Aix and the Var
Daniel was going to Aix to see his son Kevyn and then both were going on to a vineyard in the Var so he offered to take me along with him. I accepted gladly. The 2-hour drive to Aix passed quite quickly with Daniel pointing out sites of interest and, particularly, a three-span suspension bridge over the Durance just outside Cavaillon which is now by-passed and has a wooden roadway. It would have been interesting (probably in a Chinese sense now) to have been able to cross over the wooden roadway.
Lunch at Kevyn's flat, then on to the obligatory boules, then an apero watching the world go by at a cafe on the Cour Mirabeau, the Champs Elysée of Aix, and then on to a wine tasting evening that Kevyn had helped organise in a seminary. The seminary was built around a large courtyard in the middle of Aix and included a chapel, the chapel of the Oblats. The Oblats were apparently a sect of lay people who wished to observe a quasi-religious lifestyle. The peace and quiet in the courtyard, after the bustle of Aix just outside where we had had the apero was striking. And the wine tasting was informal and enjoyable; a really good evening.
The following morning we were up early to go to the Terre Promise vineyard, about 40-minutes drive away in the Var, which had provided two of the wines at the tasting, a rosé and a red. Kevyn and a number of his student friends work there in the summer helping to get in the grape harvest. It turned out that Jean-Christophe, who bought the vineyard a few years ago and is a wine enthusiast, had sold all his stock of rosé but hadn't got all of it bottled, so needed help with the bottling. We duly piled in and, after a longish but very enjoyable day, had managed to bottle and package 4000 bottles and around 200 magnums. The work was done, by a half-dozen of us, in a great atmosphere: focussed but relaxed and joky with a short sampling break and a leisurely lunch. I came away with half a case of bvery good wine for my pains.
On the journey back, Daniel did a detour to show me more of the Var countryside and the St Victoire mountain, oft-painted by Cézanne. The countryside surprised me in that, being significantly farther south, I had expected it to be more arid than that around Mollans. In fact, the opposite was the case: the greenery was generally much softer, more like southern England or the Morvan in Burgundy.
Vegetables
My terrace is now beginning to look like a nursery. The veggies I've sown primarily for Steve and Jo's veg. garden have needed potting on and there are now myriad pots of tomatoes, aubergines, courgettes, peppers and cucumbers cluttering it up, plus trays of perpetual spinach, broccoli, stock seedlings and sprouting dahlia tubers. This is all very satisfying but the plants in the wall at the back of the terrace are blooming and it's difficult to see them for all the pots around. I've resolved to get most of this sorted by the end of the month so that I can enjoy the terrace. The vegetable plants that Steve and Jo don't want will go to neighbours; Monique has already said she wants some perpetual spinach and Jean-Marc and Florence next door have a new veg. garden with only tomatoes in it so far.
Pizza Evening
The pizza evening tonight was outside on the terrace of the Bar du Pont, the first time this year. Barring rain, it should be outside now until the end of September at least. Even Mt Ventoux has been losing its snow. There's still some on the north side but the south side is clear. To be exact, it wasn't entirely a pizza evening as Roberto came with a huge supply of mussels and chips as an alternative. Whatever.........as my friend Steve commented, it's evenings such as this that remind me why I came out here. “Balmy” is the English word that best describes it and I love such evenings. Also, for the past week I've had the door from the balcony into the living room open most of the day and can now enjoy breakfast and lunch on the balcony. And the flower show out front has started to attract the camera enthusiasts who pass by. That's summer.
Monday, 11 May 2009
Friday, 1 May 2009
May = Summer
May = Summer
It's been a good few days. Today is muguet (lily of the valley) day in France (and celebration of workers, etc, of course). But driving the short distance into Buis I saw several roadside vendors of bunches of lily of the valley. Traditionally, you give it to your beloved on the 1st May here. And Chelsea got a good result in Barcelona!
Steve, Jo and Mana came round to eat a curry and that reminded me that the French have no taste for chili. I put none in it but the cloves and ginger had Mana gulping glasses of water although she declared the curry to be very good. When I cook a curry here, I hold on the chili and put a little bowl of cayenne pepper on the table for those with more tolerant and chili-friendly palates. I think Indian cuisine is still something the French as a whole have to discover.
