Home from France

I am back after 5 blissful nights in Colmier Le Bas, about an hour's drive from Dijon. I was at my cousin's house, staying with her and her husband and their two cats, Sam and Maisie. This is the house from the back when I was on a meandering and aimless walk around the vicinity.

They are pretty isolated but the town is 15 mins drive or so and they have lots of friends in the area. There are no cars passing though and at night it is pitch black. Idyllic. I got a lot of knitting and patchwork done when I wasn't being distracted by these two...

Sam, the boy, was a slightly buffer version of Maisie and had lost most of his tail when a kitten. He was rather timid so I only got occasional strokes from him. Maisie however was not backward in coming forward.

That is her on my bed, as she was every evening and for which I was very grateful. She mixed affection with extreme playfulness and I spent a lot of time flinging toy mice and pieces of wool around for her to chase.

The house is like a feature from Country Living magazine - absolutely beautiful and modern despite being traditional and also extremely comfortable. I slept sooooo well and also ate the most amazing meals - my cousin is an amazing cook! Now why couldn't that run in my bit of the family? We spent some time discussing it though and how it relates to other crafts and I can understand where I am going wrong. For instance, as a new knitter you don't start a pattern and then immediately start free-styling. Or if you do you are highly likely to end with a mess. Baby steps is what is needed with the cooking. Although I feel I may be jumping into her cheese and ham pie and apple crumble with calvados fairly soon. Seriously divine.

I have lots more photos to share but will save those for another post so I can go and jump into a nice hot bath. I leave you with a group shot.

From left to right, yours truly, mumsy and cousin. It was Mum's birthday yesterday and Deb outdid herself with the meal so by this point we were all feeling rather lazy and sitting in front of a wood burning stove listening to vintage recordings on vinyl. It was - and I believe I may have already mentioned it but it's worth repeating - idyllic!