Patricia Sands

Author

postaday

Travel theme ~ AUTUMN

by

6.IMG_7326

The beauty of autumn is too tempting for my shutter to resist. The blends of reds, rusts, golds and browns remind me of the ochre shades of the village of Roussillon that I love to visit and photograph.

The colours, patterns and textures of the pumpkins, squashes and gourds are magnets to my eye. They are cucurbits. Who knew? And sometimes they ride like this through small towns.

IMG_3153 - Version 2

But I’m not in France right now and spending the autumn months in and around Toronto was a pleasure this year. The colours were among the best I’ve seen in a while.

By chance I happened to visit The Artful Garden just outside Bracebridge, ON, on a lovely fall day a few weeks ago. Not only is this a magical setting of inspired plantings, it is also the pottery studio of the talented and visionary property owners, Jon and Suzann Partridge.

IMG_7285

IMG_7310

The images all around us were irresistible and Suzann was gracious in allowing me to indulge my photo fetish.

You know photo challenge sites are favourites of mine and Ailsa’s travel theme of “Autumn” this week is the perfect opportunity to share a few of these images. Enjoy … and if you are visiting Muskoka, drop by this welcoming property. It’s an easy 3-hour drive north of Toronto.

Stroll  … erm … scroll with me now.

 

 

When you have some time, visit Where’s My Backpack to see other photographers’ expressions of autumn.  How do you feel about this season?

Travel theme: EDGE

by

If it’s Friday, it must be France …

The photo challenge travel theme , “edge”, this week on Ailsa’s Where’s My Backpack struck a note with me! Click right here, to check out some of the fabulous photos posted on other blogs.

I’ve been on edge all week with the excitement of releasing Promises To Keep, thePTK_final_lg second book in what is now the Love In Provence series. When a novel is published, it’s a very exhilarating, exhausting and … to be honest … slightly nerve-wracking time. We go over everything with a fine tooth comb because we want it to be perfect for you … every little detail!

So, this is it: the OFFICIAL ANNOUNCEMENT THAT PROMISES TO KEEP is now available as an ebook on Amazon, Kobo, Nook, and iTunes at a special price through the long weekend. Print copies should be ready by October.

Had it not been for all the enthusiastic emails I received from readers of The Promise of Provence asking “What happened next?” I might have moved on to write an entirely different story .

But all the questions and the way readers cared about Katherine, pulled me back into her journey and the rest is history! Promises To Keep is Book Two of what will now be the Love In Provence series and that has me very excited … and already working on Book Three. See what you started? I can’t thank you enough.

And now to the other part of this post.

Since I love to participate in photo challenges … and particularly ones that give me another chance to share photos from France … the word “edge” instantly brought to mind these photos taken on the spectacular Route des Crêtes between La Ciotat and Cassis. If you are visiting that part of the Var, be sure to take this breathtaking drive!

1.086_86

Route des Cretes, La Ciotat, Cassis

That’s our nephew hanging over the edge. I wasn’t quite so keen. Hello vertigo!

How are you doing? Has anything got you on edge?  You know, just looking at these photos has brought back such good memories that I’m already feeling more relaxed.

Now back to working on the next book!

Life is a travelling to the edge of knowledge, then a leap taken.
D. H. Lawrence

 

Travel theme: PURPLE

by

Ailsa’s Where’s My Backpack Travel Theme is a favourite blog stop of mine. The theme this week is “Purple”. Click right here to check out the amazing diversity of photos others have posted on the theme.

11.IMG_6140

Knowing where I’ve been hanging out recently, is there any question what kind of purple I’ll be posting? Thanks for your patience while I get PURPLE out of my system!

03.IMG_4516

 

07.IMG_6046

 

2.IMG_4833

1.IMG_6249

3.IMG_6111

09.IMG_6131

13.IMG_6162

These are some of the shots I took when we visited some lavender fields in the Luberon area of France, on the two tours I just completed with the Womens Travel Network. What a fabulous time we had and I’m sure you can imagine how many photos like these we all took! Too irresistible!

Have you visited fields like these in other places? Do you grow lavender in your own garden?

Apart from the visual beauty and fragrance of these plants, lavender’s essential oil has a great variety of important uses that can uplift your life (and mood), heal and entice in a variety of ways. Visit this website for more details and add a little drop of purple into your life!

466b79823bb3905c87d115ea6ec37bbb

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bonjour, Nice! So good to see you again!

by

If it’s Friday, it must be France …

And I am thrilled to say that it IS Friday and this IS coming to you directly from beautiful Nice. We arrived here on Sunday after our fabulous two weeks in the Swiss Alps and, as much as we would have been happy to stay in that peaceful setting longer, we are thrilled to be back here in Nice La Belle. It feels like home.

1.IMG_2325

It’s been a busy week and we have just returned from a little soirée for people to chat with me about writing and publishing, organized by Ida Young-Bondi of E-French Café.  It was so nice to meet everyone, have a great chat and enjoy that spectacular setting on the Med. In particular, it was great fun to meet blogger extraordinaire, Margo Lestz, in person, after getting to know each other online as we both contribute to The Good Life France website. I love that part of belonging to the writing community where we connect and meet with others from all over the planet, online and in person.

I’ve switched my “office” high up in the Alps for one overlooking the Med, and I’m finding it equally inspiring!IMG_2331

Tomorrow my DH and I are going to hop on the train for 20 minutes and go to Antibes (be still my heart) where I will stop by to visit with my friend, Heidi Lee, at her Antibes Book Shop.

There’s never a moment in this part of the world where we have to stop and figure out what to do … the list goes on and on.

A truly delightful surprise this year is spending time in the new park, La Coulée Verte or Promenade du Paillon, which runs from the Promenade des Anglais in the centre of town through Place Massena to  Vieux Nice near Place Garibaldi. The last two years we have been here, an enormous area was under construction and we missed the grand opening by a week last fall. It was worth waiting for!

There’s much to compliment about the people-friendly design of the space and the water feature is outstanding. Each stage of the pattern lasts for too long a time for me to make a video, but I think you will get the picture from these shots. Watching people of all ages delight in this area was so much fun. I can see we’ll be visiting there often when we go for daily walks.

1.IMG_3522

2.IMG_3525

3.IMG_3527

4.IMG_3528

5.IMG_3533

6.IMG_3535

Doesn’t that look like good fun? Whatever your plans are for the weekend, I wish you a fine one!

Bon weekend, tout le monde!