Tania Doney

@taniadoney

Cantal-dwelling Fr to En translator, cat slave, baker of sourdough bread, grower of veg, reader of books, walker of paths, loather of greed and intolerance.

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Bluesky

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Tania Doney@taniadoney· 17d

In the village next to ours, there's an enormous lavender that grows right over someone's garden wall. The first photo is from last year (admittedly in June, but it looked like that all summer). I took the second yesterday afternoon #sécheresse

View of a stone cottage on a village street. To the side of the cottage, an enormous lavender is growing, rising high above the garden wall and spilling down over it. It is green and covered in flowers. Photo taken in June last year.

The same lavender, more of a close-up shot, taken yesterday afternoon. It's alive - there are green shoots and flowers in various places, but large chunks of it are shrivelled and brown. It looks half-dead.

Tania Doney@taniadoney· 29d

A pie chart, mainly coloured in blue with with one 'slice' in yellow. Next to it is a legend, showing that 'blue' means 'No', and yellow means 'No, but in yellow'.

Tania Doney@taniadoney· Jul 12

Somehow, I get the sense that this electric fence is not as effective as the farmer thinks it is.

Photo taken at the entrance to a gravel track. A field opens onto the track. Across the opening are two electric fence wires - you can just about see the upper one, and you'll have to take my word for it that there is one lower down. Not low enough however. There are four sheep in the field. There are ten sheep grazing on the verge outside the field - I saw three of them stroll under the lower wire of the fence as I approached. Behind me - out of shot - are considerably more sheep who've decided the grass around the farm buildings (also behind me and out of shot) looks much tastier than the grass in their field.

Tania Doney@taniadoney· Jul 10

We have officially entered the season of 'Really? Courgettes again?' This morning's harvest.

Four courgettes - two green stripy ones and two yellow - lined up on a wooden table.

Tania Doney@taniadoney· Jul 10

Not sure this little bee has collected enough pollen just yet.

A small bee absolutely coated all over in yellow pollen, sitting on the leaf of a courgette plant.

Tania Doney@taniadoney· Jul 5

I know it's been ages since I did a #morningwalk post. I've been walking, but work has been busy, and I haven't got round to posting (I'm never going to be an influencer, am I? 😂). I couldn't resist this photo today though.

A Salers cow and her calf stand beneath a tree on a grassy piece of land higher than the road the photographer (me!) is standing on. The tree is casting shade on the ground, but the cow and her calf are standing on the sunny side of it, bathed in early morning light. You can't really see because of the light and shade, but they have rich, deep red-brown coats, and you can see that the cow has large lyre-shaped horns. Behind them, is the roof of an agricultural building standing at a lower level on the other side of the ground they're on, then countryside, then, on the horizon, the shapes of the Monts du Cantal, appearing as silhouettes against the morning sky.

Tania Doney@taniadoney· Jun 27

A little cooler here, but like you, our summers used to be mainly mid to high 20s. You'd get the odd few days, maybe a week at a time, here and there, where it would hit 30 or a little over. A very occasional 35. I guess I'm going to have to learn to like the heat more...

Weather forecast for the Cantal for seven days staring from 4 July. Maximum temperatures range between 30 and 33 C.

Tania Doney@taniadoney· Jun 10

No, but honestly, what's not to love?

A photograph showing a particularly unattractive part of Swindon - it's a shopping precinct with flat-roofed pre-fab looking shops and an ugly tower block in the background. It's a bit of the town centre apparently (I wouldn't know, because I've never actually been to Swindon, and my only knowledge of it is entirely gleaned from Jasper Fforde books).

Tania Doney@taniadoney· Jun 7

We finally got our tomato plants in the ground!

A frame, semi covered in clear plastic, covers a space where 12 tomato plants have just been put in the ground. Behind the plants stands a man (my OH) wearing blue shorts, a raspberry T-shirt, white cap, and blue work gloves. He is resting a watering can on a wheelbarrow standing next to him. He is a proud tomato daddy.

Tania Doney@taniadoney· Jun 7

I'm not sure Dora's 'There is no cat' entry is quite as strong as she thinks it is. #CatsOfBluesky

View from below up into the leafy branches of a tree. A pair of big yellow eyes are peering down between the leaves. Closer inspection reveals the face, ears and body of a black cat (Dora) lying along a leafy branch.

