apples, car doors, blue dust

Early apples immitating the open beaks of newly hatched nestlings.

On a tv newsreel two limos full of politicians and their bodyguards pull up outside a conference centre. I am struck by the way the four doors of each vehicle open simultaneously and, after the passengers emerge, slam shut in rapid succession like pistol shots. Only in American gangster movies do you find the same urgent and rather threatening mode of arrival by car.

Under a ceanothus bush is a shadow of blue blossom dust.