Under the Apple Tree

It's been a while since I last posted something.  Young Rolf has kept us very busy with his puppy shenanigans and we've also been on a bit of a road trip.  We headed south to the Minervois, where we used to live.  It's a beautiful area, full of vineyards which are all changing colour, from green to wonderful reds and golds.  We had a lovely time catching up with lots of old friends.  We drove back via more friends who had kindly invited us to stay in their own corner of Paradise in the Cevennes National Park.  They have a beautiful house and are surrounded by chestnut trees, wild herbs and mushrooms!

The leaves across the whole of France are telling us that Autumn is here.  Since we've been back the cooler days are making me want to get back into my studio for some "makes".

After my usual procrastinating of tidying (or shuffling and re-arranging) I came up with this cute little picture made with appliqued felt shapes.

Meet Rolf

We'd been thinking for a while of getting a second dog.  We've had Daisy, our brown hound that smells like biscuits, for just over 5 years and even though she's 6 she still acts like a puppy most of the time.  A friend for her would stop her getting too bored, especially when we're busy working.

Joe, never one to do things by half, favoured a Great Dane, while I, who likes things cute, liked the idea of a Dachshund.  Some how, after a couple of weeks of debate and looking at all the local refuges who are sadly packed out with dogs, we ended up making a 1700km round trip in a day to collect Rolf, a Labrador/Border Collie cross - how did that happen??

He's as cute as anything, as naughty as anything and will eat anything.

Daisy loves him, and has the puppy teeth bite marks to prove it.

Boot tolerates him but can't believe we've brought another dog into the house.  Boot can also control him with a Paddington Bear style hard stare - a look we both need to learn.

He's been with us three weeks now, has tried to destroy most things (Joe still hasn't learnt to leave his slippers out of puppy reach) and we still have a mop on standby, although this isn't used too much.

Ta-dah! I give you... the door!

So finally, after much sanding, painting, rendering, painting of windows plus the distraction of a 1800km round trip to rescue a puppy and eight days of guests we have a new look to the front of the house.

All we need now is some new door furniture, some draft excluders and to finish the hallway on the inside.  But for now, we think the outside is looking much better.

Before

After