Looking back.

It's now early June and I'm resting after my surgery

I've only planted up a few hanging baskets and

I've just had a phone call from 'Le Mairie' ( our local town hall)

It was strange to hear an English voice and also one I recognised,

 informing me that she was now the person in charge of the 'floral committee'

and would I be entering the floral competition as usual this year,

as I had not sent in my application form.

How things have changed since I first arrived to live in my tiny village

 take a look here

 

During the time  I've lived in France I've always had pots of flowers

on the window sills and by the front door, even when we were renovating our house.

 I felt a little sad having to say NO I would not be entering this year.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

If you'd like to look back with me at one of my previous posts  

 

here  are some of the flowers which have won me prizes.

Little by little I'm getting better.
I'm still having to rest a lot and not allowed to go out in the car yet.
Fortunately we have glorious sunshine so I've been sitting on our terrace
I've done a little sketching, but really not 100% back into it.
Hopefully I'll get my enthusiasm back soon.

 I hope you'll enjoy seeing some of my older posts.
when the pots & baskets where at their best.


Since I've been absent,  I've gained some new followers
I hope you will come back even though my posting will be sporadic
for a little while.
Also thank you so much to those of you who have sent me get well wishes.

 

 

  

à bientôt

Barbara Lilian

 

Roses & a few paintings from my sketch book

 

Since the treatment I had for my back problem

I haven't been very active on my blog.

and now I finally need to have surgery.

Which has made me turn to my favourite things.
My garden , which as I previously mentioned

 is having to look after itself.

But somehow it's not looking too bad.
 

I've just picked out a few photos I took of the pretty pink rose.

 

 

 

 

 

 



 

 

 

 

 

 

I've been sketching in my new sketch journals.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Every year these poppies bloom in my daughters garden.

I love the big flower, but unfortunately they don't last very long 

so they were a must to paint .

 

 

 

 

  

 

 

 

 

 

Montana Clematis is in full bloom & climbing everywhere, 

 except the ones I planted to grow up onto my pergola.

for some reason they didn't like where I'd put them.

so I took a photo of some in a friends garden .

 

Then quickly sketched this into my garden sketchbook.

 

 

 

 

This was  a sprig of Lilac  which I stole from my daughters garden

I find it doesn't seem to last very long in a vase.
  

 I painted this on the hand made paper I was given

I  struggled at first using this type of paper

but now I think I'm liking the different technique I have to use.

I glued it in my sketch book.

 

 

 

 

I would like to Thank all

 my blogging friends who take the time to look at what I share,
especially those who have sent me get well wishes.
 

I'll be away for awhile.

But I will be reading my favourite blogs

even if I don't make any comments.

 

à bientôt

Barbara Lilian

 

 



 

Scavenger hunt

organised by

green thumb Made with love

 

Where did the month of April go ??

 

I thought I would have been  organised this time

and

have had all my photos taken

and

 stored ready to show you.

Have

you guessed ?

 I haven't.

Mainly due to still not being fully active after my spell in hospital

and awful weather hindering me to get to the places I wanted to visit,

for what I call my photo shoot days.

 

Well here is my effort for  APRIL

 

 A is for ?

 

 Apple
 as it takes me back to school days,
how we learnt the
A.B.C.

 

We had  been to a new restaurant  recently opened near to where we live.

In years gone by it was the railway station .

The table decoration caught my eye
on each table they had placed

a  RED APPLE in a glass.

 

 

 

 

11 a.m.

 

Coffee time in our household.

Always HOT and made by my Mr France for ME.

 

 

 

 

SMOOTH

 

This was taken on a still day last summer.

 

 

Scale

Out come the dratted scales.

 

It's that time of the year again, the weather is getting warmer we stop layering up to keep warm . Look through our wardrobe and find we can't squeeze into those favourite trousers we wore last year.



Tile

 

 

It's difficult to find just a tile.

As where I live all the roofs look like this.

But I loved the look of the many different shades of terracotta

on this roof as I peeped through the widow at my daughters house.

 

 

 

 



 

 

LOGO 

 

 

This was taken at a vintage car rally.

 

 



SCRAP 

It was a wood burner in the house before renovation.
Now it's used to warm us up outside on a chilly evening
that we never want to end.
I think it needs emptying !!
 

 

 

 

 

 

MATCH

A group of local boys playing rugby.

My grandson is in there somewhere.

 

 

 

 

 

PATH

 

My pathway to heaven.

 

Taken a few years ago on our visit to the PROVENCE.

 

 

Layers

 

We often see these layers  overhead .

I call it sky painting.

 

 

 

 

Carry

Boys always love to do this.

 

Truck



 

This is a Lego master piece

 which my grandson made a couple of years ago.

 

 



 

 

I hope you enjoyed seeing my choice for Aprils



Scavenger Hunt

  http://suzzie43.blogspot.co.uk/p/scaerngera.html

 

 

So until next time keep your camera handy at all times and join in.

Scavenger Hunt

à bientôt

Barbara Lilian

 

 

Having fun with watercolour / aquarelle painting .

Before I went into hospital, I knew there would be times 

when I would be twiddling my thumbs,

so got myself some new sketching books,

and a few brightly coloured Faber Castell Pitt artist pens.

Then selected  a few of my Micron pigma pens 

 along with my Daler - Rowney Artists pencils.

I thought I'd try something new and what fun I had.

 

 

 

 

 

My friends have just come back from a trip to India

and brought me a lovely gift, a sketch book of handmade paper.

It has lots of raised little bits of wood and was certainly a challenge.

 

This is the lovely book.

It folds together with both curved edges just touching

 fastened with hand rolled silky cord and lovely buttons.

