Clôtures en France

On my walks around the charming french villages
I have my camera at the ready
hoping to capture something special.

One beautiful summer afternoon, I got lucky!
A very friendly local cat
decided to accompany us
through the quiet back lanes of
Noyers sur Serein.

She led the way and we followed!
We were all a little sad when the time came
to bid her au revoir
and make our way back to the car.

Noyers is a medieval village with lovely old stone walls.
Some like the one above allow the passerby 
a peep of what lies beyond

while others protect the privacy of the occupants.
I imagined a pretty garden beyond the wall
shaded by trees.
A sanctuary hidden from the outside world!

The exquisite rambling Bourbon rose 'Zephirine Drouhin'

CONGRATULATIONS
to my friend Marie of 'Lost Bird Studio'
who is celebrating her fifth year of blogging!
To mark the occasion she is having a 
GIVEAWAY!
Marie's Giveaways are legendary
so you won't want to miss out!
You must be a follower to enter,
so if you aren't already you will need to
join Marie's blog first and then enter!
Marie at Lost Bird Studio

Bonne chance!

I'm linking to

Theresa for Good Fences

Nick for Floral Friday Fotos

and

Eileen for Saturday Critters

Thank you all so much for visiting me and

leaving your kind comments!

Wishing you a very happy weekend!

Take care and
be kind to one another

Merci à bientôt

Shane

Stephanie's Tea Cup/Mug Exchange

Have you met Stephanie of the delightful blog

The Enchanting Rose?

I would love you to pop in and become 

acquainted with her gorgeous blog

as she does so many interesting things!

For the past few years Stephanie has hosted

The Tea Cup/Mug Exchange

which has become very popular among 

tea loving bloggers!

I heard about this swap last year through another of my

dear bloggy friends Kitty of Kitty's Kozy Kitchen

(you must check out her blog - she has great recipes)! 

This time Kitty dropped me an email to tell me

that Stephanie was hosting another

teacup and mug exchange!

Thank you dear Kitty for keeping me in the loop!

Bloggers are such lovely people!

My 'giving' partner was Belle

who lives in Australia.

Belle doesn't have a blog yet but she tells me

she is creating one, so I'll let you all know when that happens!

I received such a beautiful parcel from Belle

with this gorgeous tea cup called 

'Christiana'

it is the softest pink bone china with a delicate

green criss-cross pattern around the edge.

She included more goodies in the parcel

some yummy Italian hazelnut chocolate biscuits

perfect to enjoy with a cup of tea.

Talking of tea, Belle treated me to a selection of 

Twinings tea in a pretty organza bag.

 There was also a sweet card with a note telling 

me about herself which was nice.

Thank you so much Belle, I'm totally

"over the moon"

with all your kind gifts!

The receiver of my tea cup gift parcel is

Alice who lives in Italy.

Maybe she hasn't received my parcel yet as there are

no photographs of what I sent her on Stephanie's blog post.

Unfortunately, Alice doesn't have a blog either, 

so I can't ask you to visit her

however, maybe I can encourage her

to get started as she obviously enjoys the interaction

with other bloggers!

Alice, if you are reading this post

please don't let language be a barrier to blogging.

I have two other Italian blog friends

plus Dutch, German, French, Finnish, Danish,

Swedish, Bulgarian, Polish and Russian bloggy pals!!!

Thank you dear Stephanie for hosting your

Tea Cup/Mug Exchange again this year.

I can see it is a huge undertaking.

Your communication was amazing - thank you.

I have been involved in other swaps where

the communication was not so good.

It's my first time joining the

Tea Cup/Mug Exchange

I will definitely do it again

 and I can recommend it to

anyone interested in all things tea!

If you would like me to tell you when the

next one is on, let me know in a comment or 

email me.

I am linking this post to
Stephanie at The Enchanting Rose
please click on the above link and you can see 
what others have received/given in their exchanges!
I'm also linking to
Diane for Beautiful Sunday
 Judith for Mosaic Monday

Sandi for Tea Time Tuesday

Ruth for Tuesday Cuppa Tea

and

Bernideen for Tea in the Garden

Thank you all for your visits and your caring comments. 

Work has been easier this week!

Take care and 

be kind to one another

Merci à bientôt

Shane

Château de Fleurigny

Travelling on the country roads in France

always brings lovely surprises.

Not too far from where our daughter lives

are several Châteaux worthwhile visiting.

Having said that we didn't actually visit

Château de Fleurigny

as there were only six of us on the day

and the minimum number to gain entrance was fifteen.

As it is in the middle of nowhere

it was highly unlikely we would find

another nine people to make up the numbers that day!

I was able to take a few photos and then we

moved on to another Château which I will show

you in a future post!

I've been away from my blog for two weeks

because of issues at work....

I was sorry to miss Donna's 

"Still Life" Photo Challenge this month.

I've been out today taking loads of tree pics for 

the November challenge!

I'll be catching up on visiting your blogs this week

and I'm looking forward to seeing what you've all been up to!

I'm joining

Judith for Mosaic Monday

and the girls at

Our World Tuesday

Thank you to the hosts.

Take care and 

be kind to one another

Merci à bientôt

Shane

France Fences - Part 2

I've rarely seen a plain ordinary fence in France!

You can only just see the fence amid the riot of flowers!
I snapped this one in my daughter's back garden
after hanging the washing on the line!
A stone wall with a garden and small fence behind.

I'm joining 
Judith for Mosaic Monday
Theresa for Good Fences
Nick for Floral Friday Fotos.

Take care and
be kind to one another
Merci à bientôt

Shane

Beautiful Fences of France

On my trips to France my trusty Panasonic Lumix camera

is always with me.

Prior to blogging most of the photos I took

involved people, family mainly.

How things have changed!

Now I take more photos of fences, gates, doors and windows

than I do of people!

I see photo ops everywhere I go...

I'm always lagging behind

because I've stopped to photograph

another rose covered fence or two!
Does that happen to you?

I couldn't walk past this fence, now could I?

especially as I'm so fond of roses....

and just look at the lovely old shutters in the background

another favourite subject of mine.

You would be surprised at the different

styles of shutters there are!

Hmm... I think I feel another post developing!!!

I'm joining Theresa for Good Fences

and

Tricia for Floral Friday

Enjoy your weekend 

thank you so much for your visits!

Take care and
be kind to one another

Merci à bientôt

Shane