Music Night In France

I decided to drag myself out of my Saturday mind, concerned about family & thinking 'how did it get like this....??' into 'getting warmer by the hour', a beautiful sunshiny day.  I headed toward Le Grand Pressigny but continued to Le Petit Pressigny to see one of four art expositions with 12 artists exhibiting.   I chose an artist I know.  It was a splendid, simple, effective exposition of wonderful photography of light and feathers with interesting ceramic sculpture influenced by marine form.

Back through the beautiful verdant, untainted valley of L'Aigronne to La Fête de la Musique where people I know were performing.   I missed some groups as there were two stages.  

There were lovely healthy salads for 2 e per bowl. BUT Steak and Chips was on offer by one of the stages for which I had been yearning for a while. A delicious apple tart with too much flaky pastry for my liking was so nice washed down with rosé wine and dining al fresco with others was a treat I have not had for a very very long time.

 

Good Company. Good Food. Good Music.  Good decorations from recycled plastics.
 The jazz orchestra did a number by Stevie Wonder and "Knock on Wood".
Good female singer.   Scottish Jim sung old rock songs and then Celtiqua played Irish Music.

 I had a discussion with Tim about the pronunciation of  words  deriving from CELT... we were in agreement,  BUT, now I  learn that a hard k and soft ce are each deemed to be correct for English phonology.

At the parking place I think one pot has been removed.

Le Brigade Singing European Songs

After we sang all our songs, the town collége school presented a performance about people's rights. Our group became imprisoned by 58 metres or so of knitting...others were trapped in yarns of wool.

My Three Piano Accordions

It was the first public performance I've done for about 4 or 5 years.
Standing was easier in heels but a warm evening breeze liked to play 'snatch my ancient music' from pegged music stand and table, so after about an hour I gave in to the wind.  I have recently dug out accordion pieces I played when I was 12 -14 years of age which I haven't played for decades   so those lovely concertos which need the pages to be turned need to be photocopied and mounted onto card. Unfortunately, I have never mastered learning by heart piano  recorder or piano accordion music.

I don't have any photos of yesterday evening when I played for the opening of a photographic exhibition in the village square with the newly appointed bar / restaurant. They are waiting for the kitchen to be finished before serving meals.

I played my newly purchased Italian Piermaria 240 accordion with 80 basses,weigh 9,2 kg which  had not been played by previous owner for 15 years.   I think it must be between 15 and 20 years old
It's one kilo lighter than my Italian Marinucci 120 bass 10, 2 kg which was bought when I was 10, so 60 years ago, and then it was secondhand. I think it must be between 61 and 65 years old. It was Santa who bought me my first accordion when I was 7 years old.  Initially, I was taught after primary school hours by my maths teacher. She was French but within a short soace of time I needed a much bigger instrument as I could not play any more pieces on the little Hohner Mignoni 8 basses.  Then I started to have lessons with Martin Lukins in Uxbridge. I remember playing a black accordion.  I don't know if my parents hired or bought the one I played before I was ten years old.  I remember sitting on the edge of the settee in the front walk-through living room at 10 Saxon Avenue, Hanworth, Middlesex with my chin pointed upwards resting on the accordion and my knees supporting the weight. My father hand-stitched a leather buckled back-strap to keep the accordion straps from slipping off my shoulders. It was in the same place for years and years, after I paid a company in Scotland to tune the Marinucci about 25 years ago.  It had new straps and an integrated back strap.
Then ...last year ... with decluttering I moved it ... and I need it now for the PierMaria.

Garden in June

Lots of self sown oriental red poppies, roses,  an orchid in flower, and the spiky plant from Auchan 9 years ago measuring 10 cm tall is now in flower for the first time.... and crowding the rose behind it. Lavender too is crowding some roses in the border as are some rose bushes crowding some lavender plants.

Pottery Project

It has been many weeks working at sculptural form.

I'd seen a garden sculpture that inspired, when I was asked what I wished to make.  This was discussed and I was shown how to start but my result will be vastly different than the inspirational piece.  Once started, and after a few weeks, I realised that I was enjoying the process of being so absorbed for two hours in trying to master techniques to mould clay, that it didn't matter how slowly the item would reach a finished state.

I am grateful to the professional artist / teacher who rescued and inspired when I talked about the structure having an air of becoming a chateau for a plant.    The humour from the class was that it was a rhubarb forcer, a Civray Nuclear Energy chimney, a Staffordshire pottery chimney, a chimney... but then it transformed.  "What will you do with it?" they asked in French, before it had holes, and then when it had holes, hilariously offering all manner of suggestions.

But with TIME not on my side the teacher drilled out the holes once I had cut out the larger ovals.   He needed the item to go into the kiln for biscuit firing.
It took almost two hours to sand remove knobbles.... and then glaze.  Much waiting, as it was a demanding session for the teacher, but a good opportunity to watch, listen and learn to the stages that others were at with each of their individual creations.  Some were making bowls and plaques, others masks and plates, and one was making figurative, imaginative models.

