Saturday 10 January 2009

Summer is a-cumin In (hopefully)

Well, the days are getting longer, anyway, and today there was the most beautiful sunrise...
Most of the snow has melted and the little roads are relatively clear, so I was able to go into Le Dorat for the first time this week.

Of course it's still cold, and I know it's not really Summer, but one day soon it will be, and I'm keeping focussed on that.

I've sorted more boxes of bears and dolls than you would care to know about, and aired enough material on my Victorian-style airer to cover Wembley stadium! Eventually it will be finished, the shop will be open for business and all the ladies in the Limousin will beat a path to my door to buy my fantastic merchandise. Well, you have to talk yourself up, don't you!

At present I'm knitting a little aran sleeveless pullover for Molly...
...which is going quite well and actually looks as if it will be the right size. The pattern came from here.

Natural Vegetables

On a different tack entirely, I was very happy to meet a new neighbour (Nadine) yesterday, who is renting the farmhouse at the top of my road. You can see the house from my front gate...

She is still working full-time as a graphic designer in Limoges, but is going to grow vegetables on the land behind the house and sell vegetable boxes and food products (soup, pies, pickles etc) from the veg at local markets. Her husband is already retired, so I guess he will look after the smallholding while she is at work. It will take a while to get going but I am so excited at the prospect! She is very creative and very positive - such a change from most of the people I meet although, to be fair, most of them are retired and pretty much worn out!

Nadine was interested when I told her about the Le Dorat shop, although she doesn't know Le Dorat, having always lived and worked south of Limoges. And, to her credit, her face didn't blanch when I took her into my living/work room which is at present full of open boxes, with bears, dolls, material and wool all over the place!

On Monday EDF are coming to the shop to connect the electricity, which is good news. The bad news is that I have to be there at 9 am to meet them. Of course it'll be freezing in there and none of the local cafes will be open at that time of the morning. I threw away my vacuum flask after it leaked all over me at the Christmas fair in Le Dorat, so I am not looking forward to freezing my socks off there. I have a cunning plan, however, which is to take my mobile gas fire (works on a gas bottle) over with me, so at least I can sit in front of that if I need to... I'll let you know how it goes!

2 comments:

I LOVE FRANCE said...

Ill be visiting your shop when its open for definate.
Good idea to take your heater with you
Andrea

Debra in France said...

Hi Penny, I think you shop will be very successful as there is nothing else like it. As you know, I already love your work, so I can see where some of my money will be going !!

I bet you can't wait for the work to start on your shop. I am really excited for you. Debra xx