K. Hartless

Granny’s Nightcap

Cobblestones rise up from Walensee past the cottages of Quinten, a place no tires have tread. Hidden in the hillside, a cellar with homemade delights, Quintensaft, pickled plums, and fresh wildflower honey, just leave your francs in the bin. A ways uphill, a small stand with saffron soap and lavender salts perch beside a mason jar for adding more change.

At the top of the pathway, vines grow vertically like a lattice-way to heaven. Chardonnay the day away under bold boughs, and when you hear the honk of the ferry, no hurry, there’s time to take careful steps down the cobblestones back out into the sea.

There’s no moon in Quinten; the mountains flanking its sides are sentient descendants of darkness, and the ancient handkerchief of clouds they wave in approval of night falls slowly, accompanied by a soft pattering of rain that soothes the ferry boat from the dock. But not before Granny’s nightcap, the precious purple blossom of the dorf, eases the chill and dulls the pain of an absent flowering moon.

Alpine Columbine,
moonless meadow graciously
pours Granny’s nightcap

This piece was prepared for d’Verse’s Haibun Monday. Frank’s topic tonight is Moon Flower. Join us.

The Full Moon of May is known as Flower Moon to signify the flowers that bloom during this month. There is a myriad of wildflowers which bloom in May in the Northern Hemisphere, where these traditional Full Moon names originated. For example, many types of anemone, wild garlic, indigo, bluebells, lupine, sundrops, and violets, to name just a few. It is no wonder that the colorful displays these flowers create in nature have inspired people to name this time after them.

35 comments

  3. “Quintensaft, pickled plums, and fresh wildflower honey”

    “a small stand with saffron soap and lavender salts”

    “sentient descendants of darkness, and the ancient handkerchief …”

    “the precious purple blossom of the dorf”

    Wow. So good.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

  5. Sounds idyllic. We had someone in the next village, always sold eggs via an honesty box. During the early corona panic-buying, that became our go-to. People took everything off the shelves in the supermarkets, but nobody looked out in the country.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

  9. A beautiful Swiss scene and how wonderful to be in a hamlet where ‘no tires have tread’! You made my mouth water with the pickled plums and fresh wildflower honey. I love the way you slow down time with ‘Chardonnay the day away under bold boughs, and when you hear the honk of the ferry, no hurry, there’s time to take careful steps down the cobblestones back out into the sea.’ I would love to see those mountains – it’s flat here in Norfolk!

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

    • I passed these mountains on another trip and thought it would be just a paradise to visit there’s I was not wrong. Walensee was quiet, awe-inspiring, and graceful. As I travel home today, I feel full of nature’s inspirations. Can’t wait to catch up on all the great haibuns from last night upon my return.

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply

  10. I loved reading this with my morning coffee, a pice of toast, and glancing across my early garden where columbine (I call them nigella) are just breaking through the soil. I collect their seeds and then broadcast them to ensure they return every year.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

Leave a Reply

Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in:

Gravatar
WordPress.com Logo

You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. ( Log Out /  Change )

Twitter picture

You are commenting using your Twitter account. ( Log Out /  Change )

Facebook photo

You are commenting using your Facebook account. ( Log Out /  Change )

Cancel

Connecting to %s