Here there and everywhere

When Ricardo the Magnificent died, I thought my life was over; there would be no more travel, no more fun, no more good food, no more meeting interesting people, no more singing and no more money. I'm glad (and slightly guilty) to say that this has not been the case.
Somehow good things keep on coming.
I've posted before about my wonderful friends Brad & Tamara who live in Rome. Tamara is a cushion addict like me; ............this cushion is one I prepared earlier for her, sitting on her beautiful turquoise chair.When she came to visit me recently, she designed 6 or 7 cushions for me to make and she convinced me that it would cost almost as much to bring the cushions to Rome myself ...
as it would to post them to Italy. (I didn't need much convincing). So without further ado, for one night only, I went to Rome.
It was the most beautiful day as I waited at Stansted airport for my flight.and though it looks like it was raining as I came in on the bus, it was warm and perfect weather...about 10C degrees warmer than here in Norfolk.
Going for one day was never going to be enough time but it meant that I really REALLY took in everything around me as if it was my last day on earth.
Here I am making like a fountain on the capitoline hill.
Everywhere you look there are amazing views.
and spectacular works of art.
I'd been recomended to go and eat at a Restaurant called La Botticella; the reviews of it sounded too good to be true but indeed it lived up to our expectations easily. The true Italian experience, with washing hanging in the lane above our heads. The owner is cook, maitre d', waitress, dishwasher & singer of opera. We ate Zuchini blooms stuffed with bocconcini and anchovies, dipped in batter & deep fried followed by a selection of 3 different pastas then Tira misu. We were fit to burst. Luckily it was a fair walk home taking in the life of the streets, still packed at 10 at night.
In other news to hand, my friends Tony & Marianne Backhouse (the ones who recommended the restaurant in Rome) came to visit and Tony graced us with a workshop in singing a'cappela. He's bloody good at what he does. See if you can catch the spirit in this video of him putting us through our paces at East Harling Church

Bristol

People sometimes ask me if I worry about putting my life out into the world with this blog. But this blog has brought me nothing but good.
When my Father died and I wrote about it here a wonderful girl named Kelly from Boston wrote her condolences and became a fast friend. Through Kelly's blog I discovered Earwig sandwich and the wonderful Lulu Labonne.
I have only met Lulu twice before, one of which was last year when Richard was sick; she drove all the way to Norfolk to meet him and brought an incredible array of marvelous food and cooked us a delicious meal. I'm so glad they got to meet.
Lulu had a large birthday this week and to help her celebrate, I drove to Bristol. I have discovered that I quite like driving and the four hours or so it took me to get there were a joy with good things on the radio all the way.
Once there I was slightly nervous about spending a weekend at a surprise birthday at which I knew only one person.

But Bristol is an amazing city throbbing with life...

and great street art.
I shouldn't have worried; I was wrapped around by love.
Hilary's husband had organised a canoe-ing adventure on the river Wye and everyone was in such high spirits that there was no time to be nervous.
There was a champagne picnic and much hilarity
and even though it rained...
and there was a LOT of cow poo beside the river Wye...
There were King fishers and Peregrine falcons and the lowest rainbow I'd ever seen (that pot of gold must have been REALLY close by).
So this little bunny will be going to Bristol again as soon as I can to get some more time with that most excellent girl Lulu Labonne. Thank you blog land and the wonderful world wide web.

Cushions????

Are you saying I have a thing about cushions? Cushions?... who me noooooo surely not.

Well maybe just a tiny bit!

Oh alright then maybe I DO.

The Bridgham féte is on and I'm packing up all these little gems to take there this weekend. It's actually really nice to have them all in the house at the moment. Maybe I'll let myself roll around in them for a while.....

Verfeil sur Seye

Well hello loyal blog readers. I bring you the latest post from France where it is VERY sunny indeed. A scorching 39 degrees. I'm staying with my very good friends Sally & John in their house in Verfeil sur Seye near Toulouse & Albi in south west France.

You can tell I'm in France as the photography turns to food... although I'm not sure these cakes would make it to the artisanal bakery!

I discovered you can buy macarons in the freezer section of the supermarket here and that small fact has lead me to thoughts of making them again; all I need is a freezer; anyone, anyone.......... I can pay you in Macarons.

These following I hasten to ad were NOT frozen and also very, very good. This larger raspberry variety of macaron are traditionally known as an Isfahan because of their rose scent. Isfahan is the name of a province in Iran famous for its damask roses. I'm afraid they didn't last long enough to sniff all that much.

And my one weakness.... Ile Flottante
After lunch we slunk from shady spot to shadow along the hot pavements of Albi to view one of the most impressive buildings I've ever seen and indeed the largest brick building in the world. Albi cathedral is an absolute monster, its tallest point, the bell tower stands 78 metres or 256 feet tall.

From the heights of Albi, just so you don't feel too insignificant I must let you know that they too have the ever present dead conifer amidst their architecture.
Which brings us to a nice segue into this fascinating bit of ivy covered architecture in one of the back streets near Sally & John's. A storm was brewing and the sky really was this colour!

Van Gogh eat your heart out.
Sally & John have been fabulous hosts

with aperitifs amongst many, many other delicious meals ...

A walk in the woods nearby.

I've never experienced a landscape like this one. If you narrowed your eyes, you could imagine yourself in the Australian bush but just a little bit greener. It was so hot, the cicadas were the only thing stirring. As we silently walked our way along the rocky paths we came upon these ancient burial mounds called Dolmens or stone tables. Strange and awe inspiring, they brought more questions than answers about how on earth prehistoric man managed to shift these enormously heavy stones.

We also managed to have breakfast in one of Frances most charming medieval market towns, Saint-Antonin-Noble-Val.

Ricardo and I came here in 2009 and it has not changed at all, which was good and bad as you can imagine.

Sorry to leave you on a sad note. Hopefully these baby swallows will cheer you as they did me although swallows always remind me of loss too as they are here for so short a stay.

A perfect day

Clarissa May and Yusuf are engaged.

They picked the perfect day to do it. After an enormous amount of hard work putting up marquees

and a bouncy castle for the kids, making the garden spick and span and a lot of rain, the sky cleared and filled with bubbles instead of clouds.

I'll give you a tip - well maybe two - to a perfect and happy relationship and Clarry & Yusuf have it down perfectly. It goes like this - when Clarry comes downstairs after having a shower, Yusuf says "Gosh you look lovely" and she replies to him "I just love you" and that's it, so simple and yet so scarce. Ricardo and I had it and have now passed on the baton.

I'm so happy to pass it on to such a wonderful pair. When they got together we were all convinced that it would be a one night stand but that one night seemed to turn into every night and I think they were even more surprised than their friends.

I heard the whole lovely story after the big party clean up as we worked away at a mountain of dishes in the kitchen. My eyes filled with tears as Clarry described the first time she kissed Yusuf and felt like she was surrounded by a golden light.

The special occasion had everyone in an amorous mood.

Zebby must have bounced on that bouncy castle for eight hours solid and was so happy to be surrounded by such love. Here he is with one of his all time favourites, Rach.

and at last after a big big day, a bonfire and fireworks. Yay. May they live happily ever after. (Oh whoops there's a wedding to get through yet. How on earth are we going to top this?)