Wordless Wednesday – A Sea of Corn ALL PHOTOS © JANE MORLEY If you enjoy the photos on my blog please do visit my brand new website http://www.janemorley.photography where you will find many more photos and also http://www.theartcardpress.com for a host of greeting cards and…
Tag: Living in France
Thursday Doors – Lucky 13
So here I am, still on WordPress and all set to stay awhile and participate in one of my favourite ‘challenges’ Thursday Doors! I’m back in the world of graveyards again for this week’s entry as I couldn’t resist sharing a door I found in the city of Angoulême cemetery this week. The weather was particularly…
Thursday Doors – A Medieval Stone House
It’s been a week or three since I posted for Thursday Doors – Christmas being, fingers crossed, a busy time here for the boutique and work sometimes just has to take precedence – but I’m surprised how much I’ve missed my regular postings and the Thursday Door community, so I thought I’d post a rather special…
(Extra) ordinary – A Ruined French House and a Fireplace
When we moved to France a few years ago, one of our projects was to be the restoration of a rather dilapidated cottage – the former caretaker’s cottage – in the grounds of our house. At the time the cottage was already in a state of poor repair but it did at least boast a…
Happy Place – a French Hillside and a View
When I saw the title of this week’s WordPress Weekly Photo Challenge I knew exactly what I would say if asked what is my ‘Happy Place’ and where I would go to find my ‘groove’ and inspiration . For almost 14 years now we have lived on a hillside in south western France. The roofs…
Boundaries, Lines and Grapevines
The grape harvest (vendange in French) is well underway all around the hillside and watching the machines trundling up and down the rows of vines I decided I’d better get out and about with my camera before they finish and the grapes are gone for another year. The vines are one of the things I…
Thursday Doors – A Village House and Giant Gates
There is a well-known saying that an Englishman’s home is his castle – a love for privacy and a patch of personal territory on our overcrowded island is perhaps the explanation of this notion – but since moving to France we have been more than a little impressed by the Frenchman’s approach to presenting and…
Change – Sunflowers After the Sun
We’ve had the delight of fields of yellow surrounding us on the Hillside for a few months, but the sunflowers are finally being harvested. Here in France they are called ‘Tournesol’ which literally means turn to the sun, and this is exactly what they do. For several weeks seas of bright yellow faces look up…
Growing Tomatoes and Connecting with Nature
I’ve thought a lot about the state of the world lately as we’ve been picking the fruit in the orchard and harvesting vegetables and herbs from the potager and the herb garden. It seems to me a sad thing, that for all the miracles of modern science and technology, so many of the supposed advances we…
Blackberry Tuesday and the Colour Purple
Anyone looking at my recent blogposts would imagine I had a serious obsession with medieval churches and fruit. I’m going to add to this impression with my post for tonight and I make no excuses, it’s a busy time for fruit on the Hillside. Most of the apple trees in the orchard are ready for…
Thursday Doors – The Abandoned Farm Cottage
My offering for Thursday Doors this week is not exactly pretty and certainly not an impressive example of a door but I found this farm cottage on the edge of a quiet lane a compelling subject for a few photos. It seemed to be almost out of place amongst the lush vineyards of south western…
Thursday Doors – Inside Out
On Tuesday morning I set out on a photographic visit to an ancient local church a friend of mine had mentioned to me. It has to be said that our little corner of France is blessed with a wealth of ancient churches, a host of breathtaking examples from the 12th and 13th centuries lying within a…
Thursday Doors – Rue Tranquille
Exploring some of the beautiful, narrow backstreets in the old town of Périgueux in the Dordogne, we came across this stunning ancient doorway. The heavy oak and iron studded door itself made it more than worthy of a photo but the wonderful carving around the door in the warm local limestone made it something extra…
Muse – History, Letters and a French Brocante
This time last week a friend took me to visit a brocante (the French version of our antique and bric a brac shop) which she had discovered in a small village not many kilometres from the Hillside. I think if anyone had asked me to describe the brocante of my dreams I couldn’t have invented…
Darkest Fruit
Before moving to France 13 years ago I had always dreamed of having an orchard and indulging in a variety of homely pursuits like baking apple pies from my own apples and creating jams and conserves from my prizewinning strawberries and raspberries. We now have the good fortune to have just such an orchard and…
Thursday Doors – Le Manoir d’Alfred de Vigny
Just across from our hillside is the wonderful property which used to belong to French poet Alfred de Vigny in the early 19th century. This medieval manoir was his retreat where he wrote some of his finest work in the wood-panelled room at the top of the stone tower and where he pottered about in his vineyards…
I’ve Got a Silver Machine……………..
