Fruit and Fabric
Hello to you all,
In a week where the getting the car fixed saga continued (see post: The best laid plans) and we had our second Covid vaccinations, exciting news our vine has grapes! Obviously this is what you would expect, but last year we had none, and given the late frost this year I was expecting the same. Imagine my excitement when I saw all these lovely bunches of grapes growing. It’s the little things as I frequently say!
We also paid a visit to St Antonin Noble Val market and had another coffee out! It is lovely to sit outside a café again watching the world go by, albeit socially distanced and sanitised.
We were at the Sunday market to get some fruit for jam, as our trees are empty and the potager didn’t yield enough strawberries at the same time for jam, plus they were just too delicious and got eaten very quickly. Many fruit sellers also sell crates of fruit for jam which is great, although the strawberries this year were a little more costly than usual – maybe too early in the season. At the market cherries were in abundance as well as apricots and strawberries, so I bought a small amount of each and made strawberry, apricot and summer fruit jams. I love making preserves – so therapeutic and fabulous to see all those jars filled with something yummy at the end – if you like jam of course. Max is a big fan.
We made time to stop at the amazing spice stall to get some curry spices; the owner makes up the spice mixes and they are so good. The smell of this stall permeates the narrow street – heaven.
I have to confess we also stumbled on a vide-grenier in a side street we had wandered down, actually its second day, so fortunately for the bank balance just the tail-end on a couple of tables in a pretty little garden. As ever we couldn’t resist buying something or two somethings – an old oil lamp that Max liked which can be used as an electric light fitting and a sweet little teacup and saucer (I collect them but should probably stop). We had a lovely chat with the owners and left with our treasures.
On the way back to the car we passed this window – such a fun idea!
How are you all? Have you had a good week? Here we are half way through the year already – how did that happen? Welcome to July. Strange weather appears to be the norm everywhere at the moment. My sister said that winter in Australia is particularly cold this year, our summer so far here in the Tarn is stormy, wet and much cooler than last year, but peppered with hotter days. Canada has experienced frighteningly high temperatures and France floods and snow! Isn’t it interesting that no matter where you go in the world the weather is always a topic of conversation and we always want what we don’t have? It did warm up enough on Friday for the day so I had a long overdue swim – that did me the world of good.
This week I have also finally found a bit of time to focus on fabrics and mood boards for our petit château project. I think I have been missing being creative as I have had a lot of work and admin to do lately. I am a creative at heart and given the chance would happily create things all day long – whether with fabric (clothes or home furnishings), painting furniture or walls, taking photographs or cooking. I would love to earn my living doing something more creative but my experience lies elsewhere – also creative in its own way.
We have decided on a definite colour scheme for the salon – the room with the amazing tiled floor. We had been contemplating greys and goldy-yellow colour or curry as I have seen it called here! I like this so we are going to call the colour we use madras curry! I mentioned that when we went for our residency appointments I had seen some fabrics I liked and in the sale (see post: The best laid plans). So on Monday, as we had to return the hire car and collect a courtesy car from the garage (work on our car had still not started), we nipped into Bouchara in Albi. Luckily some of the fabric we liked was still there and with 40% off! I am going to re-cover a sofa, armchair and footstool and now have the fabric for the latter two.
We have just spent the weekend moving furniture (hence the further delay in posting this) and are finally putting things where we want them to be, or where we think we want them to be. Back at the beginning of the year we acquired two rather dated and chunky chairs that, with a bit of imagination plus a major paint and fabric job, could look great (see post: Projects Galore!). We duly moved these chairs to the Directoire bedroom, one of which had to come down from the second floor and go to the other end of the house, down the winding tower staircase and up the other stairs. They are not light in weight nor compact in shape. 24 hours later we have moved them back again (!) as they just don’t work in that room. Still you have to try. We really need to get things sorted out as it often feels a little like camping here. The plan is to spend the next couple of weeks moving things around and getting on with finishing off spaces.
The hall is finally being finished off, although like everything with a couple of changes, so I need an extra bit of paint. We have decided to highlight the hinges and ironware on the big old front door, not too dramatically but enough so that they don’t get lost as they are rather beautiful. Finished project coming very soon. This is the before photo:
Tip of the month: I read somewhere that if you get bitten by a mosquito (which I have as there seem to be quite a few this year, I imagine due to the soggy warm weather- hence my interest), rub the bite with a fresh mint leaf – peppermint ideally. This should stop it itching – I have now tried this out – it works! I love finding out information like this – natural remedies are great. Do try it, should you have the misfortune to encounter a hungry mosquito.
My apologies for the delay posting this. Look out for the latest in the Seasonal Food series. Have a great week.
A bientôt
Ali xx
