Petanque presentation

We were invited to a little celebration this morning for three long serving members of the petanque club this morning. Christian, who attends every day and opens the bar, Josette (nice to see a woman featuring) and Pierre Vincent from Pessac were all honoured with a certificate and a medal. These events are always a bit difficult but good for our French. The presentation was followed by the serving of aperitifs, which may still be going on..

A bonus was that we picked up a baguette for luch from my all time favourite boulangerie, Le Fournil in Post Ste Foy. The queues are always something to behold! It was still hot and the smell in the car was just fantastic - some days they don't make it home.....

Frosty morn

We woke up to a beautiful white frost this morning.

Truffle omelette

Yesterday G returned from playing boule with a very precious present. Passed secretly in their normal handshake of greeting was a small packet of tinfoil containing four slices of black truffle from Paolo! Paolo is a very generous giver of recipes - we have enjoyed lots of seasonal ideas from him in the past. And he recommended the truffle to be used in an omelette, to be lightly cooked, the truffle and a little salt sprinked on, folded and finished off under the grill.

I can report that it was superb with a green salad and we toasted Paulo with a glass of Sancerre. Santé! What could be nicer on a rainy Sunday?

Organic hand dyed socks

The socks are finished! There was a slight panic near the end of the first one, as I wasn't sure that I would have enough wool; but a bit of technical weighing on my digital scales of sock and ball, confirmed that I did.

The new project has started - but needs to remain secret...... for now anyway.

Haiti Disaster

This is the link to donate for all you knitters out there. Well done to Stephanie Pearl MacPhee for encouraging the knitting community to pull together on this. Dig deep!

Knitters without borders/Tricoteuses sans frontieres

http://www.yarnharlot.ca/blog/tsffaq.html

Cambridge top is finished.

I like this very much - the King Cole baby alpaca was a delight to knit and the top is soft, warm an luxurious with that lovely little 'bloom'. Now this rush of projects are finished off and the sun has come out I must get out more!

Another hatch of chicks!

Following their appearance at the Chateau Font-Vidal Christmas market, all the chicken doorstops

were sold and I had an order for another three; I had run out of stuffing and felt and had to wait for these to arrive. It took ages with the holidays and the bad weather, but this week I had all the ingredients delivered and they are finished and ready to go off to their new homes. (I made a couple extra as they will be really handy presents). Now they are finished I can turn my attention to finishing off my baby alpaca top.

Organic merino hand dyed socks

My alpaca slipover is nearly finished and I wound my organic merino sock wool yesterday. It was dyed using logwood and the organic walnuts I gathered at Montbreton. G dropped a hint that he fancied a pair of socks in it - and a little start has been made. This morning was the first day I have been out since our big chill started, but the wool parcels have to go! it is bright and sunny, but it was -5C when we got up.

Amaryllis magnifique!

This week the amaryllis Margaret gave me on Boxing Day popped out in all it's glory. The colours are very beautiful and quite delicate.
We awoke to more snow this morning and it has continued for most of the day. We were supposed to be going out tonight, but sensibly the hostess has cancelled as the roads are pretty treacherous.
It has been a busy week with the sale and I think the bad weather may be good for business. If I get a bit of peace this afternoon I hope to make time for some 'bonus' knitting.

Our turn for snow....

We are both busy working on the final touches to the sale this morning and we have had a little flurry of snow. Nowhere near as bad as the situation in the UK, and I don't think it will stay for long.

Trip to the city

For the past few months my trusty knitting lamp has been on the blink. It has been taken apart and re-assembled which helped for a short time, but at Christmas it stopped working altogether. So a trip to IKEA in Bordeaux was needed to find a new one.
It has been ages since we were in Bordeaux and I had a long list of spices needed from Eurasie and Smokey needed new supplies of cat food from Animalis. It proved a good day to go as the shops were pretty quiet, this being the day before the sale starts.
The lamp is not quite as posh as my last one, which came from John Lewis, but it will do the job. Eurasie never ceases to amaze with their selection of spices and exotic vegetables; thank goodness I went with list as it is all so tempting. My only disappointment was the menu du jour at Alice, I didn't fancy the sausages, so it was back to IKEA for a quick lunch and home.
It has turned very cold again and the temperature has stuggled to get much above freezing.
We were so busy this afternoon trying to get ready for the sale and the phone hasn't stopped ringing and the doorbell too. Normally life is so quiet here...

Bonne année 2010

A quiet start to the new year. We did stay up to see the New Year arrive, and Gary had a peek out at the village fireworks, but it was quite wet and it dampened the effect somewhat.

The steak pie using the paleron was a huge success, I'm delighted to report. It was both tender and tasty.

This morning we went shopping at the Ste Foy market, but there were very few stalls and I have never seen it so quiet. It is bright and sunny, but very cold today and I have managed a bit of progress with my latest project as G playing petanque this afternoon. I did one of these tops for Tracy some time ago in black silk wool, and I generally never like to work a pattern twice. However, I really need something that is not a sweater, but is an extra warm layer. As this is in baby alpaca it will fit the bill perfectly.