Saturday 31 January 2015

Wishing for blue skies

The forecast says that we are going to be in for a week of colder weather; we might even see a few snow flurries. It would be lovely if we got a week of the clear blue skies and sun such as we had during our visit to Chenonceau.

Recently we've mostly had days and days of grey, rainy weather. In fact so much rain that the  "ponds" reappeared at the back. Thankfully they have subsided a little today but the ground is still very boggy.

However, on the positive side the snow drops have been out for a number of weeks and the early daffs have very fat buds. Earlier this week we even saw a daffodil in a sheltered spot in flower.

These views taken at Chenonceau in December serve as a reminder of the beautiful blue skies we can have here, even during winter.


Looking out at the Tour des Marques, which is all that is left of the oldest buildings -- a castle and fortified mill, built about 1430. To the left you can just see a tiny bit of Catherine de Médicis garden.


Looking upstream on the Cher from the second floor of the long gallery which stretches across the river. Catherine de Médicis threw a grand bash in the long gallery in 1577 in honor of her son Henri III. In the left hand corner you can just see a bit of Diane de Poitiers' garden.


Diane de Poitiers' garden with the water jet fountain at the center. It is very formal rectangle dissected with sharply delineated paths which slice the space in  triangular beds. The paths converge at the water jet.

A classic winter blue sky. Looking out at Diane de Poitiers' garden from the ground floor library cabinet which leads off from Catherine de Médicis' study.

6 comments:

the fly in the web said...

It sounds as if you could do with a few more of the clear blue skies just at the moment...
Costa Rican friends are visiting Europe later this year and I've told them that whatever else they have to chop from their overburdened 'wish to visit' list it shouldn't be Chenonceaux...

GaynorB said...

We are too! It is so much easier to see the bumps in the snow.

I love it when the daffodils begin to bloom as I always feel more cheerful, even on a grey day.

Tim said...

It's been a nice day so far today. Cold with sunny intervals. Good gardening weather if you wrap up warm. Pauline

Rhodesia said...

Interesting place to visit by the sound of it. Spring cannot come fast enough for us, we are fed up with grey skies and the cold! Hope you are bot well.

Perpetua said...

I don't know how I managed to miss this. Sorry to hear you've had the same grey, wet weather as us. We didn't even have any early daffodils to cheer things up, certainly not in January!

I love your photos of Chenonceaux - the grandeur and formality of a past age so beautifully preserved.

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