@Jane_Williamson
That’s beautiful Jane, I admire your skill very much - I have a good friend who is a dab hand with a crochet hook and has kindly made me and each daughter a beautiful blanket apiece, so comforting and cosy and pretty 
I am going with the flow and using up all my leftover old balls of wool.
I used to make doormats with binder twine. My cousins cut the lengths by the knot so I could use them.
@Jane_Williamson
Mother In Law was wonderfully skilled… she crocheted a beautiful shawl when our daughter was born… and I handed it to my brother when his first child was born. (thinking they would cherish it or give it back to me)…
You’ve probably guessed it… but yes… Sister in Law gave it to “a friend” and that was that…
However, MiLaw continued to make these shawls for every grandchild and nephew and niece… loads of them.
Shortly before she died, we were talking, and shawls came into the conversation.
" I really must make another shawl … everyone has got one except XXX " (our daughter)
After she died, I was surprised and delighted to find the shawl, three-quarters done… with the pattern and enough wool to complete the job.
I tucked it all safely away and it moved to France with us, some years later.
Here, in our nearby town, I found someone who could finish the project… and when our grandson was born our daughter was able to wrap her lovely little lad in this very “special” shawl… … 
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When it rains I like to watch food videos. This one looks scrummy and I can just imagine eating this with carrots and cabbage on a cold winter’s day.
Izzy x
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looks like a heap of red cabbage would go nicely with that…
Pity about the lard (for me). I think my MT would have a fit! Any suggestions on a suitable alternate?
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A salad!! 
Seriously, just some lean smoked bacon might be good but I know that’s hard to get in France. My local butcher used to do it but it was very salty and slightly dried. It was nice after soaking for half an hour or so and almost (but not quite) like good old British rashers.
Izzy x
and therein lies my problem with a heart condition - “salt is your enemy” is his mantra!
Not sure salad leaves would remain crisp in that pan 
Ah I see. So if it’s salt rather than fat then some nice pork belly strips maybe? Or, being really controversial, replace that particular layer of meat with a tasty veg like carrots. I’m making myself hungry now!
Izzy x
I knitted a two ply shetland shawl for our first baby.
I also knitted a christening gown for a friend who was misdiagnosed with breast cancer after having her son. I knitted it in ten days!
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You and MiLaw would have got on famously I reckon…
‘So if it’s salt rather than fat then some nice pork belly strips maybe?’
Not very vosigienne, but down in the SW, confit de canard would probably work well in that recette and be a lot healthier. Duck fat’s the answer to many of life’s questions!
Also, too much French pork is industrially produced and so these days we’re only buying porc noir (which I was unable to get at a reasonable price during lock down). Hoping to pick some up this Saturday.
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Duck fat actively cleans your arteries, apparently, because of being liquid at human body temperature 
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I wish you could relay that info to my wife (she wouldn’t believe it if it came from me!)
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Yep us too, we take our two dogs on the beach at Annoville, I think they enjoy it better than the blazing sunshine
Ours likes to play in the water, regardless of season. Seems to be impervious to cold. But prefers to lie around when it gets hot.
That’s the stuff, Andy! But you did a tidy job of bundling up the twiglets too, waste-not-want-not… . 
What do you do when it rains ?
Generally switch to red
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