Quarter Year

by Mike

My job was to prune every grape vine on the farm in Coaraze. Having all this time doing a task I understood pretty well, I decided to try something I called a “working meditation,” an effort at intense awareness while still doing my job.

I discovered that words are the vessels that allow my mind to wander. I kept having to remind myself, “No words,” and I’d be brought back to the vineyard from wherever I’d been thinking about.

These are pictures of grapes that didn’t get harvested last October. They were scattered at the feet of some vines.

(more photos)

by Mike

I went for a frosty walk one frosty morning. Here are the frosty pictures. This is from the olive farm (the same one we worked on last year) above Nice.

These cold mornings tended to precede gorgeous days.

(more photos)