Showing posts with label lavender. Show all posts
Showing posts with label lavender. Show all posts

Sunday, August 15, 2021

15/08/2021 Eating out again :-) Plus a few extras.

 The maximum temperature here today is 28⁰C, minimum 18⁰C.  Dry but there is a slight chance we may get a shower.  Wind 17km/h  North-Westerly winds with gusts up to 41 km/h.   

This visit was at the end of July to Restaurant L'intemporel.   I had only been here many years ago, but it has recently changed hands, been improved and has excellent references, so as we are now allowed to eat out we thought this was a chance to try it.  Sadly it was rainy and we could not eat in the garden, but in fact, eating in the conservatory was probably even better.


We were right next to the Tardoire river and the Pont dit du Château de La Rochefoucauld. Listed as a Historic Monument since 1935, this 15th century freestone work of art links the castle to the city.

La Rochefoucald Chateau.

Part of the view from our table...

as above, plus a glass of wine had arrived by the time I took this 😉

and just in front of the bridge we had company.

The menu changes every day so we just had the standard menu.  The starter was Fois gras, something we do not eat out of choice as we do not like the way it is obtained, but I have to say it was delicious.  Served of course with sliced French pain (bread).

Main course was duck breast with a few vegetables - melt in the mouth.

Dessert was apricots with ice cream - (possibly raspberry flavour but we were not sure) served in a melon sauce.
Coffee followed and we went home very satisfied without feeling like we had eaten too much.
They do a tasting menu of five courses on weeknights and weekends so we plan to try that out for our 40th wedding anniversary on the 28th of August.

Meanwhile in the garden life goes on.....
The Star Gazer Lily was flowering well.  A gift from our French neighbour for my birthday about 12 or so years ago.  It has done so well.

Cosmos with an unknown bee, it was carrying so much pollen its body was out of sight. 

Calendula with yet another bee, possibly Colletes succinctus, but I am happy to be corrected.

Rose of Sharon (Hibiscus syriacus).

and with a bee, unidentified.

Beating the birds to the raspberries.

and a Black Cap juvenile (Sylvia atricapilla)  getting there first!

Another unknown bee pollinating the pumpkins

The white-tailed bumblebee (Bombus lucorum) in the lavender.

A close up of the stamens of the Star Gazer Lily.

Hoverfly (Sphaerophoria scripta) on the agapanthus.

Finally, we have de-stoned over 1000 plums, they have been dehydrated ready for use during the year until next years batch arrives hopefully.  I use them in cooking and chopped they go into our homemade muesli breakfast cereal.

Note: We are now allowed to eat out, but by law, we have to present our ID and our certificate of a double vaccination.

Take care everybody, keep well and stay safe.
My local list of wildflowers. (91 Species 20/06/2021).

See also my


Joining up with My Corner of the World. 

Tuesday, July 9, 2019

09/07/19 Just around the garden. Plus one photo out on the road.

Maximum temperature today 28C, minimum 17C.  Dry.  21km/h North-easterly winds with gusts up to 47 km/h.  No sign of rain in the forecast for the next week so lots of watering!!

We saw this stunning sight while out on the road.

Back home bumblebee on the sage.

Crane-fly on the Californian poppies.

Bubblebee on the cotoneaster.

Bee on the cotoneaster.

Meadow brown (Maniola jurtina) on the lavender.

Hopper on a Calendula.

European Wall Lizard (Podarcis muralis).

Bombylius species on the lavender.

Gendarme beetle or firebug (Pyrrhocoris apterus).

Web spinning garden spider, possibly a Cross Spider (Araneus diadematus).

Hydrangeas.

Raspberry,

The flower of the succulent Echeveria, not that pretty but interesting.

Quinces.

Hazel nuts.

and last but not least another wall lizard. (Podarcis muralis).




See also my Bird blog 



Tuesday, November 6, 2018

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