Wrist duly slapped.

Date: 31 October 2011 13:35:26

I have had my wrist slapped by Mr. D.

"I keep looking at your blog to find out what we've been doing," he said. "But you've not written anything."

Yes, well, partly because we've not really done very much!

As I said in my last post, I think, life pootles on and not much happens. My sister and her husband stayed with us for a couple of days on their way to Italy. And then again on their way back. We ate out rather too much. I felt very full for several days after they'd left! Michel across the road gave us a big box of peches de vigne so Judy and I spent one morning making peach jam (which has gone very stiff), peach chutney and peaches preserved in peach brandy. Then on their return, they brought a box of tomatoes from the farm where they were staying, so I've made tomato sauce, and used the tomatoes in my cooking. There are still one or two left (they're beginning to look a bit wrinkled and worse-for-wear, so I need to do something with them. I'm thinking a tomato soup might be in order for tomorrow's lunch, perhaps...)

We helped at our friends' cider making again - this is an annual event which is fun. They have an ancient cider press, and Mr D enjoys showing his brute force turning the handle. We turned down the offer of some of the apple juice in the hope of getting some of it at a later date when it's fermented! This year has been a great year for apples so hopefully it will be good cider when it's made. The juice was certainly good.

I have made loads - and loads - of Christmas cards. I plan on having a stall at the St Germain Laval early Christmas Market. Last year I was placed next to a stall selling cards at a lot less than mine were selling for - and selling a lot more cards. So this year I've made a lot of much simpler designs, and I'm not bothering to encase them in plastic wrap. Using a lot of things I bought cheaply, mostly from Noz (card/envelope sets, ribbons, sparkly bits, stick-ons etc) or from Casa (shiny beads and ribbons), and also using old Christmas cards from last year, plus the card that I snatched out of the bin at Michelin some time back, I have been able to make cards that have turned out to cost me not much more than 30 or 40 cents to make. I think the best buy were packets of gift tags at 30 cents for 8 - these are lovely and shiny. Stuck onto card, with a few sequinny snowflakes or stars and some calligraphy, they make a very cheap but attractive card. If I can sell them, as I'm thinking of doing, for 1,50€ each or three for 4€ I should make a tidy profit. I've also done more "Bonnes Fetes de Fin d'Année" cards , which seems to be the tradition here in France, rather than Joyeux Noel . I've got some stock left over from last year too which I'm going to try to sell.

[caption id="attachment_1021" align="aligncenter" width="224" caption="this one uses a gift tag. I made 8 of these for about 20cents each"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_1022" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="This is another one using a gift tag plus some Indian craft paper"][/caption]

I've also decorated and plastificated (is that a proper word, I wonder?) some notebooks and address books:

What else? I've done a little cycling - a long ride with the club, of 43 km, which nearly killed me (slight exaggeration, but you get the idea!) plus another quite hard ride by myself. That was shorter, but there was a tough uphill in it. Doing it by myself meant I could do 500m at a time then stop for a rest, which is my way of getting up hills. Mr D thinks this is not a good way, and that one should find one's rhythm and just keep lugging away. I can do that now on shallow climbs, but not this one. It's too steep: my lungs and legs won't let me just keep plugging away. I should do more cycling, but I am definitely a reluctant cyclist.

My sister and her husband gave me 50€ towards the Challenge, so I am so very nearly there now! As another friend has promised to make up the sum to 1,000€ I think we can safely say that not only did I cycle my 1,000 km but I raised my 1,000€ too! The news on Richard's trial is a bit - well, I'm not too sure what! He has said that he hopes that the election of a new President, who has announced a zero tolerance attitude towards corruption, might work in his favour. I can't really say much more, but do ask for your continuing prayers for Richard's situation.

So there you are. Not much going on, but I've caught up with you. Apologies if you've been returning & re-returning with the hope of a new blog post to read (that seems unlikely, but you never know...). Please don't give up on me! I am already planning a post for Toussaint, which is tomorrow.