22/12/2021 I just wanted to say Happy Holidays

  The maximum temperature here today is 10C, minimum -3⁰C. Blue skies. Wind 22km/h South-Easterly winds with gusts up to 42 km/h.  Dry at present but rain is forecast from Friday for every day as far as the forecast goes!!!

I thought that I would have more time to blog in winter, it seems I was mistaken but I could not let December vanish without saying Happy Holidays, Happy Christmas and wishing you all a much improved 2022.

Here are a few of the photos I have taken since my last post, they are very random but I do take one photo every day as I post it on Blipfoto.com under the name of Charente if any of you are interested.  One photo a day is relatively easy most of the time!

11/12/2021 Sunset.

04/12/2021 European Robin (Erithacus rubecula).

06/12/21 Mexican Orange (Choisya ternata) and cotoneaster berries.

11/12/2021 Seeds from one of the Acer trees possibly (Acer pseudoplatanus).

13/12/2021 The winter garden.

15/12/2021 Another view after we spent the day sweeping up leaves.

14/12/2021 A young Common Blackbird (Turdus merula).

17/12/2021 A rose survivor despite the frosts.

19/12/2021 Eurasian blue tit (Cyanistes caeruleus) on the windowsill

20/12/2021 a day late for the full moon. It was misty on the 19th.

22/12/2021 Tonight's sunset.

 

A photo from a few years back but so apt for this time of the year. Another Bluetit.

I am still using the old camera and the old Nikon 55 -300mm telephoto lens.  The spare part for the Tamron (that I broke in my fall) is available, but with Christmas looming everything is going very slowly.  I live in hopes that I will have it early next year

Take care everybody, keep well and please stay safe in these difficult times.

My local list of wildflowers. (91 Species 02/12/2021).

See also my

 Bird blog

Joining up with My Corner of the World. 

18/04/2021 After a week of frosts and icy winds it looks like spring is returning.

  Maximum temperature here today 15⁰C, minimum 4⁰C.  Dry.   9km/h  North-Easterly winds with gusts up to 22 km/h.     Next week it looks like spring is really returning, hopefully for good this time.

Western Honey Bee (Apis mellifera) taking a drink.

As above...

As above, thirsty little fellows despite the colder weather...

As above but I liked the shadow.

Bluebells.

Wallflower.

Bumblebee (Bombus magnus) in the quince tree...

As above.

Cranefly (Tipulidae).

Blossom on one of the Acer trees.

European Orchard Bee (Osmia cornuta) on the apple blossom. A solitary bee... 

As above.

Quince blossom.

Black Tulips.

Apple Blossom.

Lilac.

Speckled wood (Pararge aegeria) and Persian Speedwell flower (Veronica persica).

Not sure what this bee is, I did not get to see its body, maybe one of the sweat bees!

House centipede (Scutigera coleoptrata) 15 pairs of legs, think it is missing a few! Without the flash...

and with the flash.

Take care everybody, keep well and stay safe.

My local list of wildflowers. (90 Species 23/08/2020).

See also my

 Bird blog

Joining up with My Corner of the World.

11/04/2019 Just around the garden.

Maximum temperature today 16C, minimum 5C.  Dry.   16 km/h North-easterly winds with gusts up to 36 km/h.

The temperatures drop again tomorrow, possible frost on Sunday!

Apologies for the long break in posts but I have had a really bad cold/flu and although I am almost feeling better, I still have very little energy and of course the cough is back again.  Meanwhile, Nigel is now in bed with the same problem plus continuous headaches.

Violas.

Acer tree - I have never discovered which type!

Ginkgo biloba.

Wild Violets.

A happy bee.

Speckled Wood - (Pararge aegeria).

Gendarme beetle or firebug  (Pyrrhocoris apterus).  There are already a lot here and I guess this means a few more!

Bay tree (Laurus nobilis) in flower.

Cherry blossom.

Mexican orange blossom (Choisya ternata [Sundance])

Tulips, and yes the bulbs came from Amsterdam.

 These last four photos were taken with the loan of a macro lens.  Guess I need lots of practice, but I am thinking it would be fun to get my own lens.

Bee...

As above.

A very tiny fly of some kind, maybe someone would be kind enough to ID it for me?

The stamens of a camellia flower.

See also my Bird blog 

and My life In the Charente

06/11/2018 Autumn colours and out to lunch - celebrating two birthdays.

Maximum temperature today 14C, minimum 8C.  Rain on and off all day and raining now. 5mm of rain measured this morning; 25km/h South-Easterly winds with up to 49 km/h gusts. 

The sunset a couple of nights back which I had not downloaded.

Driving to the restaurant today trying to get autumn colours avoiding reflection on the windscreen and raindrops!... 

As above.

Driving back home our neighbours walnut tree.

Arriving at St Sornin.  Remember I showed you the pictures of over 800 houses with roofs destroyed during a storm in July, still many are covered with plastic sheeting.....

Some are being worked on...

The restaurant has scaffolding but we were told they still have no date for when work might be done.

The place was packed so luckily we had booked for 4, the two men were celebrating. Jim on the left had his birthday yesterday and Nigel has his on Saturday.

Excellent value €14 each for a 4-course meal including wine and coffee.

The Euonymus back home is showing its autumn colours.

The Acer has silver seeds.

The Stinking Iris (Iridaceae foetidissima) has bright red seeds.

Surprisingly there are still buds on the climbing rose.

The lavender that I grew from seed is still flowering while the old plants were over weeks ago.

Good to see there are still some bees around and a few cosmos for them to collect pollen from....

As above

Last but not least a visitor to the window sill.

Eurasian blue tit (Cyanistes caeruleus).

I love the feather definition and the single raindrop on its tail.

I have at last updated my bird blog HERE