Just look what the dog dragged in...

And even I have to admit, it looks pretty fabulous. In real life, it's not even blurry (photo evidence to the contrary). The tome - that's right, folks, a nice big hardcover - hits stores October 11. But thanks to the miracle of pre-ordering, you can click now, forget all about it, and receive a happy surprise in the mail a month hence.

In other news, here's how I spent my summer vacation: traipsing around the south-western region of France's Périgord, in search of bees. I didn't have to look long. This delightful little booklet turned up on my first week:

And in case you were wondering, no, the correct translation of the title is not the delightfully thriller-evocative "Savage Bees," but rather "Wild Bees." We encountered quite a few of these enormous violet carpenter bees (Xylocopa violacea) on our doorstep, sweet, slow, and oh-so-blue:

And of course, there was honey. Although selecting just two jars from the farmer's market to squeeze in to the luggage proved a challenge. In the end I left it to my 8-year-old daughter to decide. Acacia honey, on the left, has a direct, up-front sweetness to it; rosemary, on the right, is subtly minty.