Author: Jenny

General

What this blog is all about…..

On 25 August 2017 my partner Eoin and I leave our home in Northern Ireland for a new life in France. We have sold our home, sold one of our businesses, are selling or giving away most of our furniture and buying a motor-home to live in until we find our new home. We think this will be somewhere in the Dordogne but we aren’t 100% sure yet!

August 1, 2017 3 Comments

Life in the Dordogne

My love affair with France

Although I have a sense that I may have lived several previous lives in France, my love affair with the country in this lifetime started when I was 5 years old at the time that this photo was taken.

July 21, 2017 4 Comments

jenny.grainger

Transformational Coach 🔥, yogini & meditator 🧘‍♀️, gardener 🌻, cook 👩‍🍳, lover of the planet 🌎! linktr.ee/jennygrainger

After our long and eventful flight through the sto

After our long and eventful flight through the storm yesterday I am so grateful to have made it home to enjoy the calm after the storm, the countryside after the city, and being here now. #createalifeyoulove #creatingbeautifulspaces #creatingbeauty

This was definitely the most expensive taxi ride I

This was definitely the most expensive taxi ride I have ever had! After 2 dramatic aborted attempts to land during a storm at Bergerac yesterday🛫✈️🛩️🛬🛩️🛬✈️, the plane home from Edinburgh was diverted to Tours and, eventually, @ryanair organised taxis for the 4 hour drive back to Bergerac!! 🫣 I finally got home at 1am, only 9 hours later than expected!!

Keeping everything crossed that @ryanair make it easy for the 4 of us who shared this adventure to claim back our taxi fare quickly. 🤞🤞🤞 #ryanair

It was worth it to wake up at home this morning

Thanks to Edinburgh and @sniphist for a beautiful

Thanks to Edinburgh and @sniphist for a beautiful 4 days. I'm heading home to the forest tired but with a very happy heart. ❤️🙏

8 years and 3 degrees after she was elected as loc

8 years and 3 degrees after she was elected as local representative for the Green Party in Co Down, Northern Ireland aged o 21, today I got a personal tour of @sniphist's workplace at the Scottish Parliament.

@sniphist treated me to a very nice afternoon tea

@sniphist treated me to a very nice afternoon tea at the excellent @willowtearooms on Princess Street today. I feel like I am on a 4 day culinary tour of Edinburgh! It's all very yummy and this chef is really enjoying being cooked for by others!

I have totally lucked out with the weather in Edin

I have totally lucked out with the weather in Edinburgh and the city is also full of blossom right now 🌸🌸. It's all looking very beautiful.

It's hard for me to believe that this time 4 years

It's hard for me to believe that this time 4 years ago this was all just grass and weeds! I'm so pleased with how it is maturing with my usual planting mixture of herbs, veg and perennials plus lots of gifts from @_lucyfleur's flower farm and a LOT of love and attention. It has hardly cost a cent. 🌼🪻🌹🌞🤩

This garden is my main creative outlet, my gym, my meditation space, my healer, my therapist, my teacher, my food supply, and my paradise. It's no wonder I don't leave very often!!
#gardening #gardenersworld #organicgarden #organicfood #organicgardening #livingsoil

When we moved here 6 years ago we didn't know that

When we moved here 6 years ago we didn't know that we had inherited this wisteria plant which I have since been trying to tame! Although I have managed in some areas it still climbs about 20 metres up through the huge Douglas Fir at the front of the house. This week it is particularly breath-taking and the whole garden is permeated with it's sweet scent. It triggers my heart to soar with joy every time I walk outside. ❤️ #wisteria #wisteriaflowers #glycine

With me living in France and Georgia living in Ed

With me living in France and Georgia living in Edinburgh we don't get to see eachother much and it's been a long time since we have been able to celebrate her birthday together. So it was very sweet to be able to synchronize our separate travel plans and meet for lunch in Dublin on her 29th birthday before both heading off in different directions again! 🥳

Happy happy happy birthday @sniphist ! 🥳🍸🍹🥳

Dublin … it's been a long time! I feel like a ti

Dublin ... it's been a long time! I feel like a time traveller arriving back into another life!

It's been 4 years since and a pandemic since I was

It's been 4 years since and a pandemic since I was last in Ireland and 2 1/2 years since @eoinscolard and I have been away together so it seemed only fitting to celebrate the start our 5 day trip to Dublin with some cocktails. Slàinte. 🍀🍹🍸🍀🍹🍸🍀🍹

3 years ago I made my first no-dig flower bed by

3 years ago I made my first no-dig flower bed by covering a weedy, tarmacked verge outside our front gate with cardboard, laying some leaf mould and grass cuttings on top then planting some cuttings into it. Apart from a few spring bulbs the whole thing didn't cost a penny and it took one day to create. Since then it has needed virtually no maintenance, attracts loads of pollinators and looks like this today ! 🤩🌷🌼🪻🌹#nodiggardening #nodig #womenwhogrowflowers #organicgardening #biodiversity #bio

Happy Spring Equinox from all of us here à la Gir

Happy Spring Equinox from all of us here à la Girouette. 🪻🌼🌷💐 #womenwhogrowflowers #womenwhogrowherbs #springequinox

Today we said a very sad goodbye to our very big,

Today we said a very sad goodbye to our very big, beautiful, eejit of a companion over the last 12 years. This is photo from our last cuddles together this afternoon.😥

Samson chose us as his forever family when he was abandoned at 6 months old. He was HUGE and very boisterous because he was untrained. He was also called BOSS and thought he was the boss! He walked straight into our home and lifted his leg to mark his new territory!

Samson was also affectionately known by @eoinscolard and me as 'ye big prick' because he was extremely obstinate and disobedient at times.🤣🤣🤣 I have had many doggie friends in my life but I have never known one who molted as much as he did. Daily vacuuming was a much hated necessity.

I estimate that Samson and I have walked 30,000,kms together over the years and he was a larger than life presence in our 'pack'.

It is never easy to make the decision to end the life of a being that we love and live with. It is a process, just as our grief and adaptation to his absence will be a process but I am at peace in the knowledge that he is no longer suffering and is frolicking around in doggie heaven with my other furry soul mates. 🐕🐕🐕🌈🌈🌈

RIP my dear companion, Samson.
#dogsofinstagram #dogheaven

I love this photo that I took of @jocoury and his

I love this photo that I took of @jocoury and his very bright aura(!) on the beach in Biarritz a couple of weeks ago.

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