01/01/2022 Happy New Year

 The maximum temperature here today is 15C, minimum 9⁰C. Blue skies but with quite a lot of clouds. Wind 16km/h South-Easterly winds with gusts up to 30 km/h.  Dry at present but rain is forecast from tomorrow for the rest of the week.  Thursday morning we measured 46mm overnight!

Some more recent photos, eventually I will get back to all the photos that I have not had time to edit from last year!!

Watching France see the New Year in on TV at Chantilly last night.

A bit of Christmas cheer amongst the potplants.

Friends who could not travel to the UK at the last minute, because of COVID, joined us for Christmas dinner so the table was laid for four.  

The two of us on Christmas day.

27/12/21 a tough rose hanging on in winter.

30/12/21 Top : Viburnum tinus and cotoneaster berries.
Bottom : Calendula and another surviving rose that amazes me.
The centre tree is a Ginkgo biloba,

31/12/21 Calendula.

I think this is one of the Blackbird (Turdus merula) youngsters being bombed by a chaffinch!

European robin (Erithacus rubecula).

The last sunset of 2021

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. 

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. 

24/10/2020 Trying once again to catch up!!!

  Maximum temperature here today 18⁰C, minimum 11⁰C.  43 mm rain measured in the last 24 hours...   22km/h South-westerly winds with gusts up to 43 km/h.   We have had some very strong winds, but luckily no major damage other than a few minor branches that have come down

Cyclamen

Calendula note the very small fly !

Sedum.

Possibly an edible mushroom but we did not try it.

So many acorns this year, almost worth buying a pig to have a clean up!

Red Admiral  (Vanessa atalanta).

Small Copper (Lycaena phlaeas)...

As above.

Speckled Wood  (Pararge aegeria).

Cuckoo Bee (Epeolus fallax) with a crab spider. Obviously not tasty as the spider ignored it...

As above.  The spiders take remarkably large prey at times, but also this may be a little too large.

Autumn Daffodil or Crocus (Sternbergia lutea).

Gendarme beetle (Pyrrhocoris apterus).

Common wall lizards (Podarcis muralis) that will soon be going into hibernation enjoying a few rays of sunshine.

Golden Rod Crab spider (Misumena vatia).

Cotoneaster berries.

Euonymus in its autumn colours.

Great banded furrow-bee (Halictus scabiosae) on the cosmos,

Common Blue female (Polyommatus icarus).

As above...

As above.

Large white (Pieris brassicae)...

As above...

As above.

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

See also my

 Bird blog

Joining up with My Corner of the World.

Photo competition running until 31 December - colourful photos.

B u n t

Let us all join in great fun.

16/02/2020 I went for a walk yesterday......

Maximum temperature in the Charente today 19C, minimum 9C. Rain measured this morning Nil.  24km/h south-westerly wind with gusts up to 51 km/h.

I went for a walk yesterday while the weather was fair, it gets colder as the week goes on if the forecast is right.  I took too many photos, so this will be only the first part of the walk.  Our slow connection just cannot cope with as many as 30 photos in one blog!!

Camellia in our neighbour's garden.  Ours are still in tight bud!

Cotoneaster also in another neighbour's garden, ours have already dropped their berries!

Looking across the fields.

Long-leaved Lungwort (Pulmonaria longifolia). Thanks to Susan for the ID.

As above.

Cowslip (Primula veris).

Dandelion.

Rose hips with rose bedeguar galls caused by the wasp (Diplolepis rosae). The female lays up to 60 eggs within each leaf bud. The grubs develop within the gall.

Speedwell.

Common Brimstone butterfly (Gonepteryx rhamni) on a cowslip.

Under observation....

As above.

Eurasian Crane (Grus grus) migrating North...

As above.

Hoverfly on Viburnum.

Lambs in our neighbour's field.

See also my

 Bird blog