theonlyD800inthehameau
Photography by theonlydeadheadinthehameau
Cellpic Sunday: Pink Peony
Posted on June 1, 2025
Madame loves peonies – especially pink ones. Over the years we haven’t had consistent success with growing them, but this year there was a bumper crop.
Cellpic Sunday – Arc-en-ciel
Posted on May 25, 2025
When half of the sky is bright sunshine and the other half has black clouds tipping it down, this is what you get (arc-en-ciel is the French word for a rainbow).
Cellpic Sunday: The Acceptable Face Of Weeds
Posted on May 18, 2025
Every spring, as growth restarts in the garden, we wait to see what will be what we call the ‘Weed of the year’ – the most prolific of the pestilential flora that deserves no place in a civilised garden, but takes over, vastly outnumbering any of its competitors.
Usually it comes down to an unpalatable choice between dandelions or – more likely – nettles. For 2025 however, the winner is – buttercups. They are everywhere this month. They’re so much nicer than any of the usual suspects that it was almost a shame to take the strimmer to them.
Cellpic Sunday: Pretty in pink
Posted on May 11, 2025
We were in the town of Beverley in Yorkshire last week and I came across this rather lovely flower in somebody’s front garden.
Cellpic Sunday: Play Misty For Me
Posted on March 30, 2025
On a misty day with not a breath of wind, the reflections on the surface of the pond here in what I call Tranquility Base, are almost perfect. And you’ve got to love those leading lines…
Cellpic Sunday: Meet the locals
Posted on March 23, 2025
The local breed of cattle in this particular part of France is the Limousin, characterised by the lovely golden brown colour of their hides, seen at its best in the sunlight..
Apparently they can be quite stroppy, but this one just looks curious, and the other two only have eyes for each other. There again, I was making sure to keep my distance.
Cellpic Sunday: Spring is sprung
Posted on March 16, 2025
Cellpic Sunday: Symmetry
Posted on March 2, 2025
The Pavillon du Verdurier is an exhibition space in the centre of Limoges. Obviously, people go to look at the exhibits (in this case quilts) but the building, especially the interior, is a work of art in itself.
This is a view from below of the elegantly decorated dome. The image has just been cropped and straightened: it really does look this pristine.
Cellpic Sunday: Take It From The Top
Posted on February 23, 2025
This view from the top floor of the Centre Commercial Saint-Martial (it’s a shopping mall) in the city of Limoges struck me as interesting in an abstract yet also symmetrical – thanks to some judicious cropping – way.
Cellpic Sunday: There’s a coypu at the bottom of our garden…
Posted on February 9, 2025
This is a coypu (‘ragondin‘ in French). It’s a large, semi-aquatic, herbiverous rodent that looks similar to an otter and is about the same size. There are lots of them around here and it’s quite common to see a mother leading her brood across a country road from one ditch to another.
And therein lies the problem. The local farmers hate them because they damage not only the ditches, where they build their burrows, but also their crops. They’ll be shot on sight and even the local chasse, although really after bigger game – deer and wild boar – will take a pop at them.
However, this one seems to have taken up residence in an impenetrable thicket of brambles in our garden, from where it ventures out to stretch its legs and take the sun (when there is any). If it notices us it quickly jumps back into the brambles, but it’s not the most observant of creatures, which provides a photo opportunity.
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