The hillside is currently in preparation for our summer theatre spectacle, to be performed by our friends ‘Le Petit Théatre de Blanzac’ during four evenings of July. This talented bunch of amateur enthusiasts with a sprinkling of professional input are always immensely ambitious in their productions and this time is no exception. A full costume…
The Reluctant Model – Portraits in Black & White
Since we arrived in France almost exactly thirteen years ago there have been many magical moments here on our beautiful hillside. One of the most life changing for me in many ways was the suggestion four years ago that we should play host to the local theatre company for their summer outdoor ‘spectacle’ – a…
French Essence #2 – Wine
A few years ago we worked for a while with a French estate agent helping to select properties we thought might appeal to potential English buyers. Given most people’s romantic notion of the perfect French dreamhouse, it was not difficult to dismiss the ranks of ugly concrete shoe boxes and Spanish style haciendas which sadly…
French Essence #1 – Garlic
If asked to sum up the essence of French culture the average Francophile would probably come up with an impressive list, amongst which would undoubtably feature haute couture, Hermès, Coco Chanel, Dior, an array of philosophers, playwrights Voltaire, Molière, great novelists Victor Hugo, cinema, Brigitte Bardot, Gerard Dépardieu, Bordeaux wines, cognac, champagne, Paris, Versailles, Marie…
Sunset Colours and Autumn Vines
Every day of September here on the hillside, has been warm, balmy and beautiful; the evenings noticeably cooler as the Autumn approaches but full of astonishing light and colours. I decided the other evening to take a walk down the hill towards the poplar wood where the sheep live, passing en route the tiny vineyard…
Doors Part 3 – Jonzac – Seven Doors and a Window
Now that the summer is over and we return to our normal opening hours here on the hillside (5 days a week instead of 7) we are able, on rare occasions, to indulge in the odd visit to pastures new, to wallow in some slightly different scenery and recharge our batteries. Usually our ‘grand days…
Seriously Red Hot Chilli Peppers and Russian Roulette
Although France is in many ways a culinary paradise there is one thing that the French tastebud does not seem to appreciate and that is the English version of hot and spicy. Rich and wine-flavoured, delicate, perfumed and oriental, mock Mexican and fruity Moroccan are savoured with the utmost appreciation but trying to introduce our…
Apples, hornets and apple pie……….
The strange weather conditions of this year have left the orchard looking bedraggled and bewildered. The spring cherries were waterlogged and the Maytime plums annihilated by hailstorms, now the apples, usually so abundant and wholesome, are rain-damaged and fast being eaten by wasps and hornets. There is , as always a silver lining for someone….
A Classic Chassis and the Mad Inventor
Once upon a time there lived a mad inventor who had the particular peculiarity of retiring to his bed at the end of the cricket season, refusing to get up again until the sound of leather on willow announced that another new season had begun. The inventor had 14 children – no doubt something to…
Oh No! It’s Holiday time on the Hillside
In which we consider the impending onslaught of summer visitors and wonder whether a person could have opening and closing times like a boutique. Well it’s that time of year again here on the hillside, the friends and family start their mass migration to foreign climes passing where possible by our front door for a…
Daredevil Daisy’s bid for Freedom
In which we take a walk and have a close encounter with a 1500 pound grumpy cow It is my daily habit to take a brisk walk down the hillside and, almost as briskly, to walk back up again. I generally spend the time this involves admiring the scenery, talking to myself and chatting to…
Oh No! Here Comes Summer!…….
In which we consider the excesses of French summer weather and wish we had a decent deckchair…… Well finally, here in South West France, the sun has put in a long awaited appearance and the Summer has arrived, at least for the next few days. This is, of course, great news for those of us who…
And a fine time was had by almost all….
In which we praise the optimist, denounce the pessimist and wonder just who is Maureen? And so after weeks of planning and a good deal of hard work, our first independant arts and crafts fair is finally over. The gazebos and backdrops have been taken down, the debris tidied away and the hillside is back…
New Kid on the Blog
In which we enter a new world and attempt to learn a new language – twice… When we first moved to France almost 13 years ago, armed with our reasonable school French and an extra dose of advanced grammar, we were happily confident that we could cope on an everyday level with the language barrier….
View from a French Hillside 