Capers

This is the edge of a three metre wide swathe of caper shoots, cascading over the garden wall of a good friend in the village. We were given seeds by another, American, friend some years ago, and after a long process of planting in November so they had a cold winter, nurturing the six plants that germinated, and losing four to storm and accident, I now have one healthy looking potful, about the size of an average house plant, and one on the critical list, both of which I potted out today. Am I jealous of my village friend? Only a bit. The caper flowers are a joy to see, the anthers like a firework explosion from the delicate petals, and I pass them often.

The capers you can buy in jars to put in sauces or on pizzas and so on are the unopened flower buds, of which you can see several in the picture. I was asked recently if there is any connection between this plant and the sort of capers that, say, students get up to. That's just the sort of question I like checking out. I thought the link might be through the Latin for goat, but this only works for the naughty variety of caper, from capriole, a 'frolicsome leap, as of a kid'. The plant name is derived ultimately from the Greek kapparis, and the plant was well known to the ancient Greeks as providing both a seasoning and a medicinal tonic. Thanks for the stimulus, BB.
The comic sort of caper was in my mind after a visit to the notaire yesterday to sort out inheritances after the untimely death of my wife, Chaiselongue. The afternoon before, I had been sent a list of 35 documents I should bring to the first meeting, including car registration document, and local tax and phone bills. After a frantic evening's searching and scanning, it turned out that most weren't necessary. 'I must get my clerk to update that old list', muttered the notaire, who turned out to be very helpful.

Some of you reading this will notice that there's an overlap with my blog, An Entangled Bank, where I write about flowering plants in the Languedoc. Yup, but like plants, I think they'll grow apart.