The Winner of my Give away gift is........

What a time to have Gremlins in my Laptop !!!!

That's why I'm late announcing the winner of my gift.

Everyone who left a comment on my

post

Grow Your Blog 2015

were all numbered  1 to 53

put into a hat

and Mr France

who is hobbling at the moment due to surgery on his knee 

kindly offered to pull out the winner.  I couldn't be sending this to a nicer friend.

I am so happy

We met way back in my early days of blogging.

I love reading her posts.

We have such a lot in common.

She loves the wild life and shows photographs of some of her wildlife visitors.

She also does the most wonderful watercolour paintings of them.

Has anyone guessed yet who she is?

Well it's Debbie Nolan

of 

View from Harmony Hills.

If you are new to blogging please pop over to visit her.

You won't be disappointed.

So congratulations Debbie

 please send me your address

and 

 I will get my gift posted off to you 

' tout de suite '

I would like to thank all of you who took the time

to leave a comment on my blog.

I hope you will continue to read and enjoy my posts.

 I'll leave you all with a sincere thank you.

and look forward to your next visit.

à bientôt

Barbara Lilian

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