Messing about with Flowers

What is it about new cameras and flowers?  We just can't seem to help ourselves. I have been mucking about with my new camera, keen eyed photographers will see I have been experimenting with depth of field. I still have so much to learn with the new camera, I think it will be an endless and ongoing learning curve but I am loving it! Experimentation is the best way, I have already gone on from all the automatic settings and am trying to get my head round F stops, light metering and ISO speeds!  Not to mention experimenting with different light, textures and composition.

Flowers are always such a pleasure, Belle Mere is visiting us at the moment and she arrived with an armful of Ranunculus in pink and white, she brought them all the way from Provence! 

Then yesterday whilst walking with Crusoe I spied some pretty wild flowers growing in a field, I hopped in and picked them before the local cows ate them, better in my house than in the cows tummies!

The weather here at the moment is pretty dire, very mixed and cold, I keep forgetting it is only April, March was beautiful and warm and confused everything, mostly me, I was working in the garden in a T shirt and shorts, now I am huddled up in wool, I am impatient for Summer and I am dying to get outside and experiment with some lovely spring shots, I have a photographic project in mind that I am keen to get started, it is on hold until the weather improves, I will keep you posted.

Could Have Been Yesterday

Lee Miller, Man Ray Paris 1929

Jacques Tati

 

 Cannes Film Festival 1958, Jacques Tati and Alain Bercourt walk towards the Carlton Hotel, Henri Cartier-Bresson

I have a crush on the late Jacques Tati, MG first told me about him years ago but I had never seen one of his films.  Fast forward to today and a chat to the Post Master at my local village post office, the conversation was sparked off by all the gorgeous retro film posters advertising Jacques Tati films, which decorate the walls of the tiny post office, the Post Master is a fan.

 "Oh Madame, but you must see his films, I know you are a lady of taste, you will love them". With that kind of flattery from the handsome Post Master, who could resist? Once home I googled him straight away and now I am hooked. I see inspiration from Charlie Chaplin and I see where Peter Sellers got his inspiration from. Below is a clip, but you can see the whole of part one of Mon Oncle here and that will bounce you onto the whole film, if you feel so inclined and get hooked as I did, in fact I whiled away an hour or so watching the entire film on u tube when I was supposed to be working! It's a great comedic insight into post war France. 

Underneath The Arbour

The arbour a few Springs ago

'Underneath the arbour', it should read 'all change in the arbour' but the latter sounded less romantic.  We are very fortunate to have a large garden with plenty of al fresco dining areas.  The arbour comes into it's own during July and August when we decamp there, usually for long lazy summer lunches, with good company, good food and copious amounts of wine, these lunches often last well into the night.  The shade of the Campsis which winds around the latticework, the light, Summer westerly wind which breezes through the arbour, its gentle touch cooling hot skin, make dining outside in our humid Summers a very pleasurable experience.     

MG has been itching to do something to the arbour for ages, he already started a couple of years ago when he replaced the lattice work, carefully propping up the ancient branches of the Campsis with Acro props. Last week the surface was re skimmed with concrete and with a fall this time, so the damp will no longer seep into the garage (which will one day be a sitting room) which lies behind the wall of this gable end.

MG (who is a natural, gifted designer and craftsman, amongst other things) has plans, I must admit, they are quite radical and quite modern, my eyebrows were raised when he first told me as I struggled to see his vision but now I have come round to the idea and am in fact quite excited about it. We have a deadline, May 12th, so this is all going to happen rather quickly, (weather permitting!) I will keep you posted and show you the final result.

The arbour the other day, don't worry even though the ivy has been removed, the Roses, Peonies, Scabiosa and Fleabane are still there (and are staying there) they just have not come up yet.

Something for the Weekend

BBC Panorama, broadcast April 1st 1957

Wishing you all a wonderful weekend, try not to get caught out on Sunday Morning!

Still Mad For Mad Men

Just watched the first two episodes of Mad Men, It's as good as ever and I am simply mad for Megans wardrobe, especially this coral zig zag coat. I could not even go to to the loo or make a cup of tea during the ad breaks as on Sky Atlantic most of the adverts were original ads from the sixties, don't know whose idea this was but what a stroke of genius...roll on next Tuesday.

