The only reason for Time is so that everything doesn’t happen at once. Albert Einstein As I write this, it’s sheep season in Provence. The fields on the outskirts of town, in between the canebrakes and canals, are beginning to mushroom up flocks of dusty, dumpling wool. It starts in mid-March, a trickle at first, … Continue reading Time and Tide…
“The difference between the right word and the almost right word is really a large matter — it’s the difference between lightning and a lightning bug” Mark Twain A friend of ours, a restauranteur here in Arles, asked us to translate, or rather take a look at his English translation of their French/Lebanese menu. He’s … Continue reading Lost in French-lation: What’s on the Menu?
“I alternate between feeling sympathetic toward humanity and being a misanthrope. When I’m sympathetic, it usually means I haven’t been around people in awhile.” John R. Lindensmith There is a farmhouse, a mas, in the countryside some miles outside of Arles. It is not terribly accessible – I only noted it from the elevated aspect … Continue reading Far and Away…
At the time I did not know that stories of life are often more like rivers than books. Norman Maclean The Rhône at Arles is a tidal river, which is a thing that takes some getting used to. There are hours of the day where it torrents northward with a single-minded purpose towards Avignon, like … Continue reading A River Runs Through It…
For I have known them all already, known them all:Have known the evenings, mornings, afternoons,I have measured out my life with coffee spoons;I know the voices dying with a dying fallBeneath the music from a farther room. So how should I presume? T.S. Eliot ~ The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock We’ve been in … Continue reading Measuring My Life…
Chasing Snails (And Other Movable Feasts) 