Wednesday, August 29, 2012

From a calendar pic


I discovered only today that this is the narrowest street in Paris, according to the fount of all knowledge, wikipedia.

I kept the pic from a calendar of photos of Paris, and today used it as a prompt, prompting others to find out more than I had ever bothered to!

A medieval legend:
Once upon a time, there was a canon called Dom Perlet who was conducting alchemical experiments in this very place, in the company of a black tomcat, which was very good at extracting fish from the nearby river Seine with its paws.  Three students, who were sure that the priest and the cat were one being, and that it was the devil, ambushed the poor cat, killed it and threw it in the river. The alchemist was away travelling, and only returned some time later.  When he got back, the cat was once more fishing peacefully at the edge of the river.
  The students were convicted, arrested and hanged on the gallows at Montfaucon. No one could explain how the cat came back to life : but there was a smell of sulphur in the air. . .The Rue Neuve-des-Lavandières became known from that time on as the Rue du chat qui pêche.

Source

Saturday, August 11, 2012

Trees in summer - and other plants


steep grassy bank
copper beech to willow
to Welland

alien invader
Himalayan balsam
the bees love it


tall nettles this year
they don't snap at my heels
but tap my shoulder

or:

nettles nip my heels
like corgis herding cattle
- then brush my shoulder