Some bears for a change .......................

At last I have completed some bears, a good assortment waiting for inspiration. Making them is only the first stage of the process.

This is sad Virgilia and her little friend Thomas. Listed on e-bay and sold but to date no payment received. I do despise people who buy on e-bay auction and then do not pay, 'tho this is only the second time it has happened to us so I suppose it is not too bad. So this little girl and her friend will have to be re-listed once e-bay agrees to reverse their fees.
On the subject of e-bay fees, has any one else noticed how they have pushed up their fees. They offer this big special of free listing for the first five auctions each month with just a percentage of the final selling fee. This is a big rip-off as this final fee is extremely high. It means that those of us who only list a couple of items each month, get charged a huge amount for our auctions.

This will be my next e-bay listing. She is presently nameless but just as soon as the brain gets into action, this little girl and her tiny kitty friend will be ready for auction.
I have had fun dyeing some felt today, needed for a new pincushion idea. The felt I am using is a wool/rayon mixture which is a lot thinner than the usual acrylic or wool felt. It is supposedly not washable but I have dyed it successfully in the past. Presumably it does shrink and it certainly becomes quite fragile when wet but for the work I am doing it is just perfect. Having used Dylon dyes for years with great success I have now discovered that in Europe the little tins are no longer available. The dyes are now sold in boxes or sachets, rather like Rit dye in America. The colour range has changed and it will be a learning curve for me to find the right shades again.
Have also been doing some beading in the evenings as I have so many ufos that should be finished. I love beading and am slowly learning different techniques. I have also been brave enough to work out some of my own designs, the wonderful thing about beads if you don't like it you can just take it apart and start again, not at all like working with fabric.
So back to creating ........................

Curiosity is the very basis of education and if you tell me that curiosity killed the cat, I say only the cat died nobly. ~Arnold Edinborough

Something different - Bastille Day celebrations in Vannes

Usually my blog consists of my ramblings, pics of flowers, old buildings, sundry animals and a few bears.
Now for something very different 'people' ........ a selection of some of the many photographs I took on Bastille Day in Vannes.
France is divided into departments and we live in Morbihan which in Breton means 'little sea'. Vannes is the capital of Morbihan and the main celebrations of Bastille Day were held in this beautiful medieval city. Everyone entered into the spirit of the occasion with among other things music, dancing and historic costumes. It was very crowded so please excuse some of my pictures which might include hands, heads and other cameras. Trying to get good pics in the narrow streets was quite an achievement.
It was a colourful and fun event with characteristic French joie de vivre. I loved every minute of the little that I saw so here are some of the pictures to share.
This stunningly vivacious girl with a most beautiful voice enthralled the crowd with her singing and invited the audience to join in the Breton folk songs.

Two obliging pirates, the second a little too pleased with himself I think......................

Dancers in costumes which appear to have a Venetian flavour ...............


I have no idea what this was all about but it was interesting, he had an escort of soldiers in fancy uniforms


Pirates of the Caribbean perhaps?
There were many other amazing displays of people walking on a selection of stilts, the tallest was almost the height of a three storey building, lots of pirates (some with slaves which elicited some snide comments in English from someone in the crowd) and an amazing variety of beautiful costumes.
Once again I just cannot include all the pictures in my blog, so I really will have to spend a day or two trying to put together some albums of all my accumulation of pictures.
Enjoy......................

Flowers, a beautiful church and a medieval wall......

On Sunday we visited Hennebont. The spring flowers have been replaced and this large display is in a beautiful old container with what looks like four swans at the base. Strange 'tho the heads of the swans seem to be missing? The flower beds down the main street were so colourful, I find it fun to see just how many of the plants are of African origin. There was even an enormous cycad growing in the centre of one of the flower beds.

Right in the centre of the town there is a medieval building, this is the front section with an archway leading through to a small a courtyard withstairs leading up to the ramparts and wall. We walked along the wall which gave us a wonderful view over the buildings.

An impressive Gothic style cathedral which was consecrated in 1525. Standing in the massive entrance area I felt quite insignificant. The church is awe inspiring, perhaps that was the general idea to make the congregation feel totally humbled by their surroundings. Old churches have that effect on me, the realisation that hundreds of people have worshiped in the building for centuries.

This church also had a wide range of wonderful gargoyles each one totally different. This is just one of them with a plant growing out of his mouth!

