Jumble post

Busy week here again as we continue with the renovation of the cottages and we feel the pressure of next years deadline looming. It's all going well but it can get a little stressful with builders and suppliers and everything else all at once.

We did have a very exciting moment one evening last week when a hot air balloon landed in the field next to the house. At one point we thought it was going to crash on our neighbours vines but it did turn out the man steering the balloon knew what he was doing and he skillfully placed in down in the ploughed field. The kids were beyond excited and are still talking about it.

Also up in todays jumble post I made a Rose and Blackberry Cake. No sugar just honey and maple syrup. Plus its half and half white/wholemeal flour. Not guilt free cake but certainly on the way.....

Oh and it turns out if you loose your trusty sieve (?!!!) you can use your zester to sprinkle icing sugar over. Remember where you heard it first........

And just as I was taking photos of the cake our neighbour turned up with a whole carrier bag of table grapes. He grows a small row of these just for himself alongside his cognac vines. Zero food miles - yay!

Another bake was Passionfruit and Coconut scones for the after school club (aka the slightly tired and hungry rabble) They went down well.

Infact so well that my daughter made me this beautiful pipe cleaner cocktail ring as a thank you. Bring on the next dinner party I say.....

Finally a few photos of the house. Its being sandblasted at the moment so that the landscaping can begin. After two years of living with the courtyard looking like a builders merchants I'm ready for lawn and pointy trees. Good things come to those who wait (and those who have a husband who breaks their back doing it, right?)

One last photo of the new roof going on one of the Phase 2 cottages in the corner of the courtyard.

Its exciting to see the progress......

Beastly

We have been a house of lurgy this week. General misery all round and my husband is suggesting we all go and live in the desert or a yacht to avoid ever catching such a horrible cold again. Anyway, in a bid to boost our immune systems and another excuse to eat cake I made a beetroot chocolate cake. We ate it for brunch this morning with handfuls of superfood blueberries, raspberries and redcurrants. Oh and a bit if cream - well that's calcium ticked. Now that I'm fuelled on coffee and cake I'm off to help out with grouting in the sunshine.

Witchy plotting.......

I'm starting to get some ideas together for this years Halloween party. 

Isn't this cake awesome? I'm a big fan of edible glitter and this black spider is pretty cool.

You can check out my pinning here

Good start to the week..

My super little trio of Legbar hens has started laying. They must have heard me moaning to the next door farmer Bruno the other evening (in terrible French I must add!) that I probably wouldn't get any blue eggs from them until the new year. Bruno, is a giant of a man, lover of all nature and who always seems to stop and chat chickens....how many eggs am I getting? Oh it's too hot/too cold for the chickens.....my French can just about keep up with a lot of gesticulations thrown in. Anyway, after our little chat and as if by magic I found a perfect blue egg in amongst the others. I felt like running after Bruno who had driven off in his car but I think he would have thought I was a mad English woman making her three children go for a run down the road. I will catch him another day.

We've had a friend who is a Landscape Gardener in London staying for a few days and planning the main courtyard layout with us. We've chosen some great trees and plants and the drawings look great so now all we have to do is create it.......anyone got a magic wand going spare? it's going to be a lot of hard work but its going to look awesome. I'm excited.

New wool

I found my zen sewing/knitting shop in Cognac the other day. Full of amazing fabrics (I was all over the Liberty) and divine wools. I bought a stack of fabrics for making Christmas presents plus a few impulse buys that I couldn't resist.

I knitted this little pompom hat. Another thing to add to the stash for my friend who's having a baby.

Off to Bordeaux for the weekend (thanks to my wonderful parents who are looking after the kids for us!)

Sunday Lunch....

Pizza from the wood-fired oven. Yummy!

In the garden this morning the children were very happy to harvest the first squash. (Not sure why the cat is also in this photo. He seems to like to follow us everywhere at the moment).

Scrap-nip mouse

Our five month old Maine Coon kitten Ghenghis was in need of a new toy this week (anything to stop him chewing the corner of my iPad case)

Here's the little catnip mouse I made from a few fabric scraps. As you can see he rather likes it.

That was August.....

I'm a few days behind this month. Getting the kids back into the school routine and battling with making eight enormous curtains for the sitting room, has meant I've been a very busy girl. Still after a great summer I'm starting to get back into the swing of things and it feels great.

Noirmoutier

We have been camping by the sea on the Ille de Noirmoutier for the weekend.

Beach combing, playing in the sand, eating moules frites, walks and late nights for the terrible trio.

A final jaunt before school starts tomorrow and normal service resumes....