Family Photos and Lavender on Anaco Mantel

Dried lavender bundles rest in a row along a weathered wooden mantelpiece, their muted purple stems against the warm, honey-toned timber. Behind the herbs, several framed family photographs stand in a tight line, their glass surfaces catching the sharp, tropical light filtering through the room. The images show faces of people, though details blur slightly in the haze of the late morning fog that softens the background walls. Dust motes hang suspended in the bright beams, settling on the rough texture of the wood grain. A small crack in the frame of the central photo reveals a sliver of the wall behind it, at the base of the arrangement in the lived-in reality of an old quarter home.