I set off on the main trail from Le Mas de Salel to walk 20 minutes and then turn around, returning by lunch. It was on the way back that I saw it, just to the side of the trail: a cardabelle! Beloved icon of this region, this large thistle grows on the ground in the midst of a ray of green leaves with barbed wire rims. Dried cardabelles adorn many a door. These decorations are barometers, their leaves curling in when foul weather approaches and opening with the sun. The cardabelle is endangered and forbidden to pick, which makes me wonder how all those dried ones got on those doors.
After lunch, another hike sounded good. I heard those cowbells that seemed so close
and so far. This time I ignored their siren call, adopting an Odysseus-type stance.
But something caught my eye where I had not looked before. There, beyond the bank of bushes and grass, were cows, some in a grove and some in the sun, wearing bells. I had been told that only the boss cow has a
bell. There were three in this group with a small, medium, and large clanking cowbell sound.
Funny how these discoveries come to pass. You see something rare without searching it
out. Or you stumble on what you once tried to find. It could happen with flowers, cowbells, and that next step in life. Maybe it does not have to be all that hard. Maybe paying attention is all that is required.