Paintings of French flowers and fruit, by Tessa Bennett

Cosmos and asters etc.

French apples on an 18th century French plate.

Buttercups in 18th century vinegar jug etc.

A last rose of Summer with 4 pears.

Quinces on a French 18th century dish.

Virginia creeper turns red, and last sunflowers of early Autumn in France.

Sunflowers and Virginia creeper  early Autumn in France.

French Spring and Summer garden flowers, Paintings by Tessa Bennett.

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French pottery and French onions, still life oil painting by Tessa Bennett.

French pottery  and French onions, painting by Tessa Bennett.

This is a photograph of a European hedgehog. There are 17 species of hedgehog, a spiny mammal of the the sub Erinaceinae. Hedgehogs share ancestry with shrews and have changed little for 15 million years!  They are nocturnal and insectivorous mammals . The name came into use in about 1450 and was derived from middle English (heygehog) because it frequented hedgerows and has a pig- like snout.  They are wonderful creatures.

The housefly - musca domestica, sunbathes on a raspberry leaf.

The house fly -   ( musca domestica)  is the most common of all domestic flies, and the most widely distributed of all insects. It can carry serious diseases, has one pair of wings, and the female is slightly larger than the male.  Houseflies are  believed to have evolved some  65 million years  ago  and probably owe their  worldwide dispersal to co-migration with humans.

Three French roses and a daisy, painting by Tessa Bennett.

Three pink roses and a daisy, drawn and painted in France from life. The 19th century pottery jug with mauve and silver decoration is probably Scottish.