The weather, after a spell of being changeable but dry, has really started warming up and the roadsides have begun showing their full range of colours. The coronilla are still providing a blanket of yellow on the slopes and the broom is about to join in. Judas trees (I've never seen one in England, don't know if they have an English name) and tamarisks are joining in as also are amalanches, which grow wild as small bushes rather than trees here, and the early valerianne which generally seems tot be coral red rather than the more pervasive pink which shows later. At closer to ground level, poppies are now abundant and show well against the type of euphorbia, with lime green bracts, that grows all over the place. The purple salvias are out and I first saw today the blue wild chicory. White campions are everywhere (I've never seen the pink variety here, which is much more common in England) and irises of course. Ladies slipper is abundant as also is vetch and star of Bethlehem, which again I have never seen in England. A few are now residing in my back garden. Against that, the show of blossom on almond, cherry, apricot and peach trees is now over and I'll have to wait a month or two to see the results of that in the market; cherries first and then peaches and apricots.
I haven't done a lot in the garden other than water, prick out some seedlings and plant the star of Bethlehem. However, I did dig the little trench needed for one side of the arch I want to put in. It really needed to go down 18 inches but, a foot down, I hit solid rock. So a foot it is going to have to be, with some concrete around; it should do the job as there won't be much growth up it this year.
And I've started playing around with possible formats for the brochure that will contain my English translation of J-F Colonat's guided tour of the village. Single rather than double column, the column running ~2/3 across a landscape A5 page with French and English pages facing one another seems to work best and I think it can be all made to fit, with photos and maps, on 16 pages of A5 but.................On decent paper, people will probably pay a couple of euros for that, which will get the production money back. Double column A5 portrait, will require 24/32 pages, which is what Daniel originally had in mind, so I may have a persuasion job on my hands.
It's been a good few days. Today is muguet (lily of the valley) day in France (and celebration of workers, etc, of course). But driving the short distance into Buis I saw several roadside vendors of bunches of lily of the valley. Traditionally, you give it to your beloved on the 1st May here. And Chelsea got a good result in Barcelona!
Steve, Jo and Mana came round to eat a curry and that reminded me that the French have no taste for chili. I put none in it but the cloves and ginger had Mana gulping glasses of water although she declared the curry to be very good. When I cook a curry here, I hold on the chili and put a little bowl of cayenne pepper on the table for those with more tolerant and chili-friendly palates. I think Indian cuisine is still something the French as a whole have to discover.
The weather, after a spell of being changeable but dry, has really started warming up and the roadsides have begun showing their full range of colours. The coronilla are still providing a blanket of yellow on the slopes and the broom is about to join in. Judas trees (I've never seen one in England, don't know if they have an English name) and tamarisks are joining in as also are amalanches, which grow wild as small bushes rather than trees here, and the early valerianne which generally seems tot be coral red rather than the more pervasive pink which shows later. At closer to ground level, poppies are now abundant and show well against the type of euphorbia, with lime green bracts, that grows all over the place. The purple salvias are out and I first saw today the blue wild chicory. White campions are everywhere (I've never seen the pink variety here, which is much more common in England) and irises of course. Ladies slipper is abundant as also is vetch and star of Bethlehem, which again I have never seen in England. A few are now residing in my back garden. Against that, the show of blossom on almond, cherry, apricot and peach trees is now over and I'll have to wait a month or two to see the results of that in the market; cherries first and then peaches and apricots.
I haven't done a lot in the garden other than water, prick out some seedlings and plant the star of Bethlehem. However, I did dig the little trench needed for one side of the arch I want to put in. It really needed to go down 18 inches but, a foot down, I hit solid rock. So a foot it is going to have to be, with some concrete around; it should do the job as there won't be much growth up it this year.
And I've started playing around with possible formats for the brochure that will contain my English translation of J-F Colonat's guided tour of the village. Single rather than double column, the column running ~2/3 across a landscape A5 page with French and English pages facing one another seems to work best and I think it can be all made to fit, with photos and maps, on 16 pages of A5 but.................On decent paper, people will probably pay a couple of euros for that, which will get the production money back. Double column A5 portrait, will require 24/32 pages, which is what Daniel originally had in mind, so I may have a persuasion job on my hands.
