French Castles – Loire Valley, 2002

July 13, 2014 by Howard Dale Posted in Places Leave a comment

We had a very pleasant holiday in Loire Valley in 2002. We had been visiting our younger daughter in Geneva, Switzerland and took a train up to Paris and then another train to Tours. After picking up our car rental we drove down to the Chateau de Rochecotte, which we were using as a base to explore the area. This castle was formerly the private home of the Duchess Dorothée of Dino and Prince of Talleyrand. After several days of visiting castles I was just about “castled out”.

Snake

July 7, 2014 by Howard Dale Posted in Wildlife & Animals Leave a comment

Another wildlife picture. I came across this little guy slithering around in the leaves at Hardscrabble Wilderness Area. A say ‘little’ because he (she?) really was quite small – much smaller than he appears in the picture.

Old Roller

July 7, 2014 by Howard Dale Posted in Black & White, Things Leave a comment

I was walking the dog around the playing fields when I came across this old roller in the undergrowth. I usually move my glasses up to the top of my head when I’m taking pictures and this time one of the overhanging branches must have knocked them off and I couldn’t find them. I had to “dig around” in the undergrowth and finally came across them. That was the good news. The bad news was that I must have come into contact with some poison ivy (or one of its siblings). Although fairly minor it’s still itching quite a lot over a week later.