Happy Blogiverary to me ...

My blog is

 

 

this week !!

 

What did Blogging do for you?

 

It gave me super friends..

and lots of support ♥

 

Some I have met , some I have spoken to but not met,

some  are friends of friends .. Some I have chatted

with on Skype

but not met as we live far way from each other.

 Some we message all the time ♥

Some became friends through Facebook

and then I have met them .

 

Hopefully I will meet a few more this year :-)

 

I have been to places I maybe wouldn't of gone to visit.

It has been about Photography too.

 

 

I know I haven't been very active on blogging

but still not given it up for  good.

And I know that quite a few of you are still blogging
as you are still in my Blog rolls ♥

 

A BIG THANK YOU TO YOU ALL..

WHO HAVE SUPPORTED MY BLOG OVER THE YEARS

AND BECAME SUCH GOOD FRIENDS.

 

 ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥



Dreaming of France Meme ---Further than Paris but still France ..

My blogger friend Paulita from the blog

An Accidental Blog is doing a weekly meme

and I have decided to try it too!!

Back in August 2010

I took a trip to the Lot Valley,

to stay with a lady |I met through blogging.

I took the train from Paris to Cahors

passing through some lovely places.

After arriving in Cahors, we took the bus to Cadrieu.

Photos taken from the bus

On the bus, along side the Lot River.

Enjoy !!!

A surprise giveaway ...... Anyone interested :-)

My lovely friend

Barbara

Is trying something new

over on her blog ..

PHOTODREAMIN'

Barbara is 

doing a

year end

prize draw...

 

ALL WELCOME

 

and whilst you are there

have a look and a read!!

 

A lovely blog with fantastic

photos by Barbara and also by

her husband  Didier.

 

♥♥♥

 

Barbara and I .. May 2010 PARIS

Continueing 7th September with Leslie .....

After we met at the station

 we had a coffee and  a real chat :-)

 Yep I am sure you can imagine..

we could of chatted for along time,

but we had to move on!!!



I came across a new place...

The old Firestation ..

which is now a fabulous

Gift shop, Art Gallery and a Cafe.

It is also the Crisis Skylight Oxford Centre.

Crisis Skylight Oxford offers a wide ranging timetable

of accredited and non-accredited learning opportunities

in art, music, drama, literacy, numeracy, IT and ESOL to

people who are homeless or vulnerably housed.

A little collage from the gift shop ....

 I always find something connected to Paris :-)

(second picture down on the right)

We didn't stop for coffee here but it looked good, and I have

since been back with my friend Caroline and it was delicious.

Moving on, we visited

Wesley Memorial Church ..

After here we headed for

Christ Church

Christ Church  is one of the largest constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England. As well as being a college, Christ Church is also the cathedral church of the diocese of Oxford, namely Christ Church Cathedral, Oxford.

Here is Leslie in the gardens.

and the Spire

Leslie over at The Pedalogue has a new post today

O  is for Oxford

All about the day through her eyes and camera !!!

Please go and have a read it is brilliant.

♥♥♥♥♥

Where shall I Begin …..

I know I will start here …

7th September  about 11 am ..

in Oxford

The day I met

Leslie from Vancouver

Her blog  The  Pedalogue  is brilliant  , great photos and so much to read !!

Take a look for yourselves , you will not be disappointed.

Here is Leslie as she comes through the barrier at

Oxford Railway Station

OUR first time in meeting  -  !!!

We have been following each others blogs for

quite a few years now, we finally got to meet for

REAL!1

I took her  on one of my tours of  Oxford ,

had a fab day, lots of chat , coffee, lunch and dinner !!!

I have taken  two others on the same route,  Dawn and  Diane ,  unfortunately when

Leesa and Barbara came over,
 the weather was not kind to us.  Next time !!

More to come on this day out  with more photos!!

A new blogger .... Sara .

Lets give huge encouragement to a new blogger....!!

