'a carpet of flowers... concealed the abyss beneath'

anniversaries 

RIP joe bussard

RIP langdon jones.

 

the three heads of cerebrus - spain, italy, greece. a heatwave. the beauty. the fear that their spring will dry up and the land will dry up. the lavender dies (the bees don't come). the wine grapes they have to harvest early (a success story - the vintage is saved). the sheep and the dogs suffer in the heat. one of the farmers quotes the  comte de ségur. 

'without regret for the past,

without anxiety for the future,

we walked gaily across a carpet of flowers

which concealed the abyss beneath'

- louis philippe, comte de ségur.

'a single eucalyptus will ruin the fairest landscape'  opines norman douglas in his old calabria. (don't google him).  horsemouth knows many who agree. the eucalyptus burns at a high temperature, it is an oily wood and spits out burning gouts of oil. it is a major wildfire hazard. horsemouth heard a story that it was general franco who imported it en masse to spain. 

yesterday horsemouth finished moving the wood into the shed (he started the day before) and finished moving things out of the woodshed to permit the wood to fit in. there is something very satisfying in stacking wood (it is kind of like dry stone walling).  of course this wood is destined to be burnt in his parents' wood-burning stove (thus contributing lots of particulates to the air in the living room and lots of carbon into the atmosphere). 

the fact that wood is a renewable source of energy no longer counts for anything. we are now on a mission to get carbon emissions down.

the house's other source of heating is an oil-burning aga (even more unfashionable). 

last night's diner - potatoes and beetroot out of the garden, sweetcorn and quiche. 

there is a moon in the sky behind the trees (on the night before the day you will read this). soon harvest moon.  today rain (according to bbc weather).