the first daffodil

Cliona planted two large and two medium boxes with bulbs about three months ago.

Positioned against the wall, they've received a lot of rain off the roof.

We were thrilled when the first blue-grey stalk budded and opened to reveal a perfect yellow daff ...

Meanwhile, I completed a little restoration job on a tired old cigar box my friend Michel kindly gave me a couple of months ago.

To replace the missing side panel of the box, I found a piece of dark wood and cut it to measure.

I polished the box with a mixture of linseed oil and turpentine. It appreciated the nourishing oil, as it was very dry and lacklustre.

It looks lovely now and compliments another old box flanking the Victorian toilet mirror (with rope-twist columns) adorning Aunty Viv's early 19th century Tasmanian-made cedar chest-of-drawers.

This better day

Cold, grey days of mist and drizzle seemed endless  ... but today was a wonderful relief, bright and warm and sunny.

It's squelchy underfoot, but there are rewards in walking around the yard.

The last winter rose, a stoic survivor, is now succumbing to its fate.

There are other flowers to admire ... a small Althea shrub beside the ancient fountain and a clump of hellebores beneath the Lime tree.

Previous owners Yves and Nicole left some treasures in the garden. This earthenware pot has a striking sun-yellow glaze and green collar. It lies in a bed made bare by the winter.

The other day we spotted a pair of partridges stealthily moving around the fringes of the garden, where stones make a border near the road.

We watched them with great excitement and furtively took photographs through the window.

We knew if we opened the door they'd be gone.

Restoration

I have returned to a hobby which occupied my leisure time almost 20 years ago ... furniture restoration.

I found this derelict piece at the tip at Nicole, a village not far from here.

It was once a cupboard ... but I needed a bookcase for the mezzanine.

I got rid of the crappy top and removed the drawer supports.

I stripped the paint to reveal old pine.

I made a new top out of a discarded board I found at the tip. It had an attractive bevelled edge, which was a good thing considering the fact I didn't have a router bit to create a decorative edge.

An old plank cut into four pieces and mitred.

 I made shelves out of scrap timber and a feature piece for the top.

a closer look at the top and its feature piece

The timber I added was stained and black boot-polished to match the cabinet.

the finished bookcase

I am thrilled to have the work space in the barn and the necessary tools and materials to pursue my hobby.

Winter skies

It was great to see the sun today and a clear, blue sky.

For the past week, we were shrouded in fog.

It was there in the early morning when we woke up.

It lingered all day and as evening fell, the house remained enveloped in mist.

But today was clear, with the barn and house in bright light.

Cliona has picked the last of the summer roses.

The Christmas cactus looks like a flight of pink and white butterflies.

Winter at Ellesmere is as beautiful, in its own way, as the summer was.

Uncle Frank's place

A parcel arrived from my sister last week.

It contained a name-plate for our new house in the Lot et Garonne, with stylised letters burnt into a piece of Tasmanian King Billy pine.

It was a wonderful gift.

I attached it to the side of the barn, by the entry to the house.

I chose Ellesmere as the name of our place in memory of my Uncle Frank's house.

I called him Uncle Frank though he wasn't really my uncle, but a good friend of my grandfather's.

It was the 1960's and Frank Roberts, a retired surveyor, lived in a sprawling country house on the outskirts of Chinchilla, in south-west Queensland.

Frank regularly made the five-hour journey east to Eumundi, where my papa and aunt lived on a little dairy farm.

Eumundi is in the hinterland of the Sunshine Coast.

He'd turn up on a Sunday morning in his sky-blue Morris Minor, with his battered old suitcase on the back seat and Belle, his kelpie-dog, beside him in the front.

On a couple of occasions, Aunty Viv took me to visit Frank in Chinchilla. We would go in her old Volkswagen beetle and stop half-way for lunch, eating sandwiches she had prepared.

"Viv"...  overlooking Oyster Bay at Stansbury SA  2014

I inherited "Viv" in 2000 upon the death of my beloved aunt. |It was a very tired and sad old motor car.

I had Viv restored until it looked like it had just come off the assembly line in 1955.

But back to Frank's place in Chinchilla.

Bordering a dry creek bed, it sat amongst mallee and gum trees growing in the red sand of western Queensland.

His house had a wide veranda, off which tall doors opened to many rooms. But one was off-limits to me. It was Frank and Ruth's bedroom, now locked and preserved as a shrine to his dead wife.

Frank's house contained many pieces of colonial Australian and English antique furniture and paintings.

There was a huge fireplace which warmed the house in winter. Belle would lie on a tattered rug in front of it. There was an old 1940's radio in the corner of the lounge room.

Above the hearth, an array of antique firearms, shotguns, were displayed.

Frank was an austere and upright man, somewhat eccentric. Though Australian, he conducted himself like a landed English gentleman.

He smoked a pipe.

I remember the wonderful, aromatic scent of his pipe tobacco. It permeated the house.

Frank was very fond of me.

He would sit by my bed at night, trying to comfort me as I laboured to breathe with childhood asthma.

It was only later that I learnt his beautiful wife Ruth, a Hull, had died in middle age of an asthma attack.

Frank never remarried. I think his heart was broken.

I never knew why Frank called his house Ellesmere, but I am proud to adopt the same name for mine.

  

A duck farm do

La Ferme de Ramon, near Galapian in the Lot et Garonne, farms ducks ... lots of them.

It is a well-known producer of quality duck products, including foie gras.

Last weekend it held its annual Foires au gras (foire means fair). Nice little play on words that.

The festivities culminated in a beaut Sunday lunch, which attracted people from miles around.

For 20 euros a head, you got a choice of entrée ...foie gras or ballotine/gallantine of duck.

For main course we shared a magret de canard avec frites (grilled breast served with french fries) and a cassoulet (beans with duck wings and sausage).

For dessert, we chose a tarte su pruneaux (prune tart).

We began our lunch with champagne and continued with a Cotes de Duras.

The bubbles, a Feneuil Pointillart from Chamery, were exceptional. We found out you could source it from a tiny post office in a two-horse, D666 town called Bourran. That's not so far to drive.

About 150 diners were seated at tables in the massive old barn. The rustic French atmosphere was enhanced by antique armoires (cupboards) and interesting old rural wares displayed around the walls.

...  and singer Pascal provided a lovely, easy-listening backdrop with his renditions of traditional tunes.

Outside the barn, there were lots of stalls selling wines, honey, candles, jams, armagnac and all sorts of duck products, including carcasses with necks and heads.

We bought one of those.

During lunch we sat next to a lovely couple, M. et Mme. Simon, who spoke pretty good English. We soon found out why. They had been all over the world through his job as an electrical engineer working for a multinational French company. He had site-managed the building of hydro-power stations, oil platforms and the like.

We came away from La Ferme de Ramon having thoroughly enjoyed ourselves.

We had spent time immersed in rural French culture  ... and as a bonus we had made new friends.

M. et Mme. Simon invited us for an apero and nibbles that night ... and we gladly accepted.

Autumn colours and mushrooms galore

After a week of grey days, the clear blue sky is a glorious backdrop to the colours of autumn.

The sunshine highlights the stunning colours of deciduous trees and shrubs in the garden.

flame red leaves

green and gold

These mushrooms have come up around the garden, but particularly under the pines.

If there are any mushroom aficionados out there, can you advise?

don't know this one, is it edible or nasty?

pretty sure this is the edible puffball aka lycoperdon perlatum

this one looks dodgy

what's this one?

a treat or a threat?

these little characters ... benign or malevolent?