A lovely parcel in the post!

Thank you so much for your thoughts and support over my friend's death. I was more upset than I would have expected to be, maybe because it seems such a short life, maybe because we'd been friends since the first week of university and shared a lot of time and stresses together. It was never a romantic friendship, but it was a close one. We even learnt to ski together on a cheap group holiday in Bulgaria. I was useless and haven't tried again. He picked it up really quickly and loved it...

Anyway, on a more cheery note, I had a lovely post today - my exchange from Elisabeth! It was beautifully wrapped with wonderful stamps. I love the hand-made paper too.

And inside was this - a lovely hanging that Elisabeth says I can put out when "I am in the garden"! It even has two cats on it - perfect! I like the fact that it's in French and has some of her culture on it. The chilli charm represents a village near her parents where every house has chillis drying on the walls - how fantastic that must look.


And I got gifts too - a beautiful French magazine that will encourage me to read French and has some lovely things to stitch in it (including some hardanger that looks perfect for a beginner), and some lovely linen threads. And a postcard for Martin! He loves Napoleonic history (we have almost 100 Napoleonic history books in the house) and Elisabeth's town has a big statue of Napoleon in it. How much of a coincidence is that!


Thank you so much Elisabeth - I love it all!