Take a walk with me where I live in rural France.

What a difference a day makes. 

We had many weeks of rain, then snow and then more rain with grey skies. 

 This morning we woke up to a cold and frosty start to the day.

  and by mid morning the sun was shining and the sky was clear blue.

                                 

                                                   Would you like to join me on a walk ? 

                                                    We'll start off at the rear of the house.

These trees are Hazelnut which grow in abundance in our area.

I love the catkins hanging. When I was a child we called  them lambs tails.

   

 These Hazel trees form the boundary between our land 

and

the field where the farmer sometimes puts his Limousin cows to graze.

 We are now entering a wooded area.

This time of the year chain saws can be heard all around, as everyone is busy cutting their wood.

  Stacks of wood like these can be seen in most places stored and left to dry for a few years.

I thought you might like a peep at what is hidden in these woods.

 I'm not sure what some of you may think when you see these photos.

You will either love them! 

or think

 'how could anyone let this happen' 

Let us move on.

We're now out of the woods and back on the lane.

I love this view from my house where the stream is winding its way through the fields.
We can hear the rush of the water now after all the rain.

There's plenty of water at the moment, so the water level in our well will now be high.

We are now back on the road to where I live.

 Over the hill.

Et voilà, en face de chez moi.

In the summer we use the well water for all our hanging baskets.

I must show you just one more ruined house.

Since we have lived here we have seen this house gradually fall down.

Unfortunately there are many houses like this, just left to fall to ruins.

 It seems the younger generation now want modern houses which are built 'off plan' 

with very little character and look like matchboxes.

 I am very sad about this ruin, it could have looked something like this.....

The signs that spring is on it's way.

 Heather blooming and the Quince beginning to show signs of blossom.

Hope the frost doesn't kill it off.

I hope you enjoyed walking with me through the woods and the lane where I live.

à bientôt

Barbara Lilian

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.

Indoors wth a Home and Garden magazine.

It's really April showers weather in my corner of France. I'd hoped to do all sorts in the garden, but now at my age I only work outside when it's NOT raining. Gone are the days when I'd be a busy Bee doing things like there was no tomorrow. So I've spent some time indoors browsing through some of my old magazines. One in particular it's Danish, unfortunately I can only look at the pictures but the decorating ideas from other peoples homes are so lovely it's well worth it. I usualy bring it back with me when we go to visit our grandchildren. http://www.isabellas.dk/

Isabellas magazine