Autumn in my part of France.

Just returned home, after celebrating my 75th Birthday in Denmark.

I'll tell you about that in my next post.

Before I left I did some tidying up in the garden 

so that it wasn't too much to do when I returned.

It had just rained and everywhere was looking fresh.

It was just turning to dusk and thought it was a good time 

to get my Panasonic aim & shoot pocket camera out,

Non of these champignons are edible.

but look lovely in the wild part of my garden.

These champignons have a lovely shiny sheen on them

 and the leaves with tiny droplets clinging on, looked sparkly in the scanty light.

I love these raindrops glistening on the leaves.

I raked off a lot of fallen leaves and found these primula in bloom.

Having such  warm weather for the time of year,

 some plants don't know which season it is.

We don;t usually see these in flower until early Spring.

I even saw some tips of the daffodils,

so I quickly covered them over with some compost.

Far too early.

I found this old metal watering can when we moved here many years ago

when we started the renovation. It was hidden in the overgrown garden.

It has a hole in it, but I use it for decoration. Sometimes I put

 a washed jam jar or a cut off water bottle inside, then

I can put wild flowers in it. Living in the country

it's so much nicer than a vase.

I love a bit of rustic.

How's your garden looking, 

are you continually raking up leaves ?

Do you still have plants in flower ? that are usually dormant by now.

Let me know.

 Several of my gardening friends, from different parts of the world

have told me how different their garden looks to previous years.

Hope it's a good sign !!

à bientôt

Barbara Lilian

October

 I've been missing for awhile and already it's October.

Autumn can't quite make up it's mind whether to arrive or not.

It really doesn't feel like Autumn yet here in my part of France. 

As always the Virginia Creeper is the first to put on her red robe.

While the summer flowers hanging in their baskets
 are still showing off their brilliant blooms.
Thanks to Mr France and his continual
watering and feeding.

The Dahlias were a little disappointing.
maybe I'll give those a miss next year.

The late summer berries are still on the bushes,
I'm not a jam maker, so these will be left as food for the birds.

I have seen some signs of Autumn on my walks,
but these were too prickly to put in my pocket.

I took just a short walk this morning in between the showers.

Leaves & acorns are falling, 

But the glow of orange and red on the trees is not here yet.

Here we are on the lane back home and to

La Petite Maison  our guest house

Waiting for our visitors to spend a long weekend in la campagne / country.

Thank you to everyone who have sent me messages
wondering if all was well, as they had missed seeing my posts.
I never expected to be missed in the world of blogging.
Thank you so much,
it's your kind thoughts that make it all worth while.

à bientôt

Barbara Lilian

Spring into Springtime.

My favourite season.

So much activity in the garden, most of the spring flowers are blooming.
We are helping the birds as much as we can. Mr France has made some new Bird boxes & we've put out bedding for the taking, this seems to be working. We used to refill this suet cage with food, recently I've been filling it with wadding and the birds have been taking it for sometime.  Now I've seen on Mary's  blog A Breath of Fresh Air.
she adds  bits of lace & shreds of material cut into strips to hers. What a lovely idea. I know the Gold finch make very decorative nests. Some time ago,  I found one
 with blue forget-me-nots woven in with some of our dogs fur around the edge.

The birds seem to be taking it.

One of the new bird boxes, so far no residents.

 A gift from our daughter.
For the past 2 years I've put it out, but it's never been used.
Maybe it's too upmarket in style for our country birds.
How ever I like it as a garden ornament.

If I follow Mary's idea of adding some lace for a bit of luxury,

we might have some posh birds. 

or maybe a Robin / Rouge Gorge  like this, will take up residence there.

 Tucked in the Berberis, I found a nest from last year.
I think I'll leave it and keep an eye on it,
maybe it will be refurbished, by some new takers.

 Each year I put this little nest, with it's egg in one of the hanging baskets.

 This is the area we were working on this time last year.
Then it had to go on hold, when I was unable to do any gardening.
Now due to the resent surgery Mr France had to have, we have
decided it will be staying like this. I like it partly cultivated and the rest
left a bit wild. Later the wild flowers will add lots of natural beauty.

 I've just had a wander around the garden and found some more
different types of daffodils, from a few years ago.

Even some hidden in an area that certainly needs some tidying up doing.

How is your garden looking, do you have birds building their nests?
Are you putting up bird boxes ? If you've never had a bird box
in your garden, why not try. It's so rewarding watching the birds
busy building their nest, then flying backwards & forwards
feeding their chicks.

I'll be keeping you up to date with the flora and fauna in our garden.

à bientôt

Barbara Lilian

Grow Your Blog

Hello to my regular followers
and
If this is the first time you have visited my blog

Welcome.

