France is a garden

On our drive from Rouen to Lille, a rainy day, but still very beautiful, I took a lot of photos.

 So this posting is mostly about GREEN.  And fields.  And light moving over the landscape.  It is all TOO beautiful.  All of the pictures, except one or two, were taken from the moving car.  And whilst I took some out of my side, looking out, where I was able to lower my window, some are taken through the front windscreen so are not as bright as I might like....but they remain a lovely memory of the countryside that we passed through that day.  It was a gorgeous drive and even the rain wasn't a deterrent to my enjoyment!!!

 We drove past a field where sheep sheering was taking place.  It's still pretty cold over here, so these guys (gals??) would probably have preferred to keep their woolen sweaters to stay warm!  I really didn't bring any clothes for cool weather so I am spending most of my indoor time bundled up in as many layers as possible.  I could use a woolen sweater too!!

 We stopped and I took these two shots (well, more than two actually) as the sun moved across the landscape.  Magic, magic!

 I think this might be a third picture in the above series.

 In this shot one of the bales of hay had broken open and these guys were scrambling to contain it.

 Just to show you that I am able to appreciate others colours as well here is a shot that is BROWN!!

 One little thing about my camera that I haven't figured out yet:   I will press on the button to take the picture but the camera has a mind of its own and won't take the shot until something closer in the foreground comes into view.  So I have lots of shots of signposts, up-close and blurry trees, grass, cars, the sides of buildings and what have you.  Pretty frustrating.  This one held on to take the picture until the road post came into view, (grrrr!)  but it still doesn't look TOO bad so I kept it anyway.  What I was interested in was the yellow of the field and the very dark line of clouds above it.  And in the end, the red and white post didn't totally ruin it.

 And this last one is a teaser.  The gite that we are currently staying in (our last before the b and b in Amsterdam and then our flight home) has the most beautiful garden surrounding it.  The garden has been featured in several newspapers and magazines and has won several Prix de Gite Fleuri and it is astounding.   (There is a wonderful article in Mon Jardin & Ma Maison, juin 2006, p. 98, if you have access to that magazine.) I'll show you some more pictures of the garden later.

Tomorrow we are going to Bruges in Belgium unless it is totally pouring with rain.  I am charging up my camera batteries even as I am writing this, just to be ready!! Back soon....