All back to normal whatever that is!

We have finally had our telephone line repaired and re-connected thanks to a host of workmen who turned up here to replace all the cable that had caught fire! No more cake at the patisserie though - but it was a good excuse in order to use the internet connection there ..............sniff!

I have been using the 'no-internet' time to bring out  some of my hoarded treasures from past truffling and put them in their new homes. I had forgotten how much I loved some of them.

 This mirror, above,  has been moved from place to place for the last 3 years simply waiting to be hung once the new sitting room was built. It is one of a pair and I simply had to have them even though I knew when I bought  them that they would have to be stored initially. Everytime they were moved a little more gesso fell off so I wasn`t holding out too much hope for them. But today, they were unwrapped with the better of the two finally hung on the wall - and I love it! 

The other one didn`t fare so well with the moving around  and I will have a spend a good few hours of matching the host of pieces I have to fix on it. I`ll save that for the winter unless there are any volunteers!!

I had also had stashed away some divine old stucco panels which have now  been placed  around a small stained glass window which we had fitted over one of the original holes in the old barn's wall.

The lashing rain has it seems finally eased up, although the water on the flooded marsh is still right up to  bottom of our garden......and how beautiful a sight it is! Instead of opening my bedroom curtains each morning to see cows I now see two pairs of snow white swans drifting by.

As I sit here typing it sounds as if the heavens are crashing down as the old stone fireplace in what will be a bedroom is being dismantled. The fireplace built in 1838 has not been used since the 1930s and had been partially closed off by the last owners. 

The high chimney above it had been left open so it had become quite damp and we were not too sure what we would find. After some careful stone removal heaps of straw, twigs and paper  came whooshing down into the room along with thick black soot. Bags and bags of rubble are being hauled down the stairs, through the kitchen and out to the garden.I am closing my eyes and not thinking about what mess awaits up there!! 

But............this does mean we will have a beautiful renovated and decorated bedroom in time for winter. It is quite a large room with beamed ceilings and wonderful honey-coloured floor boards.

I love a blank room to start with. My decorating plan  usually starts with just one special piece that will set the style..... perhaps a large gilt mirror, a silk sofa, a faded armoire and it just seems to progress on from there! 

We stayed in a fabulous room in Venice earlier this year that had rich silk damask drapes and decadent sweeping velvets  - I loved it so much that when I close my eyes I can pocture each detail...so that might be the theme. Who knows where my imagination will take me. I certainly don't!!

A demain mes belles
xxxx