Portrait of a Horse In Egg Tempera

On our many walks this summer Jasmine (our African Grey parrot) and I met a very nice horse. At the beginning of summer she was out in a field close to the road and that's when we met. I took a photo and it resulted in this 12 x 16 " portrait egg tempera painting.
During the heat of the summer the horse literally had a house all to herself so far as I could tell. In this photo she's standing in the doorway, but could retreat inside to stay cool and away from the flies. Jazzy and I would call and whistle from the road just to say hello as we walked by.A couple of weeks ago, when it got cooler, our friend was back out in the field near the road. She rushed over to say hello and be petted. It was so nice finally to be able to say hello properly. And of course, another photo session was in order.
Even Jazzy liked her and was saying hello and chatting. When the horse turned away for a moment Jazzy did her hawk call imperso- nation (for the first time outdoors). Hearing this, the horse jerked up her head and looked round, not suspecting that it could be that little prankster Jasmine.

She's absolutely beautiful, and huge!
But even though the horse towers over me, she's extremely gentle and very sweet. This delicacy and sweetness is so striking that I think of her as 'Daisy'.

Summer Clouds in the Geneva Valley

The cloud scenery in the Geneva valley is totally spectacular and ever-changing. Sometimes it looks like the clouds have exploded.








On the way into Geneva I took this photograph from inside the bus.About an hour or two later I returned to find the cloud like this.Clouds like these can be seen bubbling on hot summer afternoons. They either develop into dramatic thunder and lightning rainstorms or evaporate in a quiet puff.

The clouds seem to come over the Jura mountains in waves.



Sometimes the cloud wave is big and seems completely continuous; it feels like it's going to keep flowing until it has engulfed everything below it.

At other times the clouds appear in discontinuous strips, popping over the mountains one by one.



The most impressive funneling effect I've seen was looking out the window one evening recently to see this.

Jasmine Chomping Vegies In The Kitchen

The weekend before last Jasmine decided to help herself to the cucumber that was sitting on the counter. She often gets cucumber in her 'vegie bowl' in her cage and she likes it very much. But she decided she'd like to chomp right into the whole thing.
So then we gave her a large piece of fennel to chew on. She likes fennel very much too and so this was great fun for her.
















I took a number of shots to show Jazzy holding the fennel in her hand, but every time I took the photo she had put it down again.








The photos that came out look almost like Jazzy's having a yoga stretching session or something.


















Here she is holding the fennel up.


And now she looks like she's waiting for a bus, just leaning over, but as you can see she has fennel in her beak.
Jazzy also loves carrot, she especially likes cooked carrot that's still slightly crisp to the bite. This however, is raw carrot, which she also gets regularly in her vegie bowl.
And now, well, who knows what she was up to... perhaps she was thinking: 'Anyone fancy some chips?' (This is a famous line in our family. It's from the movie "Calendar Girls" - one of the girls during an exercising stretching session says this in perfect timing and everyone immediately abandons the stretching to go get some chips. If you haven't seen this movie I thoroughly recommend it for a really good laugh and good time - based on a true story.)
Oh yes, Jazzy does watch movies and she has seen this one!

Amazing Geneva Flowerbeds, Switzerland

The flowerbeds in Geneva are incredible displays.












You can see row after row of flowers walking down the promenade along the Lac Leman.






There are many colors: yellow...













...red...













and even purple.



Looking closer at the flowers shows the detail in arrangement is carefully considered.










Each individual flower gives an even greater sense of wonder.

At first sight just an overall stream of the primary color in the flowerbed is seen. But in fact there are many other colors dotted around in them.













The insides of flowers also offer an amazing variety of colors and patterns.










It's like looking at a flower arrangement you might see on a magnificent, luxurious dinner table - well, maybe that'd be more convincing if you can imagine these in a vase.The texture and color variations seen in the flowers close up is exquisite. On perhaps a more practical note: it's very striking that there aren't any insects to be seen on these flowers. In the mountains I've been fascinated to see hordes of insects everywhere and it's almost impossible to take a photo of a flower without at least finding one insect, if not many.
This flower looks like it's made out of crepe paper. The minute details in every flower shows how much wonder there is to be found in even a small object.

