Vieux, et jeune

It's May 10, and that's the first anniversary of Walt's and my marriage last year in Albany. Of course, we've been living together for 30 years, so we had plenty of practice before "the real thing" began. Until now, our anniversary has always been June 1, because we moved in together on that day in 1983. I'm sure we'll have a second celebration on June 1.

I don't think I'd ever noticed this graffiti on the maison de vigneron before. How old might it be?

I have obligations today — an important appointment this afternoon — so we've decided to have our celebratory meal tomorrow. We'll go shopping around the outdoor market in Saint-Aignan tomorrow morning and buy the makings for a nice lunch. Fish, probably, which we don't eat often enough. There's a very good fish monger at the Saturday market.

I think this must be a very old vine.

Yesterday, I took my camera out into the vineyard on the morning walk for the first time in a little while. Callie was very patient as I walked around slowly, examining everything in the environment, and taking quite a few pictures. She had time to sniff a lot of good smells.

Here's how a vine starts out nowadays. I wonder what the vignerons used to protect
young vines before plastic mineral water bottles became so common.

And I noticed some things I'd never noticed or paid much attention to before. Those agrafes I posted about yesterday, for example. The graffiti above. And some old, intricately twisted vines I've walked past hundreds of times over the past 10 years but had never focused on before. I guess it pays to spend some time and take a fresh look at familiar old things every now and then.