Showing posts with label reflection. Show all posts
Showing posts with label reflection. Show all posts

Monday, February 22, 2021

20/02/2021 Last weeks walk

 Maximum temperature here today 16⁰C, minimum 10⁰C.  Dry but very grey skies.  21km/h South-Westerly winds with gusts up to 74 km/h. 

I have not been out walking since last week when these photos were taken.  The very high winds have been a problem and my eyes, despite wraparound glasses,  just water all the time and I cannot focus on where I am going let alone focus on the camera.

At home the Viburnum tinus is in flower.

and the first crocuses.

Out walking it was a little misty to begin with but it soon cleared.

The lambs were playing...

as above...

As above...

Looking over the local town.

Seen outside somebodies house.

The little stream is still flowing very fast.

Muddy puddles everywhere....

and the cattle are still standing in mud.

A pleasant surprise was seeing about 8 Brimstone butterflies at various places along the walk, only one settled long enough for me to get a photo. (Gonepteryx rhamni).

Many hundreds of Cranes (Grus grus) were flying overhead, but I was only carrying the Nikon Coolpix so photos were not easy to get.  Even more so because most of my walk was through the woods and the trees were in the way!  Good to see them returning to the North.

Some of the track where I was walking.

Seen in somebodies smallholding. With thanks to Richard we believe them to be Emperor Geese (Anser canagicus), presumably, these have been domesticated. 

Flowers were in abundance, Dandelion (Taraxacum officinaleabove with a bug.

Gorse (Ulex europaeus).

Lesser Celandine (Ficaria verna)

Persian Speedwell (Veronica persica)

Sun Spurge (Euphorbia helioscopia).

Unknown fungus.

And a sunset that surprised me at the end of the day.


Take care everybody, keep well and stay safe.

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

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Sunday, January 10, 2021

10/01/2021 Trying to catch up......

   Maximum temperature here today 3⁰C, minimum -2⁰C.  Dry  26km/h North-easterly winds with gusts up to 52 km/h.  

I apologise for not answering comments on my last post but feel now, that it is far too late.  There were no questions to be answered, so to all of you now I can only say Happy 2021 and let us hope that the vaccines will soon work, and the rising numbers of COVID cases will soon drop.  The numbers now are beginning to have names and I have lost one friend in South Africa to date.

Much has been going on and time never seems to be on my side.  I will though try to get a few blogs done over the next few weeks.  These photos were all taken in December, I still have to work on January!!!

23 December Nigel had an appointment in Soyaux the other side of Angouleme, we really picked a bad day for the drive!

Sunset, not the same day as above.

I just liked the reflection in this muddy puddle seen out walking.

The Gorse seems to have the dates all wrong as do many other plants!

Common Holly (Ilex aquifolium).

Our garden on a very grey day when a glimmer of sun suddenly poked through a cloud

Flowers on the rosemary.
Seen out walking, the farmer's way of hooking up the telephone line!!

Ivy in an oak tree.

Striped Toadflax (Linaria repens).

Sitting Bull!!

The local, quite small chateau.

Box Holly (Ruscus aculeatus).

Mistletoe.

Puzzle that we both did over the Christmas week - not easy!!

Take care everybody, keep well and stay safe.

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Monday, March 23, 2020

23/03/2020 The rest of the photos from the last walk.

Maximum temperature here today 19C, minimum 9C. Dry.  Frosts forecast for later this week and all our fruit trees are in blossom!!   14km/h South-easterly wind with gusts up to 34 km/h.  

Apologies for the delay in posting this, the sun has been shining and we have both been working in the garden.  Time has been limited at the computer, especially as I have also been inventing meals with what we have available.  We have not been out now for 10 days but will try to get a few necessary items from the supermarket tomorrow, not forgetting to carry our travel permit with us or we could be heavily fined!!

Walkers on the railway line.  Good job this part of the track has been closed for a while!

Forsythia.

Under observation.

What I think is Hawks-beard (Crepis tectorum) with a bumblebee.

Now I wonder who lives here.

Wondering if this giant snail is a deterrent to the smaller ones!

Squirrels on gateposts.

Fast-flowing ditches. 

Reflections in a dam.

  Le Logis de Saint Vincent. Logis (lojh-ee) means "home" or "dwelling" in French. Whilst these walls now enclose the premises of a company whose business is concerned with drainage equipment, we do know that in the 1940's, the large multi-storey complex was used as a type of orphanage. This may have been the original purpose of the building, as it was clearly built much more than a century ago.   The only reason we know it was an orphanage, is because one of the child occupants who now lives in the USA contacted me when he saw a previous post of mine. Interesting to say the least of it

Derelict a little further up the road.  This was a thriving farmhouse in the 40's, the orphan that contacted me re the above, said he was often brought up here when the adults were all playing belote - a French card game.

Returning back home this was the sunset that appeared in the evening.

Back home in the garden the tulips are blooming...

and the few days of sunshine has seen the return of the Common Wall Lizards.


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