A little notoriety!

Whilst doing a little 'social networking' and browsing the web, I came across this interesting website all about different people who work from their sheds....guess who I found among the several people featured, yes, yours truly!
Here's a link, go take a look.
http://www.shedworking.co.uk/2010/08/julia-quinncheeky-lemur-shedworker.html

The shed is coming into it's own now that winter has truly descended upon us, it was well worth the effort of insulating the walls, roof and floor. Just a couple of sticks burning in the woodburning stove is all you need to make the space toasty warm...in fact, some days when I go upto the mezzanine, I have to resist the temptation to open a window!

Here are a couple of pictures of the frozen waste, it all looks so beautiful with a touch of frost.

 Here's the cat, not wanting to brave the elements and who can blame him?

 and here's the charolet cow from over the road in his winter attire

 Today, the thermometer fixed to the outside wall of the shed has frozen at -1 degrees, although I know it's lots colder than that in reality.

 Couldn't resist taking photos of my new pendants resting in the snow

Finally, here's the new workbench....I think Mr Lemur is planning on joining me in my shed!

Vive La difference.

I simply love noticing the little differences between our old life in England and our new one in France, for me, it's never about trying to find each of the products and services that I liked about the UK to create a 'Little England' right here. Nor about trying to hold on to every ex-pat that you meet, I want to try my hand at becoming French.
I'm never going to convince anyone that I was born here, but I want to be able to live my life not worrying about who I may be called upon to speak French at.
Today, I decided to revisit the local La Poste, who always denied that the cheap international tariff that I requested even existed! For a couple of months I'd been going to one a little further afield who just sold me the service and thanked me for my custom, but today I decided that I would try again at my local branch, maybe I was just spoiling for a fight, but they agreed to sell me the tariff today,they must be cursing that 'borrowed' postie from another branch, they can't back down now, can they?
I know I won't!


If you ever find yourself faced with Rampants, this is the perfect antidote, in such a lovely colour can too.
We discovered it quite by accident. We'd moved all our stuff into the caravan for a few weeks during the warmer weather, only to find that someone else had similar ideas.
On opening the food cupboard,I discovered the 'fourmis' or ants to the English speaking world were already sitting down to lunch. In a fit of pique..Panic... Disgust , I quickly threw all our food through the window into a perfectly placed wheelbarrow, all except for the breakables which were carried outside and placed on a table. 'Oh, are you having a picnic?' our French neighbour asked, watching me set down the jam and the bread. You have to laugh! We joked about eating 'A La Carte' as our food was fetched from the wheelbarrow




After weeks of patiently waiting and lots of digging, sawing, hammering and sorting of slates, my new studio is finally finished, everything is moved into place and I made my first set of rings there today.
I love that the workbench has a really nosy window, I don't have to crane my neck to see who's coming and going...and why! When I'm not watching the folks going about their day, I can watch the cows at theirs, but they stare back at me almost as much as I'm staring at them.
It's great to feel that I can get my teeth into some real work and get the collection made that I've been threatening to do for months.
Jewellery is going to be the way we earn our money, or we're gonna die trying anyway.
Incidentally, there's a competition to think of a name for my darling little shed over at http://mrlemur.blogspot.com but you must be quick, it ends tomorrow!

A moment of clarity...a place to behold

This past week has seen three new prospective buyers come to look over our house...and one back for a second viewing. Even though the market is deflated and the banks are asking for crazy deposits, it's looking possible that we could find a buyer.

This has brought a whole set of thoughts and feelings to the forefront of my mind. Thoughts that are easy to push away when nobody wants to buy the house, and there's no chance of having to emigrate to France.

I love France, the people are fantastic, as are the neighbours (hi Alison), culture, food....the list goes on. The thing that worries me is living in a caravan for the foreseeable future whilst the house is being finished. A four berth caravan (containing 4 people) is ok for a week or two in the summer when you are outside for large amounts of the time, but when the winter weather starts and we are all living on top of each other, nowhere to dry the clothes, having to take the chemical toilet into town for emptying, then you can see how we might start falling out if no end is in sight.

Then today, we had one of those moments of clarity, the clouds parted and the sun illuminated the way.

We would build the workshop first and it could be a place to live, with an upstairs workspace so that we have the means to earn some money. We were going to do it sooner or later, but with a tweak of the plans, it could be a place to behold, not just your average shed for keeping the garden tools.

This little beauty from Norm is the project we have in mind, maybe tweaked slightly, we're waiting for the plans to arrive as we speak.