A black and white French loo

After Portugal yesterday, we’re in Caen in northern France’s Normandy region. It’s where we ended our Loire cycling trip back in 2016 - I can’t believe it was that long ago! Although, I also can’t believe that I haven’t been out on my bike for a couple of years either…

We only had a night or two in Caen and its purpose was to break up the long drive home. These loos were in a restaurant close to the hotel and one where we’d stopped for a morning coffee after exploring the town. The tiles on the floor, and the mirrors were real scene stealers.

It wasn’t too much longer after these photos were taken that we retrieved the car from the underground car park, loaded the bikes back on and set on our way to Deauville. Another great town on our way home, that journey though was the one where the car smelt of goat, or rather goat’s cheese, and even for an avid lover of the stuff, it was challenging!

Vintage threads

In yesterday’s post I shared my latest purchase, a large basket of embroidery and crochet threads. Today I’m sharing more of what I discovered as I tried to untangle its contents.

There were several pieces of cardboard with the embroidery threads wound around and labelled, no doubt for use in a project. The yellows, oranges and greens will come in useful for my future tablecloth project, but as I was sorting through these I couldn’t help but wonder about their original intended purpose, or their owner.

There was a clue on what the crochet threads were used for, with a couple of beautifully crocheted squares and more in a plastic bag. Just look at the detail and exquisiteness of the stitches, as well as the colour, which as you’d imagine was a hit with me.

Sorting through the basket revealed quite a few balls of crochet threads, some embroidery and tapestry skeins, and a rather shocking amount of gold sewing thread. Fourteen in fact, most of which still had the protective wrapping on. Had I stumbled across the craft supplies of another yellow fan? Or had she bought them with a project in mind, that didn’t come to fruition, who knows?

There were also some trimmings, the sort you’d find in the haberdashers. There were pom poms and fringing, the white ones were interesting though, as the individual threads are clearly visible.

There was a booklet of patterns, dated Spring 1938, which I need to look at further and which gives a clue to the age of the previous owner. The handwriting too of some of the threads which were labelled with the price (1/6 d) and number of skeins suggests these might not have been in active use for quite a while.

But the real find, apart from the yellow cotton obsession, was these tiny metal crochet hooks each with a cover for the hooked end. And I thought the crochet was exquisite, these were something else.

So all in all, quite a find.

Now I just need to find a home for them, and a plan to use them - but even I may struggle to get through the lifetime supply of yellow cotton…

Copper flowers, and a spot to relax too

For today’s Flowers on Friday we’re heading back to the 2018 Chelsea Flower Show, for a closer look at these copper flowers by Myburgh Designs. I’ve just taken a look at their site, and believe me it’s a very beautiful and potentially dangerous place. They had a garden at Chelsea this year, but when I fell in love with these copper flowers - and more - last year, they had a corner plot which I’m not sure many people stopped by and enjoyed.

These poppies look right at home in the border mixed with the red and white flowers. They’re relatively reasonably priced too, which is always a result, as I have a tendency to sniff out the priciest items.

I think a mixture of sizes works well, and the website says they have a life of their own collecting water for birds in the garden, or could be used to hold candles.

But my favourite way to enjoy them would be just as it was at the show, from this copper pod.

Which I’m sure proves my earlier point about falling for the high ticket items, but who can blame me?