Wednesday, August 30, 2006

Provence...



Now...I did have a post all typed out and prepared last night, but it decided to disappear into the wide blue yonder..taking with it my philosophical dreamy observations about pairings, images, thoughts..music {my ipod}..vignettes, diptychs.....as a result of this disappointment, I am not feeling nearly airy-fairy enough today to try and re-summon the magic *wink wink*

But anyhoo...this holiday was just about relaxing, taking it easy...cooking, going to the markets for produce and a browse at all the stalls of paisley shawls, olive wood kitchen implements, baskets of all colours, shapes and sizes, food gallore.....spending some time wandering around the amazing French supermarkets {all I would change would be the ubiquitous smell of sausage..}...reading, embroidering, swimming, sketching.....lovely. It was nice not to be dashing around trying to 'do' things, and see places madly....the local town {Nyons} was delightful, and had the best regional markets in the area so we stayed quite local most of the time. The vines were full with grapes ready for picking in a few weeks, the olives just beginning to flourish {usually harvested in December/January}..and the lavender fields had already been shorn short. It had been a good long, hot summer and Provence looked almost Italian with hints of scorched colour among the green.

I can understand a lot of French but can't speak it very well as I don't know any of the 'joining up' words and phrases {I did German and Italian at school}..but sometimes it is just nice to sit back and listen..so I don't really mind a bit in this kind of situation. I can order food, say hello..thank you, and have a lovely day/goodbye. All you need really for a beautiful break....

Happy mid-week!! xox

5 comments:

Kerstin Svendsen said...

welcome back! missed your posts!

Anonymous said...

Beautiful pictures and your trip sounds perfect!

shari said...

hi abigail,
blogger has done the same to me...maybe 3 times this week. such a pain. your photos are so lovely. i am particularly enchanted with the golden lichen. i love how you described staying local and just taking it all in as opposed to running around. hugs, shari

ps: did you finish your cross stitch?

KELLY said...

bonsoir abigail, nice to read your tales from provence...sounds like you had a relaxing holiday surrounded by loveliness. the photos are beautiful...amazing natural colours. frustrating that blogger went & misbehaved on you...bad blogger!
hope all's going good settling back into work etc. x kelly

lisa solomon said...

oh drat on that wild blue yonder! your philosophical ponderings sound lovely!

so happy to hear that the trip was all about relaxing!
xo