Garden Magic

Yesterday, the morning warmed slowly and slightly under the Winter sun. We unravelled the tangles of fairy lights to twist around the porch posts, stuck the new floodlights in the earth now invisible under the fallen leaves, then stood back in a biting wind and said, "that's it, all done". Later, at dusk, when woodsmoke perfumed the air, and the smell of Christmas wafted on the night breeze, we threw the switch. The cottage, bathed in light, sparkled in the night. The untwisting, untangling, winding with cold fingers, bantering and even arguing a little, suddenly forgotten as we felt the joy of this season.

Christmas tree in the gazebo ~ now an annual part of garden magic.

At night the view is lovely from the house.

Ornaments are simple but special ~ a garden theme.

As these days leading up to Christmas rush by, stop to enjoy

the simple pleasures, and always BELIEVE.

Bed and Breakfast

Are you planning a visit to Southwest France? Spring would be the perfect time.

If you decide to go, while driving from picturesque village to village you will often see long straight country roads lined with beautiful Plane trees like this. It is said that Napoleon planted them to shade his marching soldiers from the hot sun. Passing under the colorful Autumn canopy of leaves, with vineyards stretching as far as the eye can see, the peacefulness of a gentle countryside envelopes you...........and you realize that the journey IS the reward.

The road to Lagrasse - October 2008

And if you do go there's another reason for showing you my family's lovely home in the village of Caunes-Minervois near Carcassonne.
You've left the nicest comments about the beautiful garden with inviting pool. You know the food is scrumptious. Sleeping soundly behind the heavy blue wood shutters, in a comfy bed, is the perfect night's rest after a busy day of sightseeing, market browsing, vineyard hiking, wine tasting.........and treasure hunting at the many brocantes and vide-grenier sales.

So, why don't you take a trip to the South of France and stay in this lovely place?

John and Alison will open their home to you for Bed & Breakfast and, if you want a wonderful dinner, they will prepare an evening meal you will never forget!

The above images were taken during my stay in October 2008.

In the kitchen with John and Alison.

October color in the vineyards of the Languedoc, Southwest France.

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Contact Alison or John at caunesminervois@gmail.com for more details if you are interested in staying here.
I guarantee your visit will be memorable.

If you require a spacious rental house in Caunes-Minervois I know of just the place and can share details.

Wet Pink Saturday

Vanessa of Vanilla Lavender and I spent a quick visit to SuzAnna's Antiques on Wednesday. Why quick you wonder knowing how we love that place? Well, while our backs were turned for a few minutes, looking at the latest treasures, her adorable daughter Luna decided to test the water ~ very cold water ~ of the courtyard fountain! She required a complete emergency wardrobe change!

What some gals will do to get a new outfit!!

As luck would have it, and because a handsome little boy named Kyle allowed Luna to climb in the fountain first (such a gentleman at 4 years of age), friend Jenny, Kyle's mommy, came to the rescue with a pair of the cutest Christmas jammies which she just happened to have in a bag headed for the charity shop.

You know what they say, "charity begins at home", or in this case in a friend's car trunk!

Don't ask where the pics are ~ we were so concerned that Luna would get a chill, and she, poor angel, was rather embarrassed when we started stripping off her clothes in the courtyard surrounded by antique Santas, vintage wagons and towering Christmas trees................I forgot to take any!

While browsing through SuzAnna's, before Luna's desire to be a water baby had us scurrying for towels and such, I spotted a few pink things to share today.

Pink painted furniture and lovely plates with roses and patterned edges.

If you read my November 28 post you will know about Jeannie - owner of the fun cottage shop Uniquitiques in Hillsboro, NC. Her space at SuzAnna's is always fabulous and French! Here's her famous pink Tour Eiffel tag.

Although the English smocking doesn't show up well in this picture, it is a sweet little girl's frock of the softest baby pink.

Perhaps Luna would have preferred it to Kyle's outgrown jammies, however it wouldn't have been as warm after that chilly swim!

Rhinestone trimmed pink perfume bottles ~ very pink chippy paint shelves.

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Remember to stop over to visit Beverly at How Sweet The Sound where she will have many more blog friends posting in PINK.
Hey Beverly, any chance we can add "pinkish red and reddish pink" now the holiday season is here?
Thanks for a week of great comments. If I haven't had time to leave you one please know I've probably stopped by to take a peek at what you've been up to at this busy time of year, and the visit was most enjoyable.

"It's beginning to look.....................

.......a lot like Christmas, everywhere you go".........

I stopped here at my favorite place SuzAnna's Antiques this week and discovered Christmas overload of the best of kind........long loved treasures from other Christmases being shared and reused...............and at prices even the big box stores with their crazy sales can't beat!

Sam, who has his cute antiques shop Country Porch next door, was selling beautiful fresh Christmas trees and wreaths he'd just brought from West Jefferson in the North Carolina mountains. He said it was chilly up there ~ but such a wonderful experience being out on the slopes choosing and cutting the beautiful Fraser Firs.

The cutest planter to sit by the front door or on my porch!!

The always creative Jeannie had filled her space with delightful items including little galvanized buckets with fresh rosemary ~ my favorite Christmas herb ~ and this fairy like crystal crown to sit on a table, perhaps on a lovely antique bone china plate.


Bunching together mixed sizes of balls made me think, fondly, of all those grapes in the French vineyards!

As always, the gals of SuzAnna's made browsing and shopping so much fun.

Stop by here tomorrow ~ my Pink Saturday post will tell more about this visit ~ it involves a little girl and a fountain!