Sara is my cousin Valerie's daughter and yesterday

I noticed that she has started a blog. :-) :-)

http://saralovesbutter.blogspot.com/

Sara lives in Italy near Milan .. with her

husband and two adorable children.

Her blog is in Italian, but that is fine, we can

all get a translator.  I am sure

that Sara is going to give us some fantastic recipes

and photos. 

So feel free to call in and welcome her to the

land of blogging.

WELCOME SARA.

Lovely to receive a handwritten letter …..

From a great friend in

 

Yes I know it is a New Year card….. I don’t

mind at all .. inside was a wonderful letter too ..

Thank you Jennifer.

Jennifer is a lovely lady I met in Paris ….

In August 2009, whilst I was looking after

a friends apartment and her cats .. (unfortunately

these lovely people had to return to the USA) :-(

Jennifer left me a comment on my blog

saying she lived in Paris and would

I like to meet up for coffee!!! 

Such a brilliant opportunity

so we met , went for coffee Kirs and dinner

in Rue Cler!

I know she said  coffee , being polite  as

she didn’t know me .. She does now! ♥♥

We had a fabulous few hours and have met

up since .. and I introduced her to my other great friends

Leesa, Dawn and Barbara.  

Dawn, Leesa, Barbara and Jennifer .

Our great day out at Parc de Sceaux.

4 Year Blogiversary today.....

I cannot believe I have

been doing this blog for

4 years!!!

Big thank you to you all
for your wonderful comments over the
years .. which has kept me going
with the blog!!

I found this photo on the web .. I think it
is very apt...

Some of us have become
very good friends,
even though
we were strangers,
might not of met you all , but we
are still friends.

My first post was about our

holiday in Sicily ..

Here is just a snippet of a few places.

Hopefully will be back again soon , to start off another Year ♥

The little package I have been waiting for has arrived ..........

Back in October

I did a post for

Breast Cancer Awareness Month

which my friend Rosa

asked if I would like to take part

along with Bloggers in Italy and a few

other countries.

One of the ladies taking part ...

was JoAnne - Frutto della Passione..

JoAnne's post included a giveaway

of a $25 gift certificate to spend at

the Breast Cancer store, where

each item purchased generates funds for

for more free mammograms.

I was totally unaware of the certificate
but just left  a comment for JoAnne
about her great post
and  guess what?

I won the certificate. 
Could not believe it.!!

I had to go to the website and choose
a gift , which I can tell you took me a long
time, so many wonderful gifts on there, work out
how to pay and wait for the
 gift to come from America.

I knew this was the gift to choose
as soon as I saw the words
on the pendant...

the same as in my header!!

We can all make a difference

not only in October

but everyday!

Beautiful flowers ......

to say a big
Thank you

to you all.

Click on photo to enlarge

 

Blogging is becoming

hard to keep up with and

to keep going, you have

all helped.

I do have quite a few

more posts to do, all still

to do with France, will

be here soon.

I try to reply to all

of your wonderful comments,

but miss quite a few.

I also try to read your blogs too!!!

Great day out with the Gals in Parc de Sceaux .....

Back in May of this year,

we all met up for the afternoon at

Parc De Sceaux.

Dawn, Leesa, Barbara and Jennifer

We had a lot of fun, and the day

brought two of my

friends together,

Barbara and Jennifer.

I think I am right in

that Dawn and Jennifer

had met before.

(forgive me if I am wrong).

Parc de Sceaux is located

in the southern

suburbs, 9.7 km (6miles) from the

centre of Paris.. served by the

RER line B.

UPDATE :- I was wrong!!

This was the first time

Jennifer had met Dawn too!!

How wonderful that I

brought them altogether.!

This includes Leesa, as I was the

first one to meet Jennifer.!

Thank you to .....

all my friends and to all the

wonderful comments on the last few posts.

I am returning to the UK tomorrow,

with lots to do !

Unpacking, washing, sorting post, catching up

with family and friends.

I also need to catch up with blogging, but before

I do that I have to edit my photos.

I will see you all soon :-)

Bonjour à tous mes amis à Paris...

