She stood shivering behind the cover of the ancient yew tree, wisps of hair blowing across her face in the gentle breeze, trying not to breathe too loudly. They were sure to hear her, she just knew it, even the pounding of her heart could give her away but she could not stop now. If…
Category: WRITING
“Take Me Dancing”
He was beginning to wonder where she’d got to when he heard the sound of heels click-clacking on the stairs. He started to say “Where on earth have you …….?” but as he looked up from his newspaper and saw her standing in the doorway, the question faded away on the air. She stood watching him, her…
Five Photos, Five Stories Challenge #5
REMEMBRANCE She takes the tiny key from the chain around her neck and unlocks the box. Taking care not to damage the brittle paper of the letter, she places it gently on the bed and arranges the other contents of the box around it. The single rose has kept its’ colour but is so fragile…
Five Photos, Five Stories Challenge #4
THE LECTURER It had been another dull lecture, the hotel conference room hot and stuffy despite the air conditioning. Twenty minutes from the end and a number of her colleagues had already discreetly left for the bar or one of the fashionable cafes on the square. She didn’t quite know why she’d stayed, sorry for…
Five Photos, Five Stories Challenge #3
At first she thought it was a mouse scrabbling about in the attic overhead but the longer she lay there listening,the less familiar the sound became. Someone talking to themselves perhaps, the occasional exclamation, even an amused snort of laughter, but all the while accompanied by a strange scratching noise in the background. When she…
Five Photos, Five Stories Challenge #2
COURTESAN She looked into the glass one last time before crossing the bedroom floor to seat herself in composed readiness on the chaise longue. Except that this time she was neither composed nor ready. She had seen it in his eyes the previous evening, a little less sparkle, a little less intoxication. She remembered their…
Five Photos, Five Stories Challenge #1
A little light, a little dark, a little mystery… This is the first of my posts in the ‘Five Photos – Five Stories’ Challenge, thanks to west517 for inviting me to join in! As I am forever composing the beginning paragraphs of short stories in my head I thought perhaps this would be an opportunity to…
Chopin, Nocturnes,Sheet Music Part 2 – The Power of Memory
In which we pursue our dream of mastering the piano without the aid of the Brownies and without a piano Family legend has it that one of my great uncles – inevitably on my father’s side, for it was my paternal grandmother who boasted the mad inventor father and 13 siblings – was so talented a…
Chopin, Nocturnes, Sheet Music and the Brownies
As a small child I was encouraged by my mother to join the Brownies, an institution she had relished so much in her own childhood that she had gone on to be a Girl Guide and the veteran of many a Brownie and Girl Guide camping expedition. At the time as a seven year old…
Of Sunflowers, Kites and Kestrels….
In which we bang on about the weather again but for a different reason and then turn a little serious………….. I have always had the fanciful notion that the weather here on earth is largely dictated by the activities of the Olympian Gods up in the clouds. Right at this moment in time , they’re…
Summer Storms and Teeny Tiny Toads
In which we consider the return of Noah’s flood to the Charente and tackle a hoard of teeny tiny toads in the wine press………. The weather has achieved Biblical proportions today here in sunny France. After an impressive build up over the last few weeks and months, with a few minor monsoons here, a mini…
Oh No! It’s Holiday time on the Hillside
In which we consider the impending onslaught of summer visitors and wonder whether a person could have opening and closing times like a boutique. Well it’s that time of year again here on the hillside, the friends and family start their mass migration to foreign climes passing where possible by our front door for a…
Daredevil Daisy’s bid for Freedom
In which we take a walk and have a close encounter with a 1500 pound grumpy cow It is my daily habit to take a brisk walk down the hillside and, almost as briskly, to walk back up again. I generally spend the time this involves admiring the scenery, talking to myself and chatting to…
Four-legged Neighbours in the poplar wood
In which we delight in our four-legged neighbours and worry about the constant threat of mint sauce………. Living as we do on top of a hill amongst the vineyards, we are blissfully untroubled by the proximity of neighbours, the nearest other house being a good kilometer or so away on the hill opposite. Whilst we…
Oh No! Here Comes Summer!…….
In which we consider the excesses of French summer weather and wish we had a decent deckchair…… Well finally, here in South West France, the sun has put in a long awaited appearance and the Summer has arrived, at least for the next few days. This is, of course, great news for those of us who…
And a fine time was had by almost all….
In which we praise the optimist, denounce the pessimist and wonder just who is Maureen? And so after weeks of planning and a good deal of hard work, our first independant arts and crafts fair is finally over. The gazebos and backdrops have been taken down, the debris tidied away and the hillside is back…
Be careful what you wish for …….
In which we consider Noah’s flood, the advisability of a fountain in the bedroom and never having enough buckets when you need them… Having begun with great gusto, the creation of our new vegetable plot at the end of last week we consulted the meteo – weather forecast – on Monday to see what might be…
Cinderella Girl – Part One
In which we consider the relative merits of workboots or Christian Louboutin stilettos for life in the French countryside Say the words France or French to most women and images of petite figures in Chanel suits gliding elegantly before the backdrop of the Eiffel Tower will inevitably float into their minds at some point or…
English Afternoon Tea – French Style
In which we consider tea, cake, insomnia and the terrifying menace of butter………… Because we are situated somewhat off the beaten track, some of our customers travel quite a distance to reach us to visit our boutique. Sometimes the time taken can be more the result of getting hopelessly lost than the actual distance from…
New Kid on the Blog
In which we enter a new world and attempt to learn a new language – twice… When we first moved to France almost 13 years ago, armed with our reasonable school French and an extra dose of advanced grammar, we were happily confident that we could cope on an everyday level with the language barrier….
Watching TV
In which we ponder the mysteries of French television schedules……. We’ve watched a little television these last few evenings and caught up with the latest season, in France that is, of Grey’s Anatomy. For a few years we watched this strangly addictive hospital drama in the dubbed French version. Never was a person more disappointed…
From Plural to very Singular
In which we consider daily exercise and I decide to blog it alone….. Yes, today I’ve decided to drop the royal ‘we’ in favour of the more comfortable imperial ‘I’. Writing in the plural doesn’t always trip off the mental tongue and in any case it’s hard to write for two when the other part…
Wisteria Days
In which we celebrate the delights of spring and a very short walk to work……. Many things about our lives have changed since we crossed the Channel to live in France. Some of them are changes for the worse – rubbish baked beans and an appalling absence of bacon to name but two – but…
A First Glimpse
In which we finally begin and some introductions are made….. Given the million and one other people writing about their lives in France and jostling for position in the blogosphere, it may be a weird decision to decide to join the throng. Is anyone out there ever going to notice us we…
View from a French Hillside 