walking out early

It's  another hot day here today, well hot by our standards at least, I guess we'll get to 80-85° by this afternoon.   There was a heat mist in the garden early this morning, which made everything look rather special.

The best time to walk is early, and this morning, as soon as the children left for school at 8, I was off in the forest for an hour or so with a couple of girlfriends and their dogs.

 I'm not sure there is a better way to start the day, than a brisk walk, laughing and chatting with friends who all have busy days ahead.  Back down from the forest, pause to admire the view, then a peck on the cheek and its back to business.

Hope you manage to take an hour out from your routine today!

brocante shopping and shared container shipping

A while back I promised to tell you about taking home furniture and brocante treasure after a stay here.

 Experience has taught me the importance of working with reliable contacts, and I am happy to have found an excellent shipper who will come and pick up goods here in Normandy, and take them to Paris where they are packed carefully and loaded into a container.

Often clients who come here wish to shop for more than just postables,  they may wish to take back an old French armoire, a mannequin, some tables and chairs ..... you get the picture.   It could be for a store back home, or often just for personal enjoyment.

I am happy to show them around, take them to the best dealers to match their wish-list, help them negotiate and choose.

When we are home, goods are stored in our barn until the transporter comes to collect.  A full inventory of all the purchases is created.

Goods are taken from here, carefully protected for transport to Paris, where they are repacked for a container, either by air or by sea freight.    Chandeliers are hung inside purpose built crates, paintings protected and packed individually, table legs padded and glass-ware wrapped as carefully as a baby!

The advantage of working with people like this is that you don't have to fill a whole container.  This picture for example represents about 10 cubic meters.   The transporter creates wooden crates to hold the goods, and these crates are put into a container with other crates for the same destination - grouped container shipping!

If you are interested in buying in the countryside, where the prices are more reasonable than in Paris,  and having help to get the goods home, you are welcome to drop me a mail.  I'll give you prices and more detail on the shipping procedure.

Also, you may like to know that there are still just 2 places left on the September brocante tour, where there will be plenty of opportunity to find furniture and other treasures!

my garden in may

I know that you are a very polite and kind bunch of bloggers and that you'll say "ooh!" and maybe "aaah!" at these shots of my garden, but I am sorry to say that there are parts that are not quite what I wanted  this year.

Why is that?   Well, grieve me though it may to admit it, there are only 24 hours in a day, and this blog and all that accompanies does seem to be gobbling up quite a few of those hours at the moment.   Leaving me less time to get out and pull weeds and divide plants.

  Added to that our unusually harsh winter which took out several trees and bushes, and you have a good year, but not the best ever.

Anyway, our hawthorn tree looked great, the peonies and roses are about to happen, delphiniums are standing tall and I am rather pleased with my black and white window boxes.

I'll just have to have the perfect garden in my next life!

Hope your week is off to a sunny week too.

x

bank holiday loot shoot

This  post is being written by a weary blogger!  Today is a bank holiday and I was at fairs from 5- 9am this morning, so now that I'm home, and I've taken my pictures,  I shall find a deckchair in the shade :)

The goodies in today's loot shoot are not all from the weekend's fairs.   Today's loot shoot is the result of fairs today and yesterday, plus a happy encounter during the week.

 I was thrilled to find several paintings,  

very happy with  a pair of old chairs with wonderful patina, and amused to find some old pieces of tapestry, that I shall either put into the store as they are, or make up into pretty little cushions, backed with linen.

 

I am very happy with the 'boutis', the French name for a quilted cover.  In France there isn't a tradition for patchwork, but now and again we find these cotton boutis.  Cotton, backed with cotton and interlined with a wool stuffing then hand stitched to quilt.

I found some great old tea cloths, one of which still has its original shop label 'au bon marché!    A wonderful street sign... does anyone know a Robert?!  This would make a great Father's day gift.  

A small collection of tiny zinc signs, and some culinary duck moulds. Also the sweetest small size enamel pitchers.

Let me know if you would like any more information about anything here.  I really promise to put them into the store today and tomorrow, but if there's anything you'd like to purchase before it is listed just email me.

Hope your week is off to a good start...

poppies to keep you waiting

I was up early and at brocantes at dawn this morning, but I'm afraid you'll have to wait until tomorrow for my loot shoot.  Why?  Because this is a long weekend and tomorrow I shall go to a couple more!  I shall show you all my purchases on the blog tomorrow.

In the meantime, to keep you happy, I bring you a few photos of poppies that I took this week.  I'm so glad that the weed killers have no effect on this pretty flowers, I love to see them peppering a field of wheat or barley.

I hope you are enjoying a wonderful weekend

thank you for stopping by!

Thank you to Susan and Kris for telling me that tomorrow is Memorial Day in the States.  I have published this poem before, but it seems appropriate again today.    In Flanders Field.