Fountain Centre Georges Pompidou

Aujourd'hui, un hommage a la ville que j'adore et tous mes chers amis!

I was very kindly allowed to use this photo taken by Virginia who lives in Alabama.. but absolutely adores Paris and all things French! Virginia has a wonderful website .. Paris through my lens. Fantastic photos daily. She also follows some great blogs.. either from Paris or France. here are two of them, which I also follow Peter in Paris and Daily photo Paris by Laurent .

Virginia says she fell in love with Paris in March 2007.. It was as the French say "le coup de foudre".. .. you will have to take a look at her blog to read the rest!

My New Header.......

was designed for me, by a lovely lady named Noor. Noor's blog is So Sweet Designs and back in December, I came across her blog (somehow) and saw this! All I had to do was leave a comment. To my great surprise ..I WON :-)

Noor has been very patient, as I had NO idea what I would like on the Banner. I hope you like it!

Blogiversary....3 years old today......

Whilst sorting my blog out today, I found out that it is 3 years ago I did my 1st blog post.....!!

My friend Sally started me blogging, even though I was not sure what I was going to write about or even how to keep it going. Sometimes I thought about giving it up but with all your help and support I have managed .

In the last few months I have had new readers from afar as Malaysia and Saudi Arabia and a shock ... two new readers from Oxfordshire.

I have had such wonderful comments from you all, people from all over the world. Blogging has brought lots of fun, for instance, my postcard collection...which is growing. Thank you to all who took time out to send to me.

I visited Paris twice last year and made great friends there... Leesa, Dawn, Barbara, Kim, Andrea, Jennifer and Elizabeth (unfortunately moving back to the States) ...met Carolyn and Clive from Sydney too! I met lots of others at the great Picnic on the Seine.

Lots of blogger friends have connected on Facebook, Twitter or MSN ...which is great if we want to chat!

A HUGE THANK YOU TO YOU ALL

This is for you.

Wooohooo I have reached my 300th Post!!!

According to my calculations, this will be my 300th post!!! I would like to dedicate this post to all of my readers, old and new. I have had quite a few new readers lately, which is brilliant, so welcome to my blog, and thank you for calling in and leaving your comments. A big Thank you to my friends that have stuck with me since the beginning and the blogger friends that have come on board, over the last two years or so.

Incidently my first post was on 14th January 2007..it was all about our trip to Sicily, which we took on November 6th 2006! I remember arriving at our villa, once we found it, and sitting on the beach in awe of our view!

I have yet to finish my posts on Paris, a bit slow, I know. So I have put together a few montages of Paris, there is more to come...I just loved walking round, and snapping away..!!

My wonderful friends in Paris

Paris, Blogging and New Friends.......

On the 30th August, I got a new reader to my blog named Jennifer and she left a comment and it said...

"Hi Anne, it sounds like you're having a great time! Exactly how long will you be in Paris? I live here and was wondering if you'd like to meet in a café for a coffee or something, if there's time....best wishes, Jennifer....."

I was amazed, so I emailed Jennifer and we arranged to meet up, on the Monday 31st at 4.30 on the corner of my street....I did ask her what she looked like, we wouldn't of known each other at all.

On that day I also went out with Barbara, to Bercy Village, and Bercy Park, which I have yet to post about and put my pictures up. We both had a wonderful time, browsing around the great shops, chatting and having fun. It was also one of the hottest days of my visit! I arrived home at 16.10, only 20 minutes to sort myself out!

So off I went to the little restaurant on the corner, and waited, I saw a lady walking towards me on the other side of the road, and I thought, she has long red hair wonder if that is Jennifer..Yes it was...and we just started chatting.. I said where would you like to go for coffee, she said, maybe we should have a wine !! :-)

We went to my favourite street...Rue Cler and got seats in the open at one of the great cafes/restaurants, we went to Tribeca..and had a Kir or two and dinner. We had a wonderful few hours, and I have also put Jennifer in touch with Leesa, I am sure they will meet up too!!

