Jacinthes des Bois

(in English here)

Les jacinthes des bois, que les britanniques appellent Bluebells… Ces fleurs représentent la quintessence d’un printemps dans des bois anglais…

Broadchurch m’avait déjà inspiré un petit texte, cette série m’a aussi rappelé mon amour pour les jacinthes des bois.

Bois de Little Chittenden, geograph.org.uk

Lee Ashworth, un personnage de Broadchurch, demande : “Est-ce que les jacinthes des bois poussent en France ?”. En fait oui, mais il est vrai que je ne me rappelle pas en avoir vues depuis longtemps. Je ne sais même pas ce qu’elles sentent. La jacinthe ? Il faut que j’essaie quelques parfums à la “bluebell”. Il est aussi possible qu’enfant j’ai parfois confondu les jacinthes des bois et les campanules. D’ailleurs l’erreur est assez commune, puisque les sœurs Brontë elles-mêmes parlaient en fait des campanules dans leurs poèmes intitulés “The Bluebell”… Les campanules fleurissent en été, alors que les jacinthes des bois (Hyacinthoides non-scripta) fleurissent entre mi avril et mi mai.

Bluebells

(In French here)

Bluebells… They’re the trademark of a British springtime in the woods…

Broadchurch has not only inspired me to write a short text, it has also reminded me of my love for bluebells.

Little Chittenden Wood, geograph.org.uk

As Broadchurch character Lee Ashworth asks, “Do bluebells even grow in France?“. They do, but I don’t remember having seen bluebells for a long time, and I don’t actually know what they smell like. Hyacinth, maybe? I need to try some bluebell perfumes. Now that I think about it, I might also have mistaken harebells for bluebells from time to time as a child. It’s a common mistake, even the Brontë sisters were really talking about harebells in their poems named “The Bluebell”… Harebells can be found in summer, whereas bluebells (Hyacinthoides non-scripta) bloom between mid April and mid May…

Zen / Un-Zen

Kyoto is bursting with gardens, some of them being Zen rock gardens. I was quite thrilled to go to Ryoan-ji (picture on the right), but unfortunately the meditation mood was dampened by giggling schoolchildren taking selfies in front of the garden and noisy tourists berating themselves: “Don’t look at your feet, look at the rocks!”

However, 40 minutes away from Ryoan-ji, the Daisen-In (drawing on the left) is everything a rock garden should be. Quite derserted, thus much less stressful, some explanations were provided to fully enjoy the garden and temple buildings. As pictures and drawings are not allowed during the visit, I drew the Ocean of Eternity on the plane. It is also a significant place for Japanese tea ceremony development. While visiting the Daitoku-ji, to which Daisen-In belongs, I strongly recommend eating Shojin Ryori at Izusen restaurant!