A Quick Table Decoration

A simple and elegant table decoration used for a dinner with acquaintances. At the bottom of the dish is glass crystal shavings bit I've used plastic wrapping before to much the same effect. Paint some dried twigs white and then rose petals. The town in the background is St tropez port where we were moored that evening. Ive spent a lot of my time as a stewardess in St Tropez, the playground of the rich and famous. 

At First I didn't see the fascination with the place, everything was over priced, there is only one road leading in which means during summer time it can take upto four hours to get to from Cannes when it should really only take one. But now Ive grown to love the place. There are many hidden gems there that the 'rich' will never get to experience like Pierre the fish man. He works in the little fish market in the port where all the chefs go to buy the seafood for their clients. Talk to him for half an hour one day and he will remember you for years to come and when you say its a fish for your own table your most likely to get it free. He and his family make a killing because in St Tropez, the higher the price the more people will want it. Crazy place.                              

Our New Family Members

We recently picked up these little critters to add to our brood. We have three remaining from our original eight that we got three years ago and although they do produce lots if eggs its not enough to keep both families in cakes and omelettes so we have decided to get these six.

I'm also looking to getting hens that lay blue eggs and mahogany eggs.

I love out hens, they bring so much hot to the garden and I'm a garden the size of ours it's nice to have a little company when your doing the weeding. I do not however enjoy the fact they scratch up most flower beds to the point I have had to put fences up everywhere.

The eggs are sublime though and once you've tasted a home produced egg it's hard to go back to shop bought

Monday Monday

My dads been over visiting this last weekend. He is a yacht captain and so came from Montenegro where he is based to visit the yacht show and us. The last few days have been spent cooking and dropping subtle hints about DIY projects around the house. Ive had shelves put up in Evies bedroom and the living room so far and we still have another day tomorrow :)

Been baking a lot also, trying to get rid of some of the mountain of chocolate that we still have left after easter. Cookies, cakes the lot.

Weather has been awful so no need to go out and water the garden although it has set me back a little with the planting out of all the seedlings I have taking space on every windowsill in the living room.

Also thought Id include a photo of the most amazing chocolate shop window we walked past the other day in Cannes. I would love to be able to make these, they look too good to eat

Did manage a lovely lunch on the beach. A friend of ours had a quaint beach wedding from which Ive included a couple of photos of :)

Antibes Yacht Show

At the start of every April means the Antibes yacht show. Its a three day event where crew and owners gather to look at new equipment for boats or to have a look through the yachts in port to see whether anyone might want to rent them.

Its a very boring weekend and thats where I have been hence the lack of blog activity. Going on with the boating theme I thought I would show you another of the table decorations that I created.

Book Review Belle - Lesley Pearse

Its raining today and short of doing all the housework and getting back to my quilts Ive not got a great deal to blog about so I thought Id share this little gem with you

Im not usually the type of reader who enjoys a girly read so when I ordered this book online after reading another review i was very disappointed with the cover. i thought that I had wasted money on something I would get two chapters into and put down. I was wrong, I found it really hard to put this one down.

Fifteen year-old Belle has lived in a brothel in Seven Dials all her life, with no understanding of what happens in the rooms upstairs. But her innocence is shattered when she witnesses the murder of one of the girls and, subsequently snatched from the streets by the killer, she is sold into prostitution in Paris.



This was on the edge of your seat reading, its a fairly violent book with a lot of moments where you find it a little hard to read on but the way Lesley Pearse has written it is in a way to ensure the reader that the subject of all this horror can not be broken and stays very positive throughout. Its actually very inspiring. 

A little check

I've just added the blogger app on my iPhone and this is just a little check to see if it's working and so I can have a little play around.

The photo is one a friend sent to me of his toast that is covered with the marmalade that I made and gave him :)

Todays been a mad rush really. The weather has been great recently and its made me realize how late I am getting the garden ready for the fruit and veg. Ive been running around like a mad hatter finding all the pots and washing them out, filling with earth and planting the seeds.
This year Im not going to try anything too fancy. Last year I was left heartbroken because I had to go away for work for a few weeks and nothing was watered properly. I managed to save a few things but for most it was too late.

I have just pulled up the last of my baby leeks which we BBQ'd in butter, they were delicious! And we have lots of lemons which Ive been very grateful for because I came back from England with flu and have been running on hot lemon and honey drinks for the past two weeks now.

The garden is starting to become colorful again, there are forest violets everywhere and I must find something to do with them :)