Woman Week-End

I'm such a magpie. How could I resist rifling through the tottering pile of books that were placed on the next door neighbour's front wall this morning? I picked up and replaced books on preserve making, knitting and fishing but could not put down the copy of the “Woman Week-End Book”. This little gem, published in 1949 by Oldman Press, was the first book of the women's lifestyle magazine, Woman.

As well as popular short stories and “many interesting and instructive hints on Beauty, Housewifery and Personal Problems, Cookery and Knitting” it has pages of “useful things to make”. It's a real treasure trove of post-war thrifty ideas and jam-packed (please excuse the preserve pun) with vintage crafting and sewing ideas.

How about this jewellery set made from ribbon and curtain rings?

I don't think I'd have a go at making a rug with a bodkin needle and some very simple double cross-stitch. But maybe a modern knit-wit would make up this “two-piece swim suit of trunks and brassiere, dimond trimmed, for grown-up belles”

And I just love the practical tips for young wives and mothers. How about this article advising you how to achieve a “correct line-up on laundry day”!

But most of all those wonderful brightly colored recipe pages with tasty treats from days gone by. This page shows rabbit casserole, grilled cod steaks and spaghetti with sausage balls... The height of sophistication in 1949 and still to be found in most restaurants in deepest Ariege, SW France!

The secret of the stones

The symbolic stones that decorate the facade of our 16th century chapel have fascinated me for many years now. A few years back our house had an offical plaque put on the outside outlining the history of the chapel but the information on the stones was always a little on the light side for me.

The uppermost stone in particular has always interested me. According to the plaque it is an equilateral triangle which symbolises the Trinity.  Yes, I can see that, but it does not explain the mysterious carved characters inside the triangle.

Then a month ago a rather unusual incident occured here. Jehovah's Witnesses knocked at the door. Admittedly, this is a rather everyday occurance in Britain but it was a first here in Camon, France. Also instead of thrusting a copy of The Watchtower into my hand they stepped back into the road and pointed to the triangular stone.

"That is the name of Jehovah written on the stone" they told me.

And to back this up they showed me this:

I can see similarities of course, but I'm still not totally convinced. I can see there are 4 characters that I now know is referred to as the Tetragrammaton, but it's certainly not identical.

Then 2 weeks ago we had the pleasure of friends, S&M (that doesn't sound right) or should I say M&S (er, that's not much better), visiting us. After we collected them from Carcassonne Airport we visited the cite, ambling around the narrow cobbled streets, the ramparts, the castle and finally the church. We had just negotiated a path  through the schoolchildren gazing up at the stained glass windows when I spotted this:

A wonderful lavishly embroidered pulpit hanging with a stunning applique of an equilateral triangle with a tetragrammaton in the middle. And this one is nearly identical to the carving on our stone.

According to wikipedia, the most widely accepted pronunciation of the tetragrammaton (YHWH) is Yahweh though Jehovah is used in many Bibles. Furthermore, the written Tetragrammaton must be treated with special sanctity and cannot be disposed of in case they are desecrated. Luckily the symbolic stones on the front of our chapel are protected for the future.

Thanks to Mark for his super-sleuthing research!

F 2.1 & 2.2

"F" Day came and went in December 2012 without our long awaited floor being poured.

Christmas and wintery weather have prevented a second F day being scheduled until March 2013.

But today was F 2.2 - Floor Day 2 of  2 and now it is done.

The spacers had already been removed and the floor divided into thirds to allow it to be manually poured in sections. Here Gareth is tamping down a side section of the floor on F Day 2.1.

He was being supplied by Big Rolf and Paul

At the end of Monday a.ka. Floor Day 2.1 the 2 outer strips have been completed.

Once again work was stopped by 100km/hr winds and rain. But today, Thursday 7th March 2013, it was F 2.2. The second day of the second attempt to get the floor down. Here Harry and Big Rolfie are shovelling the rapidly dwindling pile of beton into barrows to supply the huge mixer.

Harry (left) and Gareth (right) tamping down the middle section

They're working through the kitchen section towards the French doors onto the covered terrace now (I can see this in my imagination...)

This has been a monumental day in our project.

Not topping out.

More bottoming out!

We're having a "Bottoming Out" BBQ on Monday to celebrate F days 2.1 & 2.2.

Bottoms up, everyone x

Bienvenu to new staff member

Well, she is going to assist me with Histoires.

Bienvenu to "Mireille".

Mireille, along with "Mabel" the ex-shop display mannequin brought back from Britain last summer, will be modelling dresses, chemises, scarves, jewellery and who knows what else?

Mireille was made by the celebrated Parisien company, Girard, and she probably dates to pre 1920.

She has rather more realistic proportions than Mabel. She's a French size 46 (approximately a UK size 14/16)

Her vital statistics are bust 38 inches, waist 21 inches, hips 42 inches

She has a wonderful turnkey mechanism which allows her to assume rather jaunty angles.

She is covered in rather worn hessian.

She has a very robust and rather heavy base with the 4 legs held in position with a large iron bracket.

She's already had her first modelling assignment

This summery broderie anglaise dress is for sale in Histoires now.

Mireille, however, is not for sale. She's got more work to do!

Today is F day

We have been waiting for today for many months. It is a milestone in our restoration project and between ourselves we have been calling it F day. Floor Day. Today is the day our "new barn" floor was to be poured. There have been many, many weeks work prior to today. Foundations have been poured, beams laid, all the piping and electrics have been run, the polystyrene insulating panels have been fitted and heavy metal grillage has been fitted supported on plastic "chairs" or spacers to position it perfectly in the centre of the concrete.

This morning our floor was fully prepped and ready to be poured.

We had already had a setback 2 days ago when we discovered that an essential piece of equipment we needed for today had been stolen. Jeff and Peter spent yesterday trying to replace the missing item and were forced to hire one so that we could proceed today.

It was a misty, cold, damp morning and only 3 degrees. Our regular team duly arrived sporting wellies ready to spread the structural cement to the requisite depth. Soon-to-be-published author Paul (right) was shod in navy blue wellies, Harry in Hunter green, Gareth in brown while Peter took a curious approach by having his jeans outside his wellies. "It's sexy" he told me.

Then the fun began. The pump we had ordered arrived as did the cheery red, white and blue cement mixer.

So far, so good. The team are great. The cement was good. The timing was good. But the pump was ludicrous. Not what we had ordered, it towered over our barn as the operative tried to poke it through the window opening.

OK, so it was possible to pump the cement into the building but the problem was that the flexible tube on the end of the pump was not even long enough to reach to the middle of the floor. This meant an unacceptable loading on the floor which could have overloaded the polystyrene panels and dislodged or even broken them. Jeff had no option but to cancel the pour.

The clammy mists hadn't lifted when we abandoned the site to return the hired equipment.

Today was F Day.
FRUSTRATION DAY.
F2 Day will hopefully be before Christmas. 

Relax, this isn't going to hurt...

We've been living in France for over 2 years now and, I have to confess, there has been a shadowy anxiety lurking in the back of my mind the whole time... what if I have to go to a dentist here? Now, please don't think I'm terrified of dentists. No, it's just that the day before we left to start our new life here in France I was forced to have an emergency dental appointment due to excrucitating pain. My Polish dentist advised that the source of my pain was an impacted and infected wisdom tooth. It will have to come out, I was told. Small snagette that I was leaving the country and not able to join the long, long NHS waiting list for an appointment at the Portsmouth hospital. "It will flare up again" she told me. And she was right, it did. Luckily I was offered incredibly strong pain killers by a friend at the time who had a rather impressive list of ailments and consequently access to an extensive range of  prescription medicines. Since then I have lived in fear, waiting for another bout of pain. And last week I could feel it beginning. I was being woken every night by the sensation of being repeatedly punched in the face. I had no alternative. I had to go to a French dentist.

Here is where my luck really came in. I mentioned this to fellow Camon residents I am proud to call friends who immediately suggested I go to their dentist in Limoux. They made an appointment for me and offered to go with me. I can't say I was relishing this trip but amongst friends it was less terrifying that it might have been.

My impressions of the rather drab exterior of the building were not improved by the deserted reception desk and the bland waiting room area with strategically positioned CCTV cameras. Just as I was at the point of suggesting we leave we were summoned into the dentist's room. All 4 of us! I didn't know what to look at first: the state of art treatment chair and equipment, the impressive artwork on the walls, the scultures or the dentist's medals for running the New York marathon. I focussed my attention on Cassandra Einstein's lovely sunflower painting rather than the toothbrush collage or the nude statues on pillars at the end of the office.

  
Dr. Bac's sunflowers with Bach music by Cassandra Einstein. A welcome distraction in the dentist's surgery

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After a brief examination the dentist said I needed to have a panoramic X-ray before he could diagnose the problem. Phew, I thought. This is where we all go home and open a bottle or two of vin rouge and try this again in a couple of weeks. I was wrong though. He phoned the Radiographie clinic and asked if they could see me now. They could, so we dutifully trooped around the corner and took up residence in the waiting room. In under 5 minutes I was being instructed to remove my earrings and not to move once inside the X-ray equipment. Back in the waiting room I had barely sat down before I was handed an envelope containing my X-ray.

Back at the dental surgery my dentist quickly pinpointed the problem: I had a large infection under a tooth. Not a problem with my wisdom tooth at all and no need for surgery. Phew, I thought. This is where he prescribes strong painkillers and an antibiotic and I get to go home and open a bottle or two of vin rouge. Wrong! Back in the chair he treated me with NO painkillers. No fuss. No waiting. And no pain during or after the procedure. Simply amazing.

I was still quaking as we started to leave the office. My lovely dentist opened a side door and ushered us all upstairs to his apartment to meet his wife and share a glass of wine and nibbles in his astonishing home. I have to say NHS dental treatment was never like this!

I've got a follow-up appointment this week and I have honestly never looked forward to going to the dentist so much. Vive la difference!

Remembrance Day

Today at the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month les Camonais, the villagers of Camon, assembled in front of the monument des morts to remember those killed fighting for France. Members of the Paras based at nearby Pamiers marched solemnly into position while our Maire read the same statement that was being read out in all communes the length and bredth of France paying tribute to those who made the ultimate sacrifice for their country. A little girl laid a wreath on the monument and after a one minute silence we all adjourned to the salle des fetes for a glass of blanquette de Limoux and canapes.

It has been a busy day in Camon as there was also the annual vide grenier in the cloisters of the Abbaye Chateau. Hardy stallholders braved the persistent drizzle and, of course, I was out early rummaging for stock for Histoires and Couturesse. In many ways it was a disappointing day for me as I only found one item but it is startling appropriate to the date.

This is a wooden sewing kit that was issued to French soldiers during WW1. It was commonly called a honey dipper because of the shape of the 4 thread holders.

The handle unscrews to reveal a stilleto spike, now a little rusty, and the base of the handle also unscrews to reveal 2 original needles.

It is so poignant to be photographing, measuring and listing this item today in Couturesse. I hope it finds a new and appreciative home soon.