Toiling on Tiramisu

I titled this more for the alliteration than the feeling of having to work hard on this piece. I think it's coming along nicely. Worked on it yesterday while my husband and son were at LeMans for the day. I'm getting more used to thinking of things in the reversible way, though the variegated thread makes it much harder when I use it. Everything has to be short! For that reason, it's much better for areas where you can work in branching motifs and then move on a bit.

The Rest of the Chateau Pictures

These were all taken pretty much at the back of the chateau. Did I mention that besides the garden, there's a separate bocce court? It's surrounded by a stone wall and pergolas with tables, benches and chairs. The place is gorgeous and I'm getting used to being in it. Today was beautiful weather and I spent some time stitching on the terrace.

Seahorse Start

The last time I visited my friend in Virginia, I picked up this cute little seahorse kit from Accomplishments in Charlottesville. It's from New Zealand and I don't have the name of the designer/kitmaker in front of me. I'll provide it later. Anyway, I started it to have something to do by the bed while my husband finishes brushing his teeth and so on before bed. It's not in my regular rotation for that reason.

More Backyard

Two more pictures of the back garden from the garden itself. One is the fountain from the side. The other is of a cute statuary bunny. The area is fairly large. The fountain area surrounded by the roses together is about ten yards square. The bunny's about two and a half feet tall.

Octobre

This is the only thing I've been working on all week. I finished it today and will be mailing it out on Monday. It's the last of the French round robin, Yveline's. She had each of us do a month and a flower. Calendula was really hard to find. I finally got the pattern from a birthday mug leaflet. There was a lot of backstitching in the design, but I left it all out because none of the other months have backstitching on them on the piece. My husband will be taking a picture of the finished piece before I ship it off.

My Front Yard

These are more of the pictures my husband took Thursday night. They're of the front yard. The top is the front door to the chateau. The second is down the line of trees to one side of the front yard. There's a matching line of trees on the other side. The last picture is from the top of the steps at the front door. It's gorgeous and everything is coming into bloom.

My French Backyard

My husband's company rented a chateau for us for the duration of the time we're in France. It's less expensive than getting a dozen different hotel rooms. The pictures here are taken after the hail storm we had yesterday and after dinner, which places it about 8:30 in the evening. Sunset isn't until after ten.

These are three views from just outside the back door on the terrace. We have a formal garden and the fountain gets turned on on Sundays. The garden is also open to the public on weekends. The house in the background of the top picture is rented out for wedding parties and such. We're having dinner in there Tuesday night. A business dinner.

Behind the hedges in the second picture is a bocce court surrounded by pergolas with stone tables and chairs in them. Nice place to be outside if the weather cooperates...