Rain! Hurrah ..

A month ago, our garden was flooded. Spring was only just making itself felt and I feared for our poor old flower bulbs, underground and underwater. Four weeks later and the ground is rock hard. Weeks of winter rain has drained away, leaving the soil as cracked as the Kalahari. Nobody seems to have told the plants though, and they've all been coming up like crazy these past few weeks ..

And now, rain again, and nature is being rewarded for its no-nonsense approach to life. (Hey, it's been doing it for years.) I can't tell you how happy I am to see the skies darkening again, and we've been getting some great thunder and lightning to spice up the party ..

Of course, another aspect of nature is still darkening our lives at the moment. Confinement continues, but I hope my lock-down landscapes bring a little sunshine (and rain) into your day. Don't forget, I'm here if you have any photography questions that need answering ..  

Lock-down three ..

Lock-down Landscape number three .. the same number as the amount of weeks we have left inconfinement. Yeah, right ..

But what? A Jumbo Jet? Well, yes .. I've included it as it's currently as wonderful a sight as the fresh Spring leaves or the horses grazing just beyond our gate or the farmer sowing a new crop in the field by the side of us. The sky above us is normally a cross-roads for aircraft, demonstrating just how inter-connected our little world is. We get planes travelling up from Spain and Morocco to Paris or other parts of Europe, or from Rome and the UAE heading for the USA, and even South America heading for China - but, at the moment, there's barely a thing in the sky. It's working wonders for the reduction in pollution, and playing havoc with my plane-spotting ..

Still, I won't complain. People are going through hell at the moment. My thoughts are (as always) with you all today ..

For Joan and Alan ..

Time for Lock-down Landscape number 2, my new series of shots taken from, or within our garden ..

Sadly, since my last blog, two is also the number of deaths I've heard about, of people I know back in the UK. How sad. RIP Joan and Alan ..

President Macron has told us that the confinement will finish on May 11th. Personally, I think that's a bit too optimistic, and I'm sure I'll be shooting my landcsapes for quite a while yet. Don't forget, I'm here to answer any photography questions you might have about shooting landscapes and flowers ..

Life goes on .. it has too!

The start of our fourth week of lock-down .. or is it the third? No, the fourth, definitely .. I think!

Trouble is, we can't tell the difference between lock-down and normal life, tucked away in our remote little bit of France. (Not for nothing did a neighbour describe our village as 'the arse-end of nowhere') ..

No, we really are lucky to be a long way from all the problems of the world and, aside from missing our meet-ups at the bar and our bike rides with friends, life goes on as normal here. (I'm not telling you this as a way to gloat or to show off, it's just a fact) ..

Now, I say normal but, of course, we're impacted as much as many. The gîte has had to close, so that's obviously affected us, and mask-wearing and limited shopping trips are also now the norm. It's a shame, but a couple of visits from UK-based family and friends have had to be postponed, and the lovely French habit of greeting friends with a kiss on each cheek has also had to be put on the back-burner, too. Mwah, mwah ..

Life goes on, though. It has too! There's no stopping Spring, in all its magnificent beauty, so I've decided to start shooting a series of 'Lock-down Landscapes', featuring pictures I can take either from, or within, our garden. So, here's number one, and I hope you enjoy it. If you have any questions about any of the shots, or photography in general, either technical or artistic, then drop me a line. In these days of teaching from home, sending you an answer is the least I can do ..