May 2015

23rd. Moved onto the boat today and hung up the Mozi-curtain over the door with the beaded letters that Robyn bought me on her visit from South Africa spelling out the boat’s name!

 

 

24th Sunday. Went for a picnic by bike along the river and then along the canal du Rhône au Rhin with Lison and her children Noé, Gabriel and Emma.

 

 

 

 

 

 

26th Saw Ladies from the St Jean de Losne Patchwork group meet at Danielle’s for the drive out to the Jura mountains. It was quite cold and overcast with a heavy mist when we arrived and it stayed like that for the rest of the day. However we were not too bothered because Ladies from groups in other villages had conviened on the Git with examples of their work which had just been featured in an exhibition and was of a very high quality.

         

 

 

         

There was also a lady with a relationship to a Patchwork craft centre in Mali who had bought some interesting and unusual pieces and some material produced there utilising natural dies which she was selling.

 

 

 

 

    After feasting our eyes on this wonderful assortment of “patch” we sat down to feast our bellies on the first of  many really good meals.

 

 

 

 

 

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27th The next morning dawned bright and sunny although still chilly. I went out for a pre breakfast walk and then several of us went out for another walk after breakfast. It was truely lovely and there were masses of wild flowers, samples of which were taken back to the hostel where I sat down with Helen and Germaine, books and magnifier to make identifications. It reminder me of Gill & Bea and various Wednesday Walkers outings in the Cape!

         

        

 

It was really nice to be able to see further than our noses, to listen to the cow bells and enjoy the fresh mountain air. Another great benefit for me was that Danielle did all the driving and I was able to relax and enjoy the countryside, our Gite was only 40klm from Switzerland, and it felt like it. On the way home we stopped at a Fromagerie and bought lovely local cheeses.  What a lovely break that felt a lot longer than it really was!

 

   

 

The mountains may not look that high but we were already at over 1100m.

 

Germaine and Helen returning from flower gathering walk.

 

 

31st Rhian and I set sail for Auxonne today and stayed in the little H2O port where we have resipocity. It was a wet and windy evening.