Winter? Not yet!

In my last post I talked about the long winter evenings. We've had a weeks worth of rain and I felt that Autumn was rushing straight into Winter. I was wrong! The last few days have been gorgeously warm and this afternoon I had to put shorts and sandals on as it was getting quite hot!
The lake is just so beautiful, in any weather, but when the sun's out, it shines! If it's this warm tomorrow, I'm taking Manchee for a paddle :D

The colours around us are literally glowing with the amazing light. I love it here so much.

I started playing with natural mordants this week. Moomin and I picked a few pounds of acorns that had to be de-shelled and then crushed. The shed (that will become the Gite) is full of tools and instruments. This little hammer was perfect for bashing the acorns into manageable pieces.

I then found an old coffee grinder that I used to turn the acorns into a dry meal. I soaked the meal in several batches of water to produce the mordant.

It looked a lot like a strong cuppa, but really, no one would be tempted to drink it ;)

I used a variety of leaves and plants to make a strong dye. It looks much prettier at this stage than later!

I can't upload the next batch of pictures, but believe me, I took a handful of gleaming white fleece and made it dull and grey! Hey ho, back to the drawing board!

Meanwhile in the house, my dear one was busy creating a new bathroom in the box room. He made a lot of mess and a hole in the wall. We then spent over an hour looking at pipes and their connectors, such fun! On the way back the car started to play up and I realised that my brakes weren't working! I can't tell you how scared I was. I had to use the gears to slow us down (thank goodness for a manual gearbox) and thankfully, the roads were quiet and most of our route was uphill. When we finally pulled into the drive, I wanted to faint with relief.
I have breakdown cover and was assured that an English speaking mechanic would be with me within the hour. Well, he was on time, but didn't speak a word of English! I had my trusty phrasebook handy and explained that the breaks had gone. We laughed a bit as he climbed into the passenger side and looked for the steering wheel, then still chuckling, he got into the other side and started the car. I had visions of him sliding across the neighbours lawn, but he was careful and agreed that my brakes were rubbish.
I was assured that my car would be returned on Monday. As he climbed into his cab he looked thoughtful and ammended that I should get it back by Tuesday, probably. I wasn't worried, I'd been warned that life moved at it's own pace here. No sooner had he left the drive than my dear neighbour Madame F came rushing over. Holdling my hand tightly she reassured me that if I needed anything at all, I could use her car, or she would get me what I needed. How lucky am I to have such kind people around me?
I sat on the wall for a bit in the sun and read my French for beginners books. Tomorrow we are to have Aperitifs with Madam F and her husband. They speak no English! It could be interesting.