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@tailsfromprovence
Perfectly Provence : Where I Live
Perfectly Provence : Where IĀ Live
Perfectly Provence is a magazine-style website run by Carolyne Kauser-Abbot, a Canadian whose heart is most definitely rooted in the South of France! Carolyne produces a regular newsletter, and invited me to contribute for the current issue. You can click through on the link below to see what I had to say about Reillanne. And have a browse through the site while youāreā¦
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It's only February...
Itās only Februaryā¦
ā¦and itās already shaping up to be a worse year than 2020. First of all, late last October, Rosie started vomiting and went off her food. This is nothing unusual for Rosie, sheās quite a picky eater and has always had a sensitive stomach. Blithely confident that all she needed was a stomach calming medication like Phosphalugel, we took her off to the vets. The wind was completely taken out of myā¦
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Bespoke Christmas Cards
Are you looking for something a little different for sending seasonās greetings to friends and family this year?
Look no further :
This year, Iām offering a customised Christmas card service. I will make a pencil drawing of your pet (dog/cat/horse/budgeā¦ whatever) with a bit of Christmassy context added ā some tinsel, or holly, or a Santa hat, or perhaps something you suggest that is relevant toā¦
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The Completed Paper Aviary
Iām really pleased with how this worked out.
Itās a safe way of storing my work and itās a pretty way to exhibit my birds.
The technical details :
Each painting is done using a mix of pastel sticks and pastel pencils.
Each one measures 18x24cms.
Theyāre for sale at ā¬70 each plus p&p.Ā And wouldnāt they make great Christmasā¦
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The Paper Aviary
The lockdown began in France on March 17th and continued until May 11th.Ā And, if Iām being honest, weāve continued limiting our social contacts voluntarily ever since. My 86 year old mother is staying with us at the moment, and we really really donāt want her to catch Covid 19.
For the first month of lockdown, I drifted. I was lucky in that I am considered an essential worker, so I was allowedā¦
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Wearable Art, Dr Whooves
Wearable Art, DrĀ Whooves
Lazy bloggingā¦. Thanks Katherine, for your support and enthusiasm.
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'Tis the Season
Itās December and we can now officially, and with no feelings of guilt whatsoever, start getting excited about Christmas!
Each week, Iām going to be putting one original artwork from my collection ON SALE with a massive reduction of 50%.
For week No. 1, itās this guyĀ :
A Flurry of Sunset. Acrylic on card. 40x60cm (15.7Ć23.6 inches), matted to 30x48cm (11.8Ć18.9inches)
This picture was exhibitedā¦
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What lies ahead...
Yes, Iāve been busy.
Iāve been doing tedious stuff like ordering cards, uploading images to Redbubble and then ordering some products from them to stock my market stall. Market stall? Yes!
Iāll be doing three Christmas markets this year, starting with Montfuron on Dec 1st, followed by one in Celony, Aix-en-Provence on Dec 13th and finishing with the local Reillanne FĆŖte de NoĆ«l on Dec 20th.
Iā¦
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Being an Exhibitionist Part 3
ā¦and feeling Good.
I finally went ahead with my expo in the cave (cellar) of Cent Cinq, my friendsā lovely Chambre dāHote in Apt. It was held during the first week of the autumn school holidays, so I thought there was a smidgeon of a chance that I might have a visitor or two per day.
I had worked hard to have my Christmas cards ready, but in fairness, itās only the Americans who start thinkingā¦
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Taking Art out of the Frame
I am so ridiculously delighted with these.
Itās my Chouette 1, printed on cushion covers by the clever people at Redbubble.com.
Redbubble is a site where artists can sell their images in many different formats. Itās set up very much like a community or social media site.
Iāve been uploading some of my images to my page there, and working out which ones will look good on what.
Iāve duplicated andā¦
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You know those things that scroll by on Facebook (those of you who book your faces, anyway)? You know, orange peel will clean your windows? Drink used car oil for a digestive cleanse! That sort of thing. And you just KNOW itās a lie.
One of my friends shared this :
I was intrigued. Especially since we really do have a lot of horse chestnut trees in the village. From the end of August to mid October, it becomes risky to sit on certain parts of the terrace of both bars. One of those prickly cases landing on your head could do a lot of damage.
I clicked through to read the post.
As everyone is talking about conkers already I thought I would share my post about conkers and washing from last year. I have used nothing but conkers for over a year now. As a family we love it. No smells, no chemicals, no palm oil, no plastic. And best of all free other than my energy. I have used the four smaller tubs in the picture and have the largest tub left. I am now collecting conkers to prepare for this year and I hope to be able have enough to help others use conkers.
Can you help me? I need as many conkers as I can get.
How to use.
Chop up small and dry the conkers till they are rock hard. I use a dehydrator for this but you can use an oven on a low heat. Once totally dry they will keep until you need them. Put 40grms of dried conkers in a 500ml jar. Fill jar to top with boiling water and sock for at least 10 mins ā 30 minutes is better. You will get a lovely creamy feeling thick liquid. Seive into another jar. Resoak the conkers with more hot water. This time for at least an hour. Sieve the liquid from the conkers again and resoak for a 3rd time. This time for at least 2 hours or over night if you can. Each soak the liquid gets āthinnerā. You can see when your conkers are āspentā they change from a yellow colour to white. The liquid will have a lovely tree/soapy/woodland smell. This disappears by the 3rd soak.
Use the liquid from the first wash for your dirtiest washing. For very dirty clothes I would use the whole lot, for normal washing half the liquid per wash. The liquid from the second wash I dont divide and use the whole lot for one wash. The 3rd lot of liquid I use for towels and things that need a light wash.
