Raindrops and Snowdrops

 snowdrops images free use

We've had so much rain, I've been in doors all week.
What do you do when your at home and it rains everyday?

It seems like most of you clean the house from top to bottom.
Have you met Daphne she decided to wash all her blue and white
crockery that she has on display. I didn't want to do things like that,
although she did make it sound a pleasure, pop over and take a look at her blog.
Every week she shares a tasty recipe, along with the music she listens to while
cooking/baking and she can make a visit to the dentist into an interesting story.


Those of you know me well,
know I'd rather be doing things in the garden, than dusting.
I'm always looking forward to Spring.

In between the few times it stopped raining, I had a quick wander around
the garden, and made a note of some of the things that I need to do
as soon as we get some dry days. Looking at the weather forecast
it won't be until the middle if next week.

I did another search to see if I could the find any snowdrops in bloom
 this is the variety I planted 2 years ago.

I still only managed to find one in flower, which had been
battered by the heavy rain, so I brought it indoors.



 Daphne spotted this lonely snowdrop amongst the
tete a tete daffodils in a photo I shared on my Facebook page.

I had hopes of the garden being full of white clusters of snowdrops.

Just like this.

 snowdrops images free use

There are so many different species. all so dainty.

Maybe I should have chosen a more hardy type similar to these.

 snowdrops images free use

I'll have to ask my friends if I can dig up some of theirs after they have

 finished flowering, to plant for next spring. Which is called planting

 'in the green' or wait till next Autumn and plant some more bulbs.

No gardening has been done, so I did the next best thing.

As I'd left my watercolour paints and journals handy

I had a great time sketching & painting Snowdrops.

This was painted in a Stillman & Birn Beta journal.
using Winsor & Newton pan paints.
I really like this paper it's thick so you can paint on both sides.

The next sketch was done in a  10 cm x 15 cm  sketch book made for me
by Valerie Gardener who has a lovely Sketching blog,
called Colours in the Briezh at the moment she is sharing sketches
 from her clothes  designed in the 60's.
She lives in northern France and travels a lot with her husband. She records
all their trips with sketches in situé. Her posts vary from time to time,
 I look forward to seeing her next posts as she is travelling again.

This sketch I did in the lovely handmade sketch book she sent to me.
All the pages are different types of paper.

 It's still raining,
and  while I've been doing these sketches, no dusting has been done.
Who cares, I'm back into watercolour painting,
and if we do have any unexpected visitors,
I'm sure they'll have come
 to see Mr France and I
'Not the dust'

All snowdrops images
are from snowdrops images free use

Have you got lots of snow drops in your garden ?
if so take some photos, I'd love to see them.

à bientôt

Barbara Lilian

Time for a change.

It's nearly 4 years since I created my blog.

How I've grown since my first post. 

I don't mean physically but
 certainly in confidence.

You will often see me  write '' I'm not very technical ''
but with the help from friendly blogging friends, 

I've learnt so much about computers.
 Now I've advanced and also have an Ipad.

I haven't had it for very long, so I'm still wearing L plates .
 I haven't yet mastered how to transfer things to use on my blog yet.
  it's so much faster when searching Internet for information.
After I've found how to do things 

 I do need to write the instructions in my book.

otherwise, when I want to do it again, I've forgotten.

How do you like my new header ? 

I've been trying to do this for quite sometime

but never seemed to get it right.

Then I found this very informative blog 

'Blissfully Domestic' so pop over and take a look,

it gives easy to follow step by step instructions 

How to  make a  New Blog header using Picasa,
which I already use for effects on my photos,
so that was a bonus.

If your thinking of changing your blog header, have a go,
if I can do it, I'm sure you can.




I must admit, I've come a long way since my first post
which was in 2012 titled
 'Welcome to the 1st. page of my new blog'
and the header looked like this.

Which at that time I thought I was doing well, achieving a collage.

Now I'm feeling quite pleased with myself.

So I've given myself a big pat on the back
for achieving a more professional header.

I hope you like the changes I've made to the layout of my blog.

I'll be back soon.

à bientôt

Barbara Lilian

Vegetable sketches.

Saturday morning after shopping, I was having my mid morning coffee,
and reading the blogs I follow.
 I saw that Ronelle from africantapestry
who writes and paints was
also having a mental block with her painting.
So I wasn't feeling so bad after reading that.
She describes this as losing her 'mojo'
Her post that day was vegetables.
ah - ha  I thought !

I'd just emptied the shopping bag,

full of colourful fruit & vegetables onto the kitchen worktop, 

and although I don't particularly like painting still life

the colours certainly looked tempting to paint. 

