jean-luc brought me this. he wanted to make sure i saw it. for “le blog”. honestly, no one outside my family has so thoroughly internalized STILL blog as jean-luc has. i think the french concept of terroir is so ingrained here, that STILL is an obvious and unexceptional expression of it. of course you highlight your natural surroundings. mais evidemment, mah-ree zho.
chestnut tree branch with male fruit (and one snail)
autignac, france
after a month of tearing us to shreds, when it wasn’t puncturing our fingers with spines and thorns, the garrigue still manages to leave us feeling a sort of sentimental fondness. it’s prickly and almost impossible to navigate, and we still keep coming back to it. sort of like family.
un assemblage mediterranéen
autignac et sa garrigue
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Prickly, fragrant, sweet, dry, sometimes poisenous, that’s garrigue ! And why we love it so ! ox
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these little lavender-colored wildflowers are dotting our roadsides this week. i am waiting to catch jean-luc next door to find out what their name is. he’ll know. i will probably also find out about several related wildflowers, and which ones are edible and which are not, and possibly even that a very nice tisane or liqueur can be made from them. it will be a very enjoyable half an hour.
roadside wildflowers: scabiosa maritime
autignac, france
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Hello Mary-Jo,
these are Scabiosa maritime & are sadly not edible (though I agree they look like chive flowers) I’m off to send you a link with a list of edible flowers & non edible flowers from the garrigue. oxreply
we find ourselves surrounded by shields and seals and symbols and badges and coats of arms here in this place that was already culturally middle-aged by the middle ages, and where war was a nearly constant thing for centuries. i decided to design my own rather more peace-loving coat of arms this afternoon. the shield of the distracted wanderer. designed to strike fear into the heart of not a single sword wielding enemy.
an arrangement with items from this weeks’ outings: the feathery dark green leaves are mimosa tree leaves, the large green thistle head in the center is wild teasel
hérault, languedoc, france
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Love it.
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my kind of beautiful
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there was a determined knock on our door. our beloved next door neighbors Jean-Luc and Nicole had decided that i needed to see something. their cactus, which is probably as old as my children (as conscientious farmers, they are constitutionally unable to let any plant die) was about to bloom, and they felt it was a proper subject for still blog. of course, i agree.
night -blooming cereus cacti
autignac, france
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How beautiful and dramatic!
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Beautiful and delicate. The colors are amazing.
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Mah-ree zho … eheh that’s so cute !! ;-) oxox