I watched some of these satirical 1 minute videos starring a French writer for Libé calling herself Bridget Kyoto.  Donning a military helmet, she advocates the use of ecologically friendly weapons of mass destruction, so that we can wipe dirty countries off the map and replace them with greener ones!   Or she’ll share statistics about energy dependency as she puffs a gauloise and prepares to shoot heroin.  A little over the top, but maybe it can get some people to talk about the environment.  More on her environmental blog.

Oh, and she’s not afraid to get naked, which is naturally the best way to get people to treat your environmental beliefs seriously.

The video series was brought to my attention by Vigneron Blog, the generically named winemaker blog now managed by Pierre Fabre, the owner of Chateau de Gaure.

Her manifesto:

Bonjour,

à travers mon métier de journaliste environnement à Libération, je réfléchis depuis longtemps à une manière efficace d’alerter le grand public sur la catastrophe écologique en cours. 
J’écris des papiers depuis dix ans sur le sujet, j’ai collaboré à plusieurs émissions télévisées d’écologie et j’en ai proposé d’autres dans l’espoir saugrenu de toucher le plus grand nombre.

A la télé, on m’a répondu :
« L’écologie, on n’en veut pas, c’est trop anxiogène. Les annonceurs veulent du positif. Quant au public, il veut du fun.  Alors laissez-le consommer tranquille, il a déjà bien assez de problèmes comme ça. La réalité écologique, les espèces, la pollution, le réchauffement, tous vos trucs, là, ça l’ennuie. Ça l’indispose, même »

Alors, un jour, je me suis dit que, puisque le journalisme ne suffisait pas, je passerai par la dérision. J’ai inventé  Bridget Kyoto et tourné ses premières vidéos.

Bridget est comme nous, désespérée par le crasse aveuglement de notre “civilisation” mais elle est trop sérieuse pour ne pas en rire. D’elle-même et du reste. Pour ne pas pleurer.

Elle cultive la vie, l’autodérision, l’absurde et se moque de tout, y compris de l’écologie et de ceux qui la font ; elle plaisante depuis le pont du Titanic qui s’incline. Il n’y a pas assez de canots de sauvetage pour tout le monde, de toute façon.
Mais surtout, Bridget a besoin de VOUS :

Exposez-la sur vos pages, e-mailez-la, relayez-la sur Facebook, faites-la connaître, PARTAGEZ SES VIDEOS, critiquez-la, donnez-lui des frères, des soeligurs, du bouche à oreille, du bouche à bouche, n’importe quoi, mais FAITES DU BRUIT, du bruit médiatique, du bruit tout court mais du bruit, pour qu’au moins, on entende un peu le chant de Bridget Kyoto, petite sirène d’alarme.
Bien à vous,

Laure Noualhat
le 25 novembre 2012

PS Et puisque pour attirer l’attention du public ces derniers temps, il faut se mettre à poil, je l’ai fait <http://t.ymlp230.net/jbearauqjjakauyeafauuhsh/click.php>  (photo ci-jointe). Non mais.

Normally, this is the time of year when the whole vineyard goes dormant.  The leaves change color and fall off as the green vines turn into wood.  But this year we’re seeing a lot of unusual behavior in the Syrah vines where many plants are actually growing new leaves!

How vines usually behave

This is a picture of a row of Merlot vines just a few hundred yards away from the Syrah.  You can see that these vines are already dormant.  They have lost almost all their leaves and have hardened to wood.  Although there are a couple traces of green on one of the plants in the far left of the photo, most of the vines are ready to be pruned.

In the detail below, you really see that the vines have hardened to wood and that there is no new growth.

The Syrah’s Unusual Green Growth

Compare that detail of the Merlot to this close up from the Syrah:

Lots of green growth! New buds!  And it’s not  just that the wood hardens progressively and hasn’t reached the ends of the branches yet.  Normally, those are newly grown leaves.  In the photo below, you see the clear juxtaposition of a new green bud on a hardened wooden branch.  Highly unusual stuff!

And these young buds aren’t isolated to a plant here and there.  The whole parcel is showing new leaves as displayed in the photo below.

More photos of the vines in november

Why a November spring?

You’re probably wondering why this is happening.  I know I was.

The Chamber of Agriculture supplied a simple answer a couple weeks ago: it doesn’t feel like winter yet!   The temperatures have been so mild.  Yesterday was balmy 18 degrees outside.  We opened all the doors and windows.  As a result of the temperature, sunshine and so on, the vines think they have enough energy to start growing new leaves again.   I’ve heard that grapevines in Florida give two crops a year for this very reason.  There is no winter season there!

In nature, this would benefit them because they could continue to grow through an indian summer.  However we need them to take a break and build up their reserves for next spring!

What will we do?

Just wait.  In all likelihood the winter temperatures will set in and the vines will take the hint and fall asleep.  It’s just an interesting phenomenon and we’ll only know how it affects next year’s crop a year from now.  🙂

2011 has been a very strang vintage and the viticultural anomalies are continuing even after harvest.  This is normally the most predictable time of year.  Once you harvest the grapes, the leaves all turn fall colors and they fall off.  The stems all harden into sturdy wood.  And then you prune back before the next spring.  But this year, some of the syrah vines got confused and started growing new green growth in October/November!

Here is an obligatory picture of my grapes turning purple.  This is a vineyard blog after all.

The photo was taken two days ago in the Cabernet Sauvignon at O’Vineyards. The plants are very far behind this year.  Chalk that up to the snow we had in May.  It’s been a wacky year.  But a lot of people say the vines could catch up very quickly.  Whatever.  We don’t mind harvesting a little later so it’s not a huge deal as long as it doesn’t get too wet in late September.

Okay, there, I talked about veraison, when the grapes change color from green to purple, and the weather. Can we go back to irreverence, drinking and nudity?