Autumn in my part of France.

Just returned home, after celebrating my 75th Birthday in Denmark.

I'll tell you about that in my next post.

Before I left I did some tidying up in the garden 

so that it wasn't too much to do when I returned.

It had just rained and everywhere was looking fresh.

It was just turning to dusk and thought it was a good time 

to get my Panasonic aim & shoot pocket camera out,

Non of these champignons are edible.

but look lovely in the wild part of my garden.

These champignons have a lovely shiny sheen on them

 and the leaves with tiny droplets clinging on, looked sparkly in the scanty light.

I love these raindrops glistening on the leaves.

I raked off a lot of fallen leaves and found these primula in bloom.

Having such  warm weather for the time of year,

 some plants don't know which season it is.

We don;t usually see these in flower until early Spring.

I even saw some tips of the daffodils,

so I quickly covered them over with some compost.

Far too early.

I found this old metal watering can when we moved here many years ago

when we started the renovation. It was hidden in the overgrown garden.

It has a hole in it, but I use it for decoration. Sometimes I put

 a washed jam jar or a cut off water bottle inside, then

I can put wild flowers in it. Living in the country

it's so much nicer than a vase.

I love a bit of rustic.

How's your garden looking, 

are you continually raking up leaves ?

Do you still have plants in flower ? that are usually dormant by now.

Let me know.

 Several of my gardening friends, from different parts of the world

have told me how different their garden looks to previous years.

Hope it's a good sign !!

à bientôt

Barbara Lilian

Roses for you

Rain was forecast so I couldn't leave these beauties 

to get battered.

These have now dried nicely. 

Enjoy your weekend.

I'll be back soon to show you how autumn 

is progressing here in rural France.

à bientôt

Barbara Lilian

October

 I've been missing for awhile and already it's October.

Autumn can't quite make up it's mind whether to arrive or not.

It really doesn't feel like Autumn yet here in my part of France. 

As always the Virginia Creeper is the first to put on her red robe.

While the summer flowers hanging in their baskets
 are still showing off their brilliant blooms.
Thanks to Mr France and his continual
watering and feeding.

The Dahlias were a little disappointing.
maybe I'll give those a miss next year.

The late summer berries are still on the bushes,
I'm not a jam maker, so these will be left as food for the birds.

I have seen some signs of Autumn on my walks,
but these were too prickly to put in my pocket.

I took just a short walk this morning in between the showers.

Leaves & acorns are falling, 

But the glow of orange and red on the trees is not here yet.

Here we are on the lane back home and to

La Petite Maison  our guest house

Waiting for our visitors to spend a long weekend in la campagne / country.

Thank you to everyone who have sent me messages
wondering if all was well, as they had missed seeing my posts.
I never expected to be missed in the world of blogging.
Thank you so much,
it's your kind thoughts that make it all worth while.

à bientôt

Barbara Lilian

Some of my favourite things.

I'm sure those of you who are getting to know me
a bit more will know what most of my favourite things are.

 I'm unable to look after my garden at the moment as I've just spent 5 days in the
 clinic again, having treatment for my back problem and now I need to take things easy.

With flowers all around our home I couldn't wish to be resting in a better place.

I can't seem to get back into my painting, so I thought I'd browse through my photo albums and pick out some of my favourite things to cheer me up.
Would you like to see what I've chosen.
Get yourself a cup of coffee or what ever your favourite drink is,
and if you love flowers I'm sure you'll enjoy these photos.

I love the coffee Mr France makes for me mid morning.
better than any Starbucks, not that we have a Starbucks near where we live.
As you can see Mr France has drunk his coffee before I've even tasted mine.

During the past few days we've had some stormy weather
with lots of rain, which was badly needed, but has damaged a lot of the flowers. 

Fortunately Mr France had noticed that the early flowering pink rose

had a few new buds on it. so he cut this one for me.

and now I'm able to enjoy seeing it indoors.

Along with some more pink roses, which I have now hung to dry.

 The first photo selected has to be the Lavender from my own garden.

After my visit to La Provence region.

I had to have a Lavender bed of my own.

and also I had to paint what I'd seen.

A few of the hanging baskets we have every year.
These were from a few years ago when we won First prize in the floral competition.

This year we planted some pendulum  Begonias which have given us
a beautiful splash of colour all summer and it's still looking good.

A totally different basket to the previous one much daintier
flowers, which hangs at our holiday cottage where the guests stay.

Now for a selection of flowers cut from the garden.

With it being so hot and dry this summer, I haven't had many flowers to cut.

Our new Pierre de Mansard rose has certainly bloomed well for the first year. 

Pretty Spring flowers in a dainty cup.

Summer pinks & blues.

A lot of you seem to be wishing for Autumn. not me I hang on to every sunny day
hoping summer will last another month.
Our two eldest grandsons, are moving on in their education next week
 which means they will be leaving home.
So a family get together around our pool is planned for tomorrow.

This was one of many get together meals, during this summer
 when our son was here from Denmark with his family.
We just love having our home full of family and friends.

Boys at work.

Pool waiting for the family, teenage grandsons and girl friends.
What better way to end their summer vacation before College starts on Monday.

Next week I'll be taking a break. revisiting the Atlantic coast region. 

Mr France has rented a tiny fisherman's cottage.

It will be such different scenery for us. I'm really looking forward to it.

 hoping the good weather will hold out and we can just stroll along the beach, 

 enjoy a nice fish restaurant, nothing too energetic.

 and take lots of photos, 

Maybe it'll help to get me back in the right frame of mind to paint.

I hope to see you again soon

 as I'll certainly be sharing my short break away from the countryside.

à bientôt

Barbara Lilian