T Stands For Taking Time Out With Friends

Hi everyone, as I told you last week Nantes was a bit of a disaster as I felt unwell after the tram ride into the city. It was also extraordinarily very hot, as locals kept telling us over the next few days!

The good thing was we had a great meal the evening we arrived in Nantes.

The hotel we stayed in is just around the corner from a fabulous Italian restaurant Bella Citta.

This was the special dessert they were serving - we had to order at the same time as our mains (hubby had a carbonara - I had a 3 cheese linguini).

It was roasted figs with pistachio ice cream and an almond biscuit and sprinkled with chopped pistachios, and was one of the best desserts I have ever had (well, until later in our holiday!)

We love figs, one of favourite breakfasts at home is a chunk of Feta cheese, halved figs, a drizzle of honey, a drizzle of olive oil and a sprinkling of chopped walnuts all roasted for around 15 minutes then served on hot toast.

Oh! I am here for T Stands For Tuesday - I'm supposed to be sharing a drink!Here is hubby with a shot of the quirky shelves behind him.

Here is a better shot of our drinks, Mocktails and water (can you see the water bottle behind my drink?)

I am joining Bleubeard and Elizabeth and the T Gang over at The Altered Book Lover.

The next day was our visit to Clisson - a really lovely little town with an interesting Castle.

The Mediaeval market was interesting too.

There was an animated history of the castle

The nearby church had an amazing fresco....

.....and a sad tale of priests who were against the revolution

The streets were so pretty

On our way back to the hotel we saw this on a roundabout

It is a way marker to the Hellfest site, which hosts a heavy metal festival each year near Clisson.

Monday was spent travelling to our friends' house near Poitiers.

We had a 'take it easy day' the next day - a meal out at one of our favourite Asian buffets.

This was followed by a short shopping trip and then back to rest in the shade. 

Thanks for looking, Chris

Back In Gear

Hi everyone, I add a 'Hopefully' to that. I have a had a few 'moments' this last week but saw my usual Diabetes nurse when I she came to do the Flu Jabs at our Retirement complex. I am looking forward to getting back to her but this next week I have an appointment with her boss(who saw me while nurse was away)

I have been sorting out my scraps and throwing rubbish away as I want to start to use some of my posh papers(such as I have used on my page.)

The papers are from the Lady Vagabond collection by Stamperia and I used an inky stencilled background and some Tim Holtz paper dolls.

I'm of course joining Neet, who is hosting at Art Journal Journey this month with her 'In Gear' theme.

I saw a photo of a friend's grandson today and it made me think of my own Grandchildren and how quickly they grew up. How fast does 'one day at at time' happen? 

Thanks for looking, Chris

Calendar Journal /Travel Journal

 Hi everyone, we've had a few things to sort out so I'm a little late with this.

The leak in our kitchen, fortunately turned out to easier to fix than everyone had predicted and we came back to a slightly smaller pan cupboard but nothing else had been moved. While we had everything out of the cupboards we had a big clear out of things that weren't being used.

My medication is still not right, but with a few changes there are already improvements.

We had our flu jabs and next week will be Covid Booster time.

I had a visit to the hygienist  - all OK!

So, here is my spread for this month.

I used different coloured inks through a That's Crafty mini stencil. I added some rice paper images with clocks and gears on the images and an Autumn image from a magazine I bought in France. 'November' was stamped with Aall and Create, Tracy Evans letters.

Here is September filled in (note - if you want to wait for my photos - every Tuesday - don't read the squares!)

If you do read it you will see we had some busy days.

I thought you might like to see the first two pages go my Travel Journal

I will probably show both of these photos in one of my 'T Stands For Tuesday' posts

This is a fold out page with some of the food(mainly fruit )stickers

Here is the fold out with receipts from our coffee stop in UK and the sunrise as we sailed into Cherbourg.

I am linking to Art Journal Journey and Neet's 'In Gear' theme.

Thanks for looking, Chris

 

T Stands for ....the delights of France.

