seasons

one of the lessons of living in rural languedoc is a lesson that also lies at the heart of STILL blog. namely that, yes, there are four seasons that we all accept as normal. but there are seasons within those seasons. if you accept a certain japanese way of looking at the world, there are actually 72 microseasons, one approximately every five days. in the languedoc, the year has much less to do with the calendar than with the unfolding of budding, blosssoming, fruiting, and ripening, dependent on climate and weather. tonight we received a plate full of figs from our next door neighbor. in his orchard, three seasons are in play right now. not just three seasons but, in fact, three seasons related specifically to figs. the white figs are mosltly past their prime. the gray figs are are at their peak. and the black figs are just coming into prime. this plate was our dessert tonight. and the gray figs were sumptuously sweet. but the black figs were just slightly tart. that’s because it is gray fig season just now. in approximately five days, it will be near the end of gray fig season, but black figs will be wrinkled and dark, and they will taste like sweetened jam. after that…well more seasons will follow. and we, breathless with anticipation, will follow them.

figs–grey and back morphs