2016 Photo Project Planning

I've really enjoyed looking back over my previous two photo projects - the vegetable garden throughout 2014:

The first photo from a mild January 2014

And July.

... and the Pic de Montaigu through the changing seasons of 2015:

January 2015

July and a balloon. OK, so this one wasn't part of the project, but I like it and balloons are normally below us and rarely seen!

But I struggled to think of something that would illustrate the different seasons and also give an interesting perspective of my Pyrenean home. I did consider finding a different flower in the garden to photograph each week, but they could be taken anywhere. Today, espite being January, there are marigolds, borage, blue honey wort and lavatere doing their thing, as well as the ever present dandelions, so maybe too easy.

Another thought was to  to work my around 52 of the local villages to capture the church or perhaps the Mairie. But again, that takes away from the ongoing theme of witnessing the small changes week by week from the same location.

In the end, I've fallen back on a garden shot. We have a new area of garden focused around a bit of over sized fencing which should develop nicely over the next twelve months so I've decided that watching the changes here might be interesting. For me, anyway! In addition, I wanted to include some of the woodland the surrounds us. The mountains that fill the head of the valley may provide a focal point, but we have trees on three sides, with the closest patch of woodland forming our eastern boundary. From here, the forest is continuous for another three and a half kilometres until the next villages are reached. No wonder we hear stags barking and have plenty of evidence of boar rooting through the grass at night! The seasonal changes in the woods would be great to capture.

But then there is also the magnificent oak tree standing just beyond our western border; it dominates the garden and offers welcome shade in the summer, although it also blocks the solar panels in the late afternoon. In the end, I dashed out this morning before the next very welcome period of rain, and took these two views. 

One end of the potager, the new fence and then miles of forest. The tall trees are the boundary.

The fence from the other side, with the large oak tree. 

The tree is even bigger than it might look as it stands down the bottom of a steep bank in the neighbouring garden!

Maybe I'll do both each week?