Wednesday, November 4, 2015

Fragrance from the ever changing garden . . . . . . . . . .


AFTER AUTUMN RAIN THERE IS A FRESH, SHARP,
RICH AND EARTHY AROMA IN THE GARDEN AND 
WOODLAND.
WALKING THROUGH THE WOODLANDS YOU CAN CATCH
 FLASHES OF BERRIES . . . . . . BRIGHT ORANGE, RED,
DEEP PURPLE. 

The colors of the leaves are breathtaking.
 Soft moss, ivy and ferns have their own distinctive aromas.

I've noticed when trying new perfumes, woodland ingredients
seem to be prevalent now, more so than sweet fruity florals.
The warmth of woody notes, traditionally used in men's fragrances
- which personally I have always had an affinity for -
are now being used in women's perfumes which I think
is wonderful.


Here in my garden, the fig tree is now dropping the first of its yellowing leaves - the
 still plentiful green ones have yet to change color and drop to the damp earth.




The most surprising thing in the garden this week is the sudden appearance
 of the Angel Trumpets (brugmansia). 
Some years they bloom as early as September, other years, and this is such
 a one, the plants tease us and don't show blooms until November.
 As we have a warm spell coming end of week, I think we'll have quite
 a show prior to the chilly temperatures sure to follow soon.
Then I'll cut the branches down almost to the ground, covering them
 with mulch and leaves, hoping next Spring they'll shoot up again as they have
 for many years.


Monday's constant heavy rain brought a large oak tree limb down on
 our back deck. Thankfully the umbrella broke its fall and it didn't
 cause damage. We now are concerned about our aging trees. Many 
have been removed over the years but it appears there are more needing 
to come down for safety's sake. That limb could have gone through the
roof or caused us severe injury if we'd been outside.

Tuesday, November 3, 2015

A touch of France and visiting Tournus . . . . . . . .


Bringing angels home from France - a find at the brocante in Carcassonne.


The ex voto on the little velvet pillow with golden tassels is new - found in
 a small shop in the crypt of the ancient Romanesque St. Philibert Abbey in
 Tournus - a beautiful ancient former Benedictine Abbey, c. 950.
My dining room display is just about complete - how much more can I cram
in here. Of course, with the holiday season waiting in the wings (no pun intended)
I will be tweaking it somewhat, adding the santos' golden wings, and
some Christmas greenery and sparkle later.

St. Philibert Abbey, Tournus


The reposing cherub was a sweet gift from my friend Sharon from Blackpool, 
England who was traveling with us - she snapped it up at a 'vide grenier' 
(street market) alongside the river at Tournus.

Around Tournus



Sunday, November 1, 2015

Visit to a Carcassonne Brocante. . . . . . . . . . .



My brother took me here for a whirlwind look around a brocante in the lovely 
historic city of Carcassonne. Outside the walls of the original cité, it was quite a jaunt
through a rougher area of town and across a river to reach the huge building.
I didn't buy much - after all, one suitcase won't hold a beautiful iron bed (just 15 euros),
an elegant statue, a complete blue transferware tea set (so cheap!), and those amazing 
stacks - yes there were dozens - of old French beautifully monogrammed linen and cotton 
sheets, oh how I would have loved to bring them back home. I did purchase a nice
 cotton cutwork square European pillow sham, and an old print on board of angels
 which must have been part of a book, will show you those later.



Anyone else having problems writing their posts on Blogger these past couple of days?
Seems to be acting up, especially with cursor problems.

Edited - Sunday 3:45 PM
Well looks like I'm not alone! Visited a forum and found
 many with the same 'no visible cursor' problem when
 trying to write/edit Blogger posts using SAFARI!
 Apparently Safari just upgraded from version 8 to 9
 (don't recall them asking my permission!)and it has
 caused this glitch. It may just be when using
 Apple products(I'm on a MacBook Air), and hopefully
 Apple will work on correcting the annoying problem. 
Meanwhile I'll be posting using Chrome.