a house divided

steve says i can’t keep posting succulents. i say yes i can. he says no i can’t. i say what if i do. he thinks of an answer. while he’s thinking, i post another succulent. he says something else, but i don’t know what it is, because my fingers are in my ears and i’m saying, “la-la-la.” i may or may not stick out my tongue. i can’t remember.

succulent from my terrace; autignac, france

lobed relief

as a bit of relief from the diabolical thorniness of my recent images, here are some friendly, nonthreatening, comfortable lobed leaves. the chesterfield sofas of mediterranean flora. there are not many of them. enjoy.

pressed mediterranean botanicals

dangerous beauty

i still have louise bourgeois on my mind. the beauty of this lethal length of blackberry cane reminds me of the delicate menace of bourgeois’ spiders. just as there is something implicitly motherly in her spider sculptures, there is something generous in these thorns, which will eventually help create another crop of soft, round, black fruit next august.

blackberry cane; languedoc, france

taking it sloe

not every year is a good year for prunelles as they are called in french. in english they are called sloe berries, and yes they are at the origin of sloe gin and so very many disastrous first encounters with hard alcohol. this happens to be a good year for them in the midi, and here we don’t make sloe gin, we make liqueur de prunelle, under the guidance of our next-door neighbor, whose family has made the recipe for generations. it involves macerating sloe berries in high proof clear alcohol for three or four weeks and diluting with a syrup. but the real fun comes before that, when you have to try to pick a jarful of the berries without getting pierced by their wicked thorns. no one to my knowledge has ever succeeded.

prunelle (aka sloe) berries in late december

peace on earth

the olive branch as a symbol of peace can be traced back as far as ancient egypt. it was adopted by, and often associated with, the ancient greeks, and subsequently the romans. christianity continued the classical symbolism by having the dove (holy spirit) carry back to noah, during the great flood, an olive branch in its beak to let him know that god’s wrath on mankind was ending and that land was near. the olive branch as a symbol of peace continues to be used in the modern world. a close-up look at the bald eagle on the one-dollar bill, shows that the bird is clasping an olive branch in its right talon. the UN signals its commitment to peacekeeping on its blue and white flag, which shows a map of the world encircled by twin olive branches.

this seems like as good a season as any to offer an olive branch. to you and to whoever else will accept it.

olive branch with black fruit from our terrace, autignac, france