Ummm...Time has really flown!!

I actually cannot believe I haven't written my blog since June 2014 - although it was the best weekend ever so maybe nothing topped it for a while!

The last year has flown by, it was a mixed year with a visiting childhood friend of our daughter's, I wasn't in the best of health and we didn't get out much! I am happy to say that part of life is over now and we are enjoying 2016 for what it is!
 "What is happening so far?" I hear you cry - well we have had some rather special events so far this year - a 70th Birthday a 50th Wedding Anniversary, a 24th Birthday and a 21st Birthday all in our family....we still have a very special occasion to follow another Birthday - but that is not until July ;)

Our youngest turned 21 in  May....

Lucky me - Birthday girl :) incentive to just keep swimming right there ;)

We also welcomed a rather darling puppy dog to the family - our eldest has finally the dog of her dreams - a King Charles called Bilbo!

SO the year this year has been good so far, we have had some interesting weather - as in lots and lots of rain (so theoretically shouldn't have a hose pipe ban this year!)

We have had some lovely sunny days which meant we could finally start getting the Hut back into order as a Poplar tree fell into it making one heck of a mess during a storm in February! We were quite upset at the time as we spent a lot of time and effort on it over the last few years, however we have made some improvements including removable windows!!  And as always we have more projects to undertake very shortly :D

The best part of summer arriving is that the Bees, Butterflies and HummingBird Hawkmoths start their work!

We were also lucky enough to have a little Jenny Wren nesting in The Hut - I didn't want to disturb the babies too much but did take a couple of photos!

Wild Geraniums in the garden..................

So now here we are in June, and as of the Summer Solstice we have fallen into Summer! It's been so lovely and scorchio .... trouble is it's a case of run and hide for the shade, and where better than our Summer retreat - The Hut :)

 Beautiful Clematis enjoying the sunshine....this is the time of year that I love going around gardens - there are so many amazing flowers!

It's so easy taking photographs on the go now - what with the Samsung Mobile, a new birthday present in the form of a compact Canon (with a snazzy retro case of course!) and the big cameras are always to hand - especially since investing in (another) a 70-300mm macro lens last year but having the chance to use it - this year I can enjoy getting out and using it properly!

So that's about it from PJP - the year in a nutshell - or a short blog in this case! I am looking forward to getting out and about and particularly to our celebration next month!

Thank you for reading and don't forget you can follow me on my FaceBook Page for everything "Life through the Lens" https://www.facebook.com/PamelaJaynePhotography/

PJ

July seems like a long time ago now!

I cannot believe it has been over 2 months since I last blogged - but it really is! Where has that time gone? Well thankfully I can still just about remember.....July was fab we had a lovely month - both the girls at home and lots to look forward to! It all started on the 5th July......I had been planning to take my dear husband to a really special place here in the Poitou Charentes - Under the Lime Tree we have met the lovely Nikki a couple of times and last year she was giving 10 minute massages at an event - that was my first taster and seemingly I needed more ;) SO with great finesse and mystery I arranged the day with her. Rob didn't guess a thing until he saw the sign post and then it was me saying  "wow - here we are and we have the Hot Tub and then a full hours hot stone massage to look forward to plus lunch!!" all in one breath I was so excited - this was the first time we have celebrated our Wedding Anniversary since our first one so to celebrate our 22nd in our special year (girls 18 and 21) seemed perfect! Of course this will now be a yearly event!

Whilst Rob was having his Hot Stone Massage I was relaxing in my way!

what a view!

Our first in a hot tub!

Lunch time a Vegetarian Delight!

Cheers - thank you for  22 years of Marriage 

If you go into the woods today........

a lesser spotted PJ you will find ;)

The 6th (our 22nd Wedding Anniversary) dawned bright and lovely - only our car didn't! Another flat battery which finally did get sorted eventually and 2 hours after we had got up and we got on our way to Aigré market where Mays 'n' Grace sang for the passers by and the stall holders of course! 

Naomi loving her Saturday!

Always seeing the funny side of life! or remember the boot lock had been broken!

Naomi's 18th Birthday celebrations!

What an end to our 22nd Wedding Anniversary - we did enjoy it though and we were joined by Naomi's friends after we had our Chicken Curry on the balcony with Chloe!

The lovely weather continued and there is nothing quite like the Evening sun - casting it's warm glow over everything!

"The HUT" Our place to eat, drink and chill - even though it needs finishing touches we love it!

Hollyhocks!

Indian Bean Tree and my free Roses still going strong 4 years on!

The Clematis is doing so well over the arch :)

Golden Plums - of which the birds ate

Hydrangea Wall

I call these "Sun Daisies"

The 14th July another beautiful day dawned and we decided to go to Poitiers to see all the "Spectacles" that were going to be on during the day!  SO off we went with 2 things in mind where to eat and what would the day hold.... well I can now tell you - umm well ok - here goes there was nothing on during the day at all! Apart from a band which we missed and a clown creating a story which I have to say thankfully we also missed! Nothing was open as of course it wouldn't be on a Fête Nationale so we decided to head back out of the heat after walking around this beautiful town and have an ice-cream - best decision of the day :D

 

On realising that the fireworks didn't actually start until 22h00 we thought we may just as well head home - have a bbq and then pop into Lezay to see the fireworks which are always good anyway! So we did just that! I can safely say the evening went of with a pop, whizz and bang and we narrowly missed a collision with a rogue firework that came into the middle of our crowd! Thankfully no serious damage done to anyway - just a tender spot on my head and a very shaky camera hand after.... still it was very pretty - even if the music was a bit strange!

Thank you Lezay we enjoyed ourselves very much and had a tale to tell as well :D

The next big event was my lovely Mum's Birthday....we were out on her actual Birthday at the English Market in La Mothe st. Heray - so my daughters and Dad took her out for lunch to Lambon a local big lake and restaurant but in true Sunday style they were booked out! So they then joined us at La Mothe, and enjoyed a lunch courtesy of Kate who runs La Boite Delicieuse a mobile Burger van which is I have to say - fab :) Anyway back to Mum's Birthday BBQ - the sun shone for most of it - apart from the very strange rumble of thunder and then it was back to sunshine! 

And then the next day the skies opened - hail, thunder - the lot! But it got the car clean!!

Excuse the next amount of photos - I love, love, love Horses and Donkeys but since living here in France we have fallen for the Baudet Poitou which is the donkey of the area http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poitou_donkey (thanks Wiki)  We also stumbled across the Baudet Mule and the Poitevin Horse - eldest and our where in our element here and then we discovered they had two baby - one was a month old and the other a mere day old!! The owner is such a lovely man and we hope to visit him sometime!

We were at Asnois bright and early at eight o' clock in the morning and set up - ready to go and waiting for the crowds, which didn't arrive but we had lots to keep us occupied in the ring opposite the PJP stand.

 

I loved these two......the last horses of the day!

And during this time we had such a wonderful surprise - Two friends came over with their Nanny and Grandad - we haven't seen them at all during the last nine years - the last time we saw them all four girls were under twelve!  Nine years seems a lifetime in friendship and our four were pretty tight knit having been brought up together, the next four days they spent together catching up and to be honest they didn't stop talking the whole time or so I was told! We loved seeing them and can't wait for their next visit! 

I also took delivery of my very fist Box Brownie this month as well - so excited - I have many plans for it - mainly as a prop as of course using it may be a bit extreme ;) But still I am thrilled and look forward to it making a proper outing!

So in a nutshell that was July...thank goodness for photos to help jog the grey matter! I am sure many more things did happen with the odd event in between and huge thunderstorms but I don't really want to remember them....the thunder and lightning and sleepless night - not funny!