Playing Catch Up - Sunday, 26 September 2010

It’s been a busy summer, which is why I didn’t get round to doing my blog. My daughter and grandson spent six weeks here and so I had lots of family time.  I’ve just been dredging through the photographs which I took, and thought I would get them posted and then try to get back into more of a routine with regular posts again. 

My grandson had to be occupied, so we went out for days and one of the places was Quintin, where there were lovely roses along the riverside and the bushes had hips too.
 

 

 

           This is Charlie seriously enjoying a peach.

These were flowers in my garden this year, except for the irises which are my neighbour's,  The first is a campsis which grows on my house wall.

The exquisite irises below are in my neighbour's garden.

This is a verbena bonariensis which is a delicate bloom.

 

And now two aquilegias in my own garden.

Primula candelabra - a gorgeous yellow which brightens up the front of the border.

Honeysuckle on my terrace wall

My beautiful delphiniums against my house wall



 Some of the goldfish in my garden pond enjoying the warmth of the water in the sun.

Betsy, my Mummy goat - full frontal.

 My favourite, and very non-PC starter at my favourite restaurant, Le Pelinec.

      I was fascinated by the bubbles in the water as it came up to a boil in the saucepan with my breakfast eggs

These were two butterflies on a walk in the woods at

St Nicolas du Pélem.

The first is a red admiral and the second a peacock.

 Two dragonflies taking advantage of the sun

A little Breton cottage by the lake at Corlay

There were probably more which I could have included, but it's a flavour of this summer and I can start on the Autumn pictures now.  Many thanks to Miranda, without whom I would not have managed to do this post, as I had forgotten how to do it!

Three Beautiful Things:

1.   Watching my chicks come out of their eggs in the incubator.
2.   Picking, cooking and eating the first runner beans.
3.   Relaxing in front of my new tropical fish tank.



Saturday 15 May 2010 - Local beauty

This afternoon I wandered down lanes near my house. The sun was shining and I put the roof down on the car and drove slowly, very slowly, looking at everything.

Often as I went round a corner a bright yellow field of oil seed rape shone at me and I had to stop and take a photo.

I couldn't resist the curves on the edges of the field in this photo, it really brightened up my afternoon.

The trees are all clothed in different colours of yellow and green and the light shining through the leaves is wonderful.  I can never decide which I like best, the skeletons of trees in the winter landscape, the hints of green and yellow on the twigs in the spring, the lush leaves of summer or the yellow, rusts and reds of autumn.  I love the look of the bark on this tree and of its leaves against the sky.

  

 Further along the lanes there were plantations of trees along the roadside and I found the patterns fascinating.

The next photographs were of plants in the grass alongside the lanes.  I love the colour of the honesty flowers but can't wait for the "penny" seed pods which come later, and I love the dandelion seedheads which are covering the fields here.

These irises are such an incredible blue and they've only just uncrumpled from their bud stage.

There are new calves of various ages in so many of the fields near to me, and this is one little calf I couldn't resist.

  

There are hundreds of streams, rivers and lakes in Brittany.  I love water and here you can never be far from it.  Today I stopped at a bridge across the lane I was travelling over and took the photographs below.  The first is of the rippled water and the second, which looks like shot silk material is of weed flowing in the current of the water.

Three Beautiful Things:

1.   Drinking ice cold water with my chocolate bar.

2.   Watching my three week old chicks trying to fly a little.

3.   Picking parsley from a full to bursting 3ft x 3ft greenhouse bed which originally all came out of a small supermarket herb pot.

Thursday, 13 May 2010 - Change everywhere and an uninvited guest

It has been an extraordinary month so far, both with politics in the UK and with the garden and countryside.  Everything is changing.  We had such lovely warm days in April, but May so far has been very changeable.  Last night was very, very cold here in my bit of Brittany, but this morning we have wall to wall sunshine and it feels very warm already.  This warmth has already produced good results in the garden, let's hope the unexpected but obvious rapport between the coalition leaders produces equally good results for everyone affected.

Yesterday afternoon, my black and white cat, Alfie came through the cat door miaowing loudly, which is the sign that he is announcing a catch of some description.  When I first glanced at him, it looked as if he had a small snake in his mouth, but this turned out to be an unharmed slow worm.  It moved very fast and I quickly 'phoned B, who has a house in my garden, to come and rescue it as I didn't feel I wanted to try and pick it up myself.  I took photos, B picked it up and placed it in the woodshed which afforded it some protection in the frosty cold of the night.

Alfie - the slow worm catcher

One of my new plants this year is a clematis, Westerplatte, which has the most beatiful dark red velvety blooms.

The horsechestnut blossoms, candles as they are often known, have been lovely over the last few weeks.   They look lovely set against the blue sky and I couldn't resist the large bee on the flowers.

In my garden the freemontodendron against my south facing house wall already has several blooms  I love the bright yellow waxy flowers.  I love too the bright yellow dandelions that have been filling the fields and roadsides everywhere - I don't think I've ever seen so many as there are this year.

 And here is a dandelion seedhead, with raindrops.

 

Lastly for today, the aquilegias growing in my large border.  The pink one is especially beautiful.

 

 

 

Three Beautiful Things:

1.   Sunshine filtering through the young beech leaves along the lane.

2.   My winning score on one of the bowls competition games.

3.   So many birds singing in the sunshine

Wednesday 28 April 2010 - At last I've found time to post again

It's been a busy few weeks, with the Easter holiday and my family here in Brittany, then me taking them back to Cornwall and then coming back again to plant loads of bedding and perennials.  I've really missed writing my blog but there just didn't seem to be enough time to sit down for long enough.

It hardly seemed possible that I had been in England for only six days, everything had grown so much while I had been away.  The weather has been wonderful - hot and sunny, with hardly any rain at all - perfect growing weather.  It's been strange having to spend the evenings watering things again after so long. 

Last year I planted a wisteria.  I've never been lucky with wisterias before.  I hadn't pruned it back at all, and it was waving all over the place.  I'm so glad I didn't prune it, because when I looked at it at the weekend there were beautiful lilac coloured blossoms emerging.

Last week I bought five nearly four week old Vorwerk chicks which are just lovely. 

I collected them in the morning and they have settled in well.  None of my chickens have ever had chicks before, so it was really great having them.  Incredibly, during that afternoon I went up to the henhouse on my field and there was a little yellow chick chirping away next to his Mum - I couldn't believe it!  B had noticed that a white bantam hen had been hiding under the straw bales, and when we pulled them away, there were twenty eggs which she had been sitting on.  We carefully carried them down to the run with the new bantam chicks and put the eggs and the new yellow chick in the little house.  She has so far hatched six eggs.  One chick died.  Apart from one hiding under her Mum, here are the ones I have now.  Ahhh!  They are are so sweet and I can't believe I have chicks which have hatched from my birds.

The countryside around me is all changing too.  Lots of fields are filled with oil seed rape, and I know a lot of people don't like it, but I think it's beautiful, lighting up the landscape with the bright yellow flowers.

Bulbs are everywhere and these orange and yellow tulips made me stop the car when I saw them on the way back from Laniscat.

Some local livestock munching away happily in fields on a very hazy-skyed April day.

There is so much cherry blossom around at the moment, both white and pink, and because there's been so little wind, the blossom is staying put on the branches.  This is some white blossom from a garden near the church in Caurel.

Three beautiful things:

1.   Finding and eating my first ripe strawberry in the polytunnel.

2.   Lying in the sun and falling asleep in the warmth.

3.   Seeing my first little fluffy chicks.