Tuesday 31st March