We have all heard the saying “Time Flies” and we are really finding that to be true, now more than ever. This is our second spring in our new house in the South of France and the first full year for the garden. We had just started planting the garden last spring.

Besides the warmer weather and beautiful sunshine that spring brings with it, there is the awakening of the flowers, plants and trees that excites me the most. I love my jardin and I love seeing my garden come back to life after the winter months. As a photographer, I am constantly taking pictures of the many things and people around me; however I seem to get into high gear with my camera when nature makes a change.

You can see in the pictures how quickly everything starts to come back to life and begins to grow again as soon as the warm weather arrives.



The warmth came early this year – the end of February – confusing nature and causing some plants to come back to life and some of the flowers to bloom earlier than usual.


The pictures show the progression of nature from the bare branches of the plants and trees to the green leaves pushing their way out of the branches and the flowers unfolding into beautiful blossoms.



As I walk into the garden, I can see how each of the plants are becoming full of colorful flowers. It is like a race of nature to see which ones will become full first.


It is so exciting to watch the little pods begin to open and see the flowers push their way into the sunshine, bringing every color of the rainbow into my garden.

I love to see the bare brown branches of the trees become full of green leaves, giving them a new shape and bringing shade and such beauty to the garden and the surrounding area. It feels as if the process is appearing right before our eyes.



We are also enjoying our new patio furniture. It allows us to spend a good amount of time outside on the terrasse overlooking the garden.

We eat our meals outside and invite friends over to enjoy the garden with us. It is amazing the things that you become aware of while sitting outside watching nature takes its course – bees pollinating the flowers, hovering over each one for minutes at a time (some long enough for me to take a photo) before moving onto the next one.

Butterflies land on plants that attract them to their small branches and flowers – and spread their wings, revealing their beautiful colors.



We have an occasional visitor called a Hummingbird Hawk Moth that is a fraction of the size of a hummingbird. At first sight, I thought that it was a baby hummingbird, but it is neither hummingbird nor moth. Then there are the many different varieties of birds that fly into the trees in our garden. The many sounds that they make creates a symphony as they communicate with each other.

The vines on the pergola are growing so fast, almost 6 inches a day. This keeps Steve busy as he trains the vines to cover the pergola. He has to guide them in the different directions on the poles and tie them with a special string that holds them in place and also allows them to keep growing and spreading out over the pergola.

I hope that all of you are enjoying the sounds, colors and rebirth of spring as much as I am.

This is a truly miraculous Garden. So impressive. It must smell wonderful!
I can understand why you eat outside
Enjoy your lucky lives in health. Miss you
Hi Maxine…What a nice reportage and most wonderful photos! Thanks
Roselyne Ben Daoud
Wow, it looks gorgeous. Enjoy..love Lyn xx
I really enjoyed looking at those beautiful photos and reading about your garden. I will look forward to sitting there with you one day very soon xx
Great photos, Max! What a lovely place!
Looking forward to seeing it all……!!!