A country garden in France.

Our daughter dreams of one day having the time to make a garden & being able to find time to look after it. But having just spent a week at her home, I wandered around and saw such lovely focal points she never gets the time to enjoy.

So as my hubby had just bought himself a new camera, which does a lot more than my point & shoot, I took lots of photos, so sit back and enjoy my wander around her garden seeing it through my eyes.

 

Don't ask me why the chair was left in the 'potager'.

But I thought it deserved a photo to share.

A slow maturing Willow tree.
This is where her boys play rugby or football.

The boys bikes outside of the barn.
Probably left there till the next time they ride them.

Pretty wild flowers growing in the disused veg. patch.

The swing the boys used to play on when they were younger,
still hanging on one chain from a branch of a huge Chestnut tree.

The cockeral & his lady followers left free to roam.
These have recently replaced the previous batch,
 that one by one were attacked by a fox !!

The driveway leading to the house.
 A lovely variety  of trees.

A lovely typical cottage feel
Some of the Hollyhocks in front of the shutters.

The Walnut and Cherry trees, making a pleasant shady area
where we've enjoyed many meals shared with family & friends.

Buddlia shrub or more often known as a butterfly bush.

An arbour made from an old ladder which had been left in the barn
 when they bought their house.
 It did have roses growing on either side, but the Deer must have eaten them !

 

An old wire crate, where there had been wild strawberries growing in it.

 

The old well which has had doors put on

 to save any accidents when the boys were little.

So as you have seen, every garden has it's charm and doesn't have to be flowers all planted neatly in rows.

I love this garden, and hope you enjoyed sharing my photos.

 and when my daughter sees this, I hope she will enjoy seeing all the

 charmimg parts of her garden that she doesn't get time to see

 because she is so busy with her work.

I hope you will pop by again, when I hope to have had time to visit my friends garden.

A bientot

 Barbara Lilian.

Frogs / Froggies & Frogs legs.

We all know the French are known as Froggies & also well known for eating frogs legs.

This is just a tale of tadpoles to frogs, from our river.

For the past week or two the frogs down by the river opposite our house have been making their usual croaking sound which we always hear at this time of the year, meaning the river will now be amass with spawn and tadpoles. I'm sure most children who live near to a pond or stream have trotted off to try to catch tadpoles, in a net or a homemade device from a used water bottle, cut and taped to a branch of a fallen tree which is what my other half did for our grand children ( he can always make something out of nothing) we call him MacGyver ! But he's always there to lend a helping hand & loved and known as Pops. Shortly after this photo was taken the youngest bent down too far, need I paint the picture ! I'll always remember this day.

Two of my grandsons catching tadpoles in our stream.

Not sure if they will still want to do it this year, as now they are getting older.

My childhood memories are of going with my two brothers, carrying a jam jar which my mother had tied with a piece of string around the top to make a handle, we'd walk a mile to the local pond to find the frogs spawn; which we brought home to wait anxiously for eggs to turn into tadpoles and then finally frogs. I don't  ever remember seeing them develop into frogs, something usually happened, either it was next doors cat who attacked them or our own dog knocking the bowl over trying to chase the cat away. Lovely times.

AHOY there !!

Thought these pictures were amusing, taken at our swimming pool.

Sitting on top of the world.

I'll be back soon, hope you will to.

Barbara Lilian.