christmas in the heart of france

we spent a peaceful christmas day after a fizzy christmas eve !
we had a drinks party in our farmhouse here in the heart of france on christmas eve...champagne and nibbles - tapas style.
smoked salmon, caviar blinis, patés & charcuterie, cheeses, and luscious food like that.
set out on our old comptoir cupboard...out of the reach of lewis our french scenthound !

here he is dazzling in a tinsel collar...ready for the party !

we had the fire roaring and candles lit everywhere and tealights peeping out from holly and fir tree branches on our big old mantlepiece.

it was such fun preparing the house for christmas.

bringing in holly from our fields...

gathering mistleoe...

we hung a great big ball of mistletoe at the entrance to welcome our friends...

...sooo christmassy.

as darkness fell our friends arrived, everyone was in great form.
champagne and kir royale made for a buzzing and happy atmosphere, stories were told and gifts exchanged...a delightful way to start the season.

hope your christmas season is full of fizz, fun and most importantly family and friends. 
wishing you joy.
a bientot...







 

cranberry sauce

as promised, further to my mini christmas at mum and dad's last week...
 
i have always loved cranberry sauce and for the last long number of years have enjoyed making my own. 
normally i add fresh clementine orange segments and zest for added zing, liberally adding port also.
this year, i decided to do something a little different as dad had all sorts of goodies in the fridge. 
my punnet of cranberries and a couple of spoons of water were heated until the cranberries popped, then i threw in lots of sugar (i never measure anything - must be about a small cupful). to this wonderful red concoction i added blueberries and cherries, then a generous glug of amontillado sherry.
i tasted it and thought it deeelish. the cherries were especially good.

served up in a heart dish....

my theme for the table was black and white with touches of crimson

the dinner, complete with the sweet chestnut stuffing...

and for dessert, christmas pudding. i can't give you the recipe as it is my grandma's and is a bit of a secret. it is rich and dark, full of fruit and so moist.
we served it in black bowls for a bit of drama.

the meal was accompanied by chablis and a fine cotes du rhone villages....
a little bit of france in ireland. we really enjoyed it.

how are your preparations for christmas going ? are you having a mini christmas ? whatever you are up to i hope you are filled with the excitement of the run up to christmas. 

i can feel something special in the air.
a bientot...

sweet chestnut stuffing

as the song goes,
'it's beginning to look a lot like christmas....everywhere i go'.

i am just back after visiting my parents where we had a mini christmas which was delightful.

my memories of christmas as a child are magical and the highlight, after the mountain of presents, was the christmas dinner...all made by my dad. 

we always started with escargots, snails in garlic butter - unusual in ireland ! main course was, of course, turkey, ham studded with cloves, roast potatoes, brussel sprouts and honey roasted carrot and parsnip. the turkey was accompanied by five different types of stuffing !

i really enjoyed helping dad prepare the meal last week and i'd love to share the recipe for his chestnut stuffing, our favourite, with you.

it comes from his beloved, well read and slightly battered, good housekeeping's cookery book, dating from the 1950's.

 and here is the chestnut stuffing recipe...

it is sooo easy. dad uses a tin of puréed chestnuts as that is easier and quicker.

here he is mixing away...

he makes it all look so easy, after stuffing the neck of the turkey he covers it with a layer of streaky bacon to keep the moisture in.

here is dad posing proudly beside 'the bird'.

i look forward to sharing some more of my christmas at mum and dad's and will continue it in my next post. 

is it beginning to look a lot like christmas where you are ? i hope so.

a bientot...

   

nightstands...

while my dear husband is painstakingly pointing the walls in our farmhouse here in the heart of france, i thought the nightstands (bedside tables, or, in french...chevets) were tooooo turquoise and needed toning down, big time, to match the soft neutrals of the newly repointed wall.

before...

so, if got my paint out and 'washed' the turquoise with a bit of white.....what is ever better than white ??

white, with a peep of blue underneath, so fresh.
here are the two colours side by side....before on the right and after on the left...

both colours are pretty but to match our 'newly repointed look', the more neutral suits.

here is my 'painting station', i.e. our kitchen !

lewis was, as ever, 'helping' !!

to be honest i think he nodded off. in the background is little zsa zsa on their giant bean bag. she took no interest whatsoever and snoozed throughout the whole thing. 
don't you love it ?!

what have you been up to ?
hope it has been good.
would love you to drop by again soon as i would love to share our renovations progress with you.
whatever you are up to have a great day.
a bientot....

another week, another wall

we are keeping the pace up in our french farmhouse.
after the success of the repointing of the wall above the fireplace we have also really enjoyed having the open fire again. there is nothing like the relaxation sitting in our big chairs looking at the flames.

