Roses and vines

I bought wine from the Domaine du Moulin de Lène near Magalas this morning - it's always excellent. It's hard to tell which parcelles of vines belong to which producer, but the Moulin de Lène is just over the hill from here, so this may be where my wine came from.

The rose bush at the end of one of the rows of vines is not just for decoration but acts as an advance warning of mildew to the grower because roses get mildew more easily than vines in damp weather and the grower can then spray the vines against it only when necessary. The planting of roses in vineyards is something you see more in the west of France, where the climate is wetter, than here, but we do see the occasional one, like this.

I like the way the vineyards in our area are broken up by patches of garrigue, the mix of vegetation which grows wild on uncultivated Mediterranean hills and which includes the yellow broom flowers, and by olive trees too.