I have been strangely out of it this week. On Monday I flew back to London from France. It was an interesting trip, the drive through rural Brittany was as always, amazing. It is such a beautiful country.
Arriving at the tiny airport I had some snide comments to make but Ryan Air is very well organised and we left exactly on time and got into Stanstead airport 15 minutes early. The bus trip wasn't very interesting as it was already dark but I have seen this route before, it is the way we drive to get to Folkestone.

Arriving in London I realised that it is a grubby dirty city, it has its beauty (and I have always loved being here) but after the clean open spaces of France I seem to be noticing the complete contrast. Thank goodness we are so close to Hampstead Heath, is is so nice to have the green space.

Bronwen has never been to London before so she has a list of 'tourist' places that she wants to visit, so we will slowly start working our way through the sights. Haven't done much yet except tidy my working space up and go out grocery shopping. We did go to Ikea and spent hours walking around looking at all the furniture, we will need to get some basic stuff when we move.

I also went with Bronwen to visit her dog Max who is in quarantine 'prison' at the moment, poor boy must be so bored, he is in this cage/run with a concrete floor and wire walls with a window onto the rest of the place ( he has only had a window cell for a couple of weeks, another dog moved out). I suppose I can understand the need for quarantine but 6 months is a long time.

The photo is of Mishka cat, he doesn't like having his picture taken so I was very lucky that he posed for me the day I left France. He looks so angelic here but has been giving Wendy hell for the past week, he wants to go outside the whole time and when his demands are not met he walks around shouting. It could be a sign of stress from their move but he has had time to settle in now and he has always been wicked, he had the nickname of 'JD' when he was a kitten (juvenile delinquent). The other three kitties seem to have settled in well and are loving the grass, being city cats they are more used to paving and tarmac roads. A couple of them have even taken to climbing trees.

We were going to Portabello Road market this morning but it is raining so we are still tucked up at home. I am busy working on bears at the moment so should have some new photos to share in the next couple of days.

I have a new little girl bear on eBay. Josephine is wearing a blue and white striped dress with a little bit of embroidery detail. I haven't had a bear on eBay for awhile so I hope she finds a new home.

On Sunday we went to the antique market in Pontivy, it was amazing, so big that it took us hours to walk around and look at everything. If I had money and a home to put the stuff in I would have come back with the most incredible stuff, fantastic old furniture and textiles and bric a brac. It is just as well that they don't have this market every week and that I don't have the money to spend.

I didn't come home empty handed though, Wendy and I found some lovely old buttons, lace and trim. All beautiful things to trim the bears with, alot of the vintage lace and buttons are too big a scale for miniature bears but I would love to just collect them to look at. I found an old music book which I have an idea for and Wendy found a bunch of velvet flowers, they are so lovely and are getting so hard to find so it was a good day.
Then of course Wendy found the old French bear and after misunderstanding the French language and alot of bargaining he came home with us, he is a perfect companion for my Portabello Road bear.
I find it funny that as someone who has never had a great need to collect old bears and having a dust allergy, I have now started a collection ( even if it is a shared one, still a collection)

I will have more bear photos to share with you later as I have finally finished trimming the waiting bears.

On Saturday we went driving around and sightseeing. This is the back of the most amazing chateau, there are so many beautiful buildings to see, I love the architecture in France.

Another lovely building with the river right in front of the door. This old wall in Josselin is across the river from the castle.
The incredible castle in Josselin, it is like a fairy tale picture. The photo after this one is the entrance to the castle. It is built on these huge pieces of stone and seems to have grown out of the ground.

We had a bit of an incident with the gas bottle heater in the bathroom on Sunday morning, I hate this heater but it is needed in the cold. We have got used to using it and this is the second time we have replaced the gas bottle but when Wendy turned it on this time it was hissing a bit and then burst into flames, luckily she didn't get burnt. I had to run and get the fire extinguisher and we got the fire out quickly. After the drama we had to clean the bathroom out thoroughly, all the foam from the fire extinguisher got everywhere.
Well, our lives are never boring.

After all the drama we went to a vide-greniers market (like an 'empty attic' market) not much to look at except peoples discards but the drive there was fantastic, absolutely lovely scenery.

Today is my birthday and my lovely parents gave me this amazing cabinet, they found it yesterday at a 'Brocante' shop (like an antique shop - more like a warehouse, it was so huge). A little cleaning up and it is going to be perfect for keeping all the little bits and pieces of bear making stuff in. It was such an incredible find and I am so happy.


We got a French apple tart for tea which was really good. The rest of my day has been pretty normal, except for me mowing the front lawn or rather the lawnmower taking me for a run, the lawn looks much better. The cats have ventured outside again and are getting more confident.
More bears are coming, just have to finish clothes and then I will have some new photos to show you.

Lots and lots of photos to share. Above is the chateau in Pontivy, taken before I came to London for the Bear fair. The next two are of Folkestone where we stayed the night on the last trip back to France, I find it amazing how the tide is completely out, leaving the boats in mud for hours during the day. I got to see a hazy view of the white cliffs of Dover ( in the background of the second photo)


On the side of the hill by the Eurostar train entrance you can see this amazing horse.
On the long drive from Calais to Pontivy we drove over this amazing bridge, unfortunately a very overcast day but at least you can see it.

I find wind turbines amazing, you see a lot in France and I have taken lots of photos of them. I really think they should start using them in South Africa, in Cape Town especially there is so much wind.
This is the new home for six months. We are living in Kerfourn, a little village just outside of Pontivy, Brittany. It is a beautiful old stone Breton cottage and I try and get a better photo of it. (without the car in the way would help)

The front door.

The car, I love this car and the family thinks this is hysterical, I have never expressed any interest in cars and can't drive so it really is silly.
The beautiful window in the lounge, from here we can see straight down the road into the village and the cats have started to sit on the windowsill and watch the world go by.
This is the view from the front window, the village of Kerfourn with the church on the right.
The back garden is beautiful, long and skinny but has the most amazing old trees and a well.

The photos of the house got taken during one of the sunny spells. The weather has been a mix of extremes, lovely and sunny and very cold. Yesterday it was almost sleeting and after waking up to sun this morning it snowed for about five minutes and is now raining. This morning while the other three kitties were sleeping I took Mishka cat out for a short recon of the garden , he loved it and wants to go out again but it is going to be a very slow process, I don't want them getting lost.