human
These old trees are to me so sacred! When I walk under their great branches I always think of the dove bringing the leaf to the ark, of the olive boughs of the entry into Jerusalem, and of the Mount of Olives.
gpt
Olives are interesting because their manner of growth allows them to attain an almost indefinite age. The trunk decays and splits, but the bark, which still retains its vigor, grows around the dissevered portions, making, as it were, new trunks of them, although curved and distorted, so that three or four trees seem to be growing from the same root. It is this which gives the tree its characteristic knotted and gnarled appearance. This species of olive attains a very fine development in the neighborhood of Mentone; there are said to be trees still alive at Cap Martin which were coeval with the Roman Empire.
human
The light in an old olive grove is beautiful and peculiar; it is like nothing but itself. It is quite impossible to give on canvas the gray shade of the long aisles without making them dim, and they are not in the least dim. I have noticed, too, that the sunshine never filters through sufficiently to touch the ground in a glancing beam, or even a single point of yellow light; and yet the leaves are small, and the foliage does not appear thick.
gpt
Olives and olive oil, the groundwork of every good dinner! I wonder how much a grove would cost?
human
How they murmur to us--like doves! My one regret now is that I did not name my child Olive. She would then have been so Biblical.
gpt
I should think more of the groves if I did not know that they were fertilized with woollen rags, old boots, and bones.
human
The inside tint of the leaves would be lovely for a summer costume. I have never had just that shade.
gpt
Live-oak groves draped in long moss are much more imposing.
human
It is so jolly, you know, to sit under the trees with one's embroidery, and have some one read aloud--something sweet, like Adelaide Procter.
gpt
Sitting here is like being in a great cathedral in Lent.
human
Shall we go quietly on, Miss Severin?
gpt
by-the-way, always amused Margaret and myself greatly. Lloyd and Verney were constantly suggesting that we should go here or there