aroma-therapy or lavender fields forever

Though I did not know until we arrived in Provence, the land and its craft really compliments the reputation that I am quietly garnering, only famous—as it were, to a few, as a crazy oil person.
There is no English equivalent for eine Kräuterhexe, which is a much more apt term. Driving through the countryside, we saw endless rows of lavender, shorn a bit as if it already had been harvested but everything smelled fresh and tranquil—if not a bit spinsterish but in a rustic and good way, and the source of one of my many potions. Unschooled and still learning about their application though I am, I do have the equipment, a starter set of essential oils (Ätherische Öle) with a little pouch of spells I carry with me, like the utility belt of the conjurer character Getafix from the Astérix le Gaulois saga (plus a diffusing gadget at home). Needless to say, with this air, I found very little need to sniff, supplement or to otherwise get a fix. Later, we visited the city of Grasse, another surprise, discovering that this metropolis of perfumes was instrumental in plying the trade, workshops perfecting the techniques to extract and distill the essence of aromas.
Despite still learning, I found myself already thinking how I could build a boiler and how hard it might be to produce my own oils and what other olfactory powers might be needed to complete my quiver. Lavender, incidentally, is promoted by homeopathic practitioners as a mood-stabiliser, as well as attending to a host of other problems from moths in the closet to allergies to sensitive skin but like any medicine is not magic and no panacea—meaning pan-prescription.

charter house, road house

Our journey homeward took an unexpected but pleasant turn through the Chartreuse Mountains near Grenoble, that lends its name to the monastic order of the Carthusians (Kartause, originally the Order of Saint Bruno of Köln), who are renown for their eponymous liqueur. It would have been short-shrift to visit without adequate time or preparation but we did get a bottle to sample later and are excited about seeing the region properly, next time.

French alchemists working for the royal court invented the secret blend of 130 herbs and plant-derivatives as an elixir of long-life and chartered the monks with producing the tonic and safeguarding the recipe, which is still only known to two living brothers at a time. It did not register to me at first, but we saw this cordial being served as an after-dinner digestif, with its distinctive yellow-to-green pale, also lending its name to the colour chartreuse. We understand that the taste is to cover quite a spectrum as well, ranging from tangy to sweet to spicy. Though the potion may not exactly provide the sough-after immortality, the alchemists and the monks surely must be on to something as chartreuse has the rare characteristic of improving with age and survived a rather colourful odyssey, remaining true to character and countering pretenders, throughout tumultuous ages.

salve regina

Marian elements and iconography have always played a significant role in religious architecture and are a common appellation, perhaps most famously in Notre Dame de Paris.
A great many places have churches and shires similarly dedicated to Our Lady but I was surprised to find it is not all that uncommon in the Provence to find sites not decorated with spires and steeples but an actual, sometimes colossal figure of Mary (absent from the most noted examples), like these dominating structures in Nyons in the Drôme, the courtyard of the Papal Palace (the so-called Babylonian Captivity) that transported the seat of popes and anti-popes from Rome to Avignon for a century during the late Middle Ages, or this presiding church on this high natural rocky pillar watching over the Verdon valley in Castellane.
Sometimes these glorious statutes were later additions and certainly not all buildings of worship (even those with the same devotionals) have the personification, so I wonder if there is some impetus, the recollection of a forgotten apparition, a sighting, or a particular miracle behind this statuary.

aus dessus des vieux volcans or le grand bleu

PfRC will be taking a much needed sabbatical soon. In the meantime, please stay-tuned to our little travel blog for continued adventures. Same cheesy time, same cheesy station. Fromage, fromage.

federalist papers or pensions and bounties

Here is a very interesting and engrossing read regarding the imminent debt-ceiling hanging over the US economy and reputation through the lens of legal opining and historical context from economist Bruce Bartlett.

The essay and analysis is not just one's usual recant of doom and gloom (however later well justified) but uses the current shutdown showdown as a point of departure to study the roots of the statutory and constitutional strictures. The 14th Amendment to the US Constitution contains a clause that makes public debt inviolable, inviting a way around the impasse—whose language and adoption was a direct outcome of the US Civil War when the recently re-incorporated confederate states were disinclined to contribute to Union outlays. There are differences of opinions whether such an argument can be invoked. Brokers like to accentuate the uncertain, since the movement of investments is how they make money, gleaning surcharges off the top, and as default becomes a sure thing, there are quite a few ideas here (particularly the inability for a government to truly prioritise obligations) to keep in mind.

if you want the thrill of love, i've been through the mill of love

In a surprising move, the diocese of Freiburg, under the leadership of the chairman of the German conference of bishops, has suggested that the Church doctrine of denying sacrament to congregants who divorce and then re-marry should no longer be applied universally, surely to set a precedent though disregarded by many already. Earlier attempts to change this attitude were shot down by none other than the former Pope, Cardinal Ratzinger as head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, and this announcement is not exactly carte-blanche for those whose life-plans change, still importantly subject to counsel and reflection, but the move still represents a significant concession to welcome back into the fold many of whom were shut out

dowager or could you borrow me a dime?

Fiat currency, money, is in essence debt—that is why it bears the instructions “legal tender for all debts public and private,” and the capacity for governments to print, conjure more money is a function of their ability to incur more debt.

Financial houses, with the blessings of their host-governments, create investment instruments that telescope That relationship, in turn, is one based solely on trust, lest one begs usurious interest rates or hyper-inflation over confidence and reputation lost. Not only do opportunists stand to realise losses over this dicey negotiation, forced to demand ever higher collateral and receding promissory-notes and not knowing if they'll ever see these loans liquidated (through it's sufficient just in the off-putting in general) but also those pensioners and small-holders who contributed without stint to a nest-egg deferred. Risk-takers, naturally, assume a fair return on their investments, as in any scenario where an institution is exposed, perhaps overly so, to a board. One can only hope that if there is any license for dictates and demands, they are considered from all stake-holders, regardless of size and heft.

rushmore syndrome

There is a name and rather long history, it seems, associated with the closure of popular and highly visible attractions and programmes in the midst of a budget crisis—whether or not the cordoning-off has anything to materially do with the financial issue at hand.
Like using teachers, soldiers, first responders or 9/11 as fodder for another volley, the so called Washington Monument or Mount Rushmore Syndrome has been invoked time and time again, by politicians of all stripes either to sugar-coat unpopular riders or to demonstrate that good civics cannot necessarily pick and choose cosier services to the exclusion of others. Such actions, however, are more than symbolic considering, despite the toolishness and visitors and caretakers affected and whose weariness and frustrations are mounting, that the cobbling together of concessions, without real compromise or earnest efforts to address the root of galloping and perennial problems, has gone on for years—absent a showdown or truce.