Back in France

What a whirlwind these past few weeks have been, in fact  I was exhausted and am having a few days of doing nothing much at all, not even stitching. Only the  week before last we  were saying goodbye to the women of Boneca de Atauro and we ate  our last meal at a boat on the Yarra River. Melbourne with it's night lights and many people out and about on a warm autumn evening was like going to a giant party. The women loved their last days of tourist things but were also tired from  the busyness of AQC and being outside their own language. Cannot wait to see the women again!

Almost immediately after I had to pack my suitcase for France to attend Pour l'Amour du Fil, where i was a guest exhibitor and was also doing some teaching. After checking in and waiting  for several hours at the boarding gate we were told at 12.30 am that our flight had been cancelled for technical reasons. Whilst I  was glad to not be on board a flight with technical difficulties, it did mean processing 800 odd people for hotels, taxis and replacement flights by the airline, which took quite some time and I did not get home until 4 am to sleep for a few hours and turn around to go back to the airport. Fortunately they were able to get me on a flight which  got me to Paris on set up day, so I had some hope of actually setting up at the event in Nantes. The first day of the event was super busy with many visitors and I had to teach a full class in the afternoon.

I did actually manage to finish my wellness blanket on the day of my flight to France. I had to leave some captions out as my piece of blue cloth was not quite long enough. I think I will make a booklet of sorts to accompany the blanket as the captions that were left over were mostly about the creative process more than anything. After the Exhibition we took our time to drive back to Moux and visited friends, Caroline Higgs near la Rochelle, and Jane Rollason in the Charentes .The weather was pretty good so it was most enjoyable being on the coast and visiting Ile de Re.

I always love looking at different modes of transport- walking biking and sailing!

Piled rock mounds made by who knows whom, but a lovely contrast to the deep blue of the sea. It was also limited to a small part of the coast near the light house in attempt I  suppose to limit people  making them everywhere. And below the lovely ruins of the  Abbaye des Chapentiers, a silent order of monks who tilled the surrounding fields.

The two photos below are of a small village, Montolieu  to the east of Carcassonne known as a book village. As it is the beginning of the tourist season not all shops were open and I had hoped there might have been some indie publishers or bookmakers. We did visit a paper mill and inevitably I did buy some paper to make I hope a hand made book ( I have making books on my to do list- in fact on my doing list!)

 
Some bookish owls installed in a tree! And a rustic vignette.

And I finished my latest Blackwoods Dancing piece, i really like the pink hills in the background- a colour that happened because I did not have quite the right colour in my bag of threads awhile ago.