How good it is when brothers/sisters live together in unity! It is like precious oil poured on the head…
Psalm 133 : 1
A classic is a work which persists as a background noise even when a present is totally incompatible with it holds sway.
Italo Calvino ( 1923 – 1985 Italian writer and journalist)
There is something that attracts one’s attention when looking at this pair. Is it the brown prickles with the green of the wavy leaves and then the unusual season’s production of immature pears? OR Maybe the obivios incompatibility is attractive. These pears could have been a bigger size in August, but now, they are not even ready before the frosts. They hang, very much like the green hard figs still on the trees. No chance for them to be ready with this drop in temperature.
A bird has tried but has not come back.
Too hard ? Perhaps.
with no water,
the pears hang .
The leaves turn down.
The dry, seed cardoon still as it was unaffected.
An incompatible pair.
Here are some sayings about incompatibility. The first is by Theodore Dalrymple, a cultural critic, prison physician, and psychiatrist.
It is clear to me that people often want incompatible things. They want danger and excitement on the one hand, and safety and security on the other, and often simultaneously. Contradictory desires mean that life can never be wholly satisfying or without frustration.
Being in love with a lot of people is incompatible with a stable family life.
Kris Kristofferson (married to Frances Beer 1961, Rita Coolridge 1973-1980, Lisa Meyers 1983.)
Pity and friendship are two passions incompatible with each other.
Oliver Goldsmith (1728- 1774 Anglo- Irish novelist , playwright, dramatist, and poet.)
This post has travelled as I was struck by the pear tree so close to the cardoon in the garden, yet both at such different stages of life. Once in the vase, the word incompatible came to mind. It was below freezing on Monday, so no more ripening of fruit.
Thank you for looking at this post.
Sandy 🙂
I think the cardoon and pear make beautiful companions, Sandy. I’ve never seen a cardoon before and it’s very interesting.
Yes, they do. I think I will have a go at painting them. It is attractive but hard to keep happy together. The stem of the cardoon is dry and rots in water and clearly the leaves of the pear need it. I wonder if th stalk is too woody to give the leaves water. I don’t know. It was strange but interesting.
Sandy what an interesting post🙏 Thank you for stretching my mind today🌸
It certainly stretched mine. I am still thinking about it. Nature is a strong ‘stimulant’ to the mind.