Fresh French Inspiration

Do you ever need a little inspiration...a respite from the weary world?  I do...after all the prepping of beds,

compost spreading, fruit tree and spring planting, I am exhausted. 

Besides just the wear and tear of everyday life;  being a wife and a mother,

carpool driver, playgroup goer, church picnic thrower. 

This living a simple life is hard work! 

As an artist, I sometimes become like dry ground and the way I water it is through

visual inspiration and that takes me to only one place-The South of France. 

This is my Tara...it is the spring that feeds...in a creative sense.

  I not only enjoy the beauty of the terrior but it is also the lifestyle; good wine,

good food, long drawn out meals with friends, working the land, eating the fruit of the land,

 making your own jam, watching a beautiful sunset.  

It is a lifestyle of simple pleasures that are available to all, the poor as well as rich can

enjoy all of these things.  I am going to share some picture of our trip to Grasse

a few years back that really started a paradigm shift in our thinking

of how we want to live as a family; simply, connected to the land and people,

cultivating our own food and living in community.

Côté Maison



Côté Maison



This reminds me of a little Hobbit house... 

My husband and I think the Hobbits had a pretty good life,
 they were happy, not easily angered, constitutions as strong a tree roots
 and they ate seven meals a day.

This is our friends chateau in Grasse that started us on this journey of having chickens,

 gardening for our food, having fruit trees, making our own jam, eating only really fresh bread. 

We were able to share with them their lives and this is how they lived

and it inspired us to live that way too.

A tunnel of roses and grapes...

I am working on this at our little farm and will post about it as soon as the grapes start leafing out!

This is the view of their house from the garden.

That room with the light on was ours...

 that trip to change our prospective on what really is the joie de vivre~the Joy of Life.

Here is my sweet girl at dusk in the lower garden with Tiz and Azor,

she has wanted a German Shepard since that trip.

I need to look back and remember...

(re-member..to put back together... because this world dis-members ..breaks us apart)

 my vision and purpose is renewed and I am inspired to create again!

"Live in each season as it passes; breathe the air, drink the drink, taste the fruit,

 and resign yourself to the influence of each." 

Henry David Thoreau

Does anyone else ever feel dry and parched..in need of some fresh inspiration and remembering?

Hope the simple life is yours this week!

xo