30/12/2019 December in France and the last post this year. Happy New Year everyone.

Maximum temperature in the Charente today 12C, minimum 0C. Dry but a frost this morning. 10km/h South-Easterly winds with gusts up to 17 km/h.

01 December - the last of the cosmos.

07 December - cotoneaster berries which are still going strong.

17 December - caterpillars of the Large White butterfly (Pieris brassicae).  Our winter veg was under threat!!

17 December - Le Gendarme beetle or the firebug (Pyrrhocoris apterus). There were a few hundred of them on the hibiscus shrub which is covered in moss.

18 December - Our local supermarket, animated polar bears playing musical instruments.

19 December - Pointsettia in the dining room.

26 December - a surprise; roses still in the garden...

As above.

28 December - early sunset....

and about 30 minutes later.

I will be returning to our 2019 South African trip with blogs and photos next year - not that far away now.

See also my Bird blog I have many photos of birds and I will put most of them on this blog.

2019 as we saw it, month by month through the year. Happy Christmas.

January 30th  Driving through France in the snow on our way back from the UK

February 7th - Early lambs.

March 20th - Sunset.

April 13th - A visit from a Bank Vole (Myodes glareolus).

May 22nd -  Butterfly (Coenonympha arcania).

June 17th - Common Wall Lizard, (Podarcis muralis).

July 19th - Little owl on the barn roof,  (Athene noctua).

August 18th - Michael and Mary arrived at Angouleme Station from the USA.

September 30th - Cosmos in the garden.

October 18th - Red-fronted tinkerbird (Pogoniulus pusillus) on holiday in South Africa.

November 4th - Elephants having fun  Holiday South Africa.

December 18th - Christmas at our local supermarket back in France.

Wishing all my followers Happy Holidays and all the very best for 2020

20/03/2018 Same route, same shops, and same view of a slightly different sunset !

Maximum temperature today 6C, minimum 0C.   Dry; 20 km/h North Easterly winds with up to 57 km/h gusts.  Bitterly cold winds, despite blue skies, we both felt colder today than the rest of winter!!

Last night, I missed the setting sun but liked the sky anyway!

All the below were taken as drive-by shots so some are a bit blurred!

Today just leaving home...

Lopsided trees presumably because of the overhead wires

 Winter wheat on both sides of the road...

The farm house in the distance...

another farm, ploughed fields, wonder what they will plant....

More winter wheat.

The small village of Taponnat-Fleurignac,....

as above

Possibly a cherry tree (some what blurred), though ours are not in flower yet, forsythia - the yellow shrub in front.

Same old supermarket slightly different view....

Heading back home past the hardware section of  Leclerc, service station in the front.

Railway crossing entering Taponnat....

The new boulangerie - shut; it was lunch time !

More forsythia seen on the the way home.

Tonight's sunset.  Guess by now you have noticed all my sunsets are pretty much taken from the same spot outside in the road!!

I have a new blog entirely committed to our feathered friends.

https://myafricanbirds.blogspot.com 

07/03/2018 Gone shopping.......

Maximum temperature today 11C, minimum 4C.   11 mm of rain measured this morning and we have had some more rain today; 17 km/h North Westerly winds with up to 50 km/h gusts.  (316 mm of rain so far from the 1st of January).

 Looking across the newly ploughed fields, not sure how they have managed with all the rain we have had.

Eglise Saint-Remi de Fleurignac.  We dropped some bottles off nearby so I hopped out of the car to take this photo.

Built in 1845 This modest church of Romanesque origin has a single nave. 

The sky is getting darker by the minute.

Crossing the railway line,

Welcome to Leclerc supermarket...

I always love this reflection of the sign and the sky.

Inside in the entrance are parts of what was a working mill.

Driving home via Pont d'Agris in the rain that arrived while we were shopping...

The wet road home through the scenic route...

as above...

as above.