Mosaic Monday # 42 - deliciously floral

Since I'm still busily trying to catch up on jobs around the house (we have an artisan here working at present renovating and painting), an overgrown garden and sundry other minor chores which have accumulated whilst we've been in Crete, I needed a quick and easy post for this week's Mosaic Monday.

As I was looking through our holiday pictures yesterday I came across some which I think certainly fit the "a picture is worth a thousand words" category.

I hope you'll agree.

An InLinkz Link-up

Pink & Blue flowers for Mosaic Monday.

For Mosaic Monday with Judith this week
a collection of images

 taken on Saturday evening just as the sun was going down
 using my Kindle HDX

.

Many of these plants were already here when we moved into le Presbytere almost 19 years ago.

I had never seen a blue hibiscus until this beautiful shrub bloomed a year later.

This hortensia cannot decide if it wants to be blue, pink or purple.

No mistaking the colour of these specimens.

The photograph on the left shows the blue hibiscus growing alongside a pale pink hortensia.

Special effects, title, frames & collages provided by that clever little PicMonkey.

Linking to Mosaic Monday with Judith @

early morning in a normandy garden

Whilst waiting for the coffee to drip this morning I was gazing out of the kitchen window and suddenly became aware of how much newness had appeared, seemingly overnight.

I grabbed my lumix and headed out the door to capture the blossoming fruit trees 

and a beautiful blue hyacinth for the soul.

Quote.....

Spring is nature's way of saying "let's party!"

the late, great Robin Williams.

This pretty blue and white variegated primula with a bright yellow eye
could get any party started!

Joining Judith @ Lavender Cottage

for

Mosaic Monday

24 hours in Paris

Wow! What a great time I had with our friends Susan & John in Paris.

We packed so much into twenty fours hours,

sightseeing, shopping, eating.

Hotel d'Alba this way.

Ready for some retail therapy?  Want to see some shops?

Across the road from our hotel is this great shop which specialises in vintage posters.

Further along the street -  "Nonna Bakes"

Cakes like these!

Whilst we're talking cakes.........

fancy a coffee?

How about some fresh flowers to take home?

Not a great shot......perhaps you can see our reflections in the window?

This fabulous shop is angelic

a close up of a miniature shop in the window

 

We found this beautiful place just off the Place du Tertre, Montmartre

 

 

look at the window display!

 

 

just couldn't resist those macarons

 

 

Next time..........sightseeing

 

 

Fresh Cut Friday with Rose Vignettes

I think I spoke too soon, those gorgeous blue skies are nowhere to be seen today, the rain came back with a vengeance during the night and it's grey and overcast once more.

White hydrangea, pink roses and blue hibiscus

Luckily I picked these colourful blooms from the garden earlier in the week and arranged them quite simply in a Quimper faience vase decorated in the same colours.

The decoration on the vase is known as broderie and is made up of tiny little dots of coloured glaze which are applied to the surface with the aid of a small tool known as a "poire", it's a bit like icing a cake!

Many different designs can be found on broderie pieces, they mimic the elaborate embroideries which we see decorating traditional Breton costumes such as the one that the Bretonne, featured on the front of the vase, is wearing.

The back of the vase is just as decorative.

I find that the coloured glazes contrast beautifully against the dark cobalt blue background.

Joining Liz @ Rose Vignettes for Fresh Cut Friday

 where everything is blooming wonderfully.

Mosaic Monday - Daylily collage

I spotted this beautiful, creamy white daylily in the garden of l'Authentique, a restaurant in our local market town when we had lunch there last week.
Unfortunately I got my shadow in there too, bottom right!
C'est la vie!

Kicking off the week by joining Mary for her Mosaic Monday gathering @the little redhouse with this simple collage and Shakespeares sonnet number 99.

To quote the bard:

The forward violet thus did I chide:

Sweet thief, whence didst thou steal thy sweet that smells,

If not from my love's breath? The purple pride

Which on thy soft cheek for complexion dwells

In my love's veins thou hast too grossly dy'd.

The lily I condemned for thy hand,

And buds of marjoram had stol'n thy hair;

The roses fearfully on thorns did stand,

One blushing shame, another white despair;

A third, nor red nor white, had stol'n of both,

And to his robbery had annexed thy breath;

But, for his theft, in pride of all his growth

A vengeful canker eat him up to death.

More flowers I noted, yet I none could see,

But sweet, or colour it had stol'n from thee.

Pink Saturday with Beverly @ How Sweet The Sound

The weekend is almost here and so for Beverly's Pink Saturday party @ How Sweet The Sound I created this pinkalicious mosaic using photographs taken in our own garden and at the Château des Ravalet Flower show which we enjoyed visiting in May 2010.
The bad weather has kept me indoors almost all week.
There have been some dashes out into the garden, between the rain showers, to do bits of weeding and other tidying but mostly we've been housebound.
So, to while away the time, one of the things that I've been doing is sorting through the zillions of photographs stored on my PC
This is always a treat as I often forget just what's in there!

There are isolated T storms forecast for the weekend ahead so I'm glad that I have two new paper back books to read.
Mermaids in The Basement by Michael Lee West and Water For Elephants by Sara Gruen, they should keep me quiet!
If you are looking for a good read click here or on the sidebar link to go to my other blog just books.
There you'll find recommendations from myself and other book loving bloggers, I should think that between us there'll be something to suit all tastes.

Bloomin' lovely!

Stately yellow iris

It's Monday so we're off to Marys little red house for Mosaic Monday, do click on the link to visit Mary and see beautiful mosaics from around the globe.

My favourite rose.

Have a wonderful week, everyone.

Mosaic Monday - Flowers Are Red.

Flowers are Red
Click here for a beautiful, moving poem
about red flowers.
Joining Mary at the little red house
for
Mosaic Monday.
Wishing you all a wonderful week!

P.S.

Blondie has asked me what the names of the flowers are,

so...........

the top two pix are of a red rhododendron that I rescued from the reduced (dying plants!) section at the garden centre a few years ago, the bottom right is a pieris plant also from the garden centre, (full price!) and the bottom left is a flowering quince bush that was here in the garden when we bought the house.

Summer's last Hurrah!

For Claudia's Friday Finding Beauty meme @ Dipity Road and Laurie's A Few of My Favourite Things Saturday meme, some of the last blooms from my garden, cut this morning, simply arranged in my favourite Desvres faience jardiniere.

Have a great weekend, everyone.

A final farewell to my summer garden.

The weather this week has been so changeable, with gales, rain (Note to self: thanks heavens for new roof) and amazingly plenty of sunshine.

So, as summer leaves Normandy and Autumn arrives in a blaze of glory here are some garden memories to tide us over until next year.

The wonderful blue hibiscus tree which we uncovered whilst clearing out the overgrown flower beds when we moved here in 1996.

It's been a wonderful summer for roses, must be all that rain!

The lavender was glorious this year, I planted it about 6 years ago after my first visit to Monet's garden at Giverney.

Giverny is also famous for the grand allee of nasturtiums and that was something else that I added to my garden beneath the espaliered apple and pear trees.

They don't have a black and white cocker spaniel hiding in the nasturtiums in Giverny though!

The leaves are beginning to turn.......................

Against the old stone wall an obsolete and rusted iron water pump covered in ivy and an old, shabby folding garden chair with pink geranium, a Kodak moment waiting to happen.

à bien tôt
Maggie