From Me to You

Wishing you all a lovely day for this St Valentines Day.

Someone could be receiving this heart filled with Lavender from my garden

along with a few other extra surprises offered as my gift

from joining the 'Grow Your Blog Party'

So please come back again on Monday when I'll be showing the name

of the winner of my gift, it could be YOU

My Mr France has never been one to give me flowers

but what could be nicer than seeing this pretty little flower 

growing on his miniature Orange tree, which he looks after with tender care.

Also this beautiful rose which he chose and planted in our garden.

So I have Valentines day all year round.

I know it's not a rose but I'm showing this poppy I painted

they grow in my daughters garden. 

So it reminds me of her.

Have a lovely weekend whatever you are doing.

Take care

and

Keep warm if you are living in those cold snowy parts of the world.

à bientôt

Barbara Lilian

Rustic houses in rural France.

I frequently pass through this hamlet, how it's changed from the way it looked 25 yrs ago.

Most of the houses were ruins, the roofs had fallen in and very few people still lived here.

Then we began to see scaffolding being erected and the sound of cement mixers whirring.

some years later it was alive again. We met an English couple who had bought a ruin and 

 renovated it for their holiday home, but they helped to bring life back into the hamlet.

25 years ago, I have memories of a little old man sitting on a stool 

outside the front door of this little cottage making baskets.

Mr France was driving and I had remembered to put my camera in the car

so I was able to capture the roof tops with my pocket Panasonic DMC TZ 4

How different the roofs looked today, as if they had been painted white.

The houses are surrounded by forest of mainly Pine, Chestnut. and Oak.

Here the famous Bolets de Cèpes - Champignons grow

These mushrooms grow in abundance in this region. 

However I still find it hard to find them.

 The hamlet now has street lighting.which is still rare in most rural places. 

This is France of bygone years brought back to life.

I hope you enjoyed seeing the rural region of France where I live.

 I can show you lots more.

Let me know.

à bientôt

Barbara Lilian

Nature has been Painting the leaves.

 

A sprinkling of snow has covered the ground

and a visit from Jack Frost has painted the leaves.

A good reason to wander around the garden with my camera.

The shrubs have started to show new green

But the leaves are frozen after the sprinkling of snow.

 

The gate is open waiting for visitors,

 but our only visitors are the birds

The birds are our regular visitors.flitting from feeder to feeder 

then fluffing up their feathers to keep warm.

Their water is frozen.

and they seem to be leaving the coconut in preference for the grease seed balls.

I love to see the ornamental grass covered in frost.

The vintage wash stand full of sprouting Saxifrages

looking like a cake that's been dusted with icing sugar.

The moss is showing a beautiful bright green, nice for the moment
 until the spring when Mr France comes with the jet-wash machine !

 

I hope these new pale green leaves will not turn brown.
It's still early, so they could withstand a trim if they do.

 Come back soon and take a wander around my garden with me
when hopefully we have some warmer weather and we have some flowers in bloom.

So until then keep warm where ever you are
and I look forward to your visit.

à bientôt

Barbara Lilian

What do you do when it rains everyday.?

Thank you to all the bloggers new to me,who took time to visit me and leave such nice comments.

And especially to those of you who have become a follower. 

After I'd visited lots & lots of blogs

who had joined in the ''Grow Your Blog 2015 Party ''

hosted by Vicki-2bagsfull

I needed to do something else, so decided to get my paints out and do some sketches,

 Some that I can use for cards.

As you can imagine living in France I've taken lots of photographs

for future watercolour paintings.

 However it wasn't one of my own photos I chose.

I saw this on Dianne's blog

which I admired and asked her if she would mind if I painted it.

I hope you like my impression of the lovely view in Normandy, 

which Dianne captured with her camera.

If you love France and have never visited her blog

All Things French

take a look, it's full of wonderful photos taken in France
along with other charming photos. 

I used 15x10 cm. post card size 230 gr and ripped the edges off.
All paints are Winsor & Newton artists aquarelle.

Now from my Christmas visit to Denmark.

If you missed my post or need reminding take a look here

Our walk at the cold snowy harbour on the North west coast of Denmark.
Looking for pebbles with holes.

Used as a warning there's a step.

Where the fishing boats are  pulled out of the sea.



My first attempt of painting boats. -  I think I have a lot to learn.

Spending time re looking at it here, I can already see where I've gone wrong
I should have given more depth to the bottom of the boats
to show they were out of the water .
I also found it difficult to paint the snow on the sand .
So I'll put that down to a lesson learnt.

A happy reminder of our winter picnic.

 I've painted this in a different style in my Moleskin journal which is different paper.

Apologies for the bad photo. it's not showing the colours as they really are. 

  

The view from the vintage caravan in the woods.

which the family call ''The Shed''

This was painted on 100gr paper, which I'm not used to using,
but thought I'd try it for sticking onto cards.

One of the many summer houses near to the one we stayed in.

I think the golden yellow looks charming against the snow

 and the dark contrast of the pine trees.

I enjoyed painting this.-  I used 300gr. Arches cold pressed 100% cotton .

This was the summerhouse we stayed in.

Would you like a peep inside?

I'm hoping we can manage to get another trip in before our busy summer.

To my new followers, I hope you've enjoyed your visit
Thank you for taking the time to view the things I share.

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