Get up now this minute.......

One hundred and fifty three nasturtiums planted weeks ago and 80 have appeared. Mais oui...I have counted them!

So where are the other 73? Lounging under the soil refusing to get out of bed?

Well I won`t have it...get up now....get up immediately and show your faces! Perhaps they have been a field mouse breakfast in which case I will find a huge bloated mouse unable to run in the hedge after gulping down 73 pea sized seeds.

Along with 15 friends this year we are having a pumpkin growing competition. Already the skulduggery has begun and we have one couple starting their specimens in a hot bed, some bringing in enormous specimen seeds from abroad, some with secret techniques and then there is me with three sad seeds lurking in a pot.

I am an impatient gardener as you may already have decided. Unable to wait to see if anything was happening today, I had a bit of a poke about in the soil and saw that one has a root so I buried again quickly! I may even have a specimen on judging day!

This weekend sees us once again at the 6 kilometres of brocante through the woods....let me at them I say!!! The first year we visited this venue, I rushed up the 6 kilometre route in case I missed anything as everyone arrived. Then rushed the 6 kilometres back as the first line of people had then unpacked.

Then I did the whole thing again slowly leaving no stone unturned on the whole 12 kilometres.

Then I made the mistake of walking the 6 kilometres up again and wanted to be airlifted back as my feet were killing me! I got back to the hotel and lay on the bed with two face flannels soaked in cold water on my feet!

Again on the first year at this fair, a huge van arrived that was packed to bursting with items cleared out of an old upholsters atelier that had been closed up since the early 1900s.

The seller simply stood throwing huge piles of period textiles into a heap. I sat in that mountain like a pig in a truffle patch gathering treasures. I truffled in it so much that I lost my phone in the pile and we had to get someone to ring the number and it was like finding a needle in a haystack!

SO who knows what will turn up this year. The weather forecast is good and we will start walking at 4am by torchlight as the first sellers unpack.

But I do feel I deserve a good haul after what happened yesterday.

Truffling with Frou Frou we came across a huge charity store filled with all sorts. We checked out their department for old textiles and were quite disappointed to find nothing at all.

Then we found a separate room filled to the gunnels with tutus, velvet tailcoats, ballet shoes, lace skirts, corsets and various costumes made of period textiles.

 We started grabbing huge piles to take to the counter and then we glanced up and saw it. A wall filled with antique feather angel wings. We took the lot down and made our way to the counter only to be told....."non mesdames"....these costumes are for carnival hire only and not for sale.

 Noooooooooooooooo!!!! I will never recover!

But, I still have a serious case of brocantitis and would have it no other way!

Hopefully I will be showing you a good hoard on Monday mes belles
xxxxx