Monday, 20 April 2009
The Significance of 1000
Meeting
The meeting with Jean-François to make final changes to the guided tour text was effectively aborted because Jean-François couldn't come. It's something that happens very frequently in these parts, I am finding. However, I had a good apéro dinant with Daniel and some of his friends: Ann, Jacques and Claudine, all very interesting people. We went to Ann's house for coffee afterwards as Daniel's cafetière was broken. Her house has an unusual layout and ground floor walls that have a smooth finish rather than the rough finish that is common here. The effect, since the walls were far from flat although with a smooth finish, was what you night see in an English cottage a couple of hundred or so years old. I'm finding that there is no standard layout to the houses here, or rather the old ones; each has been built according to the space on the land, hardness of the rock and contours available.
The Significance of 1000
In the Mayor's end of year briefing last December he announced that a census during the year showed that Mollans now has a population of 1001. So what? I thought. In fact, it turns out to be quite significant. Firstly, it opens up for the village a new level of possible subsidies from the state and also helps to keep alive the village school. There is a general move in France to consolidate facilities such as schools and hospitals and whether you keep such facilities or not depends on the number of inhabitants. The number 1000 is apparently an important threshold.
There's another angle to this which could well lead to a Clochemerle moment (of which there have already been a few). At 1000 inhabitants, Mollans has the right (but not the duty) to have a chemist in the village. At the moment, the nearest pharmacy is in Buis, 8km away. In fact, there are two chemists in Buis. The number of chemists in towns/villages is strictly controlled by the professional body and goes according to the population. As an aside, there are two types of chemist in France: one which corresponds to an English chemist and one that can sell only toiletries and harmless therapeutic concoctions; they can't even sell aspirin or paracetamol. It is the former that are controlled by the professional body. Buis originally had only one chemist but a spat between a doctor and the chemist many years ago produced the need for another chemist. Buis added the Mollans population to its own to create a catchment area that justified having two chemists. Now Mollans is entitled to a chemist in its own right, what happens? Watch this space............
The meeting with Jean-François to make final changes to the guided tour text was effectively aborted because Jean-François couldn't come. It's something that happens very frequently in these parts, I am finding. However, I had a good apéro dinant with Daniel and some of his friends: Ann, Jacques and Claudine, all very interesting people. We went to Ann's house for coffee afterwards as Daniel's cafetière was broken. Her house has an unusual layout and ground floor walls that have a smooth finish rather than the rough finish that is common here. The effect, since the walls were far from flat although with a smooth finish, was what you night see in an English cottage a couple of hundred or so years old. I'm finding that there is no standard layout to the houses here, or rather the old ones; each has been built according to the space on the land, hardness of the rock and contours available.
The Significance of 1000
In the Mayor's end of year briefing last December he announced that a census during the year showed that Mollans now has a population of 1001. So what? I thought. In fact, it turns out to be quite significant. Firstly, it opens up for the village a new level of possible subsidies from the state and also helps to keep alive the village school. There is a general move in France to consolidate facilities such as schools and hospitals and whether you keep such facilities or not depends on the number of inhabitants. The number 1000 is apparently an important threshold.
There's another angle to this which could well lead to a Clochemerle moment (of which there have already been a few). At 1000 inhabitants, Mollans has the right (but not the duty) to have a chemist in the village. At the moment, the nearest pharmacy is in Buis, 8km away. In fact, there are two chemists in Buis. The number of chemists in towns/villages is strictly controlled by the professional body and goes according to the population. As an aside, there are two types of chemist in France: one which corresponds to an English chemist and one that can sell only toiletries and harmless therapeutic concoctions; they can't even sell aspirin or paracetamol. It is the former that are controlled by the professional body. Buis originally had only one chemist but a spat between a doctor and the chemist many years ago produced the need for another chemist. Buis added the Mollans population to its own to create a catchment area that justified having two chemists. Now Mollans is entitled to a chemist in its own right, what happens? Watch this space............
Saturday, 18 April 2009
Gardening and Translation
Gardening
The weather has continued to be changeable but with sufficient good spells to allow some gardening and the odd game of boules. The hanging baskets are now planted although it will be a few weeks before they really start to look good. And the back garden is starting to take shape. The couple of salvia pratensis I pinched from the roadside last year have not only survived but also self-seeded, so I now have four of them. I've also identified some poppies coming up, gifts from the wind or birds no doubt, and one sunflower which surely came from one of the bird feeders. That apart, I've planted some tigridia pavonia and transferred two redcurrant salvia from pots in the front that they were taking over. A planned visit to a big garden centre just outside Avignon next week should see the main shape of the back garden in place. And my seeds are starting to germinate: stocks, tomatoes and broccoli all showing, plus (so far) one morning glory from seed collected off the plants I grew last year.