I now have some eight bears that need to be accessorised or dressed. So lots of work to be done in the coming week and then of course there is that missing megalith. Have discovered an entire website dedicated to the various megaliths in Europe and other parts of the world. So with this to help I might just be able to find it.

Bastille Day today and we visited Vannes where a historical festival was being held, more about that next time................

This is my simple religion. There is no need for temples; no need for complicated philosophy. Our own brain, our own heart is our temple; the philosophy is kindness. ~Dalai Lama

Some things I forgot............

As I was writing my previous blog in the wee small hours I forgot some items of interest.
Firstly the swallows are here in abundance, very pretty birds with a different colouring to the ones I was used to seeing in South Africa. Some weeks ago one flew into the house and Merlin was delighted. Pounced on it immediately and I had to rescue it from him, did not seem to have come to any harm and it flew away. This past week two flew in the door and immediately out again, amazing as the doorways are low in this house.
As mentioned in my earlier blog I have at last seen the sea. Whilst in Carnac on a very high hilltop the view across the countryside was quite amazing and on the distant horizon was the sea.
The hilltop in question is a tumulus, extremely high which has a small church built on top of it. Unfortunately access inside the tomb is not possible but I have tried to give some idea of the height of this structure with my photograph. I could not fit the entire hillside into one shot on my camera, the door to the tunnels shows the stone structure from the outside. Apparently the items found in the tomb are all in the museum in Carnac.


Yesterday afternoon we went searching for a 7m high menhir which is situated not too far from Pontivy. It is a unique and isolated menhir called the Devil's Distaff. Well it is so isolated that we could not find it! It was an interesting afternoon out I suppose but I was extremely frustrated to find several informative maps in various places showing churches of interest as well as megaliths but no clear indication as to where they are. Will have to try again.
One thing which was quite exciting, apart from the cat which flew across the road in front of the car giving me near heart failure, was a young fox slinking across the road and into the hedgerow. First 'live' fox I have seen and quite brave as they usually don't wander around too much in the day time from what I understand.
So the megalith hunt begins this week, hope we can find it....................

Bears, Carnac and a Tumulus

It has been several days since I updated my blog as I have unfortunately become a little addicted to Farm Town on my Facebook page!
I do try to keep politics out of my blog but my heart is full of sadness for the families of the latest British army casualties in Afghanistan, seems such a senseless waste of young lives.
This is a picture of the three boy kitties, all fast sleep in a huddle. Leila of course was asleep upstairs on the bed!

Megan put a picture of our temporary French home several months ago on her blog. The front of the house has changed so much now that it is mid summer. The grape vine which I was convinced was just a bundle of dead wood, has grown and bunches of grapes are growing on the branches. I know absolutely nothing about the care of grape vines but I did cut back a lot of the dead wood and this week cut a lot of the rambling ends off as they were becoming a little wild!. The flowers I have planted in the various pots have thrived and are now so colourful.
This week I have completed a selection of small pastel coloured bears and a rabbit. Will take some pictures during the next few days, starting to work on my bears for the Hugglets show and I am so tired of brown bears hence some colour for a change. Still have to decide what I plan to do with them but must get working as I will have to travel to the UK at the end of July to find a house to rent.
This week we visited the Carnac alignments, neolithic right site on the coast of Brittany and I even caught a glimpse of the sea. The alignments are one of the most spectacular and intriguing monumental series of megaliths in the world (and a very popular tourist destination). Erected some 6000 years ago these approx three thousand monoliths, have been part of the Breton landscape since prehistoric times. Many myths and legends have arisen in connection with the stones (yes some one did apparently count all the stones). One story is that Merlin turned a Roman army to stone. Megaliths have been associated with goblins and treasure is rumoured to be hidden under the stones. There are tales of the stones being human beings and that the stones of Carnac run to drink in the nearest brooks on Christmas night, heaven help anyone who got in the way they would be run over by the stones. Unfortunately roads and houses have been built through and around the stones, some have been removed. There is a museum of archaeology in Carnac which I hope to visit. This is a picture of just a small area of the stones, they are all in perfect rows and evenly spaced. Wonder how they would look from a hot air balloon? The alignments are in three distinct sections and the second picture is a dolmen at one end of the middle section. My research into the menhirs in Brittany has resulted in some interesting information and I think that is only in recent years that they have been more cared for. In the past dolmens have been used as chicken/sheep houses and apparently even a home for the local village idiot.
The stones extend for several kilometres and driving down the winding road I saw a sign with something I had not yet seen I had the opportunity to explore. A tumulus is a mound of earth covering a tomb and this one on a private property can be viewed by the public for the princely sum of 1 Euro. This is a view from the front, unfortunately the door does rather spoil the historical aspect of the site.
I was brave enough to bend almost double to enter through the narrow entrance which opens out into a small chamber which has been fitted with an electric light. I don't like confined places too much and glancing up at the roof was very nervous to see the ceiling consisted of one enormous circular stone, held in place by the dry stone wall I presume. Mervyn laughed at me and said that as it had been standing for several hundred years it was unlikely to collapse now. As a bunch of exuberant children were bouncing around on the top of the mound I was still not too happy!
My final two pictures are of the grand entrance to the private residence. Strictly private said the signs in French but I could not resist taking photographs of these very old walls with amazing stone carvings. Could just imagine horses and carriages driving down this driveway.


Well another week ends in sunny Brittany, Tuesday is a big national holiday in France, Bastille Day and there seem to be exciting happenings planned in various town and cities. Something to look forward to.....

To him in whom love dwells, the whole world is but one family. ~Buddha

Snakes alive.............................

Having grown up on a farm in central Africa I have had many close encounters with snakes. I had not given a thought to the fact that there would be snakes in France, silly I know as I am well aware that there are snakes of some sort everywhere.
This property has been very neglected and we have spent a lot of time moving rocks and generally tidying up. We did not manage to move all the big rocks left on the side of the garden as we are only renting and it would be a big task. The property next door is once again extremely overgrown and full of nettles and brambles and rubbish, something quite unusual in France as far as I can see. Not worth getting involved with this area either, however whilst washing my hands in the bathroom late this afternoon I spotted Mischka (that darn cat again!!!) acting very strangely near the pile of rocks. I went rushing outside and saw one of my neighbour's kitties rushing into the undergrowth, started to turn away and realised that there was an angry snake slithering over the rocks with Mischka all ready to investigate once again. Grabbed the brat cat and shut him inside but returned to discover the snake had disappeared, hopefully far away.
I have no idea about venomous snakes in Europe and immediately consulted good old Google. There are some very informative articles, apparently there are only two types of venomous snakes in this part of France. Snakes with round pupils (would I ask a snake to let me examine his eyes!) are non venomous! In the event of being bitten by a snake there were the usual sensible instructions to drive yourself to the nearest hospital but not to try and catch or kill the snake as you could just as well end with a second bite but anyway you would not die immediately!!! One article mentioned the fact that if you do find 'le serpant' be very careful who you tell, as your French neighbours are likely to demolish stone walls to find the culprit whilst warning you of the dangers of the countryside at the same time. Hopefully we will have no more encounters with snakes in this garden but I am now much more aware!
On Saturday morning when I went to hang out the washing I discovered that something had been making a large hole in the side of an old apple tree. As you can see from the pictures there are large pieces of wood on the ground around the tree, have not seen any squirrels here so can only assume that it is a bird. The tree is very old and it appears that there are ants in the wood.

On Sunday we took our picnic lunch to the Abbey of Bon Repos situated in the heart of a forest along the Nantes Brest canal. By 1960 this Cistercian Abbey was a total ruin but is slowly being restored. A market is held there each Sunday with crafts, fresh vegetables and food and there are several restaurants and small shops. A very beautiful place to spend the day with lots of space for picnics.
The map I had acquired from the tourist bureau showed a neolithic burial chamber not too far away so we decided to visit this on our way back home. The road led us through the forest, under a very lovely old viaduct and next to a stream. Finding a sign a the side of the road, we parked the car and set off up the winding and very steep path literally up the side of a mountain. There are lots of hiking trails around and this one indicated that it was a 14km walk to somewhere but no other mention of the burial chamber. It was a hot day and we climbed and climbed eventually reaching the top to find an amazing view of the surrounding countryside and lots of large rocks. As the picture on the map showed something that looked like a miniature Stonehenge we were a little confused and disappointed. We decided that we would return to the car and as it was quite steep we carefully made our way down. Not far from the bottom I happened to glance sideways and discovered the burial chamber right next to me, could have saved us a long and hot walk if I had spotted it on the way up! After my previous visit to a dolmen which was neat and had an informative sign explaining the structure, I was sad to find this one neglected and almost hidden in the long grass. Until next time............

Climb the mountains and get their good tidings. Nature's peace will flow into you as sunshine flows into trees. The winds will blow their own freshness into you, and the storms their energy, while cares will drop off like autumn leaves. ~John Muir

The evil cat, news and a dolmen.................

Any one who is owned by a cat will know that they are contrary creatures, each with totally individual personalities. Mischka has always been a loner in our family of kitties, when he was a kitten he was the naughtiest cat I have ever owned and Sasha who was at that time just 3 years old, used to sit on him when he had had enough of his nonsense. He was not called JD (juvenile delinquent) for nothing. He has not improved with age hence the very expensive visit to the vet as a result of him seeing off some stray cat! We have also been suffering with the heat wave which has affected most of Europe this past week and Wednesday was a dreadful hot and humid day (just like Durban for my South African friends). We had both collapsed during the day and not achieved much but by evening there was a major thunderstorm which did help to break the cycle of heat. However, late evening when doing a head count of cats, Mischka was missing! Mervyn and I spent a couple of hours wandering around in long grass, brambles and mud calling for him but he did not appear. By the time it was starting to get dark I was of the opinion that he had either met with a dreadful accident and we would never see him again or he would stroll in as if nothing had happened. Given that it is still daylight until after 10 in the evening we decided to take one last look around, I looked out the French door and there was the little beast walking down the garden, wet through and full of brambles. Considering that there is one thing that he is absolutely terrified of and that is thunder, I am surprised that he had not fled home at the first indication of a storm. He had most probably fallen into a deep sleep due to the heat and only woke up to discover that he was rather wet!!! As it is not safe to leave the cats outside at night as there are nocturnal prowlers who would just love kitty for dinner, I have to shut them inside at night so I was very relieved that he did condescend to return home.
I have completed a new bear list on e-bay so I have done some constructive work this week. Meet Tristan and his little friend Maxwell.

By Thursday the inactivity of his life was beginning to get to Mervyn and I promised that we would make an excursion to Vannes. As the morning dawned wet and extremely humid I was glad to get out of the house, never tell me that stone houses are warm in winter and cool in summer (but that is another story). Vannes is no country village, a large city right on the coast of a very beautiful bay with canals and shipping. Our first visit was to the local tourist office. I have found these a wealth of information and staffed with delightful people who put up with my fractured French (most can speak English). They provided us with maps and pointed out places to visit. This is a town for several visits as we only managed the old city section. This picture is of part of the old city wall and a corner tower. Standing on the wall I took a picture of the beautiful garden down below which is only just being planted out with new flowers for summer.
No guessing for the contents of this shop.................

Court of the Angels, a decorating shop with the most wonderful selection of angels I have ever seen under one roof. A tiny shop down a narrow street, there were carved angels made from stone, resin, metal and wood as well as other beautiful items to covet.......................

Vannes is a very beautiful city founded originally by the Romans in the first century AD! Full of old timbered buildings, an incredibly beautiful cathedral and narrow cobbled streets, I will definitely have to pay another visit. I have a fascination with gargoyles on buildings and was delighted to discover a series of three right down on pavement level. As it was raining I have tried to capture the water dripping from the mouth of this one, don't know how clear it is thought.

By lunchtime we were both walked out and decided to drive along to the edge of the canal to eat our picnic lunch. As it was still early I decided to visit a dolmen which was not too far away. This is a picture take from the front. Thought it looks just like a pile of stones with a hole underneath, the sides have been built with stones carefully cut and placed in position. This burial monument dated from the 4th century BC consists of two chambers linked by a y-shaped corridor. The site was in use from neolithic times to the Roman period. I was intrigued to discover that the dolmens, menhirs and megaliths are unique to this part of Europe. I will have to visit as many as possible whilst I am living here in Brittany.
I visited the Pontivy tourist office yesterday returning home with a wide selection of maps and booklets. I discovered that the Knights Templar built a hospital in Kerfourn, the little village that we are staying in. No evidence of anything here now and no indication of where it was situated unfortunately. There are lots of places right on our doorstep to visit during the next couple of months........................

If you want to understand today, you have to search yesterday. ~Pearl Buck