mardi 29 juillet 2008

Another Day in the Country

Today we took our Gite guest to ride in canoes down one of the local small rivers about four miles from our place.

These photos were taken along the side of the Gesse river as we were waiting for the canoes to pass. Trouble was, the river was flowing faster than expected and when we arrived, the canoes had already passed.
Wheat is one of the crops grown in the area, the harvest has been going on for the last three weeks and after they cut the wheat the straw is put into these bales. They are about six feet high when they are placed on the flat side, so many of the farmers will put them up as wind breaks in the winter, or even use them as a temporary fence.














After we arrived at the landing area for the canoes we had a picnic with our guests along the side of the river. These sunflowers were growing next to where we had the picnic. Most of the seeds are used as sunflower oil, as the French are not big into eating sunflower seeds as a general rule.
I was trying to get a photo of a bee that was on this sunflower, but by the time I got the shot ready he was gone.
Posted by Picasa

2 commentaires:

Anonyme a dit…

Beautiful pictures.

Sunflowers always remind me of my grandson Max. He loves them.

Sounds like you and your guests had a wonderful time.

Good to be back, Keith.

:)

ladybug a dit…

Your pictures bring back memories...a friend and I traveled in the rural area around Verdun 20 years ago, and I saw these round bales for the 1st time.

I remember thinking.."how do they get these things stacked in a barn??!!"