More Translation
The translation of the guided tour is now “finished”, meaning subject to second thoughts, of which there will be some. I'm going to Daniel's tomorrow lunchtime to meet with him and Jean-François Colonat to make final adjustments. The English text has come out to about 4/5 of the French, which is about right and should leave some space for photos and maps. Just as well we are not doing a German version, which would have been at least 30% longer than the English.
Two points emerged for me from the translation work. First, I seem to be losing my English fluency in proportion to my gain in fluency in French. I took the precaution of asking friends Steve and Jo to read the text for infelicities, of which they found several. In particular, I had translated monument aux morts as monument to the dead, which of course it is. But that is not what we say; we say “war memorial”.
Most of the other inelegancies they found were the result of very long sentences in French. I eventually found a method to tackle these but didn't always manage a good English version. The method was firstly to parse the French sentence into clauses, then translate the clauses, then find the best way of combining the clauses into English sentences. That should have given me the best chance of producing a good English version but still resulted in some clumsy phrasing. I found that one long French sentence generally became 2-3 English sentences.
The weather has continued to be changeable but with sufficient good spells to allow some gardening and the odd game of boules. The hanging baskets are now planted although it will be a few weeks before they really start to look good. And the back garden is starting to take shape. The couple of salvia pratensis I pinched from the roadside last year have not only survived but also self-seeded, so I now have four of them. I've also identified some poppies coming up, gifts from the wind or birds no doubt, and one sunflower which surely came from one of the bird feeders. That apart, I've planted some tigridia pavonia and transferred two redcurrant salvia from pots in the front that they were taking over. A planned visit to a big garden centre just outside Avignon next week should see the main shape of the back garden in place. And my seeds are starting to germinate: stocks, tomatoes and broccoli all showing, plus (so far) one morning glory from seed collected off the plants I grew last year.
More Translation
The translation of the guided tour is now “finished”, meaning subject to second thoughts, of which there will be some. I'm going to Daniel's tomorrow lunchtime to meet with him and Jean-François Colonat to make final adjustments. The English text has come out to about 4/5 of the French, which is about right and should leave some space for photos and maps. Just as well we are not doing a German version, which would have been at least 30% longer than the English.
Two points emerged for me from the translation work. First, I seem to be losing my English fluency in proportion to my gain in fluency in French. I took the precaution of asking friends Steve and Jo to read the text for infelicities, of which they found several. In particular, I had translated monument aux morts as monument to the dead, which of course it is. But that is not what we say; we say “war memorial”.
Most of the other inelegancies they found were the result of very long sentences in French. I eventually found a method to tackle these but didn't always manage a good English version. The method was firstly to parse the French sentence into clauses, then translate the clauses, then find the best way of combining the clauses into English sentences. That should have given me the best chance of producing a good English version but still resulted in some clumsy phrasing. I found that one long French sentence generally became 2-3 English sentences.
Monday, 13 April 2009
Easter and Translation
A Quiet Easter
Easter has been quiet because the weather hasn't been good: overcast skies and one day of drizzle. However, today spring/summer returned with a temperature of 24 degrees and bright sunshine. That meant: gardening, a (successful afternoon of boules) and tourists roaming around the village. There's no competition here to spot the first tourist (as there used to be in The Times to report the first cuckoo) but tourists roaming around and taking photos are definitely a harbinger of summer. And I have seen the first poppies appearing at the roadside. There can be whole fields of these when they really get going and a few have already self-seeded in my garden.
Translation
The previous few days of inclement weather have made me do more work on translating the village guided tour. I'm now on page six of ten. I came across a phrase I couldn't translate, droit de souquet, and couldn't find in my dictionary. So I tried it on the crowd at the pizza tonight in the Bar du Pont and no one there knew what it meant either. Daniel knew it. It was a right endowed on communes in the late Middle Ages to exact a tax on the consumption of alcohol, which for some unknown reason had to be 17% (of purchase price). The revenue from the tax could be used by the commune as it deemed fit. This tax was levied in Mollans and, perhaps ironically but very appropriately, was used to fund piping water from a nearby spring into the village via a fountain and wash-house circa 1713. That was the first time that the village had had fresh water other than from the river or rain water butts.
