Thursday, September 27, 2007
Finished stole
Last year my friend David Hill asked me to make a stole for him for his entry into the Church. I had no idea how it should be made. After a lot of trial & a few errors I worked it out. Lined & interlined, all hand sewn, I was proud of it when it was finally done.This is my third one now and it does get easier. It's still a huge amount of work though; this one's taken me weeks. I took it to France with me and it was lovely to be making something with grape vines on it when I was surrounded by them. Let's hope she likes it.....
Saturday, September 22, 2007
Autumn wedding
Here too is a picture of the 54 apples that we picked off the tree. It's a bumper year this year. Now I just have to get some time to make jelly.
Tuesday, September 18, 2007
Pumpkins
Monday, September 17, 2007
Sailing
Saturday, September 15, 2007
To be a Farmer's boy
Friday, September 14, 2007
Mini Boog
Wednesday, September 12, 2007
Margie Pie Pie
Friday, September 07, 2007
Nothing happens 'round here anyway...
Except .... Margaret Perversi is coming to visit next week, all the way from Tasmania.
Margie & I used to go to tap dancing school together in Melbourne or should I say the 'Ecole du Claquette' with our wacky teacher Isabel who had had a sandbag fall on her from a great height at the Princess theatre years ago . We also cooked almost every recipe in 'Mastering the Art of French cooking' when we lived next door to each other in Queens Rd, Melbourne near the Mermaids Cave brothel...she was married then to Ron Brooks, children's book illustrator extaordinaire, (Bunyip at Berkeley's creek.... John Brown, Rose and the Midnight Cat), now she is with a poet......yay how many of them do you know??
I have also been asked to make a cope. My personal patron David Hill has asked me if I would be so kind as to work out how much it might cost for a gold cope with red velvet orphries and gold thread embroidery on the hood. Yippee. Nice job. Here are a few photos of David in the cope he wore to a wedding that we sang & rang at last Saturday.
Here as well is the stole I'm making for a lovely friend of David's for her ordination in October, it was very nice to be embroidering grapes & vines when we were surrounded by them in La Fosse.
Saturday, September 01, 2007
Fairwell La Fosse
We had such a nice time in La Fosse & people were so welcoming, we'll be back for more as soon as we can. On the day before we left, Liz's neighbour's came over in their fabulous wrap around French aprons & presented us with a bottle of wine, a bottle of home made cider vinegar & a jar of home made plum jam. It's amazing how humanity transcends language.
Here are some random photos of our last day when we went on a drive up the Loire to a place called Montsoreau. The Chateau there overlooks a quiet stretch of the River Loire, near the confluence of the Loire and Vienne rivers and at the base of a cliff. The river here is classified as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO and is peaceful & beautiful. The Montsoreau chateau was done up incredibly tastefully. There were no four poster beds & Louis 14th chairs, only a beautiful light & sound display of beautifully made model boats sailing along on a bed of moiréd steel mesh. There was hardly anyone else there and the eerie sounds of terns & lapping water lulled you into a calm & meditative state.
After a sumptuous lunch of crepes...We went to Fontevraud where we saw this amazing building which looks like a princesses tower but is actually the kitchens of the Abbey there. We also discovered that Richard the lion heart's grave is at this very Abbey
We finally got to see the church that Liz had told us about near La Fosse that had wonderful topiary yew trees. Comical & tactile. A lovely summer's evening with hardly any noise & raked sandy paths.
The strange grumpy-cheese-crab-cake that we bought to see what it actually was. Why would you actually burn the outside of a cake.
So farewell to La Fosse and La belle France. Thankyou for a wonderful time.