My Parian Plant Propagation

Clippings

My neighbor Vasiliki gave me some pink periwinkle clippings. That was a couple of years ago and now we have periwinkles everywhere. It is a generous plant and all summer long we have these pretty flowers smiling at us. Now I give away clippings, too. People who don’t even know Vasiliki have periwinkles thanks to her. It’s like sharing her positive energy.

I love plant clippings and the idea that from one plant you can make many.  My neighbors often give me clippings although I have been known to steal them as well (but with great care and discretion). To give a bit of glamour to my collection, I’ve made a special rack for them. We had an old gate that I painted white (the same color as the wall so it wouldn’t compete with the plants). Then I took some empty ouzo bottles and wrapped wire around their necks so they could be attacked to the gate. And for some visual animation, I added my empty perfume bottles that are this yummy periwinkle pink color.

Now I walk around with a little pair of scissors hoping to add to my collection!

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Cactus Flower

Cactus Flower

One morning coming back from the mini-market, I found a lonely little cactus pad on the side of the road. So I picked it up and, once home, stuck it in a pot. A few years later, the cactus gifted me with this lovely flower, the first cactus flower I’ve ever had.

To regenerate that which has been abandoned and left to perish, often all it takes is to be noticed and  given a home.

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Nietzsche’s Soap

Recycled Soap

I’m afraid. I fear that my children, already grown, will have a difficult future due to the greed of others as well as to the irresponsible indifference of the masses. Because the world population increases as natural resources decrease. It doesn’t take a degree in mathematics to understand the consequences.

Aesthetics is not about objects. It’s about ideals. My ideals lead me to venerate that which I already have and to glorify daily life. Thus everything becomes sacred. Even slivers of soap. I unite my slivers by placing them altogether in produce netting. Then all it takes is just one wash of the hands for the slivers to fuse together and become one. Sounds rather philosophical, doesn’t it. Like Nietzsche, who, tormented as he was, understood the benefits of unity knowing well that fragmentation can lead to disintegration. Nietzsche feared what he saw and what he saw was “that everything is hostile to everything else and all the noble forces are engaged in a mutually devastating war of annihilation”.

If soap could talk, what would it say?

P.S. Babylonians (as in Iraq) invented soap c. 2800 B.C.

Related: The Aesthetics of Mending.

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Parian Shore

Parian Shore

 A melancholic moment came to me as I watched the waves move towards the shore, change their minds, and leave.

Maybe I should do the same.

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Volver the Cat

Volver the Cat

Volver the Cat Sleeping on the Balcony

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