maybe some gentle spinning is on the cards!

France, Summer 2021, after all.

Discovering splendid municipal architecture in Évreux, and castles in Lapalisse and Châteldon (the home town of Pierre Laval, though that doesn’t get much of a mention in the tourist office!)

I am also quite a fan of the N7, but I think this rather large sign in Lapalisse is new:

Likewise this rather alarming roadside cross that has appeared right outside the front gate… I think over the last year European money has restored several of these 19th century calvaires which had disappeared during the late 20th century.

We’ll get used to it!

Reading, walking, eating….and several sessions with the dye pots, mostly sock yarn this time.

I also took some pictures of a corridor my daughter decided to decorate some years ago:

We are holding a memorial event to celebrate her life on Sunday. This is necessary, but not easy. I think I will take my late September tree pictures on the same day – still a really useful prop!

Liberation

From quarantine (technically ‘quatorzaine’) after our time in France. Where, in fact, we had voluntarily isolated ourselves, turning down all invitations and never setting foot in a town. We even froze outside on the ferry, keeping rather more than social distance, so we were not worried we were importing anything nasty.

The two weeks confined to the house were spent in an orgy of Etsy work. Lots more spinning (always my favourite) and somehow managing to turn myself into a baby blanket machine – hours and hours of it, got a bit carried away…”just one more…”

It was a good move, though – I’m now back at work (in a drastically altered classroom) and won’t have that sort of time for a while!