theonlyD800inthehameau
Photography by theonlydeadheadinthehameau
Tranquil reflections
Posted on July 23, 2021
A scene from the bustling metropolis that we call home and refer to as Tranquility Base. Our house lies behind these two, which are reflected in the village pond (étang).
The ripple – probably caused by one of the myriad frogs that colonise the pond – adds interest and helps to balance the image.
Cat House
Posted on October 8, 2020
No, not that kind of cat house.
There’s a ginger cat that roams freely round our little hamlet. He belongs to one of our neighbours, but a couple of other residents also keep it well looked after,
So well, indeed, that this improvised cat kennel has recently appeared outside the front door of one of them.
Monday Window: Bernard’s Barn
Posted on August 10, 2020
This window is in the back wall of our neighbour Bernard’s barn. Reflected in it are the camellias that festoon the garden fence of my mother’s little house.
The orange boat
Posted on March 17, 2020
Judy at Lifelessons has had the brilliant idea of posting the last image from either your SD card or phone. As she says, it’s something to pass the time while we’re all in solitary confinement in isolation.
This, from my iPhone, is one of the model boats (pleasingly, the other is blue) that one of our neighbours floats onto the pond at the centre of our little hameau when the water level permits. As it’s rained more or less constantly since September, that is no constraint.
52 Week Smartphone Challenge: Week 10 – Hometown
Posted on March 7, 2020
Week 10 of the Smartphone Challenge poses me something of a dilemma. Does the theme of ‘Hometown’ refer to the place I grew up, or where I live now? There is a vast difference.
I was born and grew up in in the town of Birkenhead, in north-west England. Its principal redeeming feature is that it is just across the River Mersey from, and therefore boasts a very good view of, Liverpool, which I think of as much more my spiritual hometown.
Now, however – and since 2012 – we live in a very small French hamlet which for blogging purposes I refer to as ‘Tranquility Base’. We really wouldn’t want to live anywhere else and we certainly think of it as our home.
It’s where we want to watch our sunsets.
52WeekSmartphoneChallenge 10
Monday Window Tranquility Base (again)
Posted on February 24, 2020
Q: When is a window not a window?
A: When it used to be one.
This outbuilding of one of the usually unoccupied houses here in Tranquility Base has seen a lot of re-purposing over the years. The shuttered window obviously used to be a door and there are the phantom vestiges of two other windows.
Monday Window – Tranquility Base
Posted on January 27, 2020
Just over 50 yards from our house in the little hamlet that I refer to as Tranquility Base is this small window in – for want of a better word – a shed. It belongs to a couple who spend the summer here (although not in the shed).
Does anybody else see the resemblance to a cartoonish human face?
#MondayWindow 27 January 2020
Thursday Doors: Tranquility Base again
Posted on January 16, 2020
For the uninitiated, ‘Tranquility Base’ is the nom de plume, as it were, of the little hamlet where we live: eighteen houses (including five holiday homes) and three streetlights – count’em.
Amazingly, there are (were) still some portals that haven’t been posted on here: until now.
Q: When is a door not a door? A: When it used to be:
This is on Paulette’s barn, as is this:
All of which forms a piece with the main house:
Much of the hamlet used to belong to the local sabotier (clog-maker), hence the fact that there are more than one of these signs
At the bottom of the garden behind the house currently inhabited by my old mum is this mysterious, disused shed:
But by far the best of this crop is here, which for years has been hidden behind a sheet of corrugated iron:
Thursday Doors 16 January 2020
Thursday Doors: Tranquility Base again
Posted on March 21, 2019
We have just rented this little house, no more than 50 yards from our own front door here in Tranquility Base, for my mother. It’s very bijou.
This gave us access to some previously unseen doors of a barn which belongs to another of our neighbours:
Thursday Doors 21 March 2019
Thursday Doors: Tranquility Base
Posted on January 5, 2017
Over the past year or so I’ve posted a number of pictures of doors that are to be found in Tranquility Base, my working title for the little hamlet we live in. Thus you’ve seen Emily’s Henhouse and Bernard’s Barn, amongst others.
Now, I certainly don’t want to give the impression that everything in Tranquility Base is falling down, but here are a few more very local doors, beginning with front and side view of what may once have been a shed that belongs to our nearest neighbour:
Fortunately, this barn is in rather better condition:
Although it’s a bit dodgier round the back:
This one doesn’t see much traffic either:
Nor do these doors, which many years ago would have served to keep the pigs shut in:
Thursday Doors 5 January 2017
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