Holidays and family reunions are great but very tiring and now the laundry is done and normal service resumes.

This lavender farm at de Lherme  Masserat 46150 Lherm is beautiful and you too can visit here and view the stunning lavender through the walnut tree branches and breathe in the beautiful aroma .A visit with a cream tea and demonstration was amazing as we watched the first distilation of the year,assured that it is going to be a good year, visit in June July and August

I have a break in Fano coming up where I am teaching and of course Truus is hosting Heidi Greb  and that is to look forward to.

Nicola and I are having a launch party in Ireland for the current book Felt to Fiendship and no doubt talking about the new book to be out ready for Christmas and this time concentrate on simple ideas for designing and felting your own clothing with a view to flattering your personal shape, not that ‘perfect’ shape we all aspire to but most of us never achieve!!!

My pictures will be up on Flickr soon beautiful villages in France and the rolling countryside so beautifully kept,the wide roads with NO traffic jams –heaven.

The French hospitality reputation lives on and I had some beautiful food thanks to my sister Valerie and her husband David, both brilliant chefs in their own right but also have the ability to find very good restaurants and encourage you to try new things,and as anyone who knows me that is an uphill struggle.So thanks David and Valerie for great food experiences and seeing the marvellous markets we visited .  A very good restaurant Cafe de Paris in Cazals where you can also rent a bike to explore the countryside nearby.  Nigel and I did not ride this tandem it was for my daughter and her husband and believe me they had great fun ,my daughters laughter could be heard in the distance as they went down the road.

We ate and laughed and I even did the ‘hokey cokey ‘around the street to celebrate Midsummer where an accordianist played for our meal in the closed off street outside the restaurant 

I met loads of French artists from potters to fibre artists  to a jeweller with fabulous enamel work.Castles and large birds completed my imagery stash.

A beautiful bank of memories to store away for reflective times .

To all the people I met ‘Hello’ .

Mary Oliver  the poet puts the words so right to remember what we see in this world

The Swan

Did you too see it, drifting, all night, on the black river?
Did you see it in the morning, rising into the silvery air –
An armful of white blossoms,
A perfect commotion of silk and linen as it leaned
into the bondage of its wings; a snowbank, a bank of lilies,
Biting the air with its black beak?
Did you hear it, fluting and whistling
A shrill dark music – like the rain pelting the trees – like a waterfall
Knifing down the black ledges?
And did you see it, finally, just under the clouds –
A white cross Streaming across the sky, its feet
Like black leaves, its wings Like the stretching light of the river?
And did you feel it, in your heart, how it pertained to everything?
And have you too finally figured out what beauty is for?
And have you changed your life?

© Mary Oliver

Enjoy your day and I hope you see at least 1 thing of beauty that moves you. more soon on the fabulous museums visited