Saturday 17 November 2012







Chalet Bellevue

The park with glimpses of the Spa.

Abandoned tennis courts.

The old club house.

An old garage, now a workshop for double glazing.



I had another trip to visit my English friend at St HonorĂ©. It was a day that began in a bit of mist then quickly it disappeared. I have to drive a short distance along very up and down lanes past small farms and cottages. Many cottages are empty, for sale or owned by Dutch people here for the Spring and summer.  The sun shone for most of the day and we went for a walk and then headed to Fours, means 'Ovens' in French. Fours has a charity shop. I only know of 3 here. I bought some heavy hiking boots, leather gloves and quilted jackets for my winter country wardrobe. Very happy. We returned back to my friends house and the door was strangely locked and the key wouldn't work. All a bit dramatic but fixed eventually by the Gendarmes who just broke the tough door glass. The door is a very substantial oak 30's style with wrought iron over the glazed area.  Anyway by the time I drove home there was spectacular mist to rise above. I must head out this way again shortly to sketch these wonderful hills. It's near a place called Sanglier which is French for Wild Boar. I'm pleased I realised I have new areas to paint around here. Familiar but not so familiar. It's just the kind of views and landscape I love.
I have started putting a few things on Facebook too. Do try and connect there if you like. I hadn't thought of it till recently. It seems a bit more chatty.https://www.facebook.com/jane.aston2

Tuesday 13 November 2012

Ghostly Geese





Ghostly Geese

I posted 2 of these on my Facebook page. They were well liked. I immediately liked the way in dull light the  long exposure caused this strange  effect.

A friend said it would make an interesting alternative style of Christmas card. I like quick drawings that show movement. I might use these images somehow. Hmmm.

Friday 9 November 2012




View towards Larochmillay coming from Luzy, in the Morvan Sud and below the same. 


 It's warm here today but we normally have snow by next week so better than trying to fetch  the sheep food along slippery roads we are ahead of ourselves. Another problem is if we leave it the sheep food disappears from the shop. After severe weather the grass dies.
I love this lungeing rope seems like it's hand woven. I'm sure not, I must ask.


I'm not sure why but I found this lovely, I think bicycle in 2 pieces. It still has a hard leather saddle. It was thrown in the woods in an old domestic tip with some other things like a cooker and chicken wire. 

The space here behind the shed that is where we have our saw mill is where the  Citroen HY  is going. It should fit in a treat. The walnut tree will stay. I just need to prune the lowest branch poking towards the end of the shed.


I have all these pretty bitter Italian red chicory. The seeds were dispersed randomly around the veg plot. They seem more hardy than other salad. Otherwise I have been pruning the blackcurrants after the leaves have fallen and poked them in the ground, quite deeply.


These 2 images are the same as the above. I took all these images today. These were taken at around  5pm.  The hills are the old volcanoes.