In the background is the promenade and in the distance can be seen moored yachts and the Geneva town-front.














Mixed in with the taller flowers are arrays of small and yet very beautiful flowers.
















Landscape artists must have so much to think about when they arrange their plants - height, color, patterns, variation. And then I guess they have to consider how it will change with time of its own accord.




Looking out over the tops of the flowerbeds...


















...there is the expanse of the lake.
Looking back towards the street hotels and apartments can be seen.







The flowers stand proudly against a backdrop of the town...
...drawing the eye along the lines of their beauty.

Walking in the Pays de Gex, France

The Pays de Gex is an extraordinarily beautiful place. Walking, almost anywhere you care to choose will lead you to something exciting to see. Even when walking the same places repeatedly there is always something new and breathtaking. On clear days it's possible to look across the valley to see the majesty of Mont Blanc.There are quaint villages nestled in the hills, visible across picturesque fields.

Large numbers of hawks have come down from the mountains to hunt among the harvested fields.





I love to hear their high pitched cries as they circle above. Jazzy (our African Grey parrot) has learned how to imitate these cries perfectly and she does them at home.

Very often their presence causes consternation among the smaller birds, who take it in turns to circle their nests in an attempt to ward off these predators.

Sometimes they circle the same area in pairs and they perform all sorts of mutual manouevres, but it's not clear to me whether they are friendly or in competition.

The public county flowerbeds are very colorful and often elaborate arrangements. Here's one out on a country road.



There are so many critters to meet out along the road - all sorts of characters. This horse has been named "Woofy" by our family, and we call the road he lives on "Woofy Way".
There are loads of pretty flowers too. Here are a pair of so-called weeds, but they sure are lovely.




The cows almost always stare and sometimes glare as you pass by. They're always accompanied by the tinkling sound of the bells hanging round their necks.














This fella, or gal, looks so cute and fuzzy.
There are so many insects - too many to count. And many of them are surprisingly beautiful and even colorful. Some aren't to my liking at all - I'm not big on being close and personal with buglife, even though I know they're vitally important to have around.Here's a bee going about his business. It's great to see bees out and about.







A horse lives in this house. We met while he was in a field close to the road when it was cooler back in the Spring. I'm actually currently working on painting his portrait. But now he's staying cool in his house as far away from the flies as he can get.
Here are some geese that were hanging out under this tractor. Just after I took this photo a couple of them went and stuck their heads in the bucket you can see on the right, splashing water everywhere and making a great honking racket.
There are huge fields of sunflowers all around the Pays de Gex, and so here and there are stray sunflowers brightening the landscape even more. This is one I found in a cleared lot - a place where very likely soon will be built a new house.




Everywhere there are amazing scenes and things to look at.

Whispering Corn Fields In Mourex, Ain, France

We went somewhere different for a picnic on Saturday; we sat amongst the corn fields. Everywhere the corn is growing tall and it's very pretty to see.

We can almost measure the passing of the summer days by their height. It's interesting to see how the corn that's planted in more shady spots grows much more slowly than those that are in direct sunlight for most of the day.

It was a beautiful day, as you can see from the sillouette of the corn against the sky.








The greens are fantastic especially in contrast with the touches of red.



Plants are fascinating - it always seems to me that if they could walk around (I guess I read "Day of the Triffids" at an impressionable age!) they would be even more spectacular.
As it is, I find them somewhat intimidating - they may not walk, but they do move. And sometimes they move a considerable distance either by growing or when they follow the movement of the sun. They do so much right before our eyes and yet we don't usually perceive them to be moving at all. And if they can do that, it makes me wonder what they do when we're not looking at all.We had a nice picnic, listening to the breeze rustling among the corn stalks - or was that the plants really whispering to one another?

Drinking Butterfly

There are many varieties of butterfly in the Jura mountains - all manner of colors, patterns and sizes. I spent a while recently with one butterfly as it went from one flower to another.
He (or she) moved purposefully dipping his proboscis to drink the nectar from the flowers.
The wings moved constantly,...
...alternately folding and opening afterwards to display their full glory.

This butterfly must have had a tousle because part of the wing was actually missing as you can see in this photo.
All the same, he's still amazingly beautiful.