Saturday, August 7

On the Beach...


... in France.is where my husband and daughters found these little shell fish and oysters as well. I have no idea what these little shell fish are called in English (please leave a comment if you do know!). My husband and oldest daughter actually ate these (after the shell fish were  washed and cooked of course) and apparently they taste a bit like mussels. The girls had so much fun finding these and just normal 'empty' shells too.

We had a lovely time in Bretagne (Brittany) in France, even if it was a little cold, rainy and misty on many of the days we were there. Read as much as I was able to. Finished reading Unlundun, which was a nice book but while I was reading I couldn't help but thinking it wasn't really a 'grown up' book. Also read Jonathan Coe's The terrible privacy of Maxwell Sim. It was entertaining, especially the bit about (female) bonding with total strangers through networks and forums on the internet (sounds familiar to anyone?)  but not one of his best books I think. Then I read a Harlan Coben book  (I was running out of books and turned to my husbands books) which was o.k. in it's (thriller) genre I suppose but the plot was very far fetched. I also read Water for the Elephants by Sarah Gruen and loved it. The book is set in the Depression era and is about life in a Circus. I'm not too fond of the Circus (I blame the clowns) but this was a well written interesting book and not at all as romantic as I feared it would be.

And I did a little embroidery as well of course. My adventure into cross stitching was an interesting one. I guess the pattern of the Ornate Key I used was a good project for a newbie. Cross stitching is actually much harder than I expected.  I found it hard to get all the stitches even and find the the exact right spot where to put the needle to make a perfect 'x'. The other project I was working on is my final piece for the Hoop up! swap. I used a vintage illustration of the 'Hushabye Baby' lullaby.

I've still got some other stuff to share, including some odd postcards from the early 1900's I found on a market,  but will save all that for later posts. :)
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7 comments:

  1. Georgia8 August 2010 at 00:36

    Hooray! You're back! I was thinking of you sunning yourself in France, but it sounds like maybe there wasn't so much of the going on afterall!
    You're cross stitch looks perfect in this photo! Did you make the little x's individually, or do a row of the "/" stitches, and then come back with the "\" stitches?
    I think we just call those little shellfish 'clams', or 'cockles', or in a lot of recipes they're called 'vongole' which sounds a bit more interesting. ;-)

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  2. celine8 August 2010 at 01:57

    hello,
    in Canada, we call them clams...very yummy with white wine broth !!
    love yours pics !!

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  3. Glenda8 August 2010 at 06:43

    I love that key -- it would be fabulous stitched up in a metallic floss!

    Looks and sounds like it was a lovely family getaway :).

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  4. Nicole Follow the White Bunny8 August 2010 at 09:38

    So clams or cockles it is! In the Netherlands we call them 'kokkels' too. :)

    @georgia We did got some sun but generally it was cloudy at best and often it was raining! I did the back and forth / and then \ method with the cross stitching, which worked fine for me. I ended up using 3 strands of floss.
    @celine I think my husband cooked these with white wine too but I won't get anywhere near them!
    @glenda It's a gorgeous pattern, I have already started on the next one (a bird). :)

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  5. missi mu8 August 2010 at 14:29

    very jealous of your time in france- the embroidery is beautiful as usual x

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  6. Nicole Follow the White Bunny9 August 2010 at 08:32

    Thank you! :)

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  7. Dorothy Sims-Crumpet9 August 2010 at 11:20

    I'd call them clams; you could use them to make a beautiful Spaghetti Vongole.

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