Another interesting fact to emerge from the translation work was an explanation of why the chapel at one end of the bridge spanning the Ouvèze and which overhangs the river bed doesn't just fall into the river. It has no obvious support. It turns out that stones were cut to run under the floor of the chapel and into the adjacent square with a sufficient weight and length to counterbalance the weight of the overhanging chapel. The chapel also was built in the early 18th century so somebody around the village then understood those old Greek mathematicians. But, if somebody in the future drills a hole in the wrong place in the square...................
Easter has been quiet because the weather hasn't been good: overcast skies and one day of drizzle. However, today spring/summer returned with a temperature of 24 degrees and bright sunshine. That meant: gardening, a (successful afternoon of boules) and tourists roaming around the village. There's no competition here to spot the first tourist (as there used to be in The Times to report the first cuckoo) but tourists roaming around and taking photos are definitely a harbinger of summer. And I have seen the first poppies appearing at the roadside. There can be whole fields of these when they really get going and a few have already self-seeded in my garden.
Translation
The previous few days of inclement weather have made me do more work on translating the village guided tour. I'm now on page six of ten. I came across a phrase I couldn't translate, droit de souquet, and couldn't find in my dictionary. So I tried it on the crowd at the pizza tonight in the Bar du Pont and no one there knew what it meant either. Daniel knew it. It was a right endowed on communes in the late Middle Ages to exact a tax on the consumption of alcohol, which for some unknown reason had to be 17% (of purchase price). The revenue from the tax could be used by the commune as it deemed fit. This tax was levied in Mollans and, perhaps ironically but very appropriately, was used to fund piping water from a nearby spring into the village via a fountain and wash-house circa 1713. That was the first time that the village had had fresh water other than from the river or rain water butts.
Another interesting fact to emerge from the translation work was an explanation of why the chapel at one end of the bridge spanning the Ouvèze and which overhangs the river bed doesn't just fall into the river. It has no obvious support. It turns out that stones were cut to run under the floor of the chapel and into the adjacent square with a sufficient weight and length to counterbalance the weight of the overhanging chapel. The chapel also was built in the early 18th century so somebody around the village then understood those old Greek mathematicians. But, if somebody in the future drills a hole in the wrong place in the square...................
Friday, 10 April 2009
Translations and Orchards
A Busy Weekend
Daniel's son Kevyn descended on him on Saturday together with a half-dozen friends. I had invited Daniel to eat with me that evening but, in view of Kevyn and friends' arrival, Daniel reversed the invitation. So, the boules square was fully used and afterwards the gang of students set about cooking a leg of lamb and veggies. The following day was a celebration of the birthday of one of the friends, Laure, and Daniel had already invited me to meet Jean-François Collonat (of whom more later) for aperos at midday. So I stayed on for the barbecue and birthday celebration (Happy Birthday To You.... seems to be international and was duly sung in several languages). And on to boules again...............
Guided Tour Translation
Jean-François Collonat does a guided tour of the village, relating its history along the way, every weekend in July and August and on special occasions in between. The tour lasts about an hour and a half. Over the past 18 months Daniel has been busy videoing J-F doing his stuff and subsequently has drawn up a commentary, based on what J-F recounts, to go with the video. The video will be converted to DVD and I offered to do an English commentary to go as an alternative to the French on the DVD. So, I am busy doing a translation of the commentary text. I had the idea of producing the text as a brochure, in the two languages, and both Daniel and J-F have accepted this. With a few photos and maybe a map or two added, it should make for a good 16-page brochure. And a budget is available to print it.
A brief perusal of the French text made me think that the translation would be straightforward. In the main it is, apart from some obscure terms relating to times past. However, there are a couple of things that have caused me to stop and think carefully. Firstly, some words/terms simply don't translate; for instance: Mairie. “Town Hall” doesn't get it; you don't have them in villages and anyway that's more of a “Hotel de Ville”. “Village Hall” doesn't get it either; it's a different thing, a salle de fêtes or similar. “Mayor's Offices” won't do the trick either as that is a town hall and, anyway, small English villages don't have mayors. In the end I decided a Mairie was a Mairie and left it at that. Notaire is similar; we don't really have an equivalent; “notary” is probably the best translation but how often do you encounter that word in English? The other problem has been that the French use very long sentences. Three or four subordinate clauses is the norm and 6-7 are frequent. You simply can't do that in English without creating incredibly complex (and opaque) sentences. So, to hell with faithfulness to the original in that respect, I've chopped the French up into much more manageable English sentences. At the moment, it's working out at about two hours per page, which seems to be reasonable progress.