It started life as coils of clay building upwards and inwards.  Instead of winding roses around the form it became a staircase...the top wasn't what I had tried to create so I cut it off! It has been glazed an awaits a second firing in the kiln... along with a coned roof piece which MIGHT fit or not.

Final Piece to appear here when completed.

June Cake and Bake Club

VINTAGE or ON TREND was the theme... ...
No one chose the latter  but one witty baker used a recipe which was ON TREND when her grandmother used the recipe! 
The Cake Club now allows savoury bakes and any bake or creation  that is NOT a large cake that can be cut into portions.
The June event started an hour earlier,  so people had lunch rather than afternoon tea.  I am not really in favour of the idea nor keen on savoury bakes but I was voted out!  It is interesting.

My Classic Vintage Coffee and Walnut Cake with an  On Trend Chocolate Buttercream filling and topping

The Organiser's brother made an excellent yummy ginger cake.

The Organiser made a fruit bake with fresh fruits yet the Vintage recipe used frozen fruits.

Her husband made a wonderful tasty Vintage Glacé cherry cake.

Remember tinned Mandarins... make a Bombe with Bourbon biscuits.

Shortbread biscuits

 All three quiches contained bacon / ham so I picked the meat out!

 Well prepared by the lovely hosts at Le Grand Pressigny.

Dining in with Friends

Three course meals  - two consecutive evenings.
The first  -  filleted duck wings. My French guest praised the jus...the sauce.
The second  -  Cod fillet on a bed of not very spicy lentils
Chinese cabbage leaves sautéed and gently steamed.
Carrots steamed in honey flavoured reduction.
Ile de Noirmoutier new potatoes boiled, skins removed, sautéed with honey.
Second course - goats cheese crottin, salade (lettuce), walnut oil
Dessert - Aprioct crumble - Pear Crumble
Easy - Stress free - Wining and Dining

Curtains

At last, the curtains desired on two doors that separate three rooms, now prevent peeping through to the next room. In 2014, I bought three pairs of the same beautiful 100% cotton curtains from IKEA as I intended to hang as dividers in the huge GRAND SALON, but then I was gifted a mini turbine for convection of the heat throughout the 40m2 room.  I hung one pair at the French doors into my bedroom. My beautiful cream Laura Ashley curtains hang in my bedroom.  These curtains and fabric design are not anymore produced by IKEA.
They were chosen for black outlined roses and little birds design, as I had decided to call my house "Le Petit Oiseau" on account of the locally made pottery birds put onto the roofs of the 'lucarnes' of each attic. I am hopelessly impatient these days with the sewing machine so I was enormously grateful to the wife of my gardener who understood what I needed and was able to check and verify my measurements.
It took me over 3 years to complete the interior design idea: everything comes to those who wait!

Singing further South

I found an article about a Singing and Yoga group with Meditation... so I booked it being desperate for a new adventure. I didn't have time to ponder or plan.  The one day course was led by lovely, caring, professional people. The food was excellent. The wind was cold as it blew across the lake in the pine forests east of Limoges.  I stayed one night, as in my slow car it was about a four hour journey. Feeling like Toad on the Road, amazed by views of beauty, I tried to keep to slower routes.... yet with cattle to slow us further!

There were huge rocks in the Parc Naturel Regional de Millevaches en Limousin - La Rigole du Diable.

On the return route - a different route - I was aiming to visit another plus beau village de france.. but abandoned when I desperately needed petrol. Nothing lost as at that time of night it was more desolate than my own village.  Sunset before I entered home and my village, was a gift.

Inspirational Art in Nature

Inspirational Art in Nature
Deformities in Nature can be amusing.
It was thus when I found in my supermarket bought bunch of carrots, a forked carrot which was akin to the legs of a ballerina.  I decided!

It was May 10th - one of the first warm evenings.
There began convivial after work bar chats with people I know in the village.

The artist had returned. He has 'a certain sense of humour', which often dominates conversations depending on his artistic mood!  Villagers have tricked or teased him about his 'often used language.'
Within seconds of being invited to group camaraderie  - SNAP - a gift for the artist.
To the garden for a beautiful David Austin rose. To a drawer for a ribbon. To the camera.
I had created botanical art.
He really liked it.
It was fun to cause laughter and happiness in the local community.
It smelled delicious.

An evening meal for a Workaway guest

May 9th 2019

and the Spring gardening work she and I did leaving the self seeded PAVOT -
a large Oriental Red Poppy which I mowed around in the lawn too.
I wasn't going to dig the potager this year but hey, it happened and maybe it is good for morale.
I am grateful that I can afford to pay the gardener to help especially when last year I couldn't push the mower. This year is better though not 100%. It takes away physical stress.