Tania Doney@taniadoney· Jun 7

On today's #morningwalk, I was reminded how rarely I actually see other people out and about when a cyclist suddenly appeared from a side road and made me jump out of my skin. Fortunately, she was looking the other way for cars, and I had regained my composure by the time she spotted me.

A country road leads into a village with a wide verge to its right and a narrower verge, a ditch and hedging to its left. A little way along, there is a stone house on the right-hand side of the road, with a slate roof, and a ladder propped against it, leading up onto the roof and a white van parked next to the house. A little way along on the left, partly hidden by the hedging, is a more modern, white-rendered building (it's actually the village bar/restaurant, but you cant tell that from the photo. At the end of the road are trees and, in the distance, a pointy-peaked mountain (le Puy Violent) can be seen as a dark silhouette against the morning sky, which is light blue with wispy white clouds.

A grassy field bordered by trees. Under the trees are cows. More fields stretch away beyond the trees. The sky looks cloudier here, but still blueish.

A view across fields and trees to the dark outline of a distant mountain range (les monts du Cantal) silhouetted against the morning sky.

A tree lined path. In the foreground, to the left of the path, stands a tree trunk with ivy around its base and growing up it in places. Otherwise, the sides of the path look leafy. The ground is carpeted in dead leaves. Ahead, the path turns to the left and is bordered by a low, mossy stone wall, beyond which you see just a hint of a view opening out onto fields.

Tania Doney@taniadoney· Jun 6

Do you feel lucky punk? #Caturday

A black cat (Dora) is lying almost on her back on a mossy stone garden wall. Her front paws are stretched forward - one is just out of camera shot to the left, the other is close to her chin, and a claw is visible. Her face is upside-down, and she is looking rather wild-eyed into the camera.

Tania Doney@taniadoney· Jun 6

Market day.

A narrow street with tall buildings. Clothes rails have been wheeled out into the street in front of a shop. At the end of the street, a market stall stands at the foot of a 12th century basilica with walls of exposed stone and an octagonal tower that rises high into a blue and cloudless sky.

Tania Doney@taniadoney· Jun 5

A balmy 8°C for today's #morningwalk, but at least it was (mainly) dry.

A farm track leads away into the distance. On either side of it are grassy fields, separated from the track by wire fences. Clumps of mature trees can be seen in the fields and along the track. Rising from the furthest of them is the white spire of a village church.

A teeny-tiny chapel in a French hamlet, taken from the back and slightly to the right. You'd struggle to get more than half-a dozen people in it. It has rendered stone walls that form a curve at the back and a slate roof with a small stone protrusion at the front, above the front wall, topped with a small stone cross. There is an arched window, glazed with clear glass in a wooden frame at the rear and another along the side. It stands at the edge of a field.

An abandoned house. In the foreground, a lavender is in flower by the fence. Further back, overgrown trees overhang the house, obscuring some of it. You can see that it is a stone-built house with a roof of lauzes (a type of stone used as a traditional roofing material locally), but some of the lauzes are missing. It has a wooden front door with a white-shuttered window to its right and a dormer window in the roof above it.

A large, stocky Salers bull stands looking at the camera. He has a reddish-brown coat and lyre-shaped horns. He is wearing a ring through his nose with a chain attached to it that runs up his face to his forehead where it separates into two strands that fit around his head forming a kind of halter. Behind him, a little way back, a member of his harem is also peering at the camera. Further back still, another lies on the grass, ignoring everything.

Tania Doney@taniadoney· Jun 4

Something of a damp #morningwalk today.

An old stone chapel along a grassy path. To the left of the chapel is a high stone wall, with the lower branches of a huge oak tree (full tree is out of shot) hanging over it. The chapel has an open bell tower with two bells. The white entrance door to the chapel is in the wall below the bells, with a window between it and the bells. A low stone wall encloses the chapel in front and to its right.

An old house with rendered stone walls, a slate roof and two large chimneys, one to the right and one to the left. Steps with a wall around them lead up from the garden to the red front door at first floor level, which is flanked by two windows with white shutters. There are two dormer windows to the roof. Just to the right of the wall enclosing the steps, another window can be seen at ground left. It is a grey and rainy day, but the garden has flowers in beds and pots and a red rose bush climbs up to the right of the wall around the steps, reaching to just below the right-had first floor window.

