St Patrick's Day Parade, Savannah, GA. 2006

"May the road rise to meet you,
May the wind be always at your back,
May the sun shine warm upon your face,
The rains fall soft upon your fields,
And until we meet again,
May God hold you
In the palm of his hand."

Traditional Irish Blessing.

Since Wednesday is St. Patricks Day all of my blogs this week will have an Irish theme.

The ever gracious Mary @thelittleredhouse's Mosaic Monday meme starts off the week. Do head over there and visit all the other participants sharing their marvellous mosaics today.

In 2006 whilst visiting Hilton Head Island, SC. we decided, since we had never experienced one before, to head over to Savannah to watch the St Patrick's Day Parade, which apparently is the second largest in the United States.

I never knew there were so many shades of green!

Come back tomorrow when I'll be joining Cuisine Kathleen's 2nd Annual St. Patrick's Day Blog Crawl.

H is for.........................Hedge Haircut

If only this had happened last week, it would have made a great H post for Mrs Matlock's Alphabe-Thursday meme.

The hedges alongside the little lane that leads to our house received a haircut today, and boy was it severe!

On the other side of the lane are fields where for many months of the year cows graze on lush Normandy grass and so the hedges were being cut back in preparation for their arrival.
(We prefer to think the reason for the tidy up was to welcome our friends Sarah @ Hyacinths For The Soul & her husband who will be visiting us next month).

Every day there are more and more wild primroses appearing in the lane.

Miniature daffodils make their debut in the flower beds.
Hope you're all having a great weekend. This time next week I'll be in Paris!!

Alphabe-Thursday...H is for Hydrangeas

For Mrs Matlock's class this week I'll bet some of you thought "oh! Maggie'll write about Hilton Head, since she loves the place so much and would love to live there one day". DH thought that would be my subject today. Wrong!!
(However, you could click here to see why I really would like to be there right now!!)

Instead some scenes from last summer, featuring a favourite flower of mine: the Hydrangea or Hortensia as is is called here in France.As you probably already know there are two types, mop head and lace cap. It's the mop head variety which can be either white, pink or blue. It all depends whether the soil in your garden is acidic (blue) or alkaline (pink). We have three large pink Hydrangea bushes and one that starts off blue but can turn gradually "purplish" during the summer months, I think it depends on how much rain we have! They are on opposite sides of the garden which may account for the different soil types.

Last year I planted a white Hydrangea, beneath the blue Hibiscus tree, next to the existing pink Hydrangeas. Click here for more pictures of the garden last year.

According to the Royal Horticultural Society's website white and green flowered cultivars do not change colour regardless of the ph of the soil The RHS advises using rainwater to water Hydrangeas, since mains hard water can affect the flower colour, turning blue flowers mauve or pink.

Now Head over to Jenny's and don't be late for class, she is a real stickler for punctuality and she'll give me a C- if she finds out you dawdled here and missed assembly.

Spring flowers & flooded ditches.

Monday has come around again in the blink of an eye and so we head to one of the most interesting blogs I know, Mary's thelittle redhouse, for Mosaic Monday.

After last weeks torrential rain and gale force winds had subsided I went out to try and capture the feel of it all.

Although we were not as badly affected as the Charente Maritime and other regions, the rain had no where to go as the surrounding fields were still sodden from previous storms.

The water was draining into the ditches at the side of the lane so fast that waterfalls and rushing streams formed along the way.

One bright note, the wild primroses and orchids are begining to show at last.

Shadow Shot Sunday.......a staircase.

For Shadow Shot Sunday over at Hey Harriet's Australian blog some shots of the staircase at home, as I came down yesterday morning.
As the winter sunlight poured through the landing windows above and the glass panelled front doors below, the wooden hand rail and wrought iron balustrade were thrown into stark relief against the stair runner, the pale yellow walls and a framed gravure of Napoleon Bonaparte.

Mrs Matlock's Alphabe-Thursday: G

Jenny Matlock's Alphabe-Thursday is the place to be where the letter "G" is under the spotlight this week.

My head was spinning trying to come up with a G word and Gosh there are lots: Goat, Geranium, Gate, Garden, Gnome, Grace, Goodness, Gratitude (which is my word for this year). Galloping Gourmet, Garlic, GorGonzola, Grapes, Ginger, Garnish, Gravy, Geese, Gooseberry, Grapefruit, Google(!) this list Goes on and on.

But.....I couldn't find pix to go with any of those so instead here are some scrapbook pages that I did last year.

For some reason GREEN was the colour that I Gravitated to Generally.

Desvres faience for Tabletop & 3 or More Tuesday

I'm joining Marty's Table Top Tuesday @ A Stroll through Life today for the first time with photo's of an antique English washstand which I have had for over 25 years and resides inside the now defunct fireplace in our dining room.
I'm also joining Tam @ The Gypsy's Corner for 3 or more Tuesday.
Why not treat yourselves to some wonderful vignettes and interesting collections by visiting both of these very gracious hosts but do please leave a comment so I know who came calling at le Presbytère today.

This is where I display my small collection of Desvres souvenir faience.

A sweet young woman carrying a basket, she holds salt for us at the dinner table, a small bud vase which bears the legend "Plestin les Greve", an oil and vinegar cruet set, a souvenir from Mont St Michel in original holder.A small trinket box with the Brittany crest and "A Ma Vie" inscription, and in the background a large platter produced for sale in Cancale, Brittany. The space beneath the washstand is not wasted, DH finds it's the perfect place for a small wine rack.

Well, nous sommes en France, n'est pas?