Exploring

Bella and I have been exploring picturesque villages again. Bella is quite enjoying our little travels I think. She has recently learned to say (and says over and over) "bonjour", "merci" and "aurevoir".

Sam had a little accident today. He and his friend where running and jumping in the house. Sam completely didn't see the solid cherry sideboard in his way, bounced off it and cut just under his eye. He may have nasty shock in the morning when he has a black eye!

Recently...

...from my polaroid app on my ipod.

Coffees in town - thank you mum.

Joining the village library at last. More than 1/2 the library is dedicated to children and only 5 minutes away compared to 35 minutes of the town library.

Keeping cool in the house (39 degrees C yesterday!)
Walking and cycling when cool enough :)

Roughing it

I'm not sure it's justifiable to say we've been camping. We seem to have stumbled across a gem of a place just over an hour away from where we live. It was more like a luxury resort. The facilities were so new and clean and  the pools and the water fountains were magnificent. The staff rode around on bicycles and golf buggies taking orders for food and bread. They had Wifi, but I resisted (was told no way!) the temptation to buy a card. There were a few kids there who appeared to all be the same age as Sam. He especially liked Floyd, the Dutch boy. For some reason, he kept calling him Brian (?). Last night he told us that Brian speaks Duck! We'll definitely be going back here.

Happy Campers

We're off camping this weekend in our very retro 1970's caravan. We're off to a campsite in the grounds of a Chateau. It should be good!

p.s. the crochet is going well, thank you. Apart from a small disaster this morning when I accidentally hoovered the hook and yarn up! Thanks to this tutorial I'm finding it (so far) easy to follow.

Tonight....

..I am going to learn to crochet. I met a lovely lady today who owns an amazing little fabric boutique in the old town. (I handled Liberty fabric for the first time, which was also amazing). She convinced me to try crochet again, after my last attempt failed miserably. So, here goes.....

Secret places

We were wandering around the village at the weekend and came across a secret garden tucked away down a side street. I can't believe we haven't seen this before! Next to a derelict house was a tree lined courtyard with  views over the valley. Down some stone steps was a hedge lined rose garden. Sam said it was a maze as there were hedges sectioning off mini areas. (I was so surprised by this find, I forgot to take photos of the the garden and view!) The garden and courtyard belong to the commune. This region is full of little surprises. We had to stop off at the bar for a drink after this tiring work :)

Colour

I've been attempting to brighten it up around here lately. I love colour and in quite a dark house colour is very welcome. With zero budget, I used pages from falling apart books, cards, magazine cutouts and Sam's paintings. The rest, I find at the charity shop. And, I also realised that the barn door is a great background to exhibit photos for my shop and children's drawings etc.

This weekend

Not a lot happened this weekend. Camping was cancelled due to rubbish weather conditions so Sam did 'boy' things with Scott in the workshop whilst Bella and I stayed mostly grounded indoors - apart from the odd chase the chicken episode. Her favourite place is in the kitchen drawing on the chalkboard. She covered most of it with lip balm making it impossible to draw on, so I'm going to have to re-paint it. Luckily I have more paint.

I worked out a great way to get Sam to eat better. To simply show Bella how to eat certain foods. Sunday, it was boiled eggs (with ketchup of course) and he ate the lot, plus he had to finish first which was another incentive.

I nearly forgot, making yoghurt! I cannot keep up with the demand. That yoghurt making machine was well worth the money. The first thing Bella asks for in the morning is "ur-gut" :)

This and that

The potatoes have been a success! We are making our way through the new potato crop at the moment.

Finding very retro clocks at the brocante.

Little helpers cleaning and gardening.

Nipping outside inbetween showers. It's more like April than June!

Cycling (with a baby on the back)

I love my new (very old) bike. Scott went to pick it up yesterday after I found it online. I've started to cycle as often as I can and with my previous mountain bike it was extremely tedious mounting and dis-mounting with a 12kg toddler on the back and a high horizontal cross bar in the way. The tyres were flat and the gears didn't work but Scott did his magic and it's like new. I have a bright red basket to go on the front too :)