Little touches

Im not one for buying flowers from shops. Firstly i find them far too expensive and secondly for what they cost they just don't seem to last long enough to make it seem worth it.

Depending on the season I like to embellish my own house whether its in holly and dried oranges for christmas time or cherry blossoms and daffodils when the weather gets warmer.

I recently posted about the mimosa festival that we have here in southern france. The forest surrounding my house is full of yellow bloom and looks beautiful in my living room :)

Crayfishing

 Recently I visited England to catch up with my family and some friends. Ive not been back much in the eight years that I have been living in France but now that my parents have moved back there I will be visiting a lot more often.

The weather was amazing while I was there, I got a good couple of afternoons lounging in a pub garden with a glass of wine in the sunshine which for me, England is all about.

On one of these days I was seeing a friend of mine and we had seen some people dangling some bacon on a piece of string into the local river. On closer inspection we found out that they were catching crayfish... needless to say, the next day, there we were with a glass in hand dangling our own string over the side of the bank :)

Easter photos

Its been a really busy few weeks here so this years easter wasn't as big a deal as it should have been. we opted to go to my in-laws for lunch.

We started off with an easter egg hunt which Evie really enjoyed even though I don't think she really understood it. Later in the day she kept revisiting the areas where she found some in search of more, hehe. 

Traditionally on the french side of our family we start lunch with salad Pascal and follow that with roasted lamb. 

White Rose Table Decoration

Part of my job working on the super yachts is to create an atmosphere of complete luxury for the guests onboard. Each breakfast, lunch and dinner I would create a different decoration depending on what the flowers are in season and what the guests are eating.

Quite often these tables can cost a fair amount of money. Orchids and roses don't come cheap especially if you are ordering them from afar. Once used they usually get thrown straight out as it isn't the 'done thing' to re use them. Such a shame really but thats part of the job. I usually take the used flowers to my own room so its not such a waste.

This is one of my evening tables created with white pebbles and roses. The tableware is Versace and the bay is St Jean Cap Farrat

A little Easter Cheer

Thought I would just quickly share this with you... I wanted to make a plain white baby grow a little more interesting so decided to sew this little nest. Inspiration came from our little chicks who we will be picking up any day now :)

Preserved Lemons

We have plenty of citrus trees here on the property, most of the time we have more oranges than we know what to do with. One nice thing about living here is that when we invite people for dinner, they come with gifts. A friend came over last week with a whole basket of lemons from his garden!! I use a lot of lemons in cooking and drink a lot with tea but a whole basket... I think using them all is out of the question.
So I searched out some preserving recipes.

Preserved Lemons

Sterilized jars
Sea salt
Cloves
Peppercorns
Boiled water that has cooled
Lemons

Cut the lemons top to bottom but not going all the way through, then again into quarts. Stuff lots of the salt into the opening you have created and then place into your jar. Try to fit as many as you can into the jar, add the peppercorns and cloves and then fill to the top with the cooled boiled water and seal.

You will need to wait a month before using them. Try in Moroccan dishes, they use lots of preserved lemons in their cooking and they add a really refreshing twang to any meal :)

Mimosa Festival

Where I live in France we have forests full of mimosa trees. Early each spring the whole forest around out house turns yellow. Its an amazing sight to see and is truly beautiful.

Sadly the season is coming to an end and the pollen is all over everything.

Each local village has a day of celebration for this time of year and the local schools create floats and parade them down the high street :)