Showing posts with label La Petite Maison. Show all posts
Showing posts with label La Petite Maison. Show all posts

05 October 2013

Autumn colours in my garden



I hate having to put plants on the compost heap when they are still flowering
but they are all past their best, 
so I've been busy in my garden emptying the baskets and troughs.

October is here and we are now in the season of Autumn,
 but this year our weather doesn't feel like Autumn yet, as we are still enjoying warm sunshine
although the days are getting shorter
The  grapes on the vine over the pergola in front of La Petite Maison 
have not been so good this year. So we have left them for the birds to eat.
I did trim off some of the vine and twisted some into a rough garland and hung it on the door.
I've made some others which I'll  keep to decorate for Christmas.




I love the colours of this Virginia creeper.
( Parthenocissus Quinquefolia)
 it's made up of five oval leaflets


     





Now that all our summer visitors have left, I have more time to myself.
I've been reading my art books, and following my favourite painting blogs.
One in particular is  Ronelle Van Wyk she inspired me to take up watercolour painting.
At the moment she is showing some fantastic paintings using oil paint.
It was 2. yrs. ago after I had been on a visit to the Provence that I found her blog
and especially like the style she has using watercolour paints.

It's been raining most of the day today, so it was a good opportunity
 to get out my paints and  practise some technics which I'm trying so hard to master.
  . Also I'd seen some splatter painting, which I've never done before, so gave that I try.

I'm quite pleased with my first effort for the autumn colours.
but maybe I should have tried the splatter technic  on a  piece of scrap paper first !
Oh well as the saying goes, 'we learn by our mistakes !'






à bientôt

Barbara Lilian



10 September 2013

Other peoples gardens .

This summer I've been away from my own garden so it's been badly negleted,. Mr France did the watering for the hanging baskets and the occasional grass cutting which wasn't needed very often due to the heat.
But I had the pleasure of seeing and enjoying other peoples gardens. Would you like to share them with me.

First my daughters garden,
 where I spend most of the summer when we let our property.



Her garden has very little attention and is a little on the wildside
but has great charm.
Each year the hollyhocks are always so pretty.





Entering the drive way the buddleia greets you, usually covered in a mass of butterflies.





When Mr France & I went to stay in  La Petite Maison. the buddleia I'd planted before I left had come into flower, so I picked a few blooms and put them in a lttle old bottle I'd found in the barn when we first bought this little house. I  took a photo so I could paint them at a later date.
So I thought now is  a good time to get back to doing my watercolour painting.
 Here's the scketch I did in my journal.






This is my first effort for over a year
 I'm still only a beginner, but hope that eventually I will improve.
I've only ever shared any of my sketching with my family.


Back to garden visiting.

This is my French friends garden near where I live.
This part has been created with the help her grandchildren, she has seven all under the age of ten.
I love to visit her and see what the little ones have added during their summer holiday.


A lot of watering has been needed
so every little helps.




Another friend I have I admire so much, she  & her husband had a house built not far from where I live. They live and work in England but divide their time between France & England. Gardening is her passion.
I always say, 'she could plant a stick and it would grow.'
It's not easy for her, but with the help of her husband they have made a  vegetable plot and  grow all sorts of vegetables, they always seem to survive whatever the weather, which gives them fresh veg, each time they come back.




Her first batch of haricot vert.




These pictures are from the garden of a dear English friend who has recently passed away.
Although she didn't live in France permanently she chose  her plants carefully.
 to be able to look after themselves, she loved her garden.

This year her hibiscus in white, pink & blue where spendid.





.



As always her hydrangia was beautiful.
I'm sure she chose these because she loved to wear different shades of blue even if it was only a scarf.


Now this garden I've never actualy seen.
This lovely dahlia I've only seen from this photo,as it's  in the garden of my lovely English friends.They used to have a second home near to where I live in France. Her garden in France was planted for every season and always looked as if someone lived there permanently.
They sold their house 2yrs ago and the new owners do live there permanent and they have changed it completely, now when I pass I feel so sad as it doesn't look as pretty as when my friend was there.






Now to North Wales, where my family live.




These beautiful pink poppies are so delicate they are almost like tissue paper,
  are in my nieces garden and she has just been to visit us and brought me envelopes full of poppy heads.
So hopefully I'll have some flowering in my garden next year.




This is my sisters garden also in Wales.
This lovely clematis climbing up the wall to greet you at the front door.





Their garden at the rear of the property.has always been lovely.
Now it's planted mostly with shrubs for ease of maintenance.




This arbour is usually covered  in pale pink clematis flowers.
but due to their severe winter & late snow in spring it's suffered a bit.


My brothers house was an old Welsh farm.


He loves his garden.
When he was younger he was head gardener on the estate of Lord Sefton in Liverpool.




