A few of my favourite photos from September.

My apologies, but La Rochelle part 2 will follow soon!  I have just realised that I have not edited many of the photos I took then and time is not on my side at the moment!  So much fruit and vegetables in the garden which need bottling etc, that my blogs are taking second place to the kitchen, I am afraid. I will get back to normal eventually! These photos have been on my photo blog, but I know that many of you do not follow it.  I hope that you enjoy them!

La Rochefoucauld chateau

and its reflection in the Tardoire river!

A hover-fly  and  a bee on the garlic chives.

Autumn is arriving!

The last of this year's roses.

Sunset.

Green woodpecker.

Peacock butterfly.

An autumn Marigold brightens the day!

Mr Sparrow paddling and shouting it to the world, it seems.

Rainbow

Last but not least, we have had a lot of green lizards around this year.

I will catch up on all your blogs eventually; I promise!

Wow, three years of blogging! How the time flies when you are having fun!

Three years ago today, I published my first blog!  The time has just flown, and when I first started, I expected to run out of steam in a few months!  

Thanks to blogging, I have seen so much more of not only the Charente, but everywhere we have recently visited.  Having camera in hand makes me so much more observant, and I now notice things that in the past would have gone unseen!  In reading blogs, I have also taken tours through other people's eyes to almost all the places in the world, and ones I am unlikely ever to visit in person.  Thank you everyone for this, but I must single out  three blogs for   special praise; to Gaelyn, who has given me the finest views of the Grand Canyon I could ever expect to see, and also to Joan and Graham for keeping Africa alive for me.  There are others who doubtless deserve mention, but these three have been quite exceptional for me. 

I have made friends all over the world; some I have met, and others I keep in touch with by email and hope to meet one day.  When I have not been feeling well, people I barely know have been there for me, and when I feel like taking a short break from the computer, all my followers and vitual friends are there when I return.  Thank you everyone who has made my blogging experience a great one and I hope to be at it for some time to come.

For the past month I have been posting about our trip to Casablanca, so here are a few of my favourite photos that I have taken over this period here in the Charente.

09/01/13 I saw this gorgeous specimen parked outside our bank.

11/01/13 One of very few sunsets we have seen this year. It is mostly cloudy and raining!

14/01/13 While on the highway to Angouleme, being followed (temporarily!) by a Porsche, our favourite car!

and the same day, the flooded River Touvre on the outskirts of Angouleme.

16/01/13 Friends to dinner, and at last I had unpacked the decanter that my parents had bought many years ago in Mozambique. Probably red and white wine would look better but I was drinking Rose so......

20/01/13 We had a luncheon in the local village and decided that taking the car out was too risky, so we used shank's pony instead!

Same day, looking through some trees. Wonder when this cart last had an outing?!

24/01/13 A very cross goldfinch seeing off a blue tit at the feeder.

25/01/13 The River Son, not far north of us, is normally a quiet stream, but has now burst its banks.  The rain just does not stop!

26/01/13 A macro of my flowering orchid; a birthday present a couple of years back.

27/01/13 Raindrops keep falling on my head.........

28/01/13 During a break in the rain, I was walking around the garden trying to find a subject for a photo, when this very tiny fly landed right on the moss that I was looking at. Right time, right place!

minutes later, this goldfinch posed perfectly for me.

29/01/13 I noticed that there were some signs of apple blossom looking 'spring like'.

30/01/13 The church at Suaux seen from the entrance to the Mairie.

and on the way home, we saw this Norwegian Fjord horse in a waterlogged paddock.

31/01/13 I was fascinated by this 'rose' like fungi growing on the wood in the woodpile. 

A great tit poses for me.

02/01/13 The church in La Rochefoucauld

and the supermarket,

while the sky outside suddenly turned black.

Arriving home, we appeared to be in the eye of the storm!

04/02/13  Finally, photos of two blue tits and....

a great tit, waiting patiently for his turn at the feeder!

See also - My Life Before Charente Updated 08/02/2013

and my daily photo diary at http://photodiarydps.blogspot.fr/

Quadruplets Possibly Sextuplets !!

Further to the last post, here is an update on the chicks, Black Redstarts (Phoenicurus ochruros).  I have been watching them as closely as possible and only in my last photo, taken at 7 days old, do there appear to be six youngsters in the nest.  It is one of the smallest nests I have ever seen, though fairly deep.  I am wondering however if they are all going to fit in it for much longer!!  See how many you think there are ?

Mum appears to be doing a fantastic job and appears very patient with me taking a look every couple of days.

27 June 2012 above

29 June 2012

Finally, on 2 July 2012 at a week old, I can see what I think are 5 beaks here, but there also looks like another eye hidden on the left. Six maybe?

You might also like My Life Before the Charente  updated 28 June 2012.

Some people seem to be having a problem following this link from their reader; I am aware of the problem, but unable to fix it.  If anyone has a solution, I will be more than happy to hear about it.

Quadruplets!

Quadruplets (I think) were born yesterday, 24 June 2012 to our pair of Black Redstarts (Phoenicurus ochruros).  Mother and children well at the time of going to print!

Updates will follow as and when I can get them without upsetting the family.

Round the Garden - Spring is in the Air!!

At long last, the weather seems to be warming up (it was a windless 22 C (72F) degrees yesterday!) and there are a few signs that spring is approaching.  I only hope that we do not have another cold spell.  The sun's warmth has been very welcome and we have both enjoyed the heat on our backs. We have seen the occasional early butterfly and bee, and the lizards have reappeared in the last couple of days; it is good to see them basking in the sun.

 The usual avian suspects like black caps, great tits, chaffinches and goldfinches  have stayed in the garden over winter, enticed by the food we put out. The blue tits are still coming to the window sill for food, their favourite being sunflower seeds!

There are several hyacinths out, and to my delight, I now see 3 daffodils. Most of the bulbs had rotted after the snow melted in February!

A lone snowdrop hidden in the shade

The cactus seem to have survived the big freeze and they are enjoying the sunshine

  The bluebells are looking healthy and I hope they will soon form a mass of blue flowers

The wild violets are happy in their patches; the top picture shows that the flies are also again in evidence!

The hydrangea, having been pruned back, is starting to shoot all over

 One of my followers  told me the name of this plant some time ago, but I am afraid I have forgotten!! Can anyone out there come to my rescue?