The Loire Valley and especially Blois
After a break-in at the end of last year, Jean Michel added some extra height to our side gate, with the advice of Jacky, who made the original gate, in order to deter burglars from getting around the front which is easier to break into. Jean Michel has just finished repainting it. The next step is to …
Continue reading “The Burglar-Resistant Gate – Le portail anti-voleurs”
Today we harvested our very first runner beans from the garden. We hadn’t even realised there were any on the bean stalk, just flowers. We bought the seeds from Château de la Bourdaisière. Also in the basket are tomatoes, lettuce, chives, basil, raspberries on a nasturium leaf and nasturiums which are also edible, though a little …
Continue reading “Back from the Vegetable Patch – De retour du potager”
When Monique et Jacky sold us their beautiful house, Closerie Falaiseau, they left us lots of interesting objects. One was a large pair of wooden tongs more than a metre long but they weren’t quite sure what they were used for. Imagine how thrilled I was when we visited a leather museum in Château Renault …
Continue reading “Leather Stitching Clamp – Pince à coudre le cuir”
It has been a cold rainy week and I was so desperate to eat outside today that I suggested we put our garden table in the woodshed. We shouldn’t complain – the lack of rain this summer has led to water restrictions which fortunately have now been lifted. On vient de passer une semaine froide et …
Continue reading “A Cold Rainy Week – Une semaine froide et pluvieuse”
When we got back from our June holiday, we had to cut the wisteria right back but it seems to have liked it because it’s having a second flowering. Lorsqu’on est rentré de nos vacances du mois de juin, nous avons dû tailler sévèrement la glycine mais on dirait que c’est une réussite car elle a fait …
Continue reading “Our wisteria gets a second wind – Notre glycine a eu un deuxième souffle”
The last time I photographed this Scarce Swallowtail (Iphiclides podalirius), it was on it’s last legs. Today, one of its cousins was flitting around the marjoram. La dernière fois que j’ai photographié ce papillon Flambé (Iphiclides podalirius), il était en piètre état. Aujourd’hui l’un de ses cousins papillonnait dans la marjolaine.
After 31 days away, having driven 6600 kilometers and cycled 1000 kilometers in 9 countries (France, Italy, Slovenia, Hungary, Romania, Slovakia, Switzerland, Austria and Germany), it was great to get back home yesterday! Après 31 jours d’absence, ayant parcouru 6600 kilomètres en voiture et 1000 kilomètres en vélo dans 9 pays (France, Italie, Slovénie, Hongrie, Roumanie, Slovaquie, …
Continue reading “No place like home – Qu'on est bien chez soi”
We have been so busy getting ready to go on our one-month cycling holiday to Romania that I nearly forgot City Daily Photo theme day. We said goodby to our garden today. I’ll post a photo of the same corner of our house on July 1st. In the meantime, I hope you’ll follow us across …
The only reason I could take this photo is that the butterfly was obviously on its last legs. I don’t know what sort it is but I hope it shows that our garden is a friendly environment. La seule raison que j’ai pu prendre cette photo est que le papillon était souffrant. Je ne connais …
This is the stunning rainbow we saw at 7.30 pm today. It was actually double but I needed two more photos to get the entire picture as you can see below. The last time I captured a double rainbow was in the Palais Royal in Paris where we used to live. Voici l’arc en ciel …