An old bread oven in a village. It has an exposed stone facade with an arch in the centre forming the recess for the oven. A chimney sits on top, above the arch. Between the chimney and the arch, an old, long-handled, black pan hangs. A red pot with flowers in it sits within the archway. Hedges, lead off to either side of the oven. To the right of the archway is a bench beneath a tree.

The back of the bread oven. This is the outside of the actual oven. It is semi-circular, built of stone, and roofed with lauzes (a type of stone traditionally used for roofing in this part of France). The lauze are very mossy.

Tania Doney@taniadoney· Jun 3

It stopped raining, so I got in an #afternoonwalk

A mare and her foal stand in a grassy field, under a tree, behind a barbed wire fence. The foal looks as if he is sniffing the tall grasses just in front of his nose.

A view across countryside to distant mountains beneath dark clouds.

A château with walls of exposed stone and two turrets in the front. Behind, the château extends back some way. A low stone wall runs in front of it, and a pale gravel path in front of that.

Tania Doney@taniadoney· Jun 2

Today's #morningwalk was going well, until, as I found myself halfway along a narrow tree-lined path, I saw a flash followed more swiftly than was comfortable by a loud rumbling. I didn't know I could still move that fast...

Tall grasses in the foreground give way to a grassy field behind. At the right-hand edge of the field, a line of tall trees leads to a château, dark under a brooding sky.

A pink rose bush growing at the corner of a stone house, along a low stone wall topped with railings.

A view across countryside to distant mountain that can just be made out as dark shapes shrouded in dark clouds.

A miniature stone-built copy of the château in the village crazy golf course. Also featured are a miniature stone bridge and some other random stone things (I'm not sure what they are meant to be).

Tania Doney@taniadoney· Jun 1

A cool and misty start to today's #morningwalk, but the sun soon burnt it away.

View across a field of long grass. A few dark trees stand at its far edge, beyond there is mist with a few dark and indistinct shapes visible. Above, a small patch of blue sky is appearing in the mist.

White roses growing over a stone wall topped with a cast iron mini fence. The sky above is now blue.

A young reddish-brown Salers cow with lyre-shaped horns and wearing a cowbell around her neck stands near a water trough in a small grassy field. She is looking curiously at the camera. Behind her, in the field, other cow are standing or lying, most of them utterly uninterested in the strange two-legged creature who is passing. Trees border the field, and a house can just be glimpsed between them. The sky is blue with white wispy clouds.

View across a grassy field, with tall grasses in the foreground, trees in the mid-distance, and beyond, the distant shapes of mountains appearing as silhouettes against the morning sky.

Tania Doney@taniadoney· May 31

Only a couple of pics from today's #morningwalk, as they all would have been on the theme 'Mist'. It was lovely and cool out. Pro walking tip though, don't walk along paths with long grass on misty mornings unless you want to spend the rest of your walk with your legs encased in soggy fabric.

A farm track leads between two wire fences to a large tree that stands to the right of the path, its leafy branches overhanging the whole path (usually this tree provides a welcome spot of shade). Long grass grows at either side of the path and along a strip in the middle, in between the wheel tracks of farm vehicles. The countryside beyond the tree is shrouded in mist, with just the white gable end of a house barely visible in the background to the left of the tree.

A few red poppies grow among long grass. The spot where they are in the foreground is bright, but the background fades into mist. The looming, dark shapes of a few trees are just about visible in the distance.

Tania Doney@taniadoney· May 30

#Caturday Dora has found herself a shady spot.

A black cat (Dora) sits on a shady patch of grass under a plum tree. On the other side of the plum tree are a few blue nigella flowers. Behind the tree and Dora is a stone bench, along with other trees and general greenery. Dora is looking slightly to the left of camera shot, with big, beautiful yellow eyes.

Tania Doney@taniadoney· May 30

No #morningwalk today, unless you count walking around the market. There's only so much you can fit into the cool part of the day at the moment.

View of a market in a French town square. Closest to the camera is the cheese stall - not that you can really see the cheese because of all the people queuing at it (the cheese stall is very, very popular), beyond that is a stall selling veg plants and lots of colourful canopies covering other stalls too far away to see their wares from this vantage point. You would have to wander through to discover all the delights in store. Beyond the stalls, tall old houses built from local volcanic stone border the square, one with a small turret.

