maturing with good grace

The spring has got me back onto a horse after a too long winter pause.  I am very lucky to have found some new riding companions, although,  alarmingly,  they are all much younger than me.  Hmmm...

It has got me thinking.  There were days when I would gallop around the valley with the best of them, up and down steep hills, take part in trek competitions, show jump ... there were days ....

Today I still love to ride, as someone famous once said "it is amazing how much good the outside of a horse can do to the inside of a man" or in this case woman.  I love their smell, I love that you can't lie to a horse, that he will pick up on your slightest mood change.  If the rider is relaxed, happy and confident then so is the horse, and magical things take place.

So while I was riding with two young women last week, we went past a long alley, and I looked down to the far end wistfully.  "Wow, the gallops I've  had here, the rides I've been on in this forest, especially with my girls, .... ".  I turned to look at my companions, expecting I think to see looks of indulgence and maybe even pity on their faces.  But no, their smiles were happy, they were sharing in my pleasure.   Dare I say there was a hint of admiration.   Then one said, "When I was a teenager, I would have loved to have ridden with my mum".

How sweet was that!  

And then I got it.  Maturing gracefully is not about regrets for things we no longer feel up to.  It's about adapting, finding new pleasures and simply being grateful for ever having had the chance to do the other stuff, the more daring stuff, more dangerous even.

To celebrate this new found wisdom, I ended the ride with a lovely long canter, punctuated with a couple of jumps over fallen trees, yes!

To each age its pleasure, and when some pleasures can be shared between generations then that is just a big fat bonus.

Read More

in 'our' forest

A couple of shots I took while walking this week through early morning mist in 'our' forest.  Thought I'd better clear this up, since some readers seem to think that we actually own this forest.  The answer is "no".   

Best of all worlds really, it's on our doorstep, well maintained, safe and ... empty.  We see more deer than people up there  so it just feels like it's ours.

Hope you have been enjoying the Big Outdoors this weekend.

Read More

the valley through the seasons

Driving home this week, I pulled off the road as we reached the valley and got out my camera.  I sensed a little bristling of impatience in the car  "Mummy, why do you need another picture of that view, you've got loads already?!"     He was right of course ... my son, cutting down to the essential in life.  Shame that my essential and his essential don't always coincide ....

So -  angel that he is -   he bore with me for a whole 45 seconds while I clicked away, happy and then we were back en route, relieved, content and in the throws of a discussion about when is a picture not just a picture, and what is a good picture anyway!!

I'm sure he got out the car thinking, "that's it, she's  lost it!" ...  but that doesn't matter.


So what was the view that couldn't wait?  This little road that winds its way down to our village, my eye is always drawn to the solitary tree and the soft colours that change so beautifully through the season.

See what you think ....

No matter what my children say,  I'll still take the pictures and I still enjoy those short moments in the day when I stop dead in my tracks and say Yes!

Read More

out and about this morning

Chores to do this morning, not in the house though, all over the valley.  Children to take to school at sunrise; groceries to buy and then hay, hay and more hay - enough to see us through till the spring brings green grass for the  horses.  Thank goodness I'm not allergic!   

It all made for a lot of driving, made easier by taking my camera along for the ride.  When I came home and  looked at my photos I realised that I had watched the valley thaw out from the night frost!  

 Hope your week is getting off to a good start.

Read More

a true story from Normandy

I love to visit churchyards.  There is nothing morbid in my enjoyment, more historical.  Churchyards attached to the villages here read like history books, the genealogy of a small community laid out in the ground for all to understand.

Just across the valley from us there is a very small church with a beautiful view and a tiny graveyard.  The cemetery receives a load of visitors because there is a former French  minister and Nobel prize winner buried there, but it's two other graves that caught my attention.

Side by side there are two little tombstones, old and  difficult to read, but with some patience you can clearly make out the names of two young girls, and curiously the names are not French but English.  This intrigued me for a long while.  I imagined a family travelling through the valley early XXth century, a terrible accident, tragic deaths, then burial near by.  But that couldn't be the case since the dates on the tombstones  are two years apart.

I asked around locally but nobody could remember any accident, or English family around here.

Finally, a while ago, I discovered the truth behind the intrigue.

An English lord came to Normandy with his beautiful young wife, fell in love with the valley and settled here.  They had a daughter who sadly died very young of an illness.  Two years later they had another daughter, and tragically she also succumbed to the same maladie, which today we'd call genetic.  The couple were overcome with sadness but still desired a family and decided to adopt.   A baby French girl was found and the family reconstructed their lives, they continued to live in Normandy.

So how did I discover this? .... a history book?  No.  

One day while walking near the church I saw an elderly lady tidying the tombstones and laying fresh flowers.  We chatted about the weather and the view and the peacefulness, she had a pleasant face.  I asked if she knew anything about the mysterious English children, she smiled, she seemed pleased that someone was interested.  She told me the whole story.

Have you guessed?

She was, of course, the adopted daughter.

Read More

french country life in the snow

With the snow comes the prettiness but also the reality of a country not quite adapted to cope with even a few inches of the white stuff.    Country roads are not cleared or gritted, and few people have snow tyres on their cars so journeys are either postponed or taken slowly.

The days are busy because there is more to do and everything takes longer.  I try to keep an eye on our elderly neighbours,  pick up some shopping for them or just have a chat.  Our horses look fed up, and their water freezes every day so I have to ferry jerry cans of warm water as well as the hay.

School buses are cancelled until the snow melts so I'll be spending a while in my car this week on school runs.

This morning everywhere looked so beautiful.   At the risk of going into snow overkill, I share these shots I took as I drove through the valley.

The sun is bright, it will all melt soon,  carpe diem!

Read More

early this morning in our valley

Up and about early this morning, another thick frost on the ground, I took my camera with me.  All along our valley there are small stone built villages, each with a church.   Many villages have a small château somewhere central  and they all have an old 'lavoir' or communal washing stand on the river, where the women used to take their laundry.

Of course we have the new builds as well, and they are not always a happy match to the beautiful old stone work, but this morning I could only see the beautiful.

I just love all these tones of winter grey, summer will seem brash after this subtle season.  The slight mist in the air, the lack of leaves on the trees, and this additional frost, makes the countryside look as if viewed in soft focus.

Hope your week is going well

Thank you for stopping by!

Read More

'my' country path through the seasons

If I have scores of photos of the same path, does that make me a geek?  No, actually don't answer that, I prefer not to hear the answer! 

The fact is that I go up this path at least once a day, every day of the year.  Daily to feed the horses, often to saddle them, and sometimes just because this is the route I take to walk into the forest.

I love the gentle bends, I love the view of the forest and in particular I love the way it changes through the seasons.  Here are some of the shots I've enjoyed over the past 12 months.

Read More