Entries from December 2008

Giverny Calendar

December 18, 2008

Winter is a good time to sort out pictures. I spent a rainy day browsing through last years photographs of Monet’s garden and came to the idea of making a Giverny Calendar out of my favorite shots.

Here is the result, a wall calendar to accompany every Monet fans and garden lovers all year round.

I hope you will like it. I did my best to choose for each month the corresponding flowers in bloom at this time of year, but of course this was not really possible for winter months.

The Giverny Calendar is for sale on line for 27.99 US dollars. You can see all the pictures by clicking on the months.

I would be glad to have your feedback, in order to improve next time.

Joyeux Noël! Merry Christmas!

Squirrel

December 12, 2008

I wanted to show you the red squirrels we have got in France. They are very different from the striped ones that are so common in other parts of the planet.

Red squirrels are generally shy, so you can’t promise to your child you will see one during your next walk in the wood.

But at Fall the squirrels come closer to the houses, looking for hazels. Once the leaves are fallen they can’t hide a lot, what makes them easier to photography.

It is absolutely lovely to observe a squirrel hopping on the ground and suddenly speeding up a tree. They are delightfully light and agile, which makes human beings feel clumpsy and heavy in comparison. Our bodies are so much bigger than theirs!

Misty Days

December 7, 2008

The colors tend to disappear under the soft veil of the fog.

Mist likes to stick in the Seine valley, especially on chilly autumn and winter’s days. This magician creates strange effects, unreal silvery lights that linger over Claude Monet’s pond at Giverny.

The usually precise lines of the reflections on the surface become less defined.

Like a parenthesis of hapiness on a dull day, the pink nympheas prove that colors are not swollen by the grey shades as they are by the night, but only softened. A careful look reveals them. The surrounding greys make them even more vivid.