Tuesday Photo Challenge – Back Catalog(ue)
Posted on October 15, 2019
A very interesting challenge from Frank this week. He invites us to go to our back catalog(ue) and take a new look at an old image – probably something we could all benefit from doing more often.
This is part of the exterior of a hotel on Yas Island in Abu Dhabi. The original – reproduced in the smaller photo below – is pretty ho-hum: no doubt why I’ve never done anything with it. However, after some cropping and ‘popping’ in Lightroom post-processing it becomes a more striking abstract geometric composition.


Monday Window: The Church at St-Martial-sur-Isop
Posted on October 14, 2019
I’ve just heard about the #MondayWindow challenge that’s being hosted by Ludwig Keck.
Here is my initial contribution – a stained glass window high up on the wall of the old church in the nearby village of Saint-Martial-sur-Isop.

Formal Gardens at Chateau Azay-le-Ferron
Posted on October 11, 2019
Thursday Doors: Bussiere-Poitevine (5 – and final)
Posted on October 10, 2019
This week, we have a final instalment of doors from the nearby village of Bussière-Poitevine.
Particularly notable in this first example is the characteristic Limousin sink on the right: a common feature of many old buildings around here. In fact we have a couple ourselves.

This is on the main road that runs through the village. It looks like it used to be a shop of some kind, although it’s looked like this for as long as we’ve been coming here (so over fifteen years). The only things you’re likely to see in that window nowadays is a selection of cats.

An equally neglected set of doors (a former workshop?):

In rather better fettle. Note the old postbox:

Just your average green door:

And finally a shout-out to the charity shop where Madame volunteers. I can attest to the quality of the cakes sold in the café – Madame makes a lot of them.

Thursday Doors 10 October 2019
Through a glass, darkly
Posted on October 9, 2019
Detail of the stopper of an antique coloured glass decanter, seen at an exhibition of old glassware and ceramics in our local village.

Posted in response to Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge: Circles, Curves and Arches
Tuesday Photo Challenge – Tourism
Posted on October 8, 2019
No prizes for guessing which popular tourist destination is pictured here:

Not drinking water
Posted on October 4, 2019
Cee’s Black & White Photo Challenge this week could be said to require some lateral thinking, as she is setting the theme of ‘side of things’.
In the medieval centre of the town of Cahors there is a hexagonal water fountain, with each of the six sides featuring a carving of a different dog’s head. This image shows two of them.

Thursday Doors: Bussiere-Poitevine (4)
Posted on October 3, 2019
A fourth instalment of doors from the village of Bussière-Poitevine. (We’re almost done here, I promise.)
By definition, it wouldn’t be a village if it didn’t have a church:

In last week’s post I showed an old shopfront. Here’s another:

Sometimes you need to look around you a little more carefully than usual to spot some interesting doors, like these two sets of ground-level cellar doors that happen to be opposite each other on the same street:


And down a little endroit:

Just a basic example, although the stonework is quite striking:

Thursday Doors 3 October 2019
Keep Out
Posted on October 2, 2019
I spotted this barred window on an old building in the village of Bussière-Poitevine and it seemed perfect for Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge this week. It reminds me of one of those ‘coffee-time’ magazine puzzles where you have to find as many squares and rectangles as possible in the diagram.

Tuesday Photo Challenge: Groceries
Posted on October 1, 2019
Frank’s theme for this week’s Tuesday Photo Challenge is in one sense a little out of the ordinary, but in another way could hardly be more mundane – ‘groceries’. So here are some groceries that are a little out of the ordinary: a basket of coloquintes (gourds) that I spotted at an open-air market in the town of Chabanais. They’re nothing if not colourful.






