Our delightful French Gîte and Garden

I found these photos in one of my 'France' folders.

I had forgotten about them

however they are perfect to tie in with the

parties I'm linking to this week!

I can't remember if I told you that I organised a gîte to rent

for our time in France last June/July.

The family have been doing major renovations

so we thought it best that we had our own retreat!

It was within walking distance of the family and as

you can imagine there was much excitement and 

toing and froing with the girls!


The house was built in the 1700's

it had two staircases inside

which indicates part of it was probably a barn

originally.

This photo is of another barn on the west side of

the house.

You can just see the ping pong table on the right,

this was our entertainment each afternoon!

The girls had wonderful fun exploring

every nook and cranny in the house.


It was a very comfortable house to stay in

 and well stocked with books and music CDs.

The elderly owners were originally from England

and lived there for several years.

Sadly they have both died but the house is still

in the family.

They befriended my daughter and kindly lent

her books to read in english.

I'm joining Karen for Sunlit Sunday
Judith for Mosaic Monday
Stephanie for Roses of Inspiration
Bernideen for BTTCG
and
Jess for The Art of Homemaking Monday

Thank you for your visits and comments

Take care and
be kind to one another.

à bientôt




Shane

Easter Cards made with Love...

Happy Easter dear friends

Easter Sunday dawned dull and grey here

it was also the end of daylight saving

in our little corner of the world

our clocks were turned back one hour during the night.

These photos above are from our 

Easter celebration dinner last year.

Today we went out for Easter lunch

and I completely forgot to take photos!

so instead I'm showing you the

Easter cards I made for my

three granddaughters

who live in 

France

You all already know how much I miss them

and wish I could share Easter celebrations with them....

I hope you have had a joyous Easter celebration with your family

Thank you

dear friends for visiting and leaving your sweet comments

I'm joining the following parties 

Aimee for Share Your Creativity Sunday

Judith for Mosaic Monday

Jess for The Art of Homemaking

Stephanie for Roses of Inspiration

Thank you ladies for hosting your parties!

Take care and

be kind to one another

Merci à bientôt

Shane  x

Hyacinths on my window sill

I walked into my kitchen this morning

and found the sunshine spilling on to my window sill!

I grabbed my camera and snapped a couple of quick photos

as the weather has been dull and rainy the last few days.

My dear friend Jennie popped in for a cup of tea on Friday

and she had her lovely spoodle Annie with her.

We heard a noise and Annie had been sick on the carpet...

Jennie was very upset - I wasn't worried as our carpet has

seen better days and we will be replacing it later this year.

( Two days later the stain is still on the carpet, I remember hearing somewhere to put 

a couple of drops of glycerine on a stain and then polish it off

using a cloth with a little white vinegar on it)

If anyone has a good remedy I would be grateful 

it's a fairly large brown mark with an orange tinge - from her food presumably)

Jen rang me on Saturday to say she was popping in!

When she arrived she gave me this heavenly pink Hyacinth...

She said Annie had asked her to pop into the garden centre

and buy it for me, to make up for her oopsie on Friday!!!

Snowball Update

Dear Snowball has arrived safely in Australia.
As you know I was very anxious about her travelling
so far on her own.
My friends told me about an iPhone app called Flight Radar.
I typed in her flight number and miraculously
her aeroplane appeared on the screen,
she was flying across Bass Strait at the bottom of Australia.
Now I felt she was no longer on her own!

At the same time my son was driving to Melbourne
from the country area where he lives.
I was able to keep him informed as to her progress!

He arrived at the airport moments after Snowball's
plane touched down. Customs took a couple of hours
to process everything and once she was released
she was on the back seat of the car
purring her little heart out!

He has sent me photos via Whatsapp
but I'm having difficulty transferring them to my PC.
All's well that ends well!

   !!!

I'm joining Karen for Sunlit Sunday

Thank you Karen - I've enjoyed taking part over the

last three months and I'm sorry this is the last for a while!

I'm also joining Judith for Mosaic Monday

and 

Jess for The Art of Homemaking Monday

Stephanie for Roses of Inspiration

Eileen for Saturday Critters

Thank you ladies for hosting your interesting parties.

Thank you for your sweet comments on my Snowball posts!

Take care and

be kind to one another

Merci à bientôt

Shane

My Favourite Tea Cups

If you are visiting from Vicki's Grow Your Blog party
my post and giveaway are here
My giveaway (see the side bar) is open to everyone
even if you aren't involved in the party
you are very welcome to enter - no strings attached!
Please click on the link above and leave your comment
on that post, thank you!

Today I'm sharing my beautiful blue

Spode Camille tea set 

handed down to me by my mother

you can see a previous post here

I'm joining Sandi's tea party at

Rose Chintz Cottage

to celebrate her five years of

Tea Time Tuesday!

I'm also joining my dear friend Stephanie
for her Tuesday party
Roses of Inspiration

and Jes for
The Art of Home Making Mondays

This is my favourite tea cup
because it holds so many

precious family memories of

time spent when friends popped in...

to enjoy a good old chin wag (chat)

catching up on each family's news

while sipping tea.

What could be nicer?!

Mother used these sweet cups every day

for both tea and coffee.

I've always loved the simple little flowers

that make up the pattern.

I can't remember what they are called...

maybe you can remind me!

A tea party wouldn't be any fun

without some friends to share

now would it?

I baked a gingerbread cake

and added crystallised ginger to the icing

which the bears love!

Do please pop over to
Sandi, Stephanie and Jes's blogs
and see what everyone is posting

it's fun!

 Thank you for visiting and I so

appreciate your kind comments!

Welcome

to my new followers.

Take care and

 be kind to one another

Merci à bientôt

Shane