lunch chez claude

Well the weather is beautiful this week, so I though you might like to come over and spend the day with me tomorrow.  Try not to arrive too late,  I'll take you to see Giverny, it's only a short drive.

When we arrive we'll stop for a coffee at the Impressionist museum, this used to be the American museum, I love their terrace restaurant, and their small well laid out exhibitions.

Then we'll wander up to Monet's house, the most surprising pink, but we'll say how clever of him to paint his house to match the tulips.

In the garden shop, we'll feel nostalgic over the black and white photos of the man himself.

Of course we'll go through the tunnel to see the water lilies, and  gasp at the peonies and the irises. 

If there aren't too many people I'll show you inside his house; you'll love his blue and white kitchen, yellow dining room and bedrooms.

 And then we'll be able to say we deserve a glass of wine and we'll walk back through the village to have  lunch at the Hotel Baudy.

Their terrace overlooking a meadow is wonderful. When we've finished our meal we'll say that we need to digest and it would be a good idea to walk around the Hotel gardens, and you will discover what a very romantic untamed place that is.

Since you like to paint, you'll adore their artist's studio.

As we emerge from the gardens, we'll sigh and say "oh dear, the crowds have arrived, let's go " then jump back in the car and come home for tea.
If you like we'd even have time for a ride in the forest before you go, unless of course you decide to stay the night...... then we'll just have to make more plans for the next day.

 photos here

friendly kitchen

I love this photo, it's such a friendly looking room it is.  Spacious and light, without seeking to impress.  A table to sit around with friends and a glass of wine, while preparing a meal.

I love the colours, the old sign for sparkling wine on the wall, the farmhouse table.  Big doors lead out to a terrace or straight onto the lawn., and the family dog is probably about to trot in looking for a crust of something.
This is definitely not a 'fitted kitchen', I've never seen a lamp like that on a work top, but the whole thing just comes together.  Lunch in the country.

photo here

children grow up

I've been exchanging a couple of mails with Melissa recently.  Melissa resides here and we've been chatting.   It's funny how our family atmospheres seem similar despite different backgrounds etc, blog talk... you know... friendly.  Hers is obviously a happy family like ours, lively and fun. 

Anyway, her kiddies are younger than my youngest and it got me thinking about the different stages of child raising, and how we all enjoy the different bits and react in our individual ways.  

I'm wondering how you have handled it if you're a parent, or if you have any particular memories of your own parents parenting to you.

I have very few memories of my parents holding me back, but I'm discovering that that requires a lot of generosity and courage.  Especially when it gets to the sticky bits like boy/girlfriends, studies and career directions.

I adore my children, I've tried to be a hands-on mother, available to satisfy their demands, and throwing myself whole heartedly into home-making, school associations, open house to their friends, backing them in their sports and hobbies, teaching them to read, to paint etc etc.  But at the moment I have to admit that having 4 teenagers is a lot to handle.

Don't get me wrong, they are great kids, this is a happy home, their friends love coming here.   My children are in fact all incredibly zen -  they say they don't need to stress because I stress enough for the whole family!

Many of you, like Melissa, are enjoying that blessed time when your children are all little and family life is still at the top of everyone's agenda, when everyone pulls in the same direction.  A few years on and a teenager has his or her own agenda, and that's normal.   They are growing and changing, and  they force us to grow and change too.  I know this is nothing new, but I personally wasn't prepared enough.  It all happens too fast.

It's very hard to write this without sounding like a control freak!  Actually it's very hard to write this, period!

The last thing I'd want is for them to be here for ever and not manage to create their own lives.  But oh, how it aches when you worry about them going in the wrong direction.  I feel so proud of the people they are becoming, and yet I still want to guide them.  How often have I heard "Trust me Mummy!"

Today's world is big, competitive and aggressive.  One bit of me says "trust them, trust the way you've brought them up", but another part can't help but worry about the temptations they encounter, and the difficulties they'll come across.

We want them to have character, heaven knows they're going to need it, but often we tell them to tone it down.  We worry about the big wide world, yet we encourage them to travel afar and look for adventure.

So are you laughing at me?  Do you have little ones, and these worries seem far away?  Maybe you don't have children and you observe the parenting  around you?  If you could do it all over, would you change anything?  Do you prefer to over-protect, or let them learn through experience?  Will it suddenly seem straight forward once they are young professionals, or will this angst pursue me for a lot longer?  I'd love to hear your comments.  Thank you for listening!!

enter the magnolia

Do you remember this photo I showed you in March of the snowdrops in my garden, 

Well look what's happened.  Enter the magnolia!  The warm weather yesterday brought the first flowers out.