P.S. Don't forget, it's not too late to have Mary at Isabella's Closet make you a beautiful holiday banner like mine. Do visit her today ~ she's a sweet lady.

French Treasure

I've had several requests to show what I brought back from my October visit to France. Because we traveled with just one suitcase each, so much easier in this age of complicated overseas travel, and the poor exchange rate, we didn't buy too much. I mailed back two parcels at an exorbitant postal rate ~ apparently everything goes airmail now, fast but so expensive.

So a few gifts for family and friends, and some little treasures for the cottage were all I could manage.

The two tall silver capped perfume bottles look great with my silver lidded powder bowls ~ the one on the right was my mother's and given to her on her 21st birthday. I discovered the bottles in a brocante in the Minervois near my family's home - great stuff at good prices.

La Rotonde - Aix-en-Provence

See those little silver cups, second shelf up on the right? I brought them back across the pond!

During my fabulous afternoon with Corey Amaro in Aix-en-Provence, I purchased the set of six silver monogrammed liqueur cups and tray from a charming antiques dealer on a market stall with a generous 'Corey discount'. The other small items, which I now realize were all used for drinking French liquids, were from a huge brocante in an Aix backstreet directly behind our hotel. I would have missed it but of course Corey, who knows all the treasure troves in Provence, took me there!

High on my wish list were old French books, preferably yellowed with age, even water damaged! I love the look of them stacked so the wrinkled pages show.
In the world famous antiques shops of L'Isle-sur-la-Sorgue they had bundles of half a dozen old books tied together and were selling them for 150 euros!!!!!

These were my finds..............bargains at just a euro or two each from a rickety stall set outside a used bookshop in a little cobbled alley.

In our beautiful apartment at La Madone in Apt in the Luberon, I longed for these monogrammed heavy linen flax cushion covers on the daybed.

The owner sold them to me! As soon as I buy pillow forms to fit they will be on the bed in the guest room.

No, couldn't quite squeeze this elegant chair into either the suitcase or a mailing box, but did buy the huge antique linen tablecloth. It has two lovely monograms, and one tiny hole ~ for just 10 euros, from the brocante in Carcassonne shown in a recent post.

Just love this linen laundry bag even though it's not antique or even vintage ~ but easy to pack in the suitcase.

A couple more new items include a wooden Gros Sel (coarse salt) box ~ great to have nearby when cooking.....................

.........traditional wooden clothes pegs ~ love the label "25 Pinces a Linge a L'Ancienne".

............and a metal Liste des Courses (shopping list) to hang in the kitchen ~ what fun to flip those pointers to French words!

The antique, hand stitched, cream and red monogrammed kitchen towels I also purchased from La Madone. In this image you can just see the monogram on that large tablecloth.

...........and next time.................I'm definitely taking that extra suitcase!!!

A Bilingual Kitchen

Talk about luck.....................an already extremely competent English cook being transported to a French kitchen! The best of both worlds in a tiny Minervois village..........and she's my sister-in-law so I got to hang out almost daily in her domain.

All those years in London it was the same ~ canning, preserving, bottling, call it what you want, Alison did it all, along with fabulous nightly dinners prepared with the freshest ingredients.

Alison's pantry stocked with soups, sauces, vegetables, chutneys, jams, all from this year's garden harvest, and those are her awesome homemade flavored aperitif wines on the top shelf.

Alison is also a great from scratch baker. On the afternoon my niece ordered homemade cakes for her school fundraiser...................there were, within a couple of hours, these four yummy cakes ready to be carefully transported to Carcassonne the following morning!

Well I must be fair here and tell you that my brother, John, spends an awful lot of time in this kitchen too. Not only does he wait tables, wash dishes, make coffee and act as sommelier when it comes to choosing, opening and pouring the local wines, he helps prepare the harvest from their fabulous vegetable garden.

Freshly picked tomatoes and the best lettuce ever ~ still coming from the garden in October!

What to do with all those beautiful tomatoes? John making sauce using the Italian 'passatutto'. I bought one of these amazing kitchen helpers (available at Williams-Sonoma) when I saw this one in action in their kitchen in the Summer of 2006. It's so easy to use and removes all the skins and seeds from the tomatoes in one fell swoop ~ definitely worth the price which I believe is only around $25.00.

China cabinet and table made by a local craftsman, the cabinet painted and aged in traditional French colors by my brother. To sit here enjoying fresh food, lovingly grown and prepared by one's own family beats any fancy meal in a posh restaurant.

Christmas Simplicity

I'm planning to turn over a new leaf. After staying in lovely places where less is more, and visions of simplified French country decor, rather than sugarplums, still swim in my head, I'm hoping to keep the holidays simple around the cottage.

Christmas decorating time is here. The boxes are down from the attic, tissue wrapped ornaments are dusted off, and once again stuff is everywhere!
BUT.....................I am restraining myself somewhat. I love Christmas with vintage glitter, angels on high, velvet robed Santas, white wood snowflakes hanging in the window, musical snow globes, white candles in mercury glass holders...................the smell of fresh pine garlands, red holly berries.........a Christmas tree.
So decorate I will............simply.


I started on the outside on Saturday......................strung new white lights along the fence and arbor........wound strings of lights and replaced the white star balls hanging from a little tree by the potting shed, pesky squirrels having chewed the original ones. Sunday it rained heavily all day. On the next fine one I'll be stringing lights on the front porch and decorating the tree in the gazebo.

Meanwhile, in the house the kitchen rooster was first to be 'decorated'.
Hung a candle wreath around his neck ~ looks adorable.
Can I keep it all simple like this? Wait and see.