Open the gate and step inside.

It's that time of the year again when Vicki who hosts  Grow Your Blog

does such a wonderful job doing exactly what it says.

If you are here to grow your blog  I hope you'll enjoy what you see.

and have fun checking out many of the other blogs taking part..

This is my second time of joining.Grow your blog.
If you would like to find out more about me take a look here
from when I joined the 2014 Grow your Blog Party.

I live in rural France so I show a lot of photos I take of interesting buildings
and also the beautiful countryside near where I live.

We often walk along this pathway, it used to be the old railway line.
There are lots of walking groups I could join, but I prefer to walk with my husband,
who I affectionately refer to as Mr France, he appears from time to time in my posts.

I spend lots of time watching the birds that come to feed
from the many bird feeders in our garden.

My favourite walk, winter or summer is only 15 mins..from my home.

Maybe you are like me and dabble in watercolour painting.

I try to remember ( I must admit I often forget ) to take my pocket camera
with me on my walks. Then later I can paint  the wild flowers I see.

I'm not an artist but I do enjoy watercolour sketching.

One of my early sketches in a journal with brown paper,

 it's easier for sketching than to paint on,

I share lots of pictures of my garden throughout the different seasons.

I love my garden, but don't make myself a slave to it.

It's certainly not a sculptured garden all neat and tidy

.I leave a lot of the wild flowers to grow, like these wild Foxgloves 

which adds colour and fills in a bare space.

During the summer months I like to have plenty of hanging baskets around our home
 and the holiday cottage. Mainly I use the simple Pelargonium which grow well here in France.
They don't need to be watered everyday and withstands the heat. 

As I live in France it wouldn't seem right if I didn't show the vines,
which are not too far from my home.
We plan to take more short trips away this year. now that I am back in good health.
We are planning be visit Denmark again
and if we can fit it in, a trip back to England to catch up with family and old friends.
so there will be lots of photos taken for you to see.

I took this photo last October on one of our short trips away.

During the summer months we have fields and fields of sunflowers around where we live,

so I couldn't resist showing this lonely sunflower growing on the edge of the road.

There will be a Give Away gift as a thank you
The give away will be open to everyone who leaves a comment on this post. 

The winner will be announced on the 15th February.

So look out for your name it might be you.

I'm looking forward to seeing lots of new blogs.

I hope you've enjoyed seeing my Grow your blog post.
Thank you Vicki and all those who volunteered  to help.

à bientôt

Barbara Lilian

Sunlit-Sunday from rural France.

This is my 1st time on Sunlit Sunday.

I couldn't have chosen a more un-sunny day.

I don't think we'll be sitting here for coffee this morning.

A few mins. before I took this photo, the sun was shining through the window
onto this orange plant. That's photography for you, 

patience is needed and that's something I admit I don't have !

Sunday in our house is when the ornamental Orange tree gets it's weekly feed. 

Mr France looks after this and has taken it outside for a little sun.

 Yes I did say sun, as since I started this post the sun has come out again.

Just thought I'd check on the Romarin / Rosemary.

Since my trip to Denmark, I haven't looked at the garden very much as we've had so much rain.

The sun was shining on it ,so that's good as it needs some warmth.

The sun has now crept around to the front of the house.

and it's now beginning to show a lot more blue.

I then went to the front of the house to take a photo of my new view. During the past few months someone has been cutting down a lot a trees. We are surrounded by trees and this should have been done many years ago. I'll be watching to see what starts to grow now the ground is open to the sun . 

Notice the sun has gone again

That's how my Sunlit Sunday has been this morning

If I understand there are some rules I must follow. I'm sure they can be broken a bit,
So I hope if I do show a few photos from another day it will be allowed.
This being my first time to join this link ALL my photos have been taken this morning.
Maybe it's made me have a little more patience than usual .
That's a good lesson for me.
Also it's the first time I've ever joined in anything which requires links.
If you read my blog you will know I'm not very technical when it involves
computer know how. I did panic a bit after I'd gone to all this effort
and I couldn't find my instructions on how to link.
Yes, I need to follow step by step instructions each time I want to show a link.
My blogging friend Daphne from Ivy Phyllis and Me. kindly sent them to me.
Daphne you are always in my thoughts and especially now when I'm linking..

In the sunlit window, is my new Orchid house plant. 

It was given to me by the Commune Floral Committee

 My last photo showing my new view taken through the kitchen window .

I've enjoyed participating in this and I hope you have too
 hope I'll have the time to join in every Sunday

Today I'm linking with Sunlit Sunday.

à bientôt

Barbara Lilian