Look Out the Window

On our visit to France in June, we decided to only schedule two tours and leave the rest of our days to explore at will.

A bicycle tour of Versailles was an unanimous choice and I was pleased when we all settled on Giverny as our second tour.

This was my second visit to Giverny, but my first taking a van tour.

Our guide began shared interesting facts and details from the minute our tour began - I did not know that Claude Monet's first name was actually Oscar.

My favorite tidbit was that Monet designed his garden so that if he looked out any of the windows he would see something to paint.

Because we were with a tour, we entered through a side gate and were then set free to explore on our own for several hours.

We arrived at 1 p.m under gray skies and slight rain, which turned to mist and by 2 p.m. the sky was blue.

The variety of flowers amazed me

and made me a bit envious.

I have many of the same blooms in my garden, but mine do not grow so tall

and look at the size of those leaves.

We spent most of our time in the garden

and finally made our way to the house.

I could easily live in the beautiful house,

 relaxing after a morning of gardening in this beautiful room and enjoying the views that inspired Monet.

I'd happily sit in the kitchen while Steve cooked,

but I would need help keeping the copper shining.

I mentioned envy earlier in my post,

but truly I only felt motivated to come home and cultivate my garden.

Giverny is definitely worth a visit.

Little Touches of Fall

Welcome to the Transitioning From Summer to Fall Blog Hop 

hosted by Amber of Follow the Yellow Brick Home.

If you are following the hop in order, then you were just visiting my friend Judith of Botanic Blue and her decor never disappoints.

  

I have to say, that as much as I love "hopping" with this group of bloggers, 

I was reluctant to join in this time because, as you can see, my days are still quite full of summer.

But just after I said no to the hop, I noticed the changing sun in this picture I snapped after a day of kayaking last week.

And then I noticed this odd bloom on my schefflera tree and I realized that even if I am not ready for fall, it is definitely coming.

My transition began in the guest room with the schefflera blooms - both orange and purple and any other orange flowers I could find in the garden.

All of a sudden I was on board with making fall changes, simply by adding yellow to my existing decor.

Silk sunflowers in a bag on the door welcome guests.

The table setting mimics the colors of the butterfly and coreopsis painting on the wall.

Wooden bread boards

add warmth to the plate racks.

I kept the orange and yellow theme going in the hallway and like the front door, I used faux blooms.

These realistic faux blooms make me smile and I don't have to replace them weekly.

 Breakfast al fresco

is made special with a favorite set of vintage plates

and the view is bright and colorful.

The best part of adding these little touches of fall is that other than a few plants, I simply used what I had on hand.

Now it's time to send you on to one of the sweetest bloggers, Katie of Let's Add Sprinkles.

Don't forget to check out all the other blogs on the hop for fall inspiration.

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter