True Selfies

R did a Mutley laugh, a growl like Marge Simpson and another Mutley laugh when he found out I had over 400 selfies on my new phone.  Well firstly my phone isn't any use for anything else as Some Unjust Fellow (R) has taken my sim card as his doesn't work and apparently the new virtual mobile line has gone missing and cannot be found until a week Monday if we're lucky.    Secondly, it's the first time I've been able to take phone selfies and it's fun.    And thirdly nobody has taken any decent photos of me for 20 years if not more, and I'm determined to have some  - I want them to be how I feel I look without that fat wrinkled person who keeps getting in the way.      Selfies are wonderful because you can choose the best of 400, and make sure lines blodges and double chins are erased by clever lighting and angles, even without photoshopping which I have not yet mastered.  Or installed.

Here are some of the winners, spot the one which looks like Kate Middleton Duchess of Cambridge and the one that looks like a bug eyed thirties film star and the bug eye.

Mirros within mirrors

With Lemon

I could swear that there was someone with me, that I was not alone...

The Visit

My mum came to see us, it's been seven years...

 Here we are doing an art class with Marie-Christine, exploring the colour blue, light and darkness

Reading and painting frames in the garden.

We did a collective silk painting with B's girlfriend's family, a representation of our house, and then sang and played guitar and djambes under the stars

Cherry Tomato Tree

Cherry Tomato Tree at Morning.  What beauty, I have tended it daily. 

I filled a growbag for potatoes with our good compost/soil stuck in a 'tree' of several bamboo canes with their side sprouting branches still on, and planted 3 small cherry tomato plants, so they could grow up and spread out into a tree shape leaning on the bamboo branches (tied in with garden twine when needed).  I then experimented with finding the sunniest spot, dragging it into its final spot where the first tomato ripens as I write.

Happy Mattress!

Scores of followers have been begging me to tell, did we get the mattress?  Well the answer is YES, and what's more, by happy coincidence, delivered just in time for my birthday tomorrow Happy Birthday Mattress to Me.  (other than this my birthday is forgotten in the panic leading up to Bs final exams (bac).

After a thoroughly enjoyable and very long and broad trial in the basement of HACEA  (hacea.fr)  we were happy with this make, Greensleep (http://www.greensleep.com/fr/sur-green-sleep) and with the information and service of this shop.

Pure natural latex from well managed sources, (latex is oblivious to mites) we were invited to customise one for our particular back pleasure, with different densities of latex in different areas and on different sides, a second layer of latex over the top, all wrapped up in a soft organic cotton cover.

It is quite squidgy, almost gelatinous, and yet...

YES YES YES UPLIFTMENT (in all the right places), yelps of pleasure ring out, I am massaged by a host of mattress angels, such relief, such heavenly perfume of marshmallow, oatmilk, hay in the sun and cream of cotton. 

• no mites
• light for ease of bedmaking
• smells divine
• feels divine
• improves quality of life immeasurably
• will last at least 15 years, so when price is spread over this time...

I would say the best of presents to offer oneself.

Woodland Garden end of April

 

The dry shade challenge continues, here are some (subtle) successes.  March to May is the best time in the forest, so after this lot it's almost over.  My favourite time to be out is early spring before the tree leaves, after long winter deprivation.    I'm fond of these glamorous relatives of the deadnettle (lamium) the pink one has thrived in a concrete-edged raised bed, draping itself over it prettily all year round with silver white leaves and marshmallow flowers, the yellow one has more subtle silver patterns on the leaves.

 Bugle is a woodland plant which makes a purply-green carpet and flowers just as the tree leaves start coming out, it will be hints of dark subtle blue, already just visible in the interior.  I love the way the leaves spread out horizontally on the flower stalk in contrast to the strong vertical flower.

 

Tiarella cordifolia (saxifrage variety)

On high stalks which raise them above the forest floor,  with the light behind them they are ethereal and fluffy, close up, the florets are elaborate and fascinating.

dicentra spectabilis
Not an obvious choice for a forest but bears part-shade so I planted in a relatively sunny patch of the forest just in front of my swing seat, in the centre of three rocks which I think helps keep humidity constant.    It is the French custom to sell plants only when they are in flower.  I bought this last Spring, at the end of its season, half price, and its hearts immediately dropped off and it died back ready to grow again next Spring, I wondered if it would have enough light and whether it would return.  I'm happy to announce it is back in glory.  Known as  'Coeur de Marie' (Mary's Heart) in France, and Bleeding Heart in English, and sometimes likened to a Dutch hat when the sides peel open and raise up on each side. 

Wild geranium just coming out, pink and purple flowers this year, I managed to get some grape hyacinth bulbs growing up through the leaves, and when they die back the geranium leaves will cover the tat (not sure the bulb leaves will get enough light to flower next year though).

Woodruff Galium Odoratum, smells good, and according to my mum this likes limy soil which we have, and was used in the past in mattresses to discourage unwanted wildlife.

Easter Greetings

Cosmic Easter Egg

 I finished the last illustration last night to the story of Ilmatar, maiden of the air, mother of the water, you can see her below smashing up the small eggs for the Cosmic Egg and moulding the earth, (bad quality photos of drawings).   JC and I told the story this morning the Chapelle de St Martin to assembled children,  ...then home for rare lunch all four of us, with egg (kindly broken by R), and then in rare sun, went to see the flowers...and tonight we have been invited to dinner, rareissimo, more social life than usual. 

R, channelling his inner Thracian Warrior from the Tribe of Astii, prepares to hammer the egg

 B does not entirely agree with the proposed treatment, he points out the egg falls into two neat halves when the elegant ribbon is elegantly removed...and looks down upon R's savagery in a way peculiar to older brothers

R has determined to go ahead, please note JC's vicarious pleasure

matching smug smirks...

It was jolly good, our baker is a chocolatier...