As I'd been lacking ideas to re-start watercolour sketch painting,
 and Ronelle who's style of painting I love

I thought this was an omen, I decided to get painting.

I'd recently been to a craft shop and bought a basic sketch pad, 

thinking this will get me started again.

Then when I feel I've really got my interest back,

I can go back to using my Moleskine journal again.

Paints and palette all ready.

A nice fresh bunch of Radish, almost like a posy of flowers

just waiting to be painted,

and delicious as well.

Painting palette, not touched for so long, all the blobs of paint dried up.
but amazingly just a few drops of water brought most of them back.

After a wobbly beginning, I used my Micron pens
and then mixed a few different shades of green.

 I roasted the Fennel with the potatoes, it was very tasty.

So thank you  Ronelle for the vegetable sketch you shared.

and my followers who have been encouraging me 

to do some painting. at least I've made a start.

When the weather improves 

I'll get out and try some scenic views and buildings for a change.

 I've joined an on-line painting course given by

  Shari Blaukopf 

who paints wonderful street sketches and snow scenes.

I'm hoping I'll learn something.

This is one of her paintings.

Winter snow scene by Shari Blaukopf

I'll be doing some (I mean a lot of ) practise lessons first,

before I show any of my efforts.

I'll say good bye

I hope you liked my sketches

and will come back again soon.

à bientôt

Barbara Lilian

Pretty Pansy Faces

Pansies are one of my favourite winter flowers, 

I plant some every autumn.

I love their flowers heads they remind me of smiley faces

 This year I put two troughs on the south side of the house 

and they were safely sheltered from our storm last week. 

Troughs of pansies in full bloom.

Early morning photo taken from the window.

these are dwarf pansies

 and we've been enjoying seeing them in flower for some time.

Then after a view days of warm sunshine 

  the tête à tête daffodils quickly came into bloom.

These tête à tête  daffodils are from a few years ago,

 I planted them a little later, than the others.

Last year I planted them in hanging baskets.

after they've finished flowering, I store them in a plant pot in the shed.  

I found a few more that had been forgotten,they'd already started to shoot .

so while the sun was shining I quickly shoved them into a trough.

Can't really call that gardening.can I ? at the moment.

I'm sorry to say it, but I'm not very enthusiastic .
Do you ever get like that ?
 please tell me it's not just me.

Thought I'd show you a few my pansy paintings

that I've made into cards.

they were painted a few years ago. 

I thought if I looked at some of my paintings
it might give me some encouragement, to start again.
I've set up a trestle table, found my sketch books and paper !
So ... until my next post, when ever that will be, I might surprise you.
Might be paintings or progress in the garden.

à bientôt

Barbara Lilian

How lucky we were.

Our weather forecast was hail and some high winds !

It all happened so quickly, we heard the hailstones on the windows,

the noise of the wind in the trees, and then saw things flying past the window.

It was recorded as a mini tornado, and we must have been in the eye of it.

We were so lucky......

If these very large high trees  had fallen in the other direction,

 the cottage would now just be rubble.

That's the corner of our cottage on the edge of this photo.

We are just thankful that it was just the road that was blocked

and the trees hadn't fallen on the cottage.

The electricity and telephone cables were brought down 

and we don't get a signal to use our mobile phones........

Fortunately the road which passes our house joins another road. 

so we were able to get out and alert the local commune.

Who quickly alerted the necessary services 

The next day a team of 4 men came to cut the fallen trees

 and clear the road so that the electric & telephone 

cables could be fixed back on the poles.

As we are so rural our cables have still to be put under-ground.

Now the huge tree trunks on the side of the road.

Not sure how long they will remain there,

as the owner of this land is now in a retirement home,

and in France everyone is responsible for looking after their own land !

Do you remember seeing pictures of our lovely pergola ?

during the summer it's covered in a grape vine 

with a Bignone/Campsis - orange trumpet climber.

This is what it looks like now.

Most of the boundary fencing was in bits

 and the rest was blown away.

I know it's sad when trees that have have been there for years, 

are damaged by storms, but these had never been managed 

and were far to high and too close to our property,

so in a way we are happy.

Can you believe that this window decoration remained in place,

it was on a sheltered wall.

I've just seen the news on our television
and seen how many states in the USA
are being given warnings of severe snow storms .
To all of you that maybe affected, I hope you stay warm and safe.

Weather permitting, I'm hoping that soon
I'll be able to get on with preparing some raised flower-beds
for the new David Austin roses I've chosen.
( with  help from Mr France of course. )

I'll be back when the storm damage is cleared up,
and the flower-beds prepared,

So until then .

à bientôt

Barbara Lilian