I make the liquid as I need it. If you need to keep the liquid pop it in the fridge (label the jar so it doesnt get drunk) and it will keep for around 7 days. Always stir the liquid before use to evenly distribute the āsoapā. The used conkers can then be added to your compost. Please always say thank you to the trees for the gift of conkers and please plant some of the conkers fo our biospheres future.
The Watercress Queen, FacebookĀ If youāre a Facebooker, check out her page ā they make Ecobricks out of used plastic bottles. A woman after my own heartā¦
Anyway, I thought it seemed a little too good to be true, so I googled it horse chestnut washing liquid. I found a couple of other low-impact bloggers discussing their recipes and I thought, well why not give it a try? There are literally hundreds of thousands of horse chestnuts falling into the streets of Reillanne every year, to be swept up and put into the community compost heap. Why not collect a few and experiment?
I collected a smallish amount, about 400g. One of the articles mentioned that unpeeled chestnuts will stain the washing, so I peeled them, chopped them and ground them up small in a food processor, and left them to dry in the sun for a day or two.
I tried a fairly nondescript wash first, dark colours, not particularly dirty, followed by some towels. They certainly seemed to be clean and they smeltā¦ yes, āFreshā is the word. But would they have been just the same if Iād washed them in water only? A real test was necessary.
As it happened, I was working for all of last week. Normally I change jodhpurs halfway through the week, but this time, I used the same pair for the whole week. Five days in a row of āhorsingā my clothes.
This is how they looked on Friday evening.
(I wear half-chaps to stop hay and straw going inside my boots, thatās why all the dirt is concentrated on the thighs.)
Could this yellow liquid clean up my manky jodhs?
Scroll
Ā Ā Ā down
Ā Ā Ā for the
Ā Ā Ā answerā¦
Ā Ā Ā Tada!!!
Here are the photos side by side for a true comparison :
Convinced? I certainly am.
Iāve been collecting conkers like a loon for the last week.
Iāve got a few tips on the peeling process :
Bash each one hard with a mallet or meat hammer. That cracks the skin and makes it easy to get the knife tip inside to lift it off.
In some cases, if theyāve dried a little, you can just winkle out the flesh.
Use a sharp knife with a strong blade. Some of those suckers are tough.
I gave up on the food processor notion and Iāve just roughly chopped the flesh, to dry in the sun on my balcony. If you donāt have a balcony or sun (Hi Cork!!) you can put them in the hot press. Or Airing cupboard if youāre not Irish.
Iāve got about 4kg collected, with maybe a third of them past the peeling stage.
This is going to keep me entertained for some time, but more importantly, itāll give me natural, packaging-free, environmentally friendly laundry for the next year.
This Actually Works You know those things that scroll by on Facebook (those of you who book your faces, anyway)?
Goodbye little Hector
This pants-wearing little gentleman left us yesterday.
He had been slowly declining for the last ten days, and his owner had to make the heartbreaking decision to help him on his way.
Heās been with her for 36 years ā yes, THIRTY SIX YEARS.
Heās been with us for two years and was a huge character even when not wearing his sailor suit.
Iāll miss his squeaky bray every morning.
[youtube=https://www.ā¦
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Christmas Cards are Ready!
Between visitors, horse work, Villa Amande work and life in general, itās been hard to settle down to finish off the doggie Christmas card series, but Iām finally there.
There are three in portrait format :
Cookie, in āHey! Thatās not your ball!ā
Casey, in āThis guy wonāt be troubling you any more.ā
and Lol, in āNom Nom! I love my new chew!ā
Then thereās one landscape format :
Bertie, inā¦
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An Interesting Horse
Meet Paco.
First of all, his facial marking is not unlike that of Ross, the horse Iām currently painting.
They both seem to have a ghost on their forehead. Spooky, eh?
But thatās not the interesting part.
Paco is a Franche Montagne, or Freiburger, horse.
This is a breed Iād never heard of until he arrived at the farm. Itās a utility breed from the Jura region of Switzerland. By utility, I mean aā¦
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Is he happy?
I wrote this post four years ago ā four years!!! Jaysus!!
Up to now, I havenāt had the balls to post it. But Iāve just finished reading Tik Maynardās In the Middle are the Horsemen (will review it later!), and Iām coming to realise that more and more people in the equine industry are beginning to question what we do with our big four-legged friends, and how we do it. So Iām posting this now, inā¦
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The one thatās connected with December, to be clear.
Iāve been working on dog-themed Christmas cards which will be available to order on-line.
Iāve got three that Iām happy with but I want at least one more.
Mouse over each image to see the caption, and you can click and zoom in to read whatās on the chew toy. Just a suggestion. You donāt have to.
MMM I love my new chew!
Ouf this stuff donāt half prickle.
Hey! Thatās not your ball!
My models are Lol, Bertie and Cookie, by the way. Thanks, pups!
I have two ideas for the 4th card of the series. One is classically cheesy and Christmassy, the other has my warped sense of humour going on.
The cheesy Christmassy one is simply a dog, probably a labrador but one with big soulful eyes (maybe even Shiva?), face on or three quarter face, with a sprig of mistletoe overhead. Simple.
The other is this guy.
Heāll be chewing that cursed Elf on a Shelf.
So weāve got mistletoe or mangled elf.
Thoughts?
PS when I do make these into cards, white balance and colour will be corrected.Ā I think they are going to look amazing š
Ā Ā I'm Mentioning the C word The one that's connected with December, to be clear. I've been working on dog-themed Christmas cards which will be available to order on-line.
Revisiting my Childhood Friends
After reading Dream of Fair Horses, talking to Jane Badger and discovering that Pony Books are a recognised genre, I decided to shake off the shackles of shame that still hovered over my hands every time I browsed through a shelf of pony books.
I know where itās coming from. I vividly remember an incident in my teen years when a friend remarked āYouāre not still reading THOSEare you?ā, her noseā¦
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