The Moon in June

June is off to a wet and windy, unseasonably cold start this year in central Brittany and our vegetable garden is so far behind there is no hope of courgettes or runner beans before September. In a brief dry spell I harvested our garlic though, and here's a preview of how it looks - very pleased.

The elderflowers aren't fragrant enough this year, with no sunshine, to make it worth the trouble of making elderflower champagne or jelly. But it does look pretty mixed in with the surprising passionflower which rambles through the holly bush with great persistence.

Our first bowl of delicious strawberries. Mostly from the cold frame, so for next year I want to put them under cover. If this is the climate change we can expect, we need to go under cover!

 In a brief warm spell we had the six Jacob’s sheep sheared, and they have produced fabulous fleeces which are begging to be spun!

Half of one of our fleeces

Blaze, our Jacob’s ram, reveals his true spots!

May Madness

Back in France and trying to overcome a serious deterioration in my asthma due to some kind of respiratory tract inflammation - cheering myself up today making marmelade while builder Graham erects fences and installs gates for the benefit of our sheep and chickens.

I’ve got the bare basics of the France Passion shop in place, awaiting an improvement in the weather for people to start arriving. The two couples we had over Easter were happy to buy eggs from our very productive hens!

The cats are all getting on well together! Oriel has decided he is Top Cat but in a rather understated way. Louis has accepted this, and Mao Mao and MKG don’t care!

April Showers

There’s a great charity shop in the village near where I live, Poullaouen, which exists to raise money to help the needy animals in the area. Alex, who started it, invited me to put up some of my paintings in their tea room, so today we hammered in a few nails and hung them. I’ve bought a fine art printer which will be delivered soon, and then I’ll be offering prints for sale this summer.

March Musings

Welcome to my blog! I hope that you take the time to have a browse through my paintings and random thoughts and links to places and things I've found interesting in the past and continue to discover.

With this blog I'm trying to connect in a simple way with like-minded others. I especially welcome Alison Fennell to my blog. She's a wonderfully talented painter who has inspired me over the years and I'm grateful to her for setting me off on this route.

Yesterday I was invited by a friend to hang some of my watercolours in her shop and offer prints for sale there too. She runs a charity shop in the village where I live in France, in aid of needy cats and dogs. She does great work. I'm honoured to be offered this opportunity to help the animals. She's on Facebook at Les Puces Poullaouen.

So what will the rest of 2019 bring? Spring is under way, with gardens leaping into life. Like the March hare, the iconic figure of Spring. An important subject for painting this month. And sheep. I've been offered a small flock of Ouessant to add to my small flock of Jacobs, which will be wonderful!