walls tracks scent

 The Catalan painter Tapiés is in love with walls.  His abstract painting are inspired by the walls of his native towns, walls covered in plaster and often peeling.  He has a museum all to himself in Barcelona.  His preferred colour is ochre.  He would not have been interested in grey.  But this grey wall has some of the appeal of his paintings nevertheless.

The French poet Francis Ponge has this short poem called The Dog, complete in itself though it may not seem to be:
"I read a lot, forcing my self, out of duty, as I trot along, to go back twice, I swear, over these tracks.
Friends ... here it is!
(If I have succeeded in expressing myself, I will have some readers.)
It rings a bell with this blogger.

Cutting basil today I feel like a master perfumier investigating new components for a fragrance. I strip the leaves from the stem and the scent becomes stronger flooding the kitchen. Tonight I shall prepare a variation of the Provencal soup au pistou, pistou being the French version of the Italian pesto.  I am hoping that some of the scent of the basil will survive in the soup. The soup will also contain freshly de-podded white haricot beans, also gathered this morning.