The sun is streaming through the windows here in southwestern France, Nina Simone is playing in the background, I’m making my own watercolour Christmas cards, and it really doesn’t feel like the shortest day of the year. But winter solstice Read more…
All is still and quiet apart from the chattering of birds in the treetops and the creaking that inevitably comes with old buildings. I’m sitting by the open window looking out over the rolling hills of the Quercy area in Read more…
It’s amazing what a difference a few days can make to a garden. We were away last week for a wedding. When we left France it still felt like winter but when we returned six days later it was to Read more…
It’s a hot summer’s evening and the ground is baking. I’ve just cooled off with a cold outdoor shower and the heat of the earth is warming me from the feet up. I sit on the swing under the ancient Read more…
The sun is shining and the bright blue sky is punctuated by puffy bloated clouds that intermittently unleash showers of noisy hail, battering heavily down to the ground before the sun pops out again. I guess it must be springtime Read more…
If you have been following my blog for any length of time you will know that I am someone on the move. Two years ago I was living in a small city apartment in Lyon. Then there was a year Read more…
I have been writing for as long as I can remember. Stories, essays, travel journals, rants, self-pitying monologues. I’ve lost count of the number of “books” I’ve started and then discarded purely because I’ve forgotten I’d started them in the Read more…
It’s a warm day in early March. We’re coming up to a full moon. The toads are busy mating in the pond and it’s the time of year when you feel like opening the windows, going through the cupboards and Read more…
Are you a daydreamer? Do your friends sometimes wonder where you’ve gone when you’re sitting right in front of them? I can be off on an adventure of the mind at the drop of a hat, but never more so Read more…
Sometimes, when I’m stuck on the big things, I try extra hard to focus on the little things…. The first signs of spring appearing in the garden A coffee outside with the sun on my face (even if I’m still Read more…
I thought it was about time I gave a glimpse into life on the shore of a tidal bay. The following photos show the changing face of the Bassin d’Arcachon over a day. (Click on any image for a gallery) Read more…
The cold spell we’re having in the Northern Hemisphere has put me in hibernation mode. The woodburner has been constantly on the go and it actually reached minus four here in the Arcachon Basin. I’m sure that must be almost Read more…
It’s early. I’m up before the sun and the air in the cottage is cold after a night below zero. There is a frost on the ground and through the kitchen window all looks still, bar the occasional blackbird flitting Read more…
At one point all my photos were taken with a vintage Pentax from the 1970’s. It was on loan to me from a family member and when I bought a Nikon film SLR back in 2001, I handed the Pentax Read more…
Last year, rather than making new year resolutions I would doubtless break, I chose a word to live by. That word was WILD. I wanted to see more of my wild self, my wild soul, my true essence. It was Read more…
It’s early morning as I slip out of the cottage door and head down the short lane alongside the garden. There’s a faint pink glow in the sky as the sun starts to rise behind the clouds. The tide is Read more…
So here we are on 21st December, the winter solstice and shortest day of 2014. We’re drinking coffee and eating dark chocolate pretzels and I am sitting here on the sofa (that also doubles as the bed in our tiny Read more…
All week I have been sitting in the offices at La Défense, the business district of Paris, looking out over the grey skies of these late autumn days. Watching flocks of pigeons scatter, dark shadows against the gold and burnt Read more…
“a warm, calm spell of weather occurring in autumn, especially in October and November” [the Met office meteorological glossary] “We could be in for an Indian summer” is something I remember hearing when I was a kid. The air still Read more…
Yesterday’s weather gave the perfect opportunity to take a leisurely drive to the wine-producing commune of Saint Émilion. We were out of Bordeaux in a matter of minutes and into the lush green countryside of vineyards and châteaux. Once in Read more…