News & Updates from Hilary Hallas,

We were very sad when after a long and happy life (23 years) we lost our dear cat Billie about two and half months ago.

Weve always had a cat and missed having one around so when I saw a post on Facebook for a cat needing rehoming because its owners were returning to the UK and their London home was not suitable for a French countryside cat we replied and went along to see him.

Pom came home with us and has settled in amazingly well, he is used to going outside so we installed a cat flap and now he comes and goes as he pleases.

He loves going out exploring all around our house but knows where to come back to for a cuddle and food, although we are hoping he will spend more time indoors during the bad weather in the winter months.

At one year and ten months old he still has quite a lot of kitten in him, hes so cute and affectionate and is a totally beautiful addition to our household.

Here is a picture of one of our new lambs with his mummy. All three of our Ouessant ewes have successfully produced lambs this year and theyre all little boys!

We werent so lucky last year as one was stillborn and we lost the other two, we think to a fox.

This year we are being extra vigillant keeping an eye on them and putting them away in the barn at night.

They are just so cute and it is lovely to watch them playing together.

It is rather a noisy time though as the mothers are constantly baaing their heads off whenever their respective lambs move out of their line of sight.

Ouessant sheep are native to Brittany where we live, they are a small variety of sheep so we dont keep them for the meat but for keeping the grass down in the fields and garden attached to our cottage.

They are really friendly and come when called and take food from our hands.

We had decided to have a year off rearing animals this year but when I saw these two little Ouessant lambs advertised (really cheaply I might add) on the local AngloInfo forum we couldn't resist.

I'd seen on a website somewhere a picture of a ride-on mower saying if you have one of these why not get a couple of these, with a picture of a couple of little sheep.

Ouessant sheep are native to Brittany where we live and although they are really small and are not much use for growing for meat, they love eating grass, plus they grow beautiful thick brown wool.

So guess what I'm going to be having a go at later on when they get sheared! It will probably take a couple of shearings to get enough to make some wool but how satisfying to be able to knit a hat and scarf and say the wool came from our own sheep!

I'm showcasing two of my recent kits, a decoupage minikit and a floral background kit.

I thought I would share this picture of our dear little cat Billie. She is quite an old lady now at 19 years, it feels like she's been with us forever!

We thought her time had come early last year when she had a stroke but luckily the vet we have here in France likes to keep old animals going as long as they are not in pain and after giving her an injection said to leave her for 48 hours as she would either go downhill or improve (makes sense).

Well she improved and although she has had quite a sedentary life with her own chair to sleep in, she has been doing fine, albeit very wobbly of foot and deaf as a post (she doesnt realise how loud her meaow, or rather shreik, is sometimes).

Lately however, with the warm sunny weather, she seems to be having a second wind and likes to try out all the furniture, windowsills etc, following the sun around the room and even taking the odd trip out into the garden.

Thank goodness for that vet who didnt want to put her "out of her misery" and gave her a second chance.

I've chosen to showcase my two latest kits of background papers, one for summer and one for christmas.

We seem to have had a funny old year in the vegetable garden this year with bumper crops of some fruit and veg and others failing dismally.

We tried growing our beans and courgettes in pots as the beds were full of other things and they didn't produce much at all so we wont be doing that again next year - you learn from your mistakes dont you.

Last year our cherry tree yielded a full crop and they were delicious but this year all the cherries mysteriously disappeared whilst we had bumper crops of apples and pears from neighbouring trees.

We haven't tried growing pumpkins before and were pleasantly surprised when this little beauty started growing - we'll definitely try growing more next year! Here are a couple of my latest vintage cards.