Trusty Companions

Whilst clearing out my stuff and saying goodbye (to that beautiful French abode), I found these guys. Oh these trusty friends of mine, they accompanied me to many gigs, down country lanes (when I should have been revising), to my high school leaving do (with a lovely purple long dress), in conversations about the meaning of life, a good photographic angle, in a dark room, .... I couldn't believe I could live without them. Who would want to live without boots? I was told once that I would grow out of boots, well you know what, I haven't. I have just changed the brand. Now they are beige instead of brown. But I still love them and wear them until they look this beaten. 

Well as clearing out goes, I was clearing out and that meant saying goodbye. I cermoniously put into the rubbish bin (and yes I lifted the lid several times over the course of the week to take them out again, but didn't) and said goodbye. But not without a photo shoot. I now have a nice series of docs to put on my wall.

Availles Limouzine

Pepiniere d'Availles

On the first day of our holidays my parents took us to see some friends of theirs who have started up a nursery. The Pepiniere d’Availles is an ecologically sound nursery offering a wide range of honeysuckles, magnolias, and many other plants, shrubs and trees that I couldn’t identify. One of them even had flowers that smelt like toffee! I lusted after a honeysuckle but at that point our car boot lid still didn’t open and so we weren’t sure we’d be able to get one home in one piece. I wished we’d have risked it.

Not only do Barbara and Romain run their nursery on ecologically sound principles, they also have renovated their traditional Charentais/Limouzine (I admit to not knowing which) house using low impact and highly effective materials. The inside has a huge fireplace/stove/wood burning hearth which like the rest of the place is insulated with a hemp compound. Normally those places are really quite cold. I would have loved to take pictures as the place inside looks so different from the outside. It looked like it had come out of an interior design magazine and at the same time felt warm and welcoming. They also have animals (carthorses, goats, ducks, hens etc..) which they both work and which also produce food. A really sound enterprise and such friendly people too. So all you people out there round about and nearby, go buy your plants at Pépiniére d’Availles.