gratte-cul

these gorgeous rose hips come from the wild rose called here the eglantier, but known in english as sweet-brier. my favorite name for them, however, is gratte-cul, which translates as the delightful expression “scratch-ass,” because the little seeds inside are encased in a hairy husk that, when artfully dropped down the shirt or pants of a schoolmate, generate an exquisite torment that one can then talk about for decades, if not generations, according to our next-door neighbor here.

rose hips; autignac, france

sucker for umbels

i am a sucker for umbels. carrot, parsley, dill, fennel, angelica, queen anne’s lace (which is another way of saying carrot). i’m happy to throw my lot in with friends like that any day.

unidentified winter stem; languedoc, france

in search of a wall

we are just starting to think about packing up here (we leave in two weeks), so today i paged through all the books into which i had diligently tucked leaves since our august arrival. i spread them across the dining room table, and said, “there must be something i can do with these.” from across the room, steve said, make wallpaper. so i did.

assorted pressed leaves from languedoc, france

2020 vision

i am feeling optimistic about 2020. partly because i like the symbolism of numbers. 20-20. perfect vision. clarity. the long view. focus. insight. a room with a view. i’ll take more of all of that in 2020, along with more of your company. thank you for being a part of another year of STILL blog.  with love, mary jo.

broom and vine leaf; autignac, france

et tu asparagus?

after months of gingerly handling sawtoothed briars, blackberry canes, and thistle stems, i reached for this gentle-looking asparagus fern, which i felt a little bad for, in the way that you feel bad for the charlie brown christmas tree, and like wounded dog you’ve taken pity on, it turned and bit me! i don’t know if you can see it clearly, but those little bristly branches, which back home are soft limp fronds, are actually thorny here. really, languedoc? asparagus? i can’t even touch asparagus?

wild asparagus: autignac, france