May and Christmas - oh yeah

Celebrating May

In France, people celebrate the start of May by giving each other pots of lily-of-the-valley. This wonderfully scented plant is simply gorgeous, and there would honestly have to be something wrong with you for you not to like it. It’s beautiful, pretty, delicate and so cheerful. We saw it everywhere during the last week in France, at every florist and in every supermarket. It was my intention to bring some back. But I somehow forgot, things got in the way and I got distracted. I so regret it now because I can’t really find it in bloom anywhere. We went to a couple of garden centres at the weekend and found some (past its best…) to plant. Now, we still don’t have a garden, and might not to do so for quite some time yet, but I just couldn’t resist it. The member on staff at one of those garden centres did a good job at convincing me to buy one. Apparently I can keep it in its pot for as long as necessary, and when I have a garden, I can plant it and it’ll propagate itself. And by next spring, I should have five or six sprigs coming up. I just couldn’t say no!

So there. I’ve got to try and keep this thing alive until I’ve got somewhere shady to plant it. Wish me luck, I’m not sure how green my fingers are…

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Christmas come early

Last night, I received a delightful package I’d been waiting for since Sunday. When we came back from France, there was a note for me from the postman… I was hoping it was what I thought it was, and it was! Now, enough of the mystery! It was the giveaway I’d won from Rachel at Contented Be!! Now, I knew I’d won this wonderfully cute pink tea rug, but when I opened the parcel, there were three wrapped goodies!! I got so excited, I can tell you there were a few shrieks of excitement!

The opening of the presents (because it really did feel like Christmas!) went along with bouts of “OH MY GOSH THIS IS BRILLIANT!” and “AAAHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!! I LOVE THIS!!!!”. You get the idea. So Simone, thank you so very much! I promise to find your sweet little rug a good place to live (the flat is rather messy since we’ve come back from France, ahem). It is really beautiful and I admire your sewing skills!! The little chocolates are waiting for their turn in the sweet pot (oh yes, I’ll have to post about that!) and the yarn, well, my brain is already in overdrive as to what I could make with it.

This reminded me all too well one of the reasons why I love blogging. I feel part of a community of kind people and it’s frigging brilliant. Sometimes it’s rather hard to find people with similar interests in real life, and sometimes I still feel shy about my hobbies, but online, I feel proud and enthusiastic about it all. So thank you! And yes, I really should do another giveaway soon myself, it’s overdue and I want to spread some love too!!!!!!!!