Tiptoeing on a daisy

Tiptoeing on daisy...

Sent by Francesca Bostock,
South Manche

See also the Daisy Jungle

Harvest moon in Normandy

Harvest moon in Normandy.

Photo by Francesca Bostock.

It is 400 years since the little known English scientist and draftsman Thomas Harriot turned his telescope to the Moon and drew its first maps. Some experts say that it was him, not the Italian Galileo, who was the first to view the Moon through a telescope.
Read BBC story here.

Survival of the fittest: snake attack

Grass snake attacks a toad catching one of his legs (main photo). The toad desperately tries to escape, but only manages to free himself when a Normandy gardener shoos the snake away (photo below.) Once again humans get their way in the great struggle for survival.

Photos sent by Francesca Bostock,
South Manche

First cross-Channel flight commemorated in Vire, Normandy

The floral composition on the Vire town central round-about this summer commemorates the centennary of Louis Bleriot's historic Channel crossing in his 'flying bicycle', a monoplane aircraft. In 1909 Blériot won the the coveted thousand-pound prize offered by the London Daily Mail for a successful crossing of the English Channel. His plane was flying at an average airspeed of approximately 40 miles per hour (64 kilometers per hour) and an altitude of about 250 feet (76 m).

The Vire round-about is famous for its floral compositions.

Photo: The Blériot XI,
on which Blériot crossed the Channel in 1909.
Musée des Arts et Métiers, Paris.

The Bailey Bridge Memorial at Pont-Farcy

The Bailey Bridge at Pont-Farcy, left behind by advancing Allies in 1944, had served the local for over 60 years after the war until local authorities decided to demolish it. Local residents, English and French, formed an association Les Amis du Pont Bailey to save the bridge. It now stands as a memorial.

Bailey Bridges were an engineering wonder: mecano-type sections were light enough to be carried by infantrymen and strong enough to support tanks.

Photo sent by Christopher Long,
read more here

A Norman Explorer

A caterpillar busily explores a Norman garden.

Sent by Francesca Bostock,
the Manche