California Poppies...
In a Corner of a French Courtyard
I lay down in the courtyard today stripped-off under a cloudless sky... the brilliant sun on my face, arms and breast. I have no grass... a central Tilleul tree - just pollarded but already bursting into leaf to give ample shade in the summer - plus a few raised boxed herb beds surrounded by washed pebbles criss-crossed by paths made from sliced tree-trunks. Simple, calm and private.
My back was as cold as the stones I lay on... but my face bathed in warmth it felt as if I was between winter and summer... and noticed swathes of fresh green shoots... thousands of California Poppy seedlings bursting through the cool stones also reaching for light and warmth.
I thought about California and later made a montage effect... I wouldn't call it a collage or pastiche... images made last year in this tiny part of France. Each golden yellow flower seems to last only a few days... and then just as I think it's finished another tiny bud appears from deep down amongst the tangled fronds... and unfurls slowly almost as you watch.
The Charente blue of course is the colour of the oceans. The French Atlantic is not far away but the Californian Pacific is on the other side of the world... do these distant waters eventually run their currents through one another's veins?
Our beautiful cat Jo-Jo is in the picture too... in the tree and out of reach. That's the nice thing about cats... they're independent... respond with a teasing miaoowwww when you call... but when you annoy them they give you a gentle bite!
10:03:52 PM 
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