I've uploaded the pictures back to front so I'll have to tell the story of our summer backwards.
Here is the result of 3 month's work in the garden. We built our 2 new garden sheds and demolished the old metal one. We've installed all the shelving and made hanging places for all the tools and are really rather pleased with ourselves. The only downside is the tax we have had to pay to the French government for the privilege, 325 euros per shed! We always like to do everything properly so we declared our intentions to the Mairie and got the 'declaration pre-alable' forms accepted despite all our French friends saying not to bother as we don't want to be fined even more for doing the wrong thing! We have since discovered that the tax will be abolished at the end of the year! grrrrrrrrr
I haven't had as much time as usual to do any sketching but here are a few I managed to fit in. These Dahlia and Buddlea flowers bloom every year in my garden and I love to draw them. I have collected 3 different varieties of Buddlea and this magenta one is my favourite grown from a stolen cutting from down the lane. I'm glad I did take the cutting as the following year the owner of the plant dug it up leaving a big hole outside his wall.
Hydrangeas are my favourite flowers and these blooms came from the local re-cycling centre where everybody takes their garden waste as well as paper etc. I spotted them being dumped and rescued them to take home where they lasted for several days.
Relaxing at home after lunch with some friends I drew a seashell which I've had for years but never drawn before. It's a very difficult shape to capture on paper but fascinating to study with it's fibonacci spiral.
The same friends invited us on a picnic with them one Sunday and took us to the 'Plage de Legeur' a delightful spot by the river where the children could paddle and the adults could chill out in the shade of the trees.
Bob and I decided to treat ourselves to a lunch out after completing shed no 1 and this is the view through the window of the charming restaurant by the harbour where they cook delicious steaks on an open fire, yummy!
This is the view from my seat on the sofa where I sat at the end of a hard days slog shed building. Those geraniums outside the window are now all the way to the top and we can hardly see out but up till now I haven't had time to cut them back! They will have to wait till we come back from our holiday now.
My next door neighbour, Isabel, gave me a few plant cuttings from her garden at the beginning of summer and I've managed to keep most of them alive, mainly by planting them in view of the kitchen and watering them with the lettuce washing water.
Here is the first page of the sketchbook decorated with various geranium flowers from my friend Kathrine who also gave me a handful of cuttings. I think some of them have stayed alive too despite being rather neglected due to our other distractions!
Well that's it for a few weeks, we're off in the morning in the camper car, heading south to profit from a bit more sunshine. I've packed a couple of sketchbooks, paints, crayons and pens so there will be plenty to blog about when we return.
A bientot, see you later!
