Friday nights are our P night – Pizza, Prosecco, Poirot & Phryne – which has become a Friday night institution in our house. At the end of the week it is nice to make our Pizza’s have some bubbles and sit down in front of the tv. I will be honest we are not drinking Prosecco, we live in France why would we drink Prosecco, we are currently trying different French sparkling’s that are not Champagne. Last nights was a wonderful Blanc de Blanc méthode traditionnelle (I don’t think you need a translation for that). It is also really good to watch two programmes set in the 1920’s and see all the fantastic fashion. I am a convert to the fashion of Phryne, and last night she had on the most fantastic jacket that I think one could wear today. Actually that is one of the things I do like about the clothes that Phryne wears, a lot of the day clothes could still be worn today without looking odd. I, of course, also love the hats. Just don’t have the opportunity to wear them these days. (For those of you who do not know what Phryne is – I’m referring to the Phryne Fisher murder mystery series set in Melbourne in the late 1920’s. I love the books and they have been made into a TV series – in my opinion I prefer the books, but I love watching the tv series).
Have a look at the website and some of the wonderful art work by Beth Norling – http://phrynefisher.com/
Fireworks
So what has been happening over the past two weeks. Bastille day for one (or as the French call it La Fête nationale). Very relaxing day (as it was a Tuesday and I now have Tuesday’s off work) then off to friends for a bbq and fireworks over a local lake. It was a lovely day. Pat got some very good photos with his compact camera – but he did have a tripod, mine were all hand held so not quite so good, but still some good photos.
More Fireworks
The kitchen has been progressing and is now complete. But I really need to leave that with Pat – who will be posting a photo on his blog this weekend. But I finished painting one of our two red chairs (one each end of the table) and I’m on to painting a coffee table for the lounge. We had our 2 new chairs delivered on Friday. They look great, but I need to make some cushions to go on them. They are also a little bit bigger than I anticipated for the space, but not too big to be awkward and we now have enough seats for visitors. We have still to start the repointing the back of the house, maybe we should wait until dad comes to visit? It will give him something to do why he is here
Last weekend I made some blue berry muffins, from my home grown blueberries. The bush has been producing so well that I was able to get 150g of ripe blueberries in one day. Pat has also been picking some every morning this week to have in his porridge. We’ve also had blueberry pancakes one time. So my blueberry bush is happy (and netted to keep the birds away). I’ve also finally treated my lemon tree for scale. I thought the poor thing had died while we were away because it had been left in the front porch when we were away and had the exceptionally hot weather. But it seems to be resprouting so we shall see what comes of it. If it doesn’t make it I am going to get another one.
My veggie patch is still going well, and my cucumbers are finally producing, though I did discover that they should be staked (like tomatoes) so I rectified that this week. Thankfully the plants weren’t too big and I now have 4 cucumbers happily growing and more on the way. Everything else is doing quite well – including my aubergines, but next year the capsicums are staying in the green house.
I’ve actually been thinking more and more about my garden, especially after my comment last time about how I like a nice garden but don’t want the work. I’ve also been watching a few garden programs to get some idea about what to do with the space and I’m happy to say that Pat and I have progressed with our plans – in our heads anyway and we have decided on the path and I’ve made a few more decisions about the layout of the garden. I still would like to get rid of the large pine tree in the backyard and remove some of the hedging to replace with fruit canes (ok silly I know since I have to be careful with the amount of fructose I eat but I do love fresh berries). But my plan for more flowers in the garden has been accepted by Pat and next spring we will be doing a lot of work in the back yard. I now have to do some research into what to plant.
Siena’s training has been on-going, she has taken to barking a lot lately at almost anything, including us if we don’t play when she wants us to. So we have been trawling the internet to find ways of training her to stop. We are progressing but not as fast as we would like. Any suggestions welcomed.
So look out for Pat’s blog next week to keep up-to-date (especially with the kitchen changes) – http://patblog.patbell.co.uk
And I will see you again in 2 weeks.