Another from the roof

This is a snippet of an external stairway in one of the interior courtyards of the Chambord castle. It's very close to the personal apartments of the king. Not much to say about it, except that I liked the view.

Arches and columns at Chambord, July 2013.

I've been cutting the grass again over the past two days. As you probably know, it's less grass and more little plants and weeds. Today I'll finish up with the north forty, where the meadow project happened. That little rainy spell a few days ago helped it get less brown, but not much.

La lanterne

High atop Chambord's central structure is a lanterne (lantern) that allows light to penetrate into the main stairwell (more about that later). Visitors are limited to the terraces at the base of the lanterne, but stairs do continue up, providing access to the windows above.

The central lantern among the chimneys at Chambord, July 2013.

The people at the bottom provide some scale.

We woke up to a chilly 12.5º this morning, colder than yesterday morning. The weather people are telling us that high pressure is building in that will pump hot air from North Africa and Spain into France. Today. Temperatures are expected at around 30ºC (about 86ºF), depending on where you are. And warmer still into the weekend. Looks like summer's back.

Chim chim cher-ee

You get to see Chambord's ornate chimneys up close from the castle's rooftop terraces. I read in Wikipedia that the château has 282 fireplaces. Not surprising, given the size of the place. All that smoke had to go somewhere.

Chimneys at Chambord, July 2013.

I slept much better last night than the night before. And I woke up with a few more mosquito bites than I had before bedtime. Reader Mitchell mentioned anti-mosquito plug-ins in a comment yesterday. That reminded me that I have a couple of those, so I dug them out and plugged one in. After a while, my sleepy self wondered if I had it right side up or upside down. I couldn't figure it out in the dark, so I unplugged it. In the light of morning I figured it out. I had it upside down.

Up on the roof

One of the cool things about the Château de Chambord is that visitors can go out onto the rooftop terraces and take in the views of the property in all directions. This view is looking south. The squared-off trees are the same ones I posted a couple of days ago.

Looking south from the roof of the Château de Chambord, July 2013.

I had a lousy night last night, tossing and turning and unable to fall asleep, except for a couple of hours between midnight and two. Part of the problem was a mosquito. We did battle for hours. This morning, I turned the bedside lamp on to see if I could find (and kill) it after I took Tasha downstairs for her breakfast. When I got back up to bed, there it was, sitting on the sheets, all but laughing at me. I lunged and missed. I gave up and went back downstairs.

Chambord

Let's set the WABAC Machine to ten years ago. It was July 2013 and friends from the US were visiting. Naturally, we made our way to the Château de Chambord which, for many years, has adorned this blog's banner (above). This is the central section of the castle's northern façade, in black and white.

Le Château de Chambord, July 2013.

As I've done in the past, I'm re-working some of the photos that I posted here back when they were taken. There are likely to be other photos that I haven't posted before. Except for the major items, I'll try to limit the history blah-blah. You can find abundant information on the internet if you're so inclined. That said, today's tid-bit is that this château was built in the early sixteenth century by King François I as a hunting lodge. A very impressive hunting lodge.

Not my garden

As if. I took this on the grounds of the Château de Chambord back in the fall of 2012. The squared-off trees remind me of my hometown, where the same pruning technique is used, much less elegantly, on the plaza of the state capitol complex.

Those trees need a trim.

Saturday was blustery and wet. Probably not wet enough. I'm sure that our brown lawn enjoyed it nonetheless. The Tour de France is under way. This year's route doesn't come near us. Tournament play at Wimbledon starts tomorrow. That's it for the weather and sports. Film at eleven.

Experiment over

The Meadow Project has concluded. I mowed it all down. It was looking rather messy with poplars and birches shooting upward, along with some nasty thorny things. I had to cut those out manually before mowing. The lawnmower worked perfectly, after the clogged carburetor problem was solved. Now there's a big section of brown "lawn" where the "meadow" used to be.  I'm hopeful that rain will help restore its green color. The drought is not helping. I collected the cut grass and weeds and used them in the vegetable garden as mulch (the mower is a mulcher).

The wild meadow in the north forty is no more. Some rain now would be nice.

The lawn in general is not very green in these warm, dry summers. It usually comes back in winter when natural rain provides its water. I don't water the grass otherwise. So we have more brown patches than green this time of year. And now we have a big one.

Speaking of rain, we got some over night. Not much, but the ground is wet. We're supposed to get more rain through the morning, but I'm not optimistic. Most of the rain predicted for this past week never materialized.