Arranged

A few weeks ago, the giant Marché d’Intérêt National de NICE. {MIN}, a kind of wholesale food and flower market for market traders and shops had an open weekend so that ordinary people see behind the scenes and buy merchandise.

I really admired this stall selling cacti and succluents. I thought the arrangment was really lovely but I wondered if people actually bought anything since the stall looked so much like a very ordered still life.

I like the different shapes, colours and spiny arangements on the cacti.
This huge cactus had a hefty asking price. I wouldn't fancy lugging something like that home on the bus.

Nine Inch Nails

A couple of weeks ago, we went to the Tourettes-Levens Mediaeval fair.

One of the acts was a comedy strongman/ acrobat/juggler team who kept the crowd thoroughly entertained.


We ended up right at the front of the crowd, so we got to test the nails and check that they weren't blunt or fake. The strongman also dropped oranges on the nails to show they were quite sharp.




The piece of yellow paper was part of the humourous banter - it was intended to make the bed of nails ''more comfortable''.



The strongman's partner went into the crowd and chose a victim to help with the act. This guy had to stand on the strongman's chest whilst the strongman lay on the nails. I always find these things worrying in case the audience member does something unexpected and dangerous -but it passed without incident, thankfully.
When the strongman sat up, we could see the many indentations in his back from the tips of the nails -though no blood or broken skin.

The strongman was also a fire-eater, he managed to produce some huge plumes of smoke and fire.

I suppose he must be used to the taste but the smell of the fuel was really quite pungent.

Photo Friday -Sexy

I must admit that i couldn't think of any of my photos that could be described as 'sexy'.

So, I made a conscious effort to find something for the topic yesterday , though I was a bit limited by being in a forest.

Maybe, most humans wouldn't find the following images sexy, but I expect the photos might make spiders blush..

These are some Long Jawed Orb weaver spiders mating by a lake.



There appeared to be a fly wrapped in spider silk at about 8 o'clock on the web. I suspect that was a mating gift from the male spider.

It turns out that these Long Jawed spiders have an unusual mating strategy. Unlike some other spiders which requires the male to mate first, before all the other rivals; the Long Jawed orb weavers have a last male priority . So , its advantageous for male spiders to be the last spider lover, which accounts for the the voyeur spiders that were hanging arround the web , watching the antics.