Knot(hole)

This knothole can be found in an ancient wooden door up in the medieval citadel of the French town of  Confolens.

Cee’s Black & White Photo Challenge: Anything Made From Wood

52 Weeks Photo Challenge: Week 25 – Textures

Textures of wood, stone and metal on this disused well-head in the medieval centre of the town of Loches.

textures

52 Weeks Photo Challenge: Week 52 – Textures

Tuesdays of Texture: Firepit

We’ve just spent a week in a holiday cottage in the still largely rural East Lothian region of Scotland. Although the weather wasn’t good enough (October? Scotland? I don’t think so) for us to use it, this firepit/barbecue area certainly offered a whole range of textures.

firepit

Tuesdays of Texture: Week 45

Tuesdays of Texture: Clogs

This image from the workshop of the local clogmaker in nearby Montrol-Sénard, a living museum of rural life, certainly displays some very interesting textures.

clogs

It resonates particularly for me, because what is now the entrance hall of our home was once the atelier of the local sabotier.

Although we have had it done up a bit:

clogs3-web

Tuesdays of Texture: Week 43

Tuesdays of Texture: Landing Stage

Staying on the island of Burano, where that church door from last week needs a lick of paint, is this little wooden stage that allows boat-owners to avoid getting their feet wet when boarding or disembarking from their vessel. I was struck by the contrast between the glassy (anti-texture?) water and the rough surface of the wood. Complementary colours, too.

jetty

Tuesdays of Texture: Week 41

Tuesdays Of Texture: Window

Alerted by the estimable Norm 2.0, I thought I’d make a contribution to the ‘Tuesdays of Texture’ stream hosted by Narami at De Monte Y Mar.

This old window is to be found high up on the wall of Paulette’s barn, here in the very hameau referred to in the name of this blog. I think the textures of the wood, the stone work and the metal are all worth a look.

Texture- Window

And here’s the same window in context:

Paulette's Barn

Thursday Doors: Close To Home

Last week’s door wasn’t very far from here, but today I’m even closer to home: about 30 feet from my back door.

Our house is actually two cottages knocked together (if you want to know a little more, you can read this) and forms one end of a larger bâtiment which includes two barns, one of which belongs to us and one to our neighbour, Albert (whose own house is just in front of ours). Needless to say, this being rural France, our barn is at the far end of the bâtiment, and it’s Albert’s that adjoins our house.

You get used to it.

Anyway, this picture is a detail of the very ancient side door to Albert’s barn. You can get some idea of its age from the grooves that have been worn in the wood from the swinging latch. I’m glad I took this when I did, because he’s only gone and painted it, hasn’t he?

DoorAlbert

Thursday Doors 17th December 2015

Still Life With Mushrooms

This is an image of a wooden sculpture of a group of mushrooms. It’s really cleverly done, as the individual mushrooms are detachable, and very tactile. The monochrome brings out the textures of the wood quite well, I think.

WoodB&W

Cee’s Black & White Photo Challenge: Things Made from Wood

The woodpile

Last year, we had a dead oak tree at the bottom of one of our fields. Patrice, the local forestier, cut it down for us and turned it into logs for our woodburning stoves. This year, it’s helping to keep us warm.

Cee’s Black & White Photo Challenge

Wood