Winter lettuces in the Limousin, France.

Lovely crunchy looking Winter lettuces growing in a vegetable garden in France. Country folk in the Limousin are expert vegetable and fruit growers, in fact they are not really interested in growing flowers or having a lawn. They use their garden for strictly practical purposes - growing things to eat! Very sensible.  They eat 'la salade' throughout the year chopped up with vinaigrette served alongside  - generally -  a  thin soup, and this is how the older generation in rural  France  live so long and are so healthy,  and thin!

French edible mushroom.

This is an edible  mushroom picked in the woods of Limousin today. In French it is called a culmel (that spelling may not be correct)! It is as yet not open. I am told they taste good especially in an omelette. Could be the Scaly Tricholoma.

A loved Paris mongrel awaits his master.

Dog awaits his master in a Paris Boulevard.

Sad reminder in France, of Buchenwald

One of the first graves I came across in this small cemetery in a tiny village in South West France belonged to a local man of the resistance who died in the notorious concentration camp Buchenwald. This brave man died in February 1945.  Buchenwald was disbanded in April  1945.

The beauty of ferns.

Photograph of ferns in a ditch in France. 

Limousin cattle.

Group of Limousin cattle, an ancient breed that flourish in South West  France, - Haute Vienne, Correze, and Creuse. Here the temperature can be extreme but the fields are nearly always green.  

House in France

Typical 18th century stone built house in South West France.    Front door only 5' 4" high, built for a small French paysan/paysanne  with walls more than 2' thick  it is cool during the hot summer and warm during the cold winter. Bats can still live between the ancient wooden window surrounds and the stone, and there is room for lizards to live between the natural house stones.

Life in the Wild by Tessa Bennett

'Life in the Wild', small book 22 drawings of wild flowers found in French hedgerows. Drawings by Tessa Bennett.

French wild flower botanical drawings

1.   Smooth  Sow-thistle.

2. Greater Stichwort and Cowslip.

3. Greater Celandine.

4. Ground Ivy and Red Campion.
                                                                                                                                                                  

                                                                                                                                                                    

5. Ground Ivy and Fragrant Orchid.                                                                                                Drawings by T. Bennett.

Wild Flowers picked in French Hedgerows, pencil drawings by Tessa Bennett

 Wild flowers picked in French hedgerows.

1. Common dog violet.
2. Wild Strawberry.
3. Greater celandine.
4. Broom.
(all drawings by Tessa Bennett)

Valentine's Day - 3 pin-ups - French, American, and British, by an Italian

These First world war postcards are by the Italian artist and illustrator Giovanni  Nanni (1888 - 1969).
They represent in an art deco style 3 beauties - USA, Britain, and France. The cards  were sent 'On Active Service'  to Saltcoats, Ayrshire,  then forwarded to Leeds, October 1916.
These postcards are original pin-ups and have  original pin holes still in evidence.

2 French Dogs relax, Louis Georges and Jacques.

This is a painting of Louis Georges, a French miniature poodle, and Jacques a French standard dachshund.
Their intelligence and charm  will be featured  in a detective story that takes place in Paris,  to be published  in 2011.

French wild flower botanical drawings

Drawings by Tessa Bennett.

Drawings of French wild flowers  picked in French hedgerows. 
1. Germander Speedwell.
2. Cuckoo flower.