one of the continuing delights of living in this strange corner of france is the prevalence of forgotten corners, and hedgerows, and abandoned gardens, where forgotten plants thrive that are either edible or uncommonly beautiful. this post-bloom iris was found behind a wooden plank against the stone wall of a neighbor’s house. it had hidden in the shadows for too long. i decided it deserved to celebrate its own beauty with an effervescent explosion of cherry red seeds. i hope you will give it a hand, well-earned, and long-deferred.

iris foetidissima (stinking iris fruits)

chateau pastre, autignac, france

i’ve been trying to figure out where still blog goes, when it’s time to change direction. at the end of this year, it will have been 5 years of still blog against at white background every day. that is a kind of tradition, but also a kind of stagnation if it remains the same indefinitely. i am putting the pieces together slowly. i don’t have the puzzle completed. but there are fewer loose pieces than there were six months ago. stay tuned.

white poplar leaves (populus alba)

autignac, france

this poor guy got sold among a handful of sea snails by the local shellfish merchant. but he was not, in fact, an “escargot de mer.” he was a hermit crab squatter who had broken into someone else’s house and was living there in flagrant disregard. in theory, from a purely legal perspective, he had it coming. but i wish we’d found him earlier, before he’d been cooked in saltwater and a teaspoon of pastis, and could have set him free to continue  breaking the law in his stolen house.

hermit crab

mediterranean, france

this can’t be wild asparagus, i told jean-luc. wild asparagus ferns are feathery and soft. these are prickly and just drew blood from my middle finger. they must be some other plant. no, in fact, they are wild asparagus, and even this gentle plant has thorns here. or leaves so dense from intense sunlight that they act like thorns. it’s the equivalent of the woody, dense, brushy wild thyme we find in the garrigue here, compared to the soft feathery thyme of short, mostly mild, minnesota summers. there’s a reason everything tastes stronger here. the sun seems to pull extra flavor from almost everything.

wild asparagus (asparagus acutifolius)

autignac, france

my son joseph gathered these mermaid’s purses for me when we were at the beach saturday evening. they were dried, and covered in crusted beach gunk, and they appeared mostly matte black. when we got home, i placed them in a bowl of salt water just to loosen the beach gunk so I could wipe them clean. i figured their shape alone had earned them the right to be a STILL blog subject. but after a quick salt water soak, and against a white background, theses caramel, coffee, and cognac colors suddenly emerged. i feel like i just won the egg case lottery. a lottery ticket i would totally buy, by the way, if someone were selling them.

shark or ray egg cases

la corniche plage, sète, france