Wordless Wednesday – Eine Kleine Nachtmusik………..
Tag: texture
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 Few Gothic Studs & A Door Knocker
It’s been strange not participating in Thursday Doors this last couple of weeks but at last I’ve had a little free time to get out and about with the camera for a spot of door hunting. A stroll around some of the narrow streets in the old part of the town of Angoulême this week uncovered…
Wordless Wednesday – Promise of Spring
Wordless Wednesday – Promise of Spring 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 photographic prints and even http://www.galeriedelamaison.com where you can sneak a…
Thursday Doors – A Dickensian House in a French Village
When I walked past this house in a local village and then turned back to look again at the very old and shabby exterior, I felt I could almost be looking at the residence of a character in a novel by Dickens. The shutters are cracked and crooked, all of them closed. The hinges are rusted…
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…
Thursday Doors – Richly Wrought
I wasn’t sure if I actually had a door to share on Thursday Doors this week as I wanted to do something a little different and hoped to find something modern or colourful for a change. But, when I visited this astonishing church yesterday I decided the door was far too wonderful to be ignored…
Thursday Doors – Romantic Romanesque
I’m back to the churches again this week for my Thursday Doors post with this beautiful example from the 12th century which I visited a couple of weeks ago. As always the stone carving around the door is exquisite and completely different from many other local examples by being spectacularly delicate and classical…
Careful – Trespassers Beware
I’m still finding photos I had thought long lost after the demise of my laptop earlier this year and when I happened upon this wee trio of slightly spooky images from a local ruined abbey, although I realise it isn’t quite time for Halloween, I thought they might make a fun contribution to this week’s…
(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…
Thursday Doors – Garden Gate & Dappled Sun
We’ve had some wonderful sunny autumn days here on the Hillside this week and in the early morning the sun is playing lovely games with light and dappled shadows in the courtyard. I thought I’d include a couple of views of one of the wooden garden doors here for my contribution to Norm’s Thursday Doors…
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…
Monochromatic – Rhapsody in Blue
I’ve been wanting to finish my marathon fruit photography series with the wonderful damsons we’ve just picked from the orchard. The colour of the bloom on the fruit is so blue and beautiful I’ve been wondering how best to capture it and had finally decided my plain blue crockery would be the perfect compliment. I…
Thursday Doors – A Gentle Shade
For this week’s Thursday Doors I’m back to the churches again. The church itself is another wonderful example dating from the 12th to 13th century but the door this time is rather different. Instead of the ancient heavy oak, the door is a fairly sober painted affair (in a beautiful and very French greeny grey)…
Thursday Doors – Iron Bars and Studs
This is another amazing door from our trip to Périgueux, just a few steps further along Rue Tranquille. I have no idea of the history of this door or the building behind it but it has the same feeling of incredible age and history as my previous example. Perhaps a checkered history in this case…
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 – Curlicues and Rosettes
There is some evidence in a dusty local archive, that way back in the 12th century, the Hillside was the site of a religious ‘paroisse’, the French version of our word ‘parish’. This could mean quite simply that a lone monk lived up here in contemplative seclusion or that he had fellow monks and a…
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…
Thursday Doors – A Door, Steps and a Juliet Balcony
The rehearsals for our summer theatre spectacular are in full swing now with only one week to go to the first performance. All the action takes place in various spots around our courtyard, in front of the barn and the house. There will be music and lighting to accompany the drama which won’t begin until after…
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…
Thursday Doors – La Dimerie Blanzac
I risk repeating myself a little with today’s post for Thursday Doors, as I’m posting another tower, but this time the tower is quite small and the door that leads into it is very small and must surely have been built for a race of fairy people. The tower and the building it is attached…
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…
Exotic Fruits – The Cape Gooseberry -Physalis
I was browsing the exotic fruit aisle again in the supermarket this week and these wonderful Cape Gooseberries, or Physalis Peruviana to give them their proper name, took my fancy. I must confess that I still haven’t actually eaten a single one of them, so intent have I been on capturing their astonishing forms and…
A Whiter Shade of Pale – Serenity
There are those periods in life when we encounter nothing but square pegs and round holes, minor irritations, major headaches, and cloudy skies. Such has been life on the hillside these last few days and as usual I have sought some escape and a little tranquility through taking photographs. Having experimented with a number of…
Once Upon a Moonlit Night
She stood shivering behind the cover of the ancient yew tree, wisps of hair blowing across her face in the gentle breeze, trying not to breathe too loudly. They were sure to hear her, she just knew it, even the pounding of her heart could give her away but she could not stop now. If…
Rustic Beauty – The Humble Turnip
After the lovely promising spring weather of a fortnight ago we’re suddenly plunged back into the damp and chill winds of November here on the Hillside. Our sunny moods have departed with the warmer temperatures and so my plans for more spring inspired images for this post have been moved aside to make way for an…
Winter – Ghost Leaves
The colours on the hillside are changing now from their glowing autumn shades to the darker hues of winter. Nature’s astonishing architecture is becoming visible everywhere, in the bare branches of the trees, the hips on the rose bushes, the cones in the evergreens and in the fallen leaves which carpet the garden. On our…
Man Stuff #1 – Leather Jackets and Aviators
Some while ago in our previous life, we had a project to build a large shed at the bottom of our very tiny garden, to house Mr H’s tools, Mr H’s motorbike, Mr H’s racing bike and assorted items of Mr H’s abandoned gym equipment. The day before we pooled our joint resources to purchase…
Sweets to the Sweet – BonBons and Marshmallows
For anyone with a sweet tooth France is probably the closest you can get to confection heaven. Bonbons, dragées, macaroons, sweet cakes, patisseries, brioche, chocolate truffles, nougat, meringues – the list of sugary delights is long and enticing. I have personally always had rather more of a weakness for savoury rather than sugary but…
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…
All that glitters is not Gold
My mother was busy cleaning the family silver this afternoon – no, don’t get too excited, we’re not talking the Duke of Westminster here, just a few pretty spoons and an egg cup or two, but everything looked so lovely and shiny after she had buffed and polished, that I couldn’t help but scoop it…
Parchment, Pens and Sealing Wax
Probably because I have always been a passionate lover of books and stories, I still dream of finding the ultimate pirate treasure trove and the alchemical formula for turning base metal into gold. I am a total magpie and collector of all things glittery, mystical, old and new and have a deep-rooted love of…
Secrets and Keys
I have never quite managed to give up my childhood dream of finding the key to the secret treasure trove. As a child the ‘treasure’ would certainly have involved a pirate treasure chest, ancient maps, doubloons, pearl necklaces, a sword and a skeleton, that sort of thing. Nowadays I have already found some excellent treasure here…
Doors Part 2 – Rust Never Sleeps
The disadvantages of living in an old property are numerous and invariably very costly – the leaky roofs, the damp, the rubbish heating and falling masonry to name but a minor few – the advantages, however are equally numerous and noteworthy; amongst these positive benefits being a vast catalogue of photographic delights to focus the…
View from a French Hillside 