one of the large logs had a hole in the middle of it and i loved the way the flames peeped through it.

keeping up the renovations momentum, husband has started to repoint an unfinished wall upstairs. it is a laborious business and takes hours. can't wait until it is finished to get the bedroom back in order again !

husband at work...

lewis (our ariegois) 'helping' !

when the wall is finished we plan to paint the rickety floor, freshening and brightening the whole space. all on a shoestring budget - i love it.

i am off now to repaint the bedside cabinets. i painted them a lurid turquoise and want to tone the colour down. will post pics tomorrow.

whether you are working or relaxing today i hope you enjoy every minute of your day. thanks for dropping by. call again soon.
a bientot...

repointing a wall

we are so fortunate to have a beautiful large stone fireplace in our kitchen; it is about 5 feet wide and 4 feet high. 
husband decided to repoint the wall above it (one of many cosmetic jobs outstanding in our farmhouse). 
we were very excited and so cleared the candlesticks, etc off the mantelpiece in preparation.

here it is before the repointing started....

the pipe of the cuisiniere can just be seen in the above photo - more about that in a minute.

the photo above shows a close up of the old narrow french bricks with spaces inbetween needing repointing...and below, work starting...

and half-way through...

later, we took the cuisiniere out and reinstated the open fire with a basket grate. 
just have a look at it now ! 

husband plans to clean and repoint the inside of the fireplace which will be stunning. i will, of course, post photos of that when it is done.

stay cosy and i hope that you will drop by our french farmhouse in the heart of france, for a little more of france romance.

a bientot...

chestnut lane

the autumn leaves are changing colours by the day and are starting to fall making interesting vignettes on the ground.

i set off on a walk along a chemin, grassy path, near our farmhouse that i call chestnut lane.

zsa zsa came too...

she loves her walks.

the ground was crispy with large chataigne, sweet chestnut, leaves and lots of prickly chestnut skins...

 out of which had popped shiny chestnuts.

ivy peeped through the crispy leaves here and there

and now and then there was a splash of citric yellow.

at the end of the lane is a treat of a view...

 and then

we headed home, sweet home.
i hope you have time today to take some time out for a walk, 
wherever you are. 
thanks for reading. i really hope you will follow my blog.
a bientot...




 

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more about the kitchen

our kitchen here in our french farmhouse in the heart of france had been done on a shoestring budget and so the kitchen i had dreamed of wasn't possible. instead it looked a little like an appliance showroom, with a row of appliances. imagine my delight when a friend gave us a big long cupboard she didn't care for. 
the minute i saw it i knew it would be elegant simply painted white. 
isn't it pretty ?

it gives us extra worktop space that we were short on and i can put 'pretties' out on display - in the photo it is sporting our large hen tea cosy.
 
we took the back off the cupboard and store pans, tea towels, laundry liquid and lots of other kitchen essentials - close to hand but hidden from view....genius !...
and it was free, just the cost of a coat of paint. a great weekend project which transformed the room.

i really enjoy pretty items, large or small, which also serve as something really useful, storage etc. it something is a pretty shape imagine it painted white, cream or pearl grey....anything can be transformed with a coat of paint.

what projects have you been up to this weekend ? 
hope you've enjoyed it.
a bientot...





 

kitchen beams & parsley

as i was telling you yesterday, we recently painted our kitchen beams white. 
i took a couple of (clumsy) snaps to give you a wee bit of an idea.

i hung up some of my beloved baskets and blue enamelled pieces, all bought here in france...

...and here is the kitchen window which looks out over the courtyard at the front of our house dressed with white curtain pole and blue and white check curtains. blue and white, my favourite.


meanwhile...

...looking beautiful (next to more blue items !) on the kitchen sink windowsill is parsley, one of our three cats. 
he had just had his breakfast and was having a quiet daydream before heading out to snooze all day in the sunshine. he is very busy.

thanks for dropping by. 
hope that you had time for a quiet daydream or two today.
a bientot...

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painting the cuisine

when we bought our french farmhouse it had lain uninhabited for decades and was literally an empty shell.
despite the fact that my husband had worked really hard sandblasting every inch of wood of the interior of this empty shell, we decided recently to paint the big oak beams on the ceiling of the kitchen to brighten the space.

the dark brown was gloomy and so we chose pure brilliant white for a bright and fresh look. 
it was hard work, here is husband painting like a good thing.

after many hours of work, happily, our little french friend, gilbert, called at apéritif time and enjoyed a beer and admired the beams.

the 'boys' sat by the stove (gilbert is on the left) and had a chat about life; our little friend is quite the philosopher...maybe it is a french thing !

i will post a couple of pics of the fresh white beamed kitchen soon.


whether you are working hard or sitting quietly today, i hope it is a good day for you.
a bientot...