Blog 28 October
Sometimes
Mike and I are shot through when the most unexpected happens and especially
when it involves French culture and the approach to a concept. Mike received a
voucher to get into the international faire in Caen ( like an ideal home
exhibition with lots for the garden as well ) We decided if one of us can
get in for free then perhaps we could make a day of it, so we queued with our
voucher in hand and spoke English as we went up to the ticket office but I
asked for one ticket and presented our voucher in French. The lady asked if we
were foreigners and I explained that we were English but lived in France thinking
that perhaps the voucher was not valid for visiting foreigners. The cashier
asked if we had British passports and we said we did so she thrust a form
through the window to fill in. We felt a huge bureaucratic situation coming on
and huffed and puffed a little until she explained in her slowest and loudest
French that all foreigners get free entry, so we filled the form in, using an
English address and both of us got in for nothing and it is written on the ticket gratuit
etranger…. Foreigners free…..what a turn up, and that is a concept
gone silly as I honestly think that the offer is for visiting foreigners and
not foreign residents, but who are we to argue the point so we spent our entry fee on a little lunch and even
smaller beer for the money….but we had a good time as we are committed to do a
bit of home improvements in 2015 and we
made contact with a few companies for quotes and information so it was a good
and interesting day out
Autumn is truly with us although the days are still balmy
and warm, the ducks are enjoying a gentle entry into the winter season and as
they are so young we are not too worried about protecting them, every day that
passes in this warm and sunny October takes us nearer to winter in the nicest
possible way. I had to rush back for my camera on my walk with HOSS in the
garden as I saw that one of our pear
trees was strung with dew covered webs looking autumnal and crisp but at the
same time there were four unseasonal
blossom flowers. We have daffodils showing their green leaves in the back yard
and new growth on the apple trees, we need a cold winter to cleanse the bugs out
but this out of season growth effort is
all going to go to waist….shame
We finally
got around to laying out our stumpery and as usual Mike brought out his toys to
take the effort out of the work. I always kick myself for giving him such a
hard time when he was buying all this kit all those years ago. Every job we do
is calculated for least amount of effort and it always involves a Mike have-to-have
bit of equipment.
So the
stumpery is in place, packed around the bug hotel in the damp and dark part of
the garden. We now have a place to dump any misshaped trunks as this is the
season for tree chopping, and we have earmarked at least 4 trees that will come
down before the winter sets in, so we are well prepared, and I can’t wait,
chopping trees down is such a lot fun and groundingly productive ……
In
1990 or there abouts I had a year of excellence. Mike trained me to take my
motorbike test and I spent a year taking piano lessons to prepare for my grade
one piano certificate. I achieved both
my ambitions and I rode a Honda 100 to work and played my piano every day. Mike
then bought me a Honda 500 and I took it three times to the office and
realised that girls just don’t look great with helmet hair and the prospect of
riding home on a wet day left me cold and unnecessary. With a perfectly good
family car sitting on the drive, it did not make a lot of sense . I can therefore,
honestly say, I have not ridden a bike in 15 years so when I saw the moped on
the drive having its run up, I bit the bullet, donned my very funky helmet, and
went for a wiz around the block. Mike stood at the gate in horror as he is
intolerant of my car driving and riding his bike just took the concept of
unconditional love one step too far….. But it was fun, and I was forgiven
I have at
last got my act together and have taken over HOSS’s old kennel room as my own.
Up until recently it has been a Beema
stuff storage place and slowly Mike has
been reinventing uses for all this equipment we had on board. Finally, there
was space, and I claimed it for my sewing room. Mike asked me what I really,
really wanted for my 60th birthday and I said without hesitation
that I needed a new sewing machine as I had been muddling along with my 36 year
old Singer and more recently I have been trying to make sense of Mike’s Dad’s
tailoring sewing machine which does not have enough gadgets for my liking. We
did a bit of research and It seems you get what you pay for and as I prefer to
buy from a shop that I can go back to, if things go wobbly, we set off to St Lo
to the Singer Sewing Machine Shop where I was advised and cajoled into spending
much more than I expected to spend, but
Mike reminded me that I am launching myself into a little cottage industry and
you can’t do it half-heartedly. So I am now busy every day on catch up to
produce these unique one off cushions. I
have stitched them, unstitched them and stitched them again, researched different backings, inserts and closures and I am now happy with my end
product, that I would not hesitate to
buy myself . 
Mike is
there supporting me in my decision making, and when I see a needlepoint tableau
I think I can use he always makes me stop and consider. The latest purchase is
the three horses tableau that I have had my eye on in our local second hand
shop for over a month and today, I offered the owner what I thought it was worth
to me and he accepted with a huge melancholy sigh. I never pay top dollar for
my needlepoint as I have a lot of work to do before I can sell on. Mike and I are now using our car boot events (vide
grenier) and our weekly visits to the depot vents with a much more open mind on
interesting vintage items, We will soon go online to set up a virtual
market stall and see where it takes us.
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