Country Living Fair at Glasgow and a Giveaway!

I have just had a brilliant few day in Glasgow, helping my friends daughter on her stand V. N. T. G. Designs at the 'Country Living Christmas Fair'. VNTG makes quirky vintage inspired products including lovely covered notebooks and cards. It was such good fun meeting lots of lovely people who came to visit the stand, and listening to all their appreciative comments, and helping them choose their Christmas gifts. It was also hard work, and by the end of each day my feet were really in need of a good rest!

This was us on the first morning putting the finishing touches to everything before the fair started, you can still see the stock boxes in the middle. The light is not good inside the hall for taking photos - but it does give an impression of our stand and we had a great spot right next to the Country Living stand!

I have also just realised that I have just passed a blogging milestone so thought I would have a little 'giveaway' to celebrate. I started recording my crafty exploits just over a year ago now, and it has been interesting for me to look back and see what I have actually achieved during the year - I've tried new things like felting and screen printing, and picked up again on some old skills with knitting and crochet and have continued with my sewing and patchwork.
I know that quite a few people dip into my blog, some leave comments which are lovely to read, so to celebrate my first year of blogging I am offering a loose covered 2013 diary that I have made, some Xmas goodies and no doubt chocolate! I thought a diary might be good idea as I'm already getting dates that I need to record for next year!

Please join in, and tell your friends! You just need to leave a comment to go in the draw.

Just pop back on 5th December and hopefully we will have a winner. Good luck!

Sunsets and Sunshine

Just look at that silhouette of the plants against the sky at dusk, with the sun setting behind. This is the evening view from the house we are staying in.


I didn't quite manage to match it up with the daytime....


.... and this is the view from the bedroom window, so lovely to wake up to!


Lunch was in the sun today as well, we sat out on the decking and munched away.


J had been out to buy bread, and came back with a lovely surprise pud for us to share from the patisserie in the village. It was delicious, it had a crispy crunchy hazelnut flavoured base with a chocolate mousse topping - I must send J out shopping again!


We thought we had better try and walk off some of the calories so went to explore a beach not too far away at Plage de l'Escalet. We didn't stay here but walked on to the headland at Cap Tillat.


This is where we were heading for, the walk was marked and well trodden so it was not difficult. A sand spit links the mainland to the Cap which had beautiful sand and was covered with lots of water washed and sun bleached branches and twigs. We headed on to the Cap and followed the trail up so we could take in the view- you can just see my head peaking up near the rocks!


The area is well known for its rare plants many of which have adapted to this arid salt sprayed habitat. There were lots of plants that I didn't recognise, such as the shrub below, but others that I did such as prickly pear and tamarisk.





We didn't get back home for the sunset tonight from our deck, but watching the sun at the Cap just beginning to drop and leaving a shimmering silver line across the sea was just as magical.

Walking by the canal

Walk

Although the weather is quite poor for this time of year in the south of France we decided that we had to make the most of it and get out and do things. The 'Canal du Midi' is just a step away from where we are staying so we set off in a light drizzle of rain, but it was really quite pleasant strolling along looking at the beautiful plane trees and seeing all the autumn colours. The leaves are just turning here, not like at home where the colours were much more golden.





There had been quite a strong wind a couple of days ago so every so often there were drifts of leaves piled up just waiting for someone to jump into and kick around!


After a half hours stroll we reached our destination the Ecluses de Fonseranes. Here the canal has a change in height of 25 m by a series of eight staircase locks over a distance of 300 m. The photo doesn't do justice to the engineering that went on in order to build the locks - it was really impressive - but the lack of light with the rain made the photo look really flat. The canal was built in the 17th century and in 1999 the canal was added to the UNESCO list of world heritage sites.





Unfortunately we didn't see any action at the locks - there were no boats waiting to go up or down, so after reading the interpretation boards we headed back as by now the drizzle had turned to rain.


What a difference a day can make! The next day was fabulous blue skies and quite warm and we headed down to the coast to Guissen and wandered around the marina looking at the boats.



We called in at Narbonne, and the market at Les Halles. Mmmmm what a great place!





Then went into the town to the Cathederal and to window shop in the streets of the old town. I did find a lovely fabric shop and did venture in and found some lovely linen - more about that some other time.








We have also visited marinas at Martigues and at Agde, and have now moved on along the coast and are staying near La Croix Valmer.

As the weather has been poor, I have had a chance to finish some of my knitting.....


....so I have my new dog walking hat for when I get home and also a cowl type scarf to keep my neck warm.