I love the way the paper easily tears from the binding.

 I'm sure I'll be finding lots of new ideas to use this paper .

 

 

 

On the way to the hospital we drove down an avenue of trees

 full of beautiful pink blossom. I knew I would love to paint this.

I didn't have my camera as I had other things on my mind !

But I didn't need it, it was imprinted in my mind,

just the thing for the hand made paper.

 

I wasn't sure how to tackle this quite flimsy paper,

so I tore a page out and jumped in with both feet.  

I kept it loose with not too much water

and was greatly surprised at my first attempt.

 

Here it is finished which later I carefully  stuck in my sketch book.

 



Recently I signed up to follow Polka dot April challenge 

 

 



 

This was my funky effort.

 I had great fun doing it.

But I haven't had the courage to send it !

 

 

One of the many blogs I follow is

Sharon Chapman at Wildflowerhouse

She has just become the proud owner of two of the most gorgeous

 fluffy cream coloured pups you could ever see.

 

   Pop over and have a look.

Her posts are varied and she paints lovely flower sketches.

 Recently she showed

 

Just Fun Doodles 

 

Which really inspired me to try something completely different.

 I'm always doodling when I talk on the phone.

so thought this would be fun and it was.

 

At first I didn't know where to start

and then all of a sudden I found I'd run out of paper.

I'll certainly do some more.

 

 

Also I've been wanting to start a sketchbook journal for ages

and  read that lots of  people  who keep journals

 always recommend to buy one of good quality.

Naturally  : Moleskine 

so I treated myself to a 21x13 cm. Carnet aquarelle .

Which are not available locally where I live in France.

What would we do without Amazon. 

Also  Stillman and Birn Beta series seemed to be popular.

I thought that while I was dropping things into my Amazon basket

I'd get one of each.

 

This is the front page in the Stillman and Birn journal.

I'll show you some of the inside pages later.

 

 

 

I think I'll be using the Moleskine more for landscapes.

 

Hope you like the very varied sketches I achieved

in between my treatment while I was in hospital.

Now I'm back home still unable to do any gardening.

So I'm painting like mad.

 

I've also done some  Annie Sloan Chalk painting.

 

That's for later too.

 

So for now I'll say

 

à bientôt

Barbara Lilian

 

 

 

 

Leaving my garden to look after itself.

Not done intentionally , but sometimes things have to happen that way.

I'm back after my stay in hospital, having treatment on my back.

Although not completely sorted due to a little hiccough with my blood pressure,

which on the last day of my treatment decided to shoot sky high,

which meant I was unable to complete the full treatment,

 and will have to go back in a months time.

It is greatly improved, but I still can't do any gardening for awhile.

 

 

  

Fortunately his basket was planted up some time ago
so we did have a few nice things to see
 Tete a Tete daffodils
 

 

 

 

 

So regretfully I'll have to leave things to Mr France.

Gardening is not his thing.
 Not so very long ago he couldn't tell a weed from a cherished plant.
He does all the hard ground work and I do the planting.

I'll be giving advice and asking him just to do the most important things.
 

My big new flower bed will not happen this year.

 

At the moment it's looking like this.

 

  

 

But it's not important.

I'm thinking when the soil is levelled off, I'll just lightly rake in some seeds
which were gathered last year and hope for the best.
 

This is what they looked like last year when my niece collected them for me,
 it's where we go on one our favourite walks.

 

 

Our communes have been sowing wild flower seeds en-mass in certain areas for the past few years.  

They're left to grow on their own amongst the grass with no attention what so ever .

 but look so pretty, and as my garden is on the rustic side in places

I think they should fit in quite nicely.

 

 

 

This is the view from the front of our house.
 

Shall we start with the potting bench, where most of the preparation  begins.
 

 

 

Trailing Fuchsias which we over wintered indoors, coming along nicely

 

 

 

 

 

 Something I could do was watch & nurture
some of the cuttings growing, that I took back in September.

So what's been happening around the garden, naturally and unassisted?

I'll take you on a tour showing the good the bad & the ugly.

 

Work in progress, hopefully this will get finished.
Mr France loves to build rustic stone walls,
 using the stones left over from the renovation he did when we bought this old ruin 20 yrs. ago.

 

 

These Tete a Tete miniature daffodils are new

 they were planted last year in the work in progress new bank area.

 

 

Muscari  bulbs in bloom planted last year.

Two different varieties. 

 

 

and the ones in the trough appear every year

a little on the small side due to neglect, put a pretty blue.

 

 

 

These big blousey Tulips were planted here by my Danish daughter in law

over 15 years ago. They come up every year, but this year I think this is the best they have looked.

Maybe they put on a special show for me, to cheer me up for when I came home.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

No seeds have been sown this year, I will be buying trays of plants this summer.  

 

Some trays of summer plants already bought for the window boxes & baskets.

This year not as many as usual.

Could be a sitting down job next week.

 

 

 

 

 



 



 

 

Hopefully, slow but sure I'll be back to my old self soon

doing what I love best

 pottering about in my garden.

 

Before I went into hospital I bought myself a new Stillman & Birn Beta sketchbook.

so while I was passing the hours in hospital I did some water colour sketches.

I'll show you some I did later in the week.

 

and maybe work in my garden will have progressed.

 

 

Thank you to all my friends who have sent me their kind wishes for my speedy recovery.

Some of you are also suffering with back problems, so I hope things are improving for you too.

 

 Even if I didn't leave comments on the usual blogs I follow I've loved reading your posts,

 keeping up to date with some of the things you've all been doing.

à bientôt

Barbara Lilian