Friday, 9 August 2013

The usual suspects

This week's blog is a compilation from three outings.

Stourhead, Wiltshire

 

Coot (juvenile)




Mute Swan  -  Rise and shine


The morning outing begins




Follow me

What yer got?

Early grace

Plotting

Shall we?

OK

... go for it!




Langford Lakes, Wiltshire

 

Mute Swan






Bumblebee (Bombus pratorum  -  'Early Bumblebee')



Great Crested Grebe (crest tightly back  =  'prepare to dive')

Snorkeling







Shapwick Heath, Somerset


Mute Swan

 
Arriving home
 
Wipe your feet before you go in




There's always one



Sedge Warbler

♫ ♫ ♫







I shall have more from the Somerset Levels next week.


Friday, 2 August 2013

Giverny

On 1st June 2013 it finally looked as if Spring might be coming!

I was in the village of Giverny, Eure, France, to visit the garden of Claude Monet (1840-1926), one of the founders of French Impressionist painting.





The Japanese bridge


























Taken from a bedroom window

House entrance from garden

The house backs onto the street.  A lane divides the garden and there is an underpass connecting the two parts.  The 'front gate' is on this lane and the picture shows where the path from the gate reaches the house.






Monet's grave in the churchyard

The Church

Street scene


Visitors waiting to enter the house and garden

The garden where I ate lunch