A View of My Wonderful Village

and this at closing of the shortest day 21st December 2013 towards the south and west!

01012014 Five chimes

Five chimes
Five chimes from a French cloche sound the hour.
Repeated a few moments later
to remind those within hearing distance,
in case one has not heard,
nor counted, that it is the TIME.
White clouds skitter about a blue sky skirting our world.
Pink and blue hues press grey woodsmoke to the village valley.
As I descend from walking the plateau above that vale
where houses hunker down around the church tower recently renovated,
where people snuggle down around the brass bell recently repaired,
now more sonorous to tell the hour and the half hour,
I smell the hazy, smoky woodiness of a garden bonfire in late autumn,
not many days before the winter solstice.
I see the curling woodsmoke spiralling towards the sky,
to be pressed down around the field in which it is.
A most beautiful village with smells so sweet and smoky
to mark a changing season towards the changing end of year.

With all my very best wishes for a wonderfully exciting 2014.
Love from  RestlessinFrance

Copyright. Please do not reproduce without permission 
Photo November 2013 from my rooftop: Poem December 2013

iphoto might have sorted itself

Let battle commence:

First tiles are removed.....can you hear me gasp?

The straightened toe hopes number 3 will settle

The new panne sabliere to the left of the Lucarne

The old panne sabliere to the right of the Lucarne

Angles sur L'Anglin

This is a link to a previous but existing blog 

that was created to my design with the skills of my former partner about 

Angles sur L'Anglin.

I am publicly publishing this information because the blog contains personal, creative writings about previous Feu d'Artifice (firework) events at this beautiful village.

It explains how he / I / we found this beautiful village and recently people have been asking how I came to live here.  It's hard to find the short story! This explains!

I had intended to expand that particular Blog,  but, within my inner psyche,  I was locked, blocked, stuck, ashamed. in regret, in remorse, in bereavement. It was and has been and IS difficult to accept and acknowledge all the good that there was In a Previous Life!  

Indeed, I might add to that blog  for which I have paid the domain name,  but for the Now, I have other objectives.  I enjoy self-publishing my photos and scripts as part of being Restless in France.

Perhaps it is time to publicly celebrate MY STORY and not to hide the past.

I'm wishing to remember and celebrate my past, my life, my long friendship with my former soulmate. I'm wishing to celebrate who I am and where I've been to get to where I am, despite the LOSSES experienced and despite an emotional HELL that I seem to have allowed myself to go through, for whatever reason. Agreed, it is nothing compared to what others bear in their lives.   It is just who I am. I seem to feel things very deeply and wish I didn't.
Nevertheless that does not diminish the love I have for my inner core and the love I have for other people and things.  Most of the thoughts that are truly in my head are linked to emotions. To stop them or put them into a box may mean to become mentally and emotionally inert.  I don't know about that! I am told that I have to put the past to bed in order to heal, to prevent the inner torture.

It is ironic that I come to live on a street called the Road to Hell and another plot is number 13.  I never knew these facts when I signed for the property. If I did, I would not have completed the purchase.  This actually makes me laugh... because what else can one do but see the humour in the twists and turns of life... otherwise one would go completely barmy and need the institutional nuthouse!

It is impossible to believe that once I was a person of social standing with more responsibilities for others than I could manage!

However,  here I am, mostly extremely happy to live in this most beautiful of villages despite that sometimes perhaps I do not make as much of my life every day as that which I could!  I miss many things. The clock is ticking as I search for the next adventure!

 

Photography

I realise that I don't have a reason for the fact that I seem to have fallen out with cameras, having not been inspired to take photos. Or possibly it is the techno thing of downloading, uploading, digital enhancement, etcetera, or the fact that batteries have to be charged or replaced or that the winter bag has not been sufficiently commodious. Perhaps the mind, the organisation, the weather and a myriad of other  nouns could form potential excuses for why photos have become fewer on this blog.  I'm sure the level of enthusiasm will improve.  Probably, new adventures, less hibernation, will trigger the button, so to speak.
In fact, the clickability of cameras allows me to collect so many digitial photos, too many!  I haven't been very good at FILING, nor ruthless about which to keep, so trawling through photos, looking for THE ONE becomes tedious!
However, as it is April Fools Day - Le Jour du Poisson - in the unruly archives, is ceramic art that I was drawn to at a Bretagne Museum in Quimper, September 2012.

Tours, France

Recently a visit was possible on two different days because I had to deliver and collect a friend from the airport, which is more than an hour's journey from where I live.  On the first day I wandered, re-acquainting myself with the town, walked the long length of the outdoor antiques market after browsing the Christmas chalets.  Photos tell something of a story for the second day, but I forgot to record the beautiful île-flottante dessert.  My solo dining experience lasted almost two hours. It was a treat for being single.  Aha!  My adventure took me to the flower market for anemones as the art gallery was closed.  A nightmare ensued as I was not allowed to use the 3d kitchen planner with the whole of France circumnavigating the IKEA 'pathway', which I skipped (as in deviated from).  Tired, I headed to a basic hotel to read and watch tele as I don't have one at home! I took my own duvet, turned the radiator to HOT and indulged in 'cosy and comfortable'.

Sunrise

The flooded River Gartempe

The day dawns

as I frequently stop to capture the sky.

 

and mist above L'Anglin.

and water at a weir.

My lunch starter - St Jacques

No place was left unseated.

Main course - Salmon

A huge goats cheese platter

The Carousel

Le Prefecture where the Truffle Fair was held.

Beyond me!

The trams are not yet on track.


THIS IS POST 200.

Aerial view of the Chateau

A friend is not sure where this photo was found on the web. 
It is exceptionally wonderful where I live!

Stone
invited me to sit down,

made for just my size,
invited eyes to look before me,
at a bridge above a river
to watch English empty barque of water,
whereupon
five people boarded,
rowed
laden, towards a weir,
walked across a dam
laughing, loudly speaking
as English often do.
On an island,

first Sunday August,
if early enough
to bag one's place,
spectacular fireworks can be seen
in an hour of an evening
from the very best espace.

Iced icicle - the pointing hand

An icicle grows: Click on a photo to enlarge.

The long arm

The Pointed Fingers on the Hand of the Arm.

Transmutation again.

And look how the heavy hanging arm has dragged the guttering down!

It was 130cm long before it grounded itself in the thaw of 13th February. Lucky for some that no one was beneath it.

Iced Water

Firstly photos of the river frozen: Click on a photo to enlarge.

 A rare view of an ice laden river below the chateau.

Snow Chateau

It's earlyish in the morning and I love the way the light has affected my photo when I have not changed the settings.

The red car enhances the chateau in the snow.

My street  05-01-2012 4pm

Ice by the river bank near the weir.

compared to the swollen river 6 weeks ago.

River flooding is subsiding

The tracks support the wooden pedestrian bridge in summer. 

Forces of energy bend the tracks.

The leaves caught in the tree show how high the river flooded.