Garrigue is the name given to the Mediterranean scrubland which is made up of low growing, bushy plants including holm oak, juniper, broom and wild herbs such as rosemary and thyme. In Provence it also includes lavender although I have never seen this in the wild in the Languedoc. Walking amongst the garrigue on a warm day, crushing herbs underfoot, releases a fabulous aroma of warm thyme and rosemary. When used to describe a wine, garrigue refers to these green herby aromas. It can also be used to describe flavours too although I find it more evocative as a descriptor for aroma. from blog of Juliet Bruce Jones, Master of Wine http://languedocwinetales.blogspot.com/2009/02/garrigue-what-is-it.html

Learn more about the origins of the wild Languedoc countryside and the Languedoc garrigue The garrigue (the name comes from the Occitan word for holm oak – garric) as we know it now is a place for leisure activities; walking, mountain biking, birdspotting, hunting … and we tend to think of it as an area of wild countryside. Much more at: . http://www.frenchentree.com/languedoc-roussillon-holiday/DisplayArticle.asp?ID=32179

Walking in Languedoc http://www.walking-languedoc.com/Article-Hiking_in_Garrigue.html

An aggressive promotional campaign helped “Downton Abbey” win six Emmy Awards, including best mini-series or movie, away from competitors on HBO and Starz. “Downton Abbey,” which follows an aristocratic English family and its nosy staff at a sprawling estate on the cusp of World War I, was first shown on ITV in Britain. It slowly built an audience in the United States after critics called it a “delightful romp.” Viewers who didn’t typically watch PBS tuned in. “It was the closest thing to water-cooler television as public television gets,” said Rebecca Eaton, executive producer of Masterpiece, produced by WGBH Boston. A water-cooler show couldn’t come at a more critical time. The Budget Control Act, which ended the debt ceiling crisis in August, strips public television and others of a portion of federal financing starting as early as 2013. In 2010, PBS had $571 million in total revenue, down from $624 million in 2007. (A PBS spokeswoman said annual revenue varies based on programming investments.) Federal financing for public television in 2010, through grants and appropriations to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, was $97.8 million, or 17 percent of PBS’s total revenue. That’s down from $121 million, or 19 percent, in 2007, according to audited consolidated financial statements. States, meanwhile, under severe budget pressure, have cut financing for local public broadcasting stations. A social media campaign includes “Downton” actors sending Twitter messages about the show and sponsored, promotional Twitter messages. Viewers can unlock “Downton Abbey” stickers on GetGlue. On Dec. 26 fans got a 10-minute preview of “Downton Abbey” on the “Masterpiece” and PBS Facebook pages. “Social media drove the success of ‘Downton’ the first time around,” said Lesli Rotenberg, senior vice president of marketing and communications for PBS. “This time we’re using social media to help further drive buzz.” Viking River Cruises has signed on as “Masterpiece’s” corporate sponsor, filling a five-year void that began when Exxon Mobil withdrew its support in 2004. Viking will send mailers to customers pegged to the “Downton Abbey” Season 2 premiere. A corporate message will come on right after the show’s host, Laura Linney, introduces the program. “Our demographic is affluent baby boomers, 55-plus,” said Richard Marnell, Viking’s senior vice president of marketing. “We’d been looking for a broadcast partner that reaches that group.” http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/02/business/media/pbs-shifts-tactics-to-reach-wider-audience.html

Ohio became the latest state to take action on the possible link between seismic activity and wells used to dispose of waste water from oil and gas production when state officials ordered a halt to the practice near Youngstown this weekend after several minor earthquakes. The wells, known as injection wells, have been proliferating in Ohio to accommodate growing volumes of waste water left over from hydraulic fracturing, which involves blasting water, sand and chemicals underground to break apart dense layers of rock to free up oil and gas. The state's move could stoke the political debate about hydraulic fracturing, also called fracking, a technique that has sparked an energy boom in several states but also concerns from environmental advocates. The decision also highlights a controversy surrounding the exporting of fracking waste water from one state to another. More than half of the fluid injected at the Youngstown well came from Pennsylvania, said Andy Ware, deputy director of the Ohio Department of Natural Resources. Ohio regulators previously asked the company operating the Youngstown well, D&L Energy Inc., to stop injecting waste water after a 2.7-magnitude earthquake Dec. 24. But on Saturday evening, officials declared a moratorium on all injections within a five-mile radius of the well after another, 4.0-magnitude earthquake earlier in the day.
There have been 11 small temblors around the well since March, roiling the rustbelt region of northeast Ohio, which has no known history of seismic activity.
DANIEL GILBERT
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203462304577136920749123772.html

Christmas tree down
Decorations too
The room is so empty
Makes me kind of blue. --Donna Dean

Vivian Maier (1926-2009) had a talent for seeing. As she walked down the street, she not only avoided bumping into people and objects, she actually saw them in a way most people do not; she saw them in their particularity. We know this because more than 100,000 negatives of photographs she took were somewhat accidentally stumbled upon after her death and now form the basis of two concurrent gallery exhibitions, a photo book and two websites. The rent on Maier's storage lockers had gone unpaid, and their contents were put up for sale. In 2007, John Maloof, a young real-estate agent, bought one of the boxes for $400 because there was a picture of the Loop in it he thought he could use for a book he was writing. Mr. Maloof knew nothing about art photography, but as he went through the 30,000 images in the box he got interested, and educated himself. He tracked down people who had bought other boxes and picked them up. But whose pictures were they? Finally, in April 2009, he found deep in one of the boxes an envelope from a photo lab with "Vivian Maier" penciled on it. A Google search turned up the death notice the Gensburgs had placed in the Chicago Tribune a few days before: "Vivian Maier . . . Second mother to John, Lane and Matthew." In October 2009, Mr. Maloof posted some of Maier's pictures on Flickr, and since then interest in her work has grown steadily. Besides Mr. Maloof's holdings, Jeff Goldstein, another collector, has about 15,000 negatives. Because she used a medium-format Rollei rather than a 35mm camera, Maier's pictures have more detail than those of most street photographers. Like them, though, her main subject is people she encountered on her outings. Her compositions tend to be straightforward. WILLIAM MYERS http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204879004577110884090494826.html
See photographs at: Howard Greenberg Gallery through Jan. 28 41 E 57th St New York, NY 10022 (212) 334-0010 Steven Kasher Gallery through Feb. 25 521 West 23rd St # 2R New York, NY 10011-1114 (212) 966-3978

12 must-see events in the sky in 2012
Jan. 4: Quadrantid meteor shower peaks
Feb. 20 to March 12: Best evening apparition of Mercury
March 3: Mars arrives at opposition
March 13: Brilliant "double planet"
May 5: Biggest full moon of 2012
May 20: Annular eclipse of the sun
June 4: Partial eclipse of the moon
June 5: Rare transit of Venus across the sun
Aug. 12: Perseid meteor shower
Nov. 13: Total eclipse of the sun
Dec. 13-14: Geminid meteor shower
Dec. 25: Christmas evening and Jupiter
Read details at: http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-205_162-57350935/12-must-see-skywatching-events-in-2012/