One step forward, three steps back

I was hoping I could have taken a photo of the finished project of the filled baskets on the old cart today, but if you remember, I did make mention of my wonderful husband being known (lovingly) as a bull in a china shop, Well............. he thought he would make the cart more stable so he changed the stays keeping it up. Uh oh!!!! yep, it happened, an hour later and the whole thing collapsed, baskets, which had been made heavy so as not to move by placing very large stones in the bottom, upside down with the pansies somewhere underneath. I could have cried. We were just going out so we had to rescue the pansies, digging them out of the compost, and leaving them there until we came back. We got home early evening and it was the task of re-planting, but somehow they don't look as good. Perhaps because some of the flower heads had vanished so there didn't look as many. Give it a few days and I will try and take a photo again! I certainly didn't have the heart to take a photo of them all tipped out on the floor.

Today we were invited to a friend's house to see a couple of their magnolias which had come out, albeit early and they are fantastic. The cream one smells of lemons and they both look as though they are made of wax. So beautiful. We had a cup of tea with them and I took some rock cakes with us, a recipe of my mums, so I have a standard to live up to. I hope I did. A very pleasant couple of hours were passed with good friends, in a very beautiful garden

Our mimosa is looking really good now and still has quite a few flowers to come out, and the smell that fills the garden is amazing. I only wish I could send the "real" thing and the smell to my daughter who is feeling really unwell at the moment with a horrid cold and a very sore throat. She is going away with work at the weekend so hopefully she will be feeling better soon. Love you clarabellesprinkles.

Being here in the south-west of France, at certain times of year duck is really inexpensive and we bought some yesterday and we are going to have a go at making confit of duck. This should be quite an experience and I may take some photos later on to let you know how we have got on. I never thought I would do anything like this, but coming to live here you have to embrace the whole experience and try to live the same way as the locals. Some things we don't agree with and I'm certainly not going to go into any of those, but as they say "When in Rome...."