A special day and a present.

Today is my birthday and Mr P gave me a wonderful new camera.

I have a lot to learn about it so of course I decided to start this afternoon in the garden.

Pie as usual looked beautiful having a roll in the sunshine.

I just love these white foxgloves, they looked wonderful in this light.

The lavender is just starting to flower now and the perfume from it is just so good.

So there are my first photographs with the new camera - I'm looking forward to learning more and share them with you.

Sculptural flowers.

In between the rain we've been working in the garden.

In the vegetable garden the last of the leeks needed to be dug up to make room for new plantings.

I usually keep some of them and let them go into flower as they have such wonderful shapes.

This year because its been so cool the flower heads haven't opened yet.

Flower heads from last year.

However I just couldn't resist their wonderful sculptured forms and with any luck they still may open out with their huge white and purple flowers.

Venice inspiration.

I have been working on some new pieces of art.

My starting point is Venice especially looking at the water, reflections, old buildings and the effects of the elements on the old brickwork and plaster.

In this piece I was looking at the old metalwork grills on the windows and their reflections in the canals.

Iris .

In the garden the iris are in flower and they look wonderful in the bright sunshine.

I am reminded of some paintings I did a few years ago.

I used wax resist, dyes and inks.






I love their rich velvety petals and their jewel colours.
They are not a long lasting flower but whilst they are there they are magnificent.

Of course with paintings and photographs they are always there to look at and appreciate.

Beautiful linens at the textile fair.

Last Thursday I was at a fair especially for textiles.

I'd been to the first one in 2011 and loved it so decided this year to take a stand myself.

Part of my stand showing beautiful embroidered sheets.

Since we've been living in France I've been collecting beautiful French linens especially embroidered sheets and pillowcases.

Gradually the collection has grown and also gradually its getting more and more difficult 

to find good pieces.

It really is quite difficult to part with some of these linens but the collection has got a bit too big now.

I was delighted to do well, but even more pleased to talk to others about the linens, the lace curtains etc 

which so many people love.

When I could I went and had a look around and of course wasn't able to resist buying a few things  

myself.

I'll show you some in my next post.

These teddies are made by a friend of mine.

This beautiful lace dress was admired by so many - it was lovely to see the smiles on faces, especially of young women who would have looked splendid in it.

Sunshine and dreaming at Dahouet.

The sun was out in its glory today and the seaside was calling.

One of my favourite places near here is Dahouet which is a lovely little fishing port where fish can still be bought direct from the fishing boats at the harbour.

There are also some lovely houses which look directly over the harbour and all the boats.

This one is the one I currently would like to live in when the time comes for me to have a life which is a little slower going.

I can imagine myself sitting reading in the sunshine, just tending the small garden and getting on with more art work.

In the meantime, I'll just dream whilst I'm weeding, planting, painting and walking the length of a long garden putting out and bringing in the washing.

I'll post more photographs of Dahouet and the coast in the next few days.

Painted ladies - the auricula.

Ever since I was a little girl I have loved auriculas.

I was lucky enough to spend a great deal of time with my Nan, who I adored.

She was a great cook and gardener.

In her garden there was a thick border of purple auriculas with silver, grey leaves.

I so loved these little plants with their pretty little flowers.

The love of these flowers must have stayed with me throughout my life.

 As soon as I had a garden of my own I began my search for some auriculas.  

At that time they were not easy to find, they must have gone out of fashion.

When I came to live in France I tried to bring many of plants from my garden in England, not easy transporting lots and lots of plants in pots as well as all our other belongings.
In amongst the pots were a few auriculas.
Each year when I go back to England I've tried to find some to bring back - many garden centres had no idea what I was talking about ( so much for so many garden centres that seem to sell nearly everything rather than a GOOD selection of plants )
However I have managed to find a few.
I've divided the plants each year and have managed to grow my collection.

Imagine my delight when at the fete des jardins at La Roche Jagu I met an English man who has lived in France for over twenty years who grows and sells auriculas.

He, like me, had a grandma who was a keen gardener and who also loved auriculas.
The love of them continued with him and now he earns his living growing and selling these beauties.

So I came home last Sunday with four new little plants and now I know where I can go and see more and bring more back here.
I am delighted.

What I need next is for Mr P to build me a theatre !
Yes, a theatre for my 'painted ladies' .

The 'theatre' is an ideal way to keep the plants as they are protected from the rain and too much sun.
Apart from that they just look so lovely.
In the 18th and 19th century people even had curtains on their theatres which they would open to reveal their collection of these beautiful little plants.








I often think of my Nan, how much I learned from her and the nineteen years I was lucky enough to share with her.
I'm sure she'd be happy to see me digging and planting and having a rest sometimes looking at my growing collection of auriculas.



Do you have a particular plant you love ?
Let me know.