Today we're up early and raring to head back to St Valery Sur Somme, have fun and maybe fit in some jewellery shopping...

But it's pouring with rain!

So instead we catch our breathe, chill out, snooze, read and generally recover from the frantic last few days.

I manage to do some beading and begin a new project based on something I first beaded a long time ago. These are simple beaded beads designed to be interchangeable depending on how many you want to wear at a time and what colours you want to be adorned with.

These are very easy to bead but there is a slight problem. I need to explain the whole project in 9 steps, which have to be between 25 and 50 words each. If I knew I was writing this up for beaders who knew peyote stitch, it would be possible. But, as I have to assume no previous knowledge, I quickly calculate that it would actually take me something like 20 steps. So my plan for the day is figuring out a way to bead the project that is easier to explain.

After trying lots of dfferent variations I end up with one which can be explained in the necessary number of words but is actually fiddlier to bead. A weird outcome, but one which will result in people being able to bead them, which is the end result I am after.

As we're stuck in doors I take the opportunity to explore the house we're renting. It's an old French farmhouse full of bits and pieces, which for a nosey person like me is great. I am pleased to explore a cabinet on a wall full of bibelots and objet trouve which I peek at in great detail and, after my recent posting about being sadden by seeing people's embroidery for sale at brocantes, I am also pleased to see the owners of this house are people after my own heart and one room has over 20 such pieces for me to examine.

The rain lasts all day and night but I manage to solve my beading connundrum, explore and read a book for the first time in a long time. So despite being sad at our plans being foiled (tomorrow we head home so St Valery Sur Somme will have to wait for another trip) I go to bed happy and fulfilled.