I'm actually not that good at what the gardening books call 'year-round interest', but in this case nature does all the work for me!  My kind of gardening!

thank you bella

Thank you so much to Bella  of The Art of Living Beautifully for this award, my first ever!!  A really wonderful surprise, I am very touched.  Apparently the rules for this award are to divulge 7 things about myself and then pass it on  to seven other blogs.  This has required thought and preparation, believe me!

Here goes:

I wish I had been born about 100 years earlier than I was.  I would have loved to have been a European in Africa at the turn of the century.

I listen to BBC Radio 4 a great deal, mostly in the kitchen and in my car.

I adore painting with children.

I write books for children,  two published so far and more on the way

I love to watch musical comedies

I regret not riding better than I do

I love to throw really good dinner parties

Here's who I would like to pass the award on to.  There are so many to choose from , so many I love to visit regularly and who certainly deserve all sorts of awards, but for this, my first, I wanted to pick out some new bloggers like myself (you all remember what it was like to get going, every new visitor counts)  and some that we don't often see on blog rolls.  I hope this thrills them as much as mine did me, and that it will let you,  regular friends,  discover a couple of blogs you may not yet know. 

lovely Italian Francesca at passionedeco

Celine and her wonderful paintings at celine cholets aquarelles 

Karyn who has just started at the beautiful Hope Island

Dash, a fellow brit and her French Sampler

another brit in France, Sarah at St Bloggie

Aurelia at   dentelles oxydees, a very clever French girl with a serious eye for detail

                                                                                                                                                                         Laeriss at  un coeur en provence,    you don't get more French than this

and of course a huge thank you to all of you who visit me regularly, and make me smile with your kind and thoughtful comments.

I wandered lonely

I wandered lonely as a cloud
That floats on high o'er vales and hills,
When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host, of golden daffodils;
Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.

Continuous as the stars that shine
And twinkle on the milky way,
They stretched in never-ending line
Along the margin of a bay:
Ten thousand saw I at a glance,
Tossing their heads in sprightly dance.

The waves beside them danced; but they
Out-did the sparkling waves in glee:
A poet could not but be gay,
In such a jocund company:
I gazed---and gazed---but little thought
What wealth the show to me had brought:

For oft, when on my couch I lie
In vacant or in pensive mood,
They flash upon that inward eye
Which is the bliss of solitude;
And then my heart with pleasure fills,
And dances with the daffodils.

William Wordsworth

Written 1804

England's most popular poem

photo 1 here  2 here

a helping hand

A friend of ours has recently bought a beautiful property near here.  He is in the ideal position of being able to restyle, rewire, redecorate ... before moving in , and best of all, he has asked me to give him a hand with ideas.

So I wondered, if it were you, what would you suggest?  Here are the facts,  the house is similar in style to ours, what they call "une maison de maitre" here.  Ceiling height about 2.7m, 8 foot.  Wooden flooring throughout except for the dining and kitchen area which have traditional black and white tiles.   Nice wide staircase.

The friend, a chic 40ish year old Frenchman, lives alone, but entertains often, both professionaly and socially. He's coming from a smaller property, bringing some lovely furniture with him , mixture of modern and antique, and will be buying more to furnish this bigger living area.

He wants it to look chic yet comfortable, masculine but not forbidding.  The other and very important element to bear in mind is his huge art collection, some sculptures, mostly paintings alot of which are quite modern and some fairly bright in colour.  Also don't forget that we have a very mixed climate here, cold grey winters (have I already mentioned that?...) and pleasant light summers.

So here's what I'm thinking, but I'd love to know what you would do.  Do leave me some ideas please.

To leave him the visual space for his art I wanted to suggest a black and white palette, with touches of bright colour here and there.

I've always thought that dark dining rooms feel luxurious and elegant, in his case the room is north facing, I like this idea.

He's not afraid of rich fabric, or fancy finishings.

He's lucky to already have the space for a huge en suite bathroom, just needs to redo the plumbing

 

It's fun to have several bedrooms to furnish, I'd happily be invited as a house guest to either of these!

So tell me, do you think I'm totally on the wrong track?

photos 1,2,3,4,6  david duncan livingstone,  5,10 ralph lauren, 7,8,9,13 designers guild, 11 hgtv