And in September ....

We attended the wonderful annual Rendezvous sur Erdre in Nantes which is always held on the last/1st weekend of August/September and once again it didn't disappoint. Great atmosphere, lovely crowds, fantastic music of all genres although it's supposed to be jazz & blues in the main. Once again I was spellbound by the South American dancers (Kapowera) doing their thing and this time there was a lad of no more than 7 or 8 with them so they must start pretty young to get that agile. We had a great time and will definitely go again next year.

The following weekend there was a garden festival in a park in Nantes, wonderful place and wall to wall stalls of plants for sale. Not a good place for a plantaholic with no money.... Of course I did indulge my vice and bought some more 'necessary' plants and even Ian succumbed to some lovely heuchera for his shady spot by the patio in Coeur de Chene. I loved their bug sculptures made of wood, I wish I had the imagination to make my own.

I had a new pet for a very brief time, it was a lovely huge moth who answered to the name of Monty. Unfortunately only 24 hours after we met he was dead. I later had him identified as a Convolvulous tiger moth, apparently quite common on the med and north Africa - he was so cute..

Well we had a miserable July & August as did most of Europe, but from September onwards it's been pretty good and almost made up for it. My bookings have increased yet again but with the miserable £ v € rate we haven't gained much at all. Of course it hasn't helped that every available euro has gone into building materials for Le Camelia but I have been very fortunate in inheriting a lot of lovely furniture from a very good friend in the UK who is revamping her home. Ian and I made the speedy trip over to collect it with the horse box (a very very useful vehicle indeed) and came back loaded to the gunnels. Well summer is truly over now and the days are ever shorter, I've joined a French conversation group in Redon this year which runs 2 morning sessions on Tuesdays (then straight on to Patchwork) and Fridays. I'm hopeful that it will get me talking with more confidence although I & a few others feel it would be better if we could have a morning for those like us who still take time to utter our sentences as at the moment we are drowned out by the more confident speakers.