Vaison Market
I hadn't been to Vaison market for a while so I went to check it out. At this time of year it's just moderately crowded, not heaving as it is in summer. Asparagus is now in full flood, white, green, thick or thin. I personally prefer the thin green stems. And the prices are beginning to fall and will fall further, even though they are half the price of asparagus in England already. I also caught sight of the first strawberries from nearby Carpentras, reputed to be the best in France. The really good ones are known as garrigues and tend to be small and misshapen, not what you would find in UK supermarkets (which is their loss).
Inevitably I also bought some plants, including a clematis I think may be a Gypsy Queen, like the one I brought back from England. It looks very similar from the label and is the same flowering period but had no name on it and the stall owner didn't know its name. It will go outside the front door.
Orchards
Fruit-growing being a principal occupation around here, the area is full of orchards. At the moment the almond trees are full of bloom and the peach trees are also starting. Before long the cherry trees will join in and there will be whole panoramas of blossom. Not to be outdone, the local roadsides are displaying irises (mostly various shades from light blue to mauve), coronilla and the wild wallflower, merysimum. Broom and valerian are just beginning to show but will be in abundance in a couple of weeks or so.
Daniel's son Kevyn descended on him on Saturday together with a half-dozen friends. I had invited Daniel to eat with me that evening but, in view of Kevyn and friends' arrival, Daniel reversed the invitation. So, the boules square was fully used and afterwards the gang of students set about cooking a leg of lamb and veggies. The following day was a celebration of the birthday of one of the friends, Laure, and Daniel had already invited me to meet Jean-François Collonat (of whom more later) for aperos at midday. So I stayed on for the barbecue and birthday celebration (Happy Birthday To You.... seems to be international and was duly sung in several languages). And on to boules again...............
Guided Tour Translation
Jean-François Collonat does a guided tour of the village, relating its history along the way, every weekend in July and August and on special occasions in between. The tour lasts about an hour and a half. Over the past 18 months Daniel has been busy videoing J-F doing his stuff and subsequently has drawn up a commentary, based on what J-F recounts, to go with the video. The video will be converted to DVD and I offered to do an English commentary to go as an alternative to the French on the DVD. So, I am busy doing a translation of the commentary text. I had the idea of producing the text as a brochure, in the two languages, and both Daniel and J-F have accepted this. With a few photos and maybe a map or two added, it should make for a good 16-page brochure. And a budget is available to print it.
A brief perusal of the French text made me think that the translation would be straightforward. In the main it is, apart from some obscure terms relating to times past. However, there are a couple of things that have caused me to stop and think carefully. Firstly, some words/terms simply don't translate; for instance: Mairie. “Town Hall” doesn't get it; you don't have them in villages and anyway that's more of a “Hotel de Ville”. “Village Hall” doesn't get it either; it's a different thing, a salle de fêtes or similar. “Mayor's Offices” won't do the trick either as that is a town hall and, anyway, small English villages don't have mayors. In the end I decided a Mairie was a Mairie and left it at that. Notaire is similar; we don't really have an equivalent; “notary” is probably the best translation but how often do you encounter that word in English? The other problem has been that the French use very long sentences. Three or four subordinate clauses is the norm and 6-7 are frequent. You simply can't do that in English without creating incredibly complex (and opaque) sentences. So, to hell with faithfulness to the original in that respect, I've chopped the French up into much more manageable English sentences. At the moment, it's working out at about two hours per page, which seems to be reasonable progress.
Vaison Market
I hadn't been to Vaison market for a while so I went to check it out. At this time of year it's just moderately crowded, not heaving as it is in summer. Asparagus is now in full flood, white, green, thick or thin. I personally prefer the thin green stems. And the prices are beginning to fall and will fall further, even though they are half the price of asparagus in England already. I also caught sight of the first strawberries from nearby Carpentras, reputed to be the best in France. The really good ones are known as garrigues and tend to be small and misshapen, not what you would find in UK supermarkets (which is their loss).
Inevitably I also bought some plants, including a clematis I think may be a Gypsy Queen, like the one I brought back from England. It looks very similar from the label and is the same flowering period but had no name on it and the stall owner didn't know its name. It will go outside the front door.
Orchards
Fruit-growing being a principal occupation around here, the area is full of orchards. At the moment the almond trees are full of bloom and the peach trees are also starting. Before long the cherry trees will join in and there will be whole panoramas of blossom. Not to be outdone, the local roadsides are displaying irises (mostly various shades from light blue to mauve), coronilla and the wild wallflower, merysimum. Broom and valerian are just beginning to show but will be in abundance in a couple of weeks or so.