The wall surrounding the front of his house is covered in white alysum, red sauge & blue lobelia.
Then he has a tower of baskets, this had only just been planted when I went to visit him in late June, so I'm sure by the end of summer it was a beautiful mass of colour.


Now I'm back home we have a lot to do in the garden. 


I have plans to make a new area for some shrubs.
So some hard digging will be necessary. I'll show you that later when we get it started.


Before I leave you I must show you the gift my niece bought for me at the market just before she left.


This beautiful giant hibiscus






the flower is as big as a large dinner plate.




Hope you enjoyed seeing these gardens, all so different.

à bientôt

Barbara Lilian


27 August 2013

Hello from La Petite Maison.

I'm almost back home,  I'm staying in my own holiday cottage  La Petite Maison for a couple of weeks while the last of the holiday makers are still here.






Mr France and I ( he's been reading my blog and  said he'd prefer to be called that, than my other half )  love this little cosy cottage, we always feel as if we are on holiday when we stay there and seem to sleep in till late in the mornings and spend the day pottering. I've even taken up doing my sketches and water colour painting again. Today we packed up a picnic and took a drive through our country lanes and found a lake we had never visited before. We had the place almost to ourselves as most of the holiday makers have gone home to prepare for the children going back to school. 


This was our picnic lunch 

Charentaise melon & Jambon sec... 

 
 
Roasted tomatoes & mozzarella cheese tart.

 

Chairs waiting for us when we arrived back at the cottage.


The colourful corner collection.



  A perfect day and now the sun going down.

 

   

à bientôt
Barbara Lilian



17 March 2013

Vacant Bird House to Let.







There's a lot of activity going on around our house at the moment. 

and I'm learning to use our new camera
so I've been taking lots of pictures'

The birds are house hunting.


But we have no takers at the moment.


This year I'm providing soft wadding for the interior.


It does look as if it's being used.




 I've been getting lots of  practise shooting moving things
  

The following photos were taken from the kitchen window.
using  burst mode. Do I sound like I know what I'm talking about ?
( new technique to me )
I would just like to inform anyone who might be thinking this is a photo shoot tutorial
you'll be disappointed.
It's just me feeling very proud of myself 
 knowing I have taken photos I feel worthy to post on my blog.
I still have a big plate on my back.

I'll let you into a secret now
when I first started my blog, nearly a year ago
I used to get my other half to take my photos.






                                                                                                   










Do you see anything strange about this cute  little bird ?
He has a deformed leg
but he can certainly hold his own battles against the other birds.
(I call it he, I don't know why)

I've been watching and he's been coming every day
for over a week now, so thought I'd try catching a picture of him.

That was how I learnt about the burst mode on the camera.
I won't tell you how many burst shots it took to get six good photos !
















This is such a pretty bird house, 
 hand made and  was a present from my daughter.



Not sure where to put it yet !
maybe I'll just use it as a garden adornment.




Last year the bird house & the enamel ware were occupied several times
  with Blue tits and the Red start.





















We don't have a great selection of birds coming near to the house.
 but we do get keen bird watchers coming to stay in La Petite Maison. 
as we are surrounded by woods  only a short walk away.

I hope you liked seeing the birds we feed everyday,
 especially our cute  little disabled Blue tit.




à bientôt
Barbara Lilian.





02 February 2013

I'm still thinking of Spring.








In my last post I told you I had found some tulip tips just peeping up through the cold ground.
Since then our weather hasn't improved. It's still cold and has poured with rain everyday.


Yesterday we had some publicity posted  in our mailbox
 advertising these tulips in a basket for only 3.99€

Similar to the ones waiting to flower by the front door of my ' Petite Maison '



We dashed off to the S/market ( Aldi ) which is 30 mins. drive from where we live, hoping to buy at least
 two baskets, but  I was so disappointed.as they  had sold out early that morning. 

 I did the next best thing & bought a bunch of tulips @ 1.99€





Tulips are not easy to arrange as they will soon bend over, drooping to where ever they want to go.


























Have a peep at the pictures I've taken to show you what I was able to do with just one bunch.

I brought out some of my small white containers that I love to use for flowers.Then chose     
 a few tulips, cut the stems short and  opened out their petals to make them look like this.

Have you ever tried doing this?

























I first saw this method about 30 yrs ago, when I wanted to learn about flower arranging.
I'll always remember it, as the demonstration was given by a man who showed simple ways of using just one
or two flower stems with  clusters of flowers and buds cut  to produce a very decorative arrangement.






As you can see, one bunch or bouquet,  I should say, as I live in France,  goes a long way.


Hope you liked what I did with one bouquet of tulips from  the super marche.
and @ a Bon marche prix.

a bientot 

Barbara Lilian