Brittany

For the first stage of our holiday we stayed in Brittany, outside a small town not far from Vannes. It was less than a ten minute walk from the campsite to the coast, and there were well organised and maintained paths along the coast in both directions. These first few pictures are all very local, taken within walking distance of the campsite.

These pictures are from the longest trip we took while in Brittany, to the Parc naturel régional de Brière. We found part of it to be very poorly signposted and wasted enough time that we never made it to Guérande afterwards, which we had hoped to. But we got to see a very interesting documentary about life in the area at the time when all the men worked in the big ship-building yard at St Nazaire.
And we did, eventually find the Réserve Ornithologique Pierre Constant, where we had a lovely walk; most of the following photos are from there. We got to see some black spoonbills, as well as a lot of different birds of prey.

on the îsle de Fedrun

view over the marshland from one of the hides

harvested reeds, outside the interprative centre at Pierre Constant

Black Spoonbill

drifting seed from some tree

July Favourites...

One of these days I will find time to start editing photos from France!!
As a starter, these are  just a quick pick.

Quiberon, Brittany

View towards Lac Chambon, Auvergne

View from cable-car station, Puy de Sancy, Auvergne

Biganos Port, Bassin d'Arcachon

Cap Ferret, looking across the Bassin to the Dune de Pyla

And I have quite a few favourite cards from July, since I made samples for several of the DTGD challenges over on Splitcoast.

Tons of masking here...

A first attempt at using image transfer medium, with an old Kate Greenaway book

From the Archives 2

We were away in France for 3 weeks, and I am still trying to catch up with myself as far as photos go!

In the meantime, here are my favourites from the cards I made during the second half of my time on the Dirty Dozen over at Splitcoast.

Baby Blues

I was sitting outside late this afternoon enjoying half an hour in the sun; there seemed to be an inordinate amount of noise from the hedge. I took a look round the corner of the house, and was rewarded by seeing these...and a baby robin too!

May favourites

Favourite cards from May - and a new blog header. Looking through photos from last June, we had a lot of young birds. I think it's been so cold that everything is much later this year - I haven't seen any yet. I nearly picked a header of a juvenile starling, but in the end (probably!) went with a swan.

Wicklow in the sun...

Yesterday was a beautiful morning, and a warm but not so sunny afternoon. We made the effort to get out of the house quite early, and went for a drive round the Blessington Lakes and then down Wicklow Gap to Laragh. When we stopped at one of the little car parks just before Laragh, the smell from the gorse was just heavenly! The sunshine really brings it out.

Got the Blues ?

Spotted this on the way to work this morning. I loved the look of the burnt texture at the bottom of the door.

Being the end of the year, there's a student exhibition on in the National College of Art and Design, and I'm sure this is part of it. I wish the gallery opened earlier and I could go in before work - I usually just want to head straight home afterwards.

Should have a few more swan photos in a day or two when I edit them. I took this one looking down the river towards the sun, so there wasn't much editing needed.