wisteria over french gates

 In our valley,  people like to have high stone walls around their homes.  The walls make you feel safe, and private and ..... 

 they are great for training climbing plants like wisteria,  clematis and Virginia creeper.

 Many houses have  wisterias over one hundred years old twisting

 and turning their way around gates and pillars.

and the great thing about wisteria, is that it can make even a ramshackle fence 

look romantic,  especially when the wall beneath is covered in a pink flowering weed.

Wishing you a fragrant weekend,

 thank you for reading my blog, you are the best!

french sunflowers

Normandy is not traditional sunflower country, but the warm summers over the past few years have made local farmers feel brave and we can now enjoy fields of these generous blooms.  Not being abig fan of yellow, I can't say they are my all time favourite flower, but there is something startling in their sheer size and strength, the patterns in their seed heads and the sea of colour they produce.  What do you think, is it a flower you like to have in your garden?

we don't do tornados!

The good thing about being a blogger is that you get into the habit of driving around all day long with a camera to hand.  Now and again the elements reward your vigilance by throwing something unexpected in your direction.

So it was this evening on the way back from school.  France is not tornado country, and Normandy even less, so we have no idea what this baby was doing over our wheat fields, but we thought it was really cool and the colours contrasting the wheat and the clouds were just stunning.

This not-a-real-tornado faded away as discreetly as it appeared, without danger or threat, just for fun I guess!