Seasonal, Scenic Sunday & Mosaic Monday

Instead of following the path that we usually take for our Sunday walk through the Normandy countryside this morning we headed in a different direction.

We crossed a low bridge in the village of Ecrammeville and walked along the bank of a tributary of the River Aure.

I was pleased that I had my camera with me so that I could capture the scene to share with the Tablescaper for Seasonal Sundays

Scenic Sundays

and Mary @ the little red house for Mosaic Monday.

I think that this house that I glimpsed across the fields looks a lot like ours!

Click on the links or on the sidebar buttons to visit the other particpants joining us today.

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.

Wordless Wednesday - Incy Wincy Spider

It's Wednesday and Wordless................

Click here for more WW

Nothing but blue skies from now on................

Summer has returned to Normandy and blue skies are the norm (!) once again.

For Mary's Mosaic Monday at the little red house and Blue Monday with Smiling Sally a little taster to brighten your day.

If the sight of blue skies fills you with joy,
if a blade of grass springing up in the fields has the power to move you,
if the simple things in nature have a message you understand,
Rejoice, for your soul is alive.

Eleanora Duse

As some of you will already know Sally has been hospitalised for some weeks now
 but the latest on her blog is that she's doing o.k.

Do pop over for a visit and say hi to Sally's grandaughter Lauren
 who assisted Sally with this week's Blue Monday.

Les Nympheas
Monet

Pink Saturday

How the week has flown by.
It doesn't seem 5 minutes since I sat here with my daylily collage for Mosaic Monday, now here I am on Friday preparing for the weekend ahead and Pink Saturday with Beverly @ How Sweet The Sound.
It's not as if I've been that busy this week, the days have been filled with mundane things such as shopping, housework and gardening.

I did have a mini rant over on my other blog just books yesterday, after I heard about the actor who will, allegedly, bring Jack (no middle name) Reacher to our movie screens this fall.
If you'd like to register your opinion on the matter, click here.
I'd really like to know what you think.

So, what have I got to show you for Pink Saturday this week?

How about a pink cow?
Well, Normandy is famed for it's wonderful cows and dairy industry, so why shouldn't l'Authentique not only have a beautiful creamy white daylily but also a pink metal cow in their garden?

Bon weekend a tout!

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.