Priceless!

I just love this little piece of jewllery (well key-chain) that we made with a stone Rémi found in the 'Eau Noir' at Vallorcine (the black water) - so called because the slate content of the surrounding mountains give the river bed a black apperance.

Autumn Equinox

The silver rain, the shinning sun,

The fields where scarlet poppies run,

And all the ripples of the wheat,

Are in the bread that I do eat.

Alice C Henderson

To-day is the first day of Autumn so we decided to celebrate it!
Back when I was in school we used to have a Harvest Festival where all the children were asked to bring in some kind of food and a local baker would bake a huge loaf in the shape of a peice of wheat.  Here is where my memory fails me slightly as I remember that the food was piled up and displayed on the school stage before being distriputed to...? I think it might have been to old people living  near to the school but I'm not sure, I don't ever remember there being homeless shelters or soup kitchens mentioned.

So we baked a 'smallish' wheat loaf and made a risotto with as many vegetable as we could find in the garden, and a few i'm sad to admit, that we had to buy. 



while Rémi made a decorative necklace Tino did a colour sorting activity

Normally we have a bountyful crop of courgettte and pumpkin but this year the courgettes are stuck at 'small hard pear shaped' stage and refusing to go any bigger!  as for the pumpkins, they haven't turned up at all! 



2010 pumpkin

Never the less we still have 'tonnes' of beetroot left (the boys won't eat this despite me telling them they'll get pink pee!), swiss chard, carrots and cabbage (we never actuall eat much of the cabbage as the deer seem to always beat us to it) and the cellar if full of potaotes.  I'm going to have a manic parsley chopping session tomorrow then freeze it all in ice-cube containers to use this winter.

Not forgeting the birds we also made a few seed muffins



The start of our Autumn nature display



Your places please Gentlemen!

Gentlemen Cyclist 2011

Last Sunday, Richard and Rémi, took part in the Gentlemen Cyclist race (open to gentle'women' also).  Traditionally this is a road bike race, but this year they added a mountain bike circuit.
So all togged up in matching Chamnix Club des Sport tops, they took their depart at 9.30am for the road bike event - Chamonix to Les Praz and back, then after a brief pause involving fizzy drinks and saussison, it was off to the mountain biking bit.  Finishing in 4th positon.  Funny thing with Rémi is that it wouldn't have make a difference what positon they came, he doesn't seem to care, he was just so totally stoaked to be in a team with 'Papa'.  I'm so glad he thinks like that, I hope it lasts.




 

Tino, Rémi's No. 1 fan!

Yarn along

Here goes nothing!  I'm having a go at 'linking up' (sounds like I actually understand what I'm doing hey!) with Ginny on her yarn along spot over at small things. 
I'm currently making a LOT of apple cozies (using a free Natural Suburbia pattern) to give to the kids, complete with apple, instead of party bags at the end of Tino's upcoming 3rd birthday party.  That Richard thinks this is a nice but weird idea, doesn't surprise me at all, but when a female friend asked me what the point of them was, I was a bit shocked!!  Anyways I ran the idea by Rémi and he thinks it's great.

So on to 'Guns, germs and steel', it's a very thorough and interesting study of why, if we all evolved from the same ape, is it that different 'peoples' evolved at different speeds - the answer (I'm only quarter of the way through) it would seem, depends on when and how they 'discovered' - guns, germs and steel, and thus the advantages these 3 things accorded them over other tribes/nations etc.  I only have time to read last thing at night, so despite being captivating, it's a pretty hard bedtime book!

Muffin Tin Monday

'Don't play with your food!!', no, sorry I mean play with your food!  

Rémi has a bit of a hard time sitting still to eat.  He's pretty good with what he eats, it's just he has to do at least 20 'yoga' poses whilst he's eating it.  He also loves building things, at the moment it's planes/rocketships/missiles etc, so Muffin Tin Monday is Rémi's dream meal. 

As we are currently enjoying a warm early autumn the boys had their Muffin Tin meal outside last night.  The only 'restriction' I put on them was that they had to try something out of every 'hole', I didn't mention sitting still.  I gave them some sword shapped tooth-picks to eat with and added some cocktail unbrella's to  pretty-up my ratty-tatty old muffin tins.

Rémi making all kinds of tooth-pick-carrot-peanut butter-vegi dog intergalaxtic missiles!



We also did another muffin tin activity this summer which involved making 6 pairs out of a tray of mixed goodies, then taking turns to be the leader in deciding what to eat.

The muffin-tins are also very good for making, well, muffins!  (and the slightly less heathly cousin, The Queen Cake).

The annual village POW-WOW

Last night was the Association du Village des Bossons Annual General Meeting!  and it was out with the old and in with the new - the 'old', president of many years, (I don't mean her age here) resigned and a new president was elected out of a choice of ONE!.  There was also a new secretary elected, again out of a choice of one!
Other than that not much happened. Carol, ex-president, doesn't like long meetings so the entire thing was wrapped up in about 20mins, and post meeting 'drinks' brought out (and some crisps too!!) .
2 hours later I was still trying to convice my father-in-law that it was time to go home, but quite frankly I was having a jolly good time aswell listening to the village 'elders' (I was the youngest one there)

They ended up planning a 'pig night', where everything on the menu has to be made of pork!! I wonder what the dessert is going to be?

Village Party 2011

Papy Bob and his crazy wood sawing act!

Rémi, Fabien and Bibi the donkey

Stars 'n stripes

I didn't set out with this theme in mind, I just wanted to 'renovate' the guess room, well Papy Tatoo's room actually.  He comes to visit about 3 times a year,  21 days in total, and  he's an insomniac!!!! So, I thought, what's the point in keeping a big old bed sofa in a itty bitty room for someone who doesn't come here often and when he does doesn't sleep!! (actually he sleeps all day on the lounge sofa so it's little wonder he can't sleep at night, but try telling HIM that).

I think I might paint one wall very pale green (aparently green is a calming colour and anything's worth a try with my monsters!) and then paint a silhouette of the world on it.?

So far...

The stars 'nap-mat' was my first sewing project!  The hardest part was threading the machine!  The idea was very simple, just three pillow cases sewed ,almost straight, in a line.




The stripy crochet blanket was made 36 years ago, by my mother-in-law, for Richi!

I'd added two big pear bean bags for added comfort and subsequently 'banned' eating and drinking in the room.  Turns out I should have specified a ban on 'peeing' also as Tino has already 'marked' his territory!!

And, I'm happy to say, I've finished the W.I.P. from the last post:-

THE CHAMONIX HOCKEY CLUB BOTTLE COZY