Upside and Downside of Crochet

While you'd usually make a vague effort to tackle the less appealing parts of crochet as you go along on your W.I.P (Work In Progress), when not sure where the work is going, or taking you, these get put off to a later date... This has its upside - overall speed and ease of 'frogging' ie ripping out when there is an aesthetic/technical problem. The downside of this delay tactic probably speaks for itself - and brings a whole host of other aesthetic/technical problems...

Poppies to remember by....

Over the past week, pockets of poppies have appeared everywhere, from the edges of fields and vineyards, to the scrappiest of building sites and scruffiest of wasteland. Whatever the location, the image of these flowers always seems to have the same visual impact.

I saw these near the fast lane of a dual carriage way, just in front of the ugly concrete mass of a bridge which has nevertheless been decorated with the head of the Smiling Angel (L'Ange au Sourire). The original sculpture became a symbol of the suffering of France during the Great War, when the cathedral of Reims was victim to the violence of war. During the bombing of the city, the angel was decapitated, the head duly fell from the façade of the edifice and shattered, thus marking "French culture destroyed by barbarity". Despite this, the angel was pieced together and just as the cathedral itself, emerged again, in phoenix fashion, from the flames and destruction, its enigmatic smile intact.

There was very little to smile about this week as yet another terrorist attack was carried out, managing to surpass others in sheer brutality by targeting the youngest civilians. Lives lost before they have even been lived. This was Manchester, but it could have been any other worn-torn country, for whatever the land it falls on, blood is still blood. Tears are still tears. And so the little poppies that emerged over the past few days seem all the more symbolic this time, ever more the image of those fallen. Here, however, the victims, as civilians, never signed up for this war, nor were they conscripted.

Pretty Feline in Pink....

Another month racing by; time-management failing dismally, punctuated by the weirdest extremes of temperature! However, here's one feline looking suitably pretty-in-pink, yet snooty/snaky, curled up in the sunshine on a shawl that I brought back from the Witches' Market (El Mercado de las Brujas) in La Paz, Bolivia - a long time ago now.

Strange to think of the origins of objects - preferably old and/or second-hand - that end up becoming part of the fabric of our everyday lives, and rather sad when we no longer notice them as we should...

Here are some of the flowers I pass by, on my usual way to work. I always keep an eye out for the changing plants in these beds, set next to the tram stop, and try not to just take them for granted as I race on. These looked all the more delicate today, with their ruffled petals and raindrops.

With their bold pink colour, the rosebushes along the canal have likewise come into flower, so much so that it is hard to remember the biting cold period when we actually had to break the ice on the canal when rowing!

A Blessing of Unicorns...

The month has run out on me, so no time to write anything to accompany these beautiful, beguiling beasts - the mythical unicorn - symbol of purity, incarnation of Christ. Or so the legends go.
This fine specimen is in the Palais du Tau in Reims, the Palace of the Archbishop, in which the kings of France resided before their coronation in the cathedral Notre-Dame de Reims.

In fact, the sculpture dates from the 19th century, part of Eugène Viollet-le-Duc's restoration project of Medieval buildings and is set alongside the customary lion figure. The relationship between these two noble creatures has been highlighted in many myths, the most famous of which is surely the Lady and the Unicorn in the Musée de Cluny (Paris). The unicorn here in the Palais du Tau no longer has its spiralling horn but assumes the standard 'begging-dog' position. As for the regal lion, he seemed more mealy-mouthed than majestic, but nevermind!

The vast tapestries that cover the walls of the Palais du Tau are from the 16th century. These are full of intricate detail with symbolic meaning that is largely lost on us today, but are well worth discovering. Although we probably cannot really relate to the piety of the menfolk, the quirky expressions of even the humblest of the animals displayed are still revelant today. None of us have had the privilege of actually seeing a 'blessing' of unicorns, but how magical is that term of venery? That led me to look up other, equally unusual terms for animal groupings and I was not disappointed:

A pitying of turtle doves, a phalanx of storks, a parliament of rooks, a wisdom of wombats, a scream of swifts, a scurry of squirrels, a scourge of mosquitoes, a cackle of hyenas, a convocation of eagles, a crash of rhinoceroses, a charm of magpies, a kit of pigeons, a lamentation of swans, a scold of jays, a skulk of foxes, a shrewdness of apes, a flight of swallows, a flamboyance of flamingoes, an army of frogs, a murmuration of starlings, a sloth of bears, a mess of iguanas, an unkindness of ravens, a gaze of raccoons, a bellowing of bullfinches, a bouquet of pheasants, a barrel of monkeys, a labour of moles, an ostentation of peacocks, a pandemonium of parrots, a puddling of mallards, a pounce of cats, a fluther of jellyfish, a bloat of hippopotamuses, a business of ferrets....
and the list goes on....

Election Day....

Screaming point here - Election Day in France. It's anybody's bet who will win this first race, but I think that whichever two do ride home, there will be a lot of losers too and not necessarily the also-ran candidates. As many people keep their cards very, very close to their chest, despite talking politics non-stop, there is no real way of knowing how things will turn out until the results are announced. That moment might well prove to be explosive and so everyone will lose out as the notions of Liberté, Égalité, Fraternité are put to the test, now and then for the final round in May.

Right, I'm off to vote!

The day after. Mixed opinions all around, but rather somber all in all...

Floral Starry Night....

Night Sky Petunia

True wilderness is short on the ground in a city, even more so when you live on the fifth floor of a block of flats. Nevertheless, glimpses of the weird and wonderful of Nature are still to be found, even if not strictly speaking very 'natural'.

Cue in the many cultivars that I love to gaze at in the local garden centre and the latest find that really took my breath away.... The Night Sky Petunia. The paint-splash petals truly resemble the stars up in the firmament above and underline how nature is able to replicate itself, albeit with a little help in this case.

I was not the only one to be amazed by the Night Sky; when I returned, they had all gone!

However, the other flowering plants were still there to be admired, revealing their often subtle magic.

All those veined petals, feathery leaves, tiny hairs and downy layers - often barely visisble at a distance.

Some the beauty is pure, obvious elegance....

Some is just plain simplicity...

Or just bright and jaunty...

Well, as a tenuous (and rather depressing) link to starry skies, here's Don McLean's Vincent.

But then, back to these beauties...

I just can't take my eyes off these! I might well have to go back to the garden centre and actually buy a pot this time...

Budding Grapevines.

Spring burst a few days ago, with the first warm days triggering the tight buds to open out from amongst last year's dark, tangled vine tendrils.

Set in the heart of these delicate, pink-tinged leaves are the tiny future grapes, whose growth I will track as these particular vines are just in front of my workplace!

At the heart of the Champagne region, Reims has a key position in the production of the sparkling wine of world-wide renown.

Unsurprisingly, there are numerous references to the place which champagne occupies - past and present - on the town architecture.

I love the way that you can lift your eyes up, and discover something that you hadn't noticed before!

There is no danger of these delicate, future grapes ever being used in the champagne process as they are growing in defiance of the pollution from the traffic that rolls past on a daily basis.

However they do make my day a little brighter. And then, of course, there is the wine itself...