Tania Doney@taniadoney· May 29

Moon!

Tania Doney@taniadoney· May 29

Betty says you are not doing your Friday night correctly. Must try harder. #CatsOfBluesky

A black cat (Betty) is lying at the end of a wooden garden table. She is looking sternly towards the camera, her ears flicked back. Behind her the flowers of a mock orange (they smell amazing) are just visible in front of a fence from which hangs a string of solar lights. A little further away is a clematis with deep purple flowers. Trees and other greenery are in the background.

Tania Doney@taniadoney· May 29

Bon week-end everyone.

A glass of sparkling rosé, a glass of beer and a small bowl of nibbles on a wooden garden table.

Tania Doney@taniadoney· May 29

Awoken this morning by the dulcet tones of our neighbour shouting "Putain !" (Fuck!) at the top of his voice #openwindows. Still, at least it got me up to go on a #morningwalk.

View across a field of long grass to a 15th-century château with walls of exposed stonework and two turrets at the front. In the foreground, tree branches overhang the edge of the field. To the right of the château, a line of trees leads away. Behind it, a tree-covered hill rises. If you peer under the left-hand tree branch, you can just make out the shape of mountains in the distance.

A sorrel horse in a grassy field. She is standing in front of some trees bordering the field, her head up looking towards the camera.

A view across countryside. In the foreground are fields with a track running through them, giving way to trees. The land falls away into a valley and then rises on the other side in a patchwork of fields and trees. Beyond that, a mountain range is silhouetted against the morning sky.

A view of the remains of the old château (11th century) from in front of the new château (15th century). In the foreground is a pale gravel path with a stone wall to its left and a grassy area to its right bordered by trees. In the distance stands an old stone tower, framed between two trees, with houses around it. It is all that remains of an 11th century château. Out of shot to the left, beyond the stone wall, is the 15th-century château that replaced it (seen in an earlier photo).

Tania Doney@taniadoney· May 28

Ernie says it's far too warm to do anything today except snooze. #canicule #CatsOfBluesky

A ginger cat (Ernie) sprawled on a wooden garden table under a parasol outside a stone house with wooden shutters. There is grass beneath the table and various flowering plants around the house.

Tania Doney@taniadoney· May 28

Good morning! Another hot day in store. #morningwalk

A small garden cabin with a door in the centre of the front wall and a window either side and a shingle roof. A red rose in full bloom is growing up one side of it. In front is grass. The sky above is blue.

View across countryside to a village in the distance. There is a white church whose spire rises high beneath the blue sky.

Wildflowers and long grasses in a verge alongside a farm track.

View across a field to trees and, beyond them, in the distance, a mountain range appearing as a dark silhouette against the morning sky.

Tania Doney@taniadoney· May 27

Up at sparrow's fart for today's #morningwalk and it was already getting hot. I think I'm about ready for the #canicule to be over now, please and thank you. It was lovely out though.

View across a grassy field. A line of conifers stands along it's left side. Other trees can be seen on the other side of the field. Rising above them is the spire of a village church under a blue sky.

The former village pharmacy, now converted into a house, but it still has the old mosaic 'Pharmacie' sign above the front window. a mosaic depiction of a caduceus to the left of the window, and a mosaic cross to the right.

View across fields and trees. A few cows can just about be seen grazing near the closest line of trees.

View across a field. Beyond the field are trees with a few rooftops visible above them, including an old stone turret. Beyond the trees, distant mountains can be seen as dark silhouettes against the morning sky.

Tania Doney@taniadoney· May 26

Another warm #morningwalk. Thank goodness for shady paths.

A view across a field of long grass and buttercups. On the far side of the field there are trees, and beneath them, seeking shade, are a few cows. More fields and trees stretch into the distance. The sky is blue.

View across countryside to distant mountains, which appear as dark silhouettes against the morning sky.

A view, framed by small branches, of cows grazing in a field.

A narrow path with overhanging trees and tumbledown stone walls to the sides. In the distance, the path appears to vanish into a tunnel of greenery.

Tania Doney@taniadoney· May 25

Of course, the great thing about French farmers is how they will often sell pre-prepared meat direct to consumers. Here we see them fulfilling the first stage of preparation for pigeon au vin.