A Little Bird Story II

Indignant (and with all reason to be) Mrs Dove

I came home from grocery shopping the other week, I plonked my shopping basket on the kitchen table and MG shouted from the terrace "be careful of the eggs" I looked at the kitchen table and saw two perfect, off white, smooth, opaque and still warm perfect little eggs, Dove eggs to be precise, only narrowly missed from being splattered by my shopping basket.

 Spring is well and truly here in the Pyrenees and our resident Ring Collared Doves have been busy.  That is until MG wielded his chainsaw and lopped a few branches off a giant Bay tree, a squawking, very cross Dove flew out and a nest dropped into MG's hands with the two eggs inside. We tried to save the eggs, I made a new nest, out of a cardboard box, packing material and cotton wool, placed them on a bookshelf and directed the office desk lamp onto them... to no avail I am afraid.

  After this our Doves have once again been very busy flying about with twigs, they have now made a new nest, that just happens to be in the Neflier tree, which shades the terrace and is overlooked by our balcony, (I think they have figured, those stupid humans ain't going to be messing with this tree) they have laid new eggs and are now in the process of incubating them, they even let me peer into the tree and let me photograph the process, under the circumstances I think they have been very forgiving, I will keep you posted of all new developments...

To see past sagas of the Doves that live in our garden go here

Isabella Rossellini

I watched a program today that featured Isabella Rossellini, wow... there she was as she is, with no artifice. Intelligent, elegant, gracious, warm and beautiful, no plastic surgery, every line on her face clear to see.  I decided she is someone who comes across as a beautiful person on the inside as well as the outside, this is a woman of substance and style.  I feel like I grew up with her, I suspect many people feel the same way.  In the eighties it was hard to open a magazine without seeing her image, there were her edgy film choices, she was unforgettable in Blue Velvet and then there was the Lancôme campaign which she fronted for so many years before being dropped by Lancôme in her forties for being deemed too old.

Here in France, we hardly see or hear of her any more, she has never gone out of her way to court the limelight, one gets the impression she makes her choices on her own terms, things she really believes in.  As a woman wearing casual clothes and no make up she is a natural beauty, when she turns up the volume with make up, signature dark red lipstick and jewellery (this is a lady who knows how to wear jewellery).  She blows others out of the water.  Isabella is a lady growing older gracefully, she is a true icon and she was there all along.

With her Mother, screen legend Ingrid Bergman (Isabella's resemblance to her Mother is uncanny)

Even at a young age her signature style is evident, simple lines and great jewellery

With David Lynch, Helmut Newton

Stills from Death Becomes Her

As Marella Agnelli in Infamous

As well as her acting and modelling career Isabella is also a writer, film-maker, Mother and Philanthropist, she is on the board of Wildlife Conservation Network, she is also involved with training guide dogs for the blind and president and director of the Howard Gilman Foundation, a leading institution focused on the preservation of wildlife, arts, photography and dance.

Her latest acting roll is playing Gabriella Guglielmi-Valentino in 'Silent Life' a silent film based on the life of Rudolph Valentino which will be released later this year, below is the trailer.

More Pictures and quotes from Isabella here:

 

Something For The Weekend

The late, Great, Chalky the Jack Russell, takes a dislike to the sound equipment and once again upstages his Master, British TV Chef and Restaurateur Rick Stein.

I promise this is not turning into a dog blog but I could not resist this.

 

Wishing you all a wonderful weekend.

XXX

Interlude

"Well"?

Apologies for my blogging hiatus, for various reasons, I am currently rethinking this blog, will fill you in soon. In the meantime I leave you with THE very handsome, charismatic, intense, charming and extremely wise, the one and only, Crusoe.

This is the face that stares me awake every morning, when the intense staring does not awaken me he jumps on and off the bed and if that fails, he brings a shoe or a boot and kicks it around the room until I get up! Except when it's raining, this is when I have a chance to get my own back, it is my turn to drag Crusoe away from his slumbers and his cosy, comfy bed.