Hi everyone, we're back! We had a fabulous time with friends and family in France, the weather was in the main dry and warm. We drove through rain a couple of times, sat and watched a torrential downpour one day from a restaurant and had a few nights when we woke up to wet ground and sunshine. Since we got home we have had our fair share of rain though!

I have picked out a few highlights to begin with and will fill in details over the next few weeks!

I will start with my T Stands For Tuesday pic which allows to join in with folk sharing a drink related item over at Bleubeard and Elizabeth's blog The Altered Book Lover.

This was a little cafe close to the entrance of Chateau du Lude - the most northerly of the Loire Valley chateaux. Inside the cafe it was just like walking into an English Tea Room although we opted to have a cold drink (Coke for me, Sprite for hubby) the cups were so pretty.

As you can see I had my mini journal with me.

The owner was lovely too! We shared a huge Mille Fueille (Napoleon in the US and Vanilla Slice in the UK).

Okay! Some highlights....

....first the sunrise as we spotted land when we woke up on the ferry going in to Cherbourg 

We didn't see much in Nantes, I got off the tram and felt faint so we ended up in the Office de Tourisme where a kind lady let me sit in front of an electric fan for around an hour drinking water. I think the  tram ride had something to do with it!

After lunch we visited the cathedral but it was such a hot day that we both just wanted to stay in the shade and take our time.  

We visited Clisson instead of going back in to Nantes the next day. The castle was a delight and we had this lovely view over the town

We then headed south to visit our friends near Poitiers.

One day we went to Civaux and stopped off here in beautiful La Chapelle Mortimer.

We went to Civaux to see the Mertovignian Cemetery - a really interesting place - I will explain why another time!

We enjoyed a visit to an Art Trail in Parthenay - a Jour de Patrimoine event.

Our first trip out when we went to  my eldest's manoir south of Limoges was to Brantome Abbey and caves - a fascinating visit.

It was lovely to wake up to this view.

This is Diezel (He's such a cute Frenchie) kept me company after I was bitten badly by something evil.......... 

.............at the Jardins Imaginaire in Terassson Le Villedieu.

They were beautiful though!

Just around the corner from the manoir is the Grotte de Tourtoirac - one of the most amazing places I have ever visited! There will be more!

We saw quite a few hot air balloons during our stay - this was at Chateau Beynac.

I loved visiting Le Mans Cathedral too - Henry II and Alionore d'Aquitaine connections!

That's it for now, I'll be back soon with my calendar journal if you want to read ahead about our adventures!

Thanks for looking, Chris

Autumn at TIOT

Hi everyone, it's good to be home, even though we've seen more rain in the last two days than we have seen over the last three weeks! 

It's definitely Autumn and so is our new theme at Try It On Tuesday. The Design Team have some fabulous ideas to inspire you so please take a look here!

I made a journal page, we have had to drive behind so many tractors recently that I decided that this tractor had to feature on a page. It is quite a long stay so I stamped it in two halves.

The tractor is on some book paper about wheat products from an old college text book. The sentiment and scarecrow are from a Crafters Companion set.   The background was made by scribbling some NeoColourII watercolour crayons and blending them with a wet paint brush. I added some inky stencilling and reverse setncillimg through a Funky Fossil stencil that is called knitwear but reminded me of wheat ears.

I wrote the Autumn Harvest Time with a Gel pen. 

I hope you will read the rules and guidelines  here, they are quite simple to follow, and join us this month with your own 'Autumn' creations.

Thanks for looking, Chris 

In Gear

Hi everyone, I didn't make as many pages as I would have liked for Art Journal Journey in September, but would like to thank Elle for her great hosting and fun theme.

Now, we have a brand new theme and it's my good friend Neet who is hosting at AJJ for October with another brilliant theme 'In Gear' .

I confess to having a few doubts about how to tackle this as I'm not a great Steampunk fan, but I do have quite a few stamps featuring gears so I think I'll be OK!!!

I used an Indigoblu stamp set alongside some random numbers. I added some of my lovely PET tape flowers and drew in some white flowers among the gears. The quote is from an Alison Bomber Paper Artsy set and I added a few paint spatters to finish the page.

I hope you will read the rules here and come along and join us for Neet's theme this month.

Thanks for looking, Chris