How does your garden grow?

The most obvious cultural difference between France and the US is the language, and within the language, expressions we use. Although sometimes expressions are surprisingly similar (we say “knock wood” for luck while the French say touch wood ("touche bois")) often they are quite different. Lately it’s been raining cats and dogs, but according to the French, those are ropes falling (“il pleut des cordes”). The expressions can also be a reflection of underlying mentality: Anglo-Saxon positivism is clear in “do unto others as you would have them do unto you” whereas the same Biblical phrase is transformed with a solid dose of French negativity (or in keeping with this entry’s title, contrariness!) into “don’t do to others what you don’t want them to do to you (“ne faites pas à autrui ce que vous ne voudriez pas qu'il vous fît”.)
An expression shared by both languages refers to gardening. In English, you have a “green thumb” although in French, it’s your whole hand that’s green (“la main verte”). I have always joked that I have a “black thumb” but now that I have such a fantastic garden, I hope that is about to change. Just this week I learned how to cut back my rose bushes (according to my gardener, Luis, below the dead blossom you find the first branch that has exactly 5 leaves and you cut just underneath it.) And tonight, I planted my first bushes ever: basil and cilantro. I had them in pots on the balcony but they weren’t doing so hot, so Luis* indicated a good piece of soil, in between the chives (which I didn’t even realize were there until Gardener showed me!) and one stretch of rose bushes, where they might do better. I was quite pleased with myself for digging the holes (I only accidentally killed one earthworm, mea culpa) and putting the herbs in the ground, covering them up with the displaced soil, and then giving them an initial round of water. There is something very fulfilling and life-embracing in such a simple act…
Cross your fingers (croiser les droigts, another identical expression!) that they survive.

*according to CW’s book on etiquette, I’m just supposed to call him “Gardener” but I prefer to switch back and forth.

Meanwhile, some shots to give you an idea of how my garden grows!

As a reminder, you can always click right on the photo to get a closer view !

It's so rare that a news blurb makes me laugh...

but this one did, so I thought I'd share. My favorite bit is Stone's response.

Iran president rejects Oliver Stone documentary
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has rejected a proposal by Oscar-winning movie director Oliver Stone (Born on the Fourth of July, Platoon) to make a film about him because Stone is part of the ''Great Satan'' cultural establishment, a semiofficial news agency reported.
''I have been called a lot of things, but never a Great Satan,'' Stone said in a statement. ''I wish the Iranian people well, and only hope their experience with an inept, rigid ideologue president goes better than ours.''
The term the ''Great Satan'' dates back to Iran's late leader, Ayatollah Khomeini, who first called the United States that after the 1979 Islamic Revolution overthrew the country's U.S.-supported shah. (AP)