Estoniez-moi, Benoit.

As I mentioned before, last Saturday I was in Marseille with about twenty other devoted knitters from all over Europe, to be introduced to the arcanes of Estonian lace by none other than Nancy Bush elle-même. It is hard to describe how charming, natural and powerful her presence is: although I was certainly among the less advanced knitters, I never felt inadequate or silly asking a simple question.

L'aventure a commencé jeudi dernier, quand Fannie m'a confirmé qu'il y avait bien une place qui s'était libérée pour le stage du week-end. Après avoir vidé mes cartons et mes armoires, j'ai constaté que ne s'y trouvait aucune "lightweight wool in a light colour" correspondant à la consigne.
Direction donc le village, et la petite mercerie de la "Rue Principale" (qui fait 2,20m de large), où la propriétaire médusée a sorti tout ce qu'elle avait d'approchant pour cette folle qui allait "prendre des cours de tricot".
Résultat: une pelote de Bouton d'Or Super en bleu lavande.

Et voici le fruit de notre journée "Estonian Lace", bloqué dimanche.

Meme moi

Même les jours de pluie, il y a des raisons de sourire, des rayons de soleil, comme ce "meme" qui m'est arrivé.

Me been memed by The Wilk (aka Fucknits), a most intriguing character with as many surprising facets as she's had jobs, it seems; and even though her tagger doubted it was her style to tag along, she has. Just to prove how unpredictable she is (bravo, la copine).


1) So what was I doing ten years ago?
Getting bored day in day out, and singing about it.


2) What are five (non-work) things on my to-do list for today:

- download the pictures I took yesterday at the Nancy Bush workshop in Marseille.
- listen to the Cannes festival closing ceremony on the radio while doing the ironing. (Isn't that ultimately 1950's? I'll put my hair up and wear a flouncy skirt.)
- the above counts for two, doesn't it? or three with the coiffure, and four with the dressing-up?
- ring my mother for Mother's Day.
- revise some songs for Friday's concert.


3) Snacks I enjoy:

- Italian grissini.
- dried fruit.


4) Things I would do if I were a billionaire:

- worry about all that money
- hopefully give away a good chunk of it
- use it to give all the artists in the family a better chance of finding recognition

5) Places I have lived:

Guadeloupe, Paris, England, a dreary mining town in German-speaking Lorraine called Petite-Rosselle, Aix-en-Provence.


6) Jobs I have had:
I've always done things to do with teaching, as I've always wanted to be a teacher.


7) Peeps I want to know more about:

élisa

manuèle

fannie

miss Loophole

cristiana

et vous tous qui passez par ici, n'hésitez pas à "mémer"

Our baby

Il y a encore deux ans, l'été s'annonçait par la floraison sur la terrasse d'un rosier grimpant aux grosses fleurs cramoisies et parfumées, d'une fragrance riche et puissante, un peu citronnée, sûrement la rose la plus parfumée que j'aie jamais vue.
Hélas, quand nous avons fait recarreler la terrasse, notre dynamique maçon lui a fait un sort d'un coup de scie , pensant qu'il repartirait du pied, mais bien sûr, en dessous du point de greffe aucun espoir n'était permis.

So, like bereaved parents, we tried to replace our lost "offspring", but even though I deduced that the dead tree was "papa Meilland" after poring over books and photos, we couldn't find any one that still stocked it, so we plumped for a pink rose, with a name out of a book by Proust: "Zéphyrine Drouhin". It was planted early last spring, but has only just today put out its first bud, and here it is.