More La Boudonniere, jolie village

I gave up my 4 month-old vegan diet as soon as I got to France.

La Boudonniere is deep rural France...the windmill is around 400 years old and on Sundays they grind local wheat into flour. The local bakery makes a special round loaf using this flour and there is nothing better than a slice spread with Breton butter made with Breton salt flakes.

In the Loire valley

Here is the tiny village in France we stayed in for two weeks, La Bourdonniere. The closest train station is Ancenis

and from there the train took about 12 minutes to the city of Nantes. It is very hard to see but in the first photo there is a horse-drawn buggy at the end of the street!

winter vegies

Today was our first delivery of organic produce, fresh from the farm. I signed up for weekly deliveries from Full Belly Farm. The produce varies each week, depending on what's in season. Right now the two celery roots are simmering away on the stove--they are delicious in salads. The daikon radishes are the only item in today's box I've never eaten. It's exciting to try new vegetables, and to be surprised at what is inside the box!

adding some color

Here's a new pillow, called the Labyrinth Persimmon Pillow from Dwell Studio These colors that I've been adding-- in the pendant, the tablecloth, and now pillow--are warming up winter. This morning it was in the 20s, the leaves and blooms are gone from the garden so give me color!

a new year, a new light

We got rid of the old track lights above the dining table and now have this beautiful pendant (a quality-control reject from Madeline Weinrib). I made the tablecloth yesterday from Serena & Lily fabric that was slashed 75% at their year-end sale. Am loving the bright colors!