Postcards from a new - to us - patch of this Earth

 Having arrived at our new habitat (Loire Valley) in very late summer we've only so far seen our surroundings in in their Autumn and now deep Winter guise. The trees now in skeletal branch mode are very beautiful but I'm looking forward to the first tinges of new leaf growth. Already, the tips of branches have now that particular 'next season' hue about them; a warmth of colour creeping across the countryside.

The coldest day so far

Summer swimming destination

One of the area's intact windmills with its rather eerie little wooden house that sits atop the stone mound which would have held the mechanical 'doings'

Late afternoon sun in our local wood

The deers drinking place - Bali drinking after chasing them...

Autumn walk on Armistice day.

We found this rather wonderful place a few months back - an unsung nature reserve of interlocking lakes and natural woodland. Long may it stay unsung as there are no cars, ice-cream vans or crowds. It's not mentioned as a place to visit at our local tourist office and the vague attempts at fencing suggest whoever owns it would rather people stayed out.
Today it was exceptionally beautiful in the autumn sun: majestic tree reflections in the calm water, a new carpet of gold and yellow leaves and many water birds including herons, moorhens, winter-sheltering cormorants and a colony of white egrets.
Also, wonderful to see was a veritable village of bee-hives which we had to pass (gingerly) a few bees lazily buzzing around their respective edifices. I don't know whether this place might have been ex-gravel pits or is a series of natural lakes but I think it will become a regular haunt through the different seasons.

                         

                        

                                              
                                                                      Egret colony






                       

          And as if a quiet reminder of what this day commemorates - a field of autumn sunflowers we passed on the way to the lakes.