Thank you Jennifer , I had a fun evening, and lots of good chat! She has blog too....Called My Year in Paris!!!

The Postcards just keeping coming.....

it is fantastic. And they came together, this morning!!


Big Thank you to Britt-Arnild from Norway and Leesa from Paris, who was in the States.

The card above was sent by the lovely Britt-Arnild...who has a wonderful blog called Britt-Arnilds House in the Woods.. This lovely little card was bought at the St Olav Festival in Trondheim, where she lives. The drawing was done my a young boy who loves drawing and sells his cards at the festival. I think it is wonderful.. She asked if anyone would like one, I left a comment with Britt-Arnild and my name got drawn...

You also might like to have a look at Britt-Arnilds other blogs too!! She has a NEW ONE... Trondheim through all seasons. It is a great blog, with wonderful photos, of her town! Go on over and take a look.

And Thank you to my friend Leesa from News in France, so great of her to think of me whilst on vacation in America, she was zipping all over the place too!

Leesa has only been back a few days, when she gets over her jet lag she will be back to blogging, and I hope with lots of photos...Do take a look, she is brilliant!!

Two wonderful Awards.....

were given to me a while ago, so I feel a bit bad that is has taken me this long to put them on my blog....I really do appreciate them and so happy that you love my blog!!

The first award was given to me by a great lady Scintilla..whose blog is Bell'Avventura....she lives in Luxembourg and goes down to Positano for all of the summer . Her blog is a mixture of stories, and they are all wonderful..and if you want to know about Positano, then this is one for you!! On second thoughts, never mind if you want to know or not, go on visit her blog , its fab!!

My other lovely award was given to me by the wonderful Laura from Ciao Amalfi...as the blog title suggests ..yes it is all about the Amalfi Coast, which is beautiful and certainly a place on my list to visit.!! Laura has fabulous photos and such great stories..it is a brilliant read!

I have just found a post on Laura's blog that links Scintilla and Laura...Taking the boat to Positano, I think it is so great that they have met....!!

A huge Thank you to my Wonderful Friends
Scintilla and Laura

Now for this I have to name 15 blogs to award, I think this is a bit hard, as I have such a wonderful array of blogs that I read, and on a regular basis..so I am going to take a little bit more time over this, I really don't like this bit, I think I am upsetting my other bloggers!!! Can I not give it to all of them!!

From across the miles…….

Came another wonderful surprise…it was so great to see an envelope from Sicily…it was from my great friend Welshcakes Limoncello..from Sicily Scene..

Inside the envelope were beautiful postcards, One of Sicily and one of Modica, her home town..

 

 

 

 

 

 

and a photo of herself, Antonio Lonardo , his niece, Melinda Adamo, who illustrated the cover of Il Profumo del Pensiero. This poetry book was written by Antonio, and  Welshcakes (Patrizia) was given the honour of translating it from Italian to English, and what a fantastic job she did.  Please do call in and read  her blog and read all about her  amazing and exciting story.

Welshcake’s blog is a mixture of wonderful sights around Sicily, fascinating recipes, her friends, their lunches, day to day living, her favourite ice cream shop, Raffaele her wonderful  hairdresser,  ups and downs of Sicilian post offices/ water facilities…and her wonderful dog and best friend Simi!! 

Thank you Welshcakes, it was such a wonderful surprise, it made me so happy :-)

Oh how could I forget the little booklet from the wonderful hairdresser…

Raffaele the hairdresser has been working on his publicity again and has come up with a little booklet telling you about your star sign and how you can improve your life [by visiting the salon!] I think it's a neat idea:

I found my star sign, but have no clue as what it says..could be very interesting….I worked a bit out, about sentimental and my man, but that was it:-)

Hopefully Welshcakes will tell me!

UPDATE :- From Welshcakes

No confusion on the emotional front. Your man will be there and will support you in your choices. Don't neglect him ... and don't neglect the one on charge of your hairstyling.... "yellow"

A Big Thank you Welshcakes Limoncello!