Thursday, 2 April 2009
Flowers, Books and Films
Back Again, With Plants
I'm now back from my visit to England to see my mother, kids and friends. Everything went well; and daffodils everywhere, in profusion..........very Wordsworthian.
I came back with a suitcase full of plants, mostly bought at 99p to fill holes in my terrace wall, but also a Guinée rose and a clematis bought at Wisley. I find the Guinée rose difficult; I'd had it in Reading but with only modest success. However, the specimen I found looks strong and so I shall try again here; it's worth it for its exquisite perfume. I feared for the clematis which, despite being a late-flowering variety, had put on considerable growth and had to be doubled up in my suitcase, cushioned by dirty shirts. But it survived the journey and is now planted on my terrace at the back.
Meanwhile, Mana had acquired some plants which she called Hépatiques Trilobés, from a bank of wildflowers near here. A dictionary search identified these as Liverwort, a very English name, but I'd never seen anything like them in England and they are wild flowers supposed to grow just about anywhere in Europe. They are very short and have a blue anemone-like flower. Interestingly, Keeble Martin doesn't include them in his book but the RHS encyclopedia I have identifies three varieties as Hepatica(for which the Trilobés doesn't help much since they are all Trilobés), but a search in a French wildflower book I have suggests they are Hépatiques Nobles. The name Liverwort suggests they have had some medicinal use in England in the past but I'm puzzled by their absence from Keeble-Martin's book and by my never having encountered them in England. Anyway, I acquired some too and they are duly planted in the back garden.
Films and Books
Daniel had kindly invited me to eat with him on my return so that I wouldn't have to cook that evening. Over the meal, I mentioned having seen Slumdog Millionaire and Mana's reaction to it and we got into a discussion of books and films thereof. I initially took the stance that you can't compare books and the film of the book because they are different media: what you can do in a book you can't necessarily do in a film and vice-versa. Daniel took a different tack; he reckoned it could be very interesting to compare the two, not to assess similarities but to ask questions about why any differences have been introduced. Some may be for banal reasons of what is possible in one medium or the other but others may give much more cause for thought. I think he's right and it's a point that hadn't occurred to me.
I'm now back from my visit to England to see my mother, kids and friends. Everything went well; and daffodils everywhere, in profusion..........very Wordsworthian.
I came back with a suitcase full of plants, mostly bought at 99p to fill holes in my terrace wall, but also a Guinée rose and a clematis bought at Wisley. I find the Guinée rose difficult; I'd had it in Reading but with only modest success. However, the specimen I found looks strong and so I shall try again here; it's worth it for its exquisite perfume. I feared for the clematis which, despite being a late-flowering variety, had put on considerable growth and had to be doubled up in my suitcase, cushioned by dirty shirts. But it survived the journey and is now planted on my terrace at the back.
Meanwhile, Mana had acquired some plants which she called Hépatiques Trilobés, from a bank of wildflowers near here. A dictionary search identified these as Liverwort, a very English name, but I'd never seen anything like them in England and they are wild flowers supposed to grow just about anywhere in Europe. They are very short and have a blue anemone-like flower. Interestingly, Keeble Martin doesn't include them in his book but the RHS encyclopedia I have identifies three varieties as Hepatica(for which the Trilobés doesn't help much since they are all Trilobés), but a search in a French wildflower book I have suggests they are Hépatiques Nobles. The name Liverwort suggests they have had some medicinal use in England in the past but I'm puzzled by their absence from Keeble-Martin's book and by my never having encountered them in England. Anyway, I acquired some too and they are duly planted in the back garden.
Films and Books
Daniel had kindly invited me to eat with him on my return so that I wouldn't have to cook that evening. Over the meal, I mentioned having seen Slumdog Millionaire and Mana's reaction to it and we got into a discussion of books and films thereof. I initially took the stance that you can't compare books and the film of the book because they are different media: what you can do in a book you can't necessarily do in a film and vice-versa. Daniel took a different tack; he reckoned it could be very interesting to compare the two, not to assess similarities but to ask questions about why any differences have been introduced. Some may be for banal reasons of what is possible in one medium or the other but others may give much more cause for thought. I think he's right and it's a point that hadn't occurred to me.
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