Tuesday, August 17, 2010

Good Fortune


You can choose your friends but you can't choose your family...or so the saying goes. Well in my case, I have the good fortune of having a most excellent brother, and he has the good fortune of benefitting from my good taste when it comes to selecting his birthday gifts. He's actually knocking on a bit now, so it seemed only right to push the boat out this year and get him something meaningful. (He'd also actually remembered my birthday this year for the first time in aaaaaaaaaages) We bought it late-his birthday actually being at the beginning of June-and he's still going to have to wait a bit longer to receive it since it's much too delicate to entrust to the vagaries of the postal system. Revealing it this way also gives him time to prepare a suitable display area in his home. As you (and now he) can see, the figure is of a hunting man accompanied by dog. The man is mysteriously wearing lipstick. Perhaps this is traditional. The dog is of indeterminate gender. My brother likes these kind of dogs although they also stress him, and he also goes shooting hence this gift. We got it at our local Vide Grenier (over-priced boot fair) a few weeks ago. It was on the first stall we stopped at not least because a) it was too hot too look around much, and b), the stall holder was quite pretty and so M found her wares to be of particular interest. The figurine had a tag attached saying 15 euros. M managed to bargain this price down on the basis of damage (a missing gun). If you ask me, he was still robbed. The piece is labelled underneath 'The Leonardo Collection' so likely to be of some value I feel. My brother is pretty canny with finances and investments so will appreciate this aspect of his gift. Here, the first picture shows a standard view of the figurine. The second a side view (unfortunately the missing gun gives the impression the hunting chappie is doing something rather odd). It also shows how recklessly I've placed the figure with a big overhang from the shelf. It could easily have fallen and broken. I honestly didn't realise this at the time.The final pictures here show M's current progress at manufacturing a replica gun. So far, the end result is pretty effective-and done with only a cheap scrap of timber and two (used) toothpicks. So there it is! I don't know when this gift will get to you, big brother, but it's well worth waiting for as you can see. yee ha! I bet that's cheered your day up no end!!!!...and you thought we'd forgotten you!












Thursday, August 12, 2010

Teasing the Cockerel




...and here is Wellington, our youthful cockerel who is now approaching maturity. He has won the day over Napoleon, the bantam cockerel, and Napoleon has had to return to our neighbours', from whence he came. Being young however, Wellington can be over-exuberant with his love-making and so, every afternoon, I let the girls out on their own for a peaceful saunter. They can be seen doing this in the distance in one of these photos, expoing their feathery bottoms-two white, two brown, as they bend over to peck at some tasty morsel. This drives Wellington absolutely crazeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee with frustration, as he paces up and down beside the fence, waiting for their return in the evening. Yee-ha. Go girls-that's Girl Power for you!

Monday, August 2, 2010

harvest home!





Directly behind our garden (the boundary being the wire fence), is the hay field...and on Saturday, after a series of checks, and much rumbling of heavy vehicles, all was ready to do the harvest...which when it came to it, hardly took any time at all. I always find it exciting for some reason-even though the serried ranks of sweating men with scythes have been replaced with these machines which can do the job quicker than you can say 'giant haystacks'. The little tractor in the second picture is towing a yellow trailer. When this gets full of the hay which the big green and white machine is cutting, the yellow trailer thing suddenly splits itself in two at the middle, and spits out one of those round haystacks. Marvellous.

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I've lived with my partner in Normandy, France, for about four years now. There's lots I love about our lives here-including our beautiful surroundings-but I also miss my wonderful children and grandchildren who are back in the UK. I trained as a hypnotherapist originally in the UK and am now registered for this in France, I also like making (and hopefully selling) some jewellery.