Spring is in the air....................

Spring is definitely in the air. When I drove to the supermarket during the week an avenue of trees had seemingly overnight burst into buds of pink flowers. One of the trees in the property next door had also blossomed and I could not resist the temptation to pick a bunch of white blossom. These fairy like flowers are from an apple tree I think. The ancient trees in our garden are still sleeping but buds are forming and in a few days I think we will have a garden full of flowering trees. We have been working on cutting the very overgrown lawn which has been hard work as this property has been so neglected for the past year or so. It is a long time since I have had the care of a garden this size and it is good fun but a little exhausting.
I have also managed to complete some bears and have stitched several more. Our prototypes for Teddy Bears of Witney 2010 limited editions need to be ready by the end of March so I have lots of work to do. Have learned the hard way that whilst I do not mind knitting one little cardi having to knit 8 the same is not much fun!

This little bear is dressed and waiting for a trim of flowers and a bow.

A completed little girl with hand knitted cardi, romper suit in a very pretty fabric with embroidered pocket.

This has been a busy week and a difficult one as I have had moments of feeling sad and depressed. We have been living in rural France for almost six weeks and I must admit to feeling a little out of things at times. Not necessarily homesick as I no longer have a home in Africa but living like a gypsy is taking some getting used to. I miss all my personal things which are in storage and I will not see for some time until we make a move into a home of our own. Fortunately I did pack some family photographs and some of my special little things and had them sent with the unaccompanied baggage. Whilst this did save my having to pay dearly for overweight luggage, it was still an extremely expensive process. The fact that my precious computer was dropped sometime during its shipping and is now not working, was a major blow. I am waiting for settlement of my claim against the insurers but they are taking their time to finalise this. Bronwen also shipped her almost brand new computer as unaccompanied baggage and has now found that the mother board has been damaged so I will be lodging a second claim. 'Tho I did back up my entire hard drive there are some things which have caused problems such as my mailing list to all our collectors. My address book seems to have become scrambled somehow and I will now have to write to everyone to ascertain whether they were on our mailing list for ebay listings or website updates.
I know that a period of adjustment is very normal and I will start to feel a little less lost eventually. There are compensations as it is very beautiful here and I should be looking at this as a big adventure. However the past six months have been totally hectic. From the day the sale agreement was signed in early October, I worked frantically to clear out our house, storage unit and go through all the accumulation of stuff from some 12 years of living in Cape Town. Possibly now that I have time to sit and think is partly why I am starting to feel a little down. Megan is returning to London on Monday and we have a journey of over an hour to get her to the nearest airport. I will have to learn how to use the satnav on my own! I will miss her very much but she needs to get back to her life there and Bronwen will be glad of her company.
The kitties are settling in well and have become quite adventurous. They are city cats and have taken a little adjusting to a big garden with trees, grass and lots of birds. They are the reason why I am living in Brittany as it was a considerably cheaper option than putting them in quarantine for 6 months in England, hope the little sods appreciate it! There are about 7 cats living in a neighbouring house together with a little dog. Considering he lives in a house filled with cats it is a problem that he takes great delight in chasing my poor kitties. As the garden is totally unfenced he seems to seek them out. They are not used to being chased by dogs so it is another learning curve for them. The cats are of various ages, they live in a tiny house with no garden as such but play in the sunshine right across from my front window and it is fun to watch them. We live right next to a fairly busy rural road but the French drivers, hectic as they are, seem to watch out for the various dogs and cats that roam the streets in this village.
Well back to work................

It is good to have an end to journey towards, but it is the journey that matters in the end.

Ursula K. LeGuin