Andre Goes South: 1300km, Horse Riding Lessons & Medieval Stable

[Andre]

I have been a bit silent the last few days, the reason for that is implied in the title. Not that far as others go north though, only about 1300km and it's not actually a holiday either which is a bit of a contradiction when one has retreated from active service. Moreover, I'm helping at http://www.au-chateau.com/Montcru.htm , doing the bar, the cooking and things like that and doing a lot of photography.

Here are a few.

Transition from bad to less bad weather in the garden:

It's possible to get lessons in horseback riding here:

But sometimes the horses need new horseshoes:

That happens in this medieval stable (where the horses have satellite TV?)

We bake the bread ourselfs, today we went for new flour in this mill, powered by a water mill

A village in the neighborhood, care to find out which?

 

[Borek]

Water mill... When I was a teenager during winter camp somewhere in Poland we found it is possible to enter a (closed then) water mill just by walking the transmission belt

I wonder if the mill still exist.

 

[Andre]

Actually with the type of water mills here the water turbine is completely indoors, the building in the center of the last pic is also such a water mill albeit another one.

Anyway todays focus was on preparation of a change of guests, which happens tomorrow. One of the tasks is to replace the pictures in the gallery in the main hall according to the taste and wishes of the new arriving guests.

 

[Evo]

So, is my picture going up or down?

Great shots, btw!

 

[Andre]

thanks Evo, It went up today after I framed it. It was a present from a guest last year, who returns tomorrow. So, I told about the legend of the Lady of Shalott I think it will stay up.

 

[Astronuc]

Great pics Andre! That's beautiful country.

Coincidentally, it's the birthday of Alfred, Lord Tennyson (b Aug 6, 1809), the man who wrote The Lady of Shalott, a ballad based on King Arthur legends, which begins:

"On either side the river lie / Long fields of barley and of rye, / That clothe the wold and meet the sky; / And thro' the field the road runs by / To many-tower'd Camelot;"

courtesy of The Writer's Almanac.

 

[drizzle]

Great pics Andre, you sure enjoy it there. Who’s the little kid? She’s cute.

 

[Andre]

Thanks, the girl is one of the guests here, who doesn't want to leave today.

There is little discussion about the most beautiful time of the day. Sunrise, this pic was taken around 7am this morning. I had the chills, but it was still fresh of course.

 

[lisab]

Looks like a beautiful sanctuary. Very nice!

 

[Borek]

If we (Boreks) ever decide to go to the southern end of Europe, Montcru will be on our way

Actually, going to the southern end of Europe means also going to the western end (or at least it doesn't make sense to make separate trips).

 

[drizzle]

Awesome! Sunrise is definitely the best time of the day, it's the beginning of a new day.

 

[Andre]

Looks like a beautiful sanctuary. Very nice!

Absolutely, It's a place that defeats the principle of time dilation, there is no movement required at all to have a sensation of the time standing still.

However as the guests change today, there is a lot of work. Ah well, tomorrow again.

If we (Boreks) ever decide to go to the southern end of Europe, Montcru will be on our way

I'm sure you are welcome, my brother in law is doing business in Poland and hits a language barrier every now and then. He could use some advice then.

Awesome! Sunrise is definitely the best time of the day, it's the beginning of a new day.

You bet but it takes a while before these little fellows below become active and of course I brought my macro lens:

It's the Hummingbird hawk moth

edit, maybe this shot is better:

 

[turbo]

Thanks, the girl is one of the guests here, who doesn't want to leave today.

There is little discussion about the most beautiful time of the day. Sunrise, this pic was taken around 7am this morning. I had the chills, but it was still fresh of course.

What beautiful Maxfield Parrish lighting! All you need is a couple of beautiful young ladies lounging in simple white dresses.

 

[Andre]

What beautiful Maxfield Parrish lighting! All you need is a couple of beautiful young ladies lounging in simple white dresses.

Good idea, Working on that, maybe next week. We need more rain though to get that morning fog back.

Meanwhile I thought to shoot another hummingbirg hawk moth to improve the results but it turned out to be quite something different:

It could be a Bee hawk moth or maybe not. Anybody a good tally on the species?

 

[Borek]

I am afraid all I have is about moths/butterflies present in Poland, using these books for southern France can be misleading.

 

[Andre]

Thanks, anyway this guy is more familiar, a clear resident of the pond.

Normally little Charles follows him carefully when in flight:

We monitor the light changing in the evening as the sun sets.

the last rays captured by an approaching(?) storm:

 

[Cyrus]

Purrrrfect pictures :)

 

[drizzle]

... Normally little Charles follows him carefully when in flight:

... Gizmo wasn't there when you took that pic, right?

We monitor the light changing in the evening as the sun sets.

Woah!

Though I don't like sunset, but this one is as good as the sunrise pic... This place is definitely a heavenly sanctuary.

 

[Andre]

... Gizmo wasn't there when you took that pic, right?

No, Gizmo doesn't like to travel, so he stayed home, in the north.

 

[Evo]

Gorgeous pictures, as always! I love blue eyed cats.

 

[drizzle]

No, Gizmo doesn't like to travel, so he stayed home, in the north.

Good!

 

[Andre]

Ah, Charles was just a stray and there are more like him but feral. Charles is a gentleman. He was found on the premises when only a few weeks old and it's probably the TLC of the family that transformed him into a friendly creature.

Yesterday was hiking day, albeit that the original destination was Andorra, you know, where those blue antennae people live. However unreal touristic traffic jams caused a change of plans.

On our way:

Nature reclaims the remains of a former mine higher in the mountains

The destination of the hike, l'Etang des Bésines

where we also found the contraption that used to use those rails:

From earlier that day: sometimes unexpected guests appear to prefer the banjo:

anyway, after seeing all these pics there has been shown some interest here to visit this santuary in the fall.

 

[Borek]

So we are back to the PF meeting plan?

 

[Andre]

We can certainly discuss that maybe tomorrow.

Today was market day in St Girons. A few sceneries.

The stereotype idea of a little medieval French town:

Any other day, you would not find a living soul on the streets, but now just about everybody from the whole county is here.

Colourful fruits and vegetables

The paëlla, obviously we are close to Spain

and finally we found our target, what it's all about for bears, hunny

 

[Andre]

What beautiful Maxfield Parrish lighting! All you need is a couple of beautiful young ladies lounging in simple white dresses.

As you wish

 

[turbo]

Thanks!

 

[Borek]

LOL

 

[Andre]

The next time we have that morning fog we aim to have a horse too with the girl (niece).

 

[Andre]

...like this

 

[Borek]

The more pictures I see, the more I want to go to Montcru

 

[Andre]

You're welcome of course.

Anyway two more then, after she galoped away...

... I had this paradise view walking back to the lodge

 

[turbo]

Looks like heaven, Pooh!

 

[turbo]

I showed my wife the pictures, and she said "beautiful girl!" Hope you can pry her out of bed on some magic morning with the reddish-golden light that you captured before.

 

[Andre]

Oh my niece is happy to get out of bed for the photoshoots. She asked me to make her a portefolio as she toys with the idea to do some modelling. So this morning, no magic light unfortunately, due to some hazy upper clouds, but it was mild for models.

Afraid we are running of windows of opportunity, she is gone for a few days and when she returns, my time here is ending.

 

[Andre]

So after a long day of pix-shooting sessions, chores, gardening, cooking (beet salad, quiche, chocolat mousse), I thought I decided to sleep in today.

Yeah, right.

This was what I saw when peeking through the shutters of my bedroom window, a bit early:

Okay, so, that's definitely not a sleep-in morning.

Such a dense fog in the valley sends patches up when the sun burns on it, this highly underestimated process is called convection. But this happens when such a patch of fog passes along:

Meanwhile, the alert observer will notice that this proces also leaves millions of micro- diamonds on the vegation:

Back in my room, shortly before processing the pix and making this post, I shot this: