beloved bel

Bluebells captured using my iPhone, no filter used Before we had a garden, I had no idea what Bluebells are.  This Spring, I spotted some pretty purplish blue flowers sprouting about our little front garden and also in our back garden.  They look like they belong to some woods in an Enid Blyton world and so I started googling about them and realise that there are called Bluebells, and there are some places well known for carpets of bluebells in Spring here in the UK.  Excitedly I googled for the best place(s) to see these flowers in Kent since we are not far away.  (What would our lives be without the Google search engine?) The weather when we arrived.  Blue skies and green grass :) Sissinghurst Castle Gardens came up and is one of the places recommended by the National Trust.  Without sounding too much like an old English lady, I told K about it and suggested us going if the weather should turn for the better.  It was forecast to rain b...

We went to Columbia Road Flower Market a few weeks ago.  I bought so much flowers and after giving away two bunches to our neighbour, we had more than enough to make various corners of our house pretty. Daffodils waiting to open And a little pot of cactus And some tulips And some Eucalyptus leaves And another pot of cactus More Eucalyptus leaves with two pineapple flowers. Really interesting, I didn't quite know what they are.

Bonjour! Last full day we have in Normandy and finally the sun was out a'shining!  Until then the sun had been hiding for most part of our trip. Time for some breakfast.  We found this highly rated breakfast cafe near our hotel on Tripadvisor.  It was really crowded with locals and we could only find outdoor seating.  They provided us with blankets as it was chilly. Pain au chocolat, tartine, cafe au lait, jus Great start to the day Honfleur We decided to drive to a neighbouring town Honfleur, a 20min drive away.  The sun attracts people out so it was very packed when we arrived.  Honfleur has a population of over 8,000 people and more than 3 million visitors a year, making it the third most popular tourist destination in France.  It has a bustling port and an interesting connection to Impressionism too.  Eugene Boudin was from Honfleur and brought his friend Claude Monet to this town to paint waters and the great outdoors. ...

We visited about 5 villages in all in the Basse Normandy (Lower Normandy) region.  This is also the Calvados department, where there is a cider route (more below). Each village we visited was beautiful with all the medieval, half timbered houses which I love especially the french bleu colour. Thean and Doris went to the tourist info centre whilst K and I were snoozing on the first afternoon we were there.  The lady there kindly suggested a few villages to visit, including her favourite, Beaumont-en-auge.  She added that Beuvron-en-auge has also won an award for one of the most beautiful villages in France.  Another good one near these two is a bigger town called Pont L'eveque.  This post would be pictures galore as you can imagine.  Get ready! Beaumont-en-auge Population: 458 (as at 2008) This town hosts one of the last few manufacturers of kaleidoscopes in France. I loved this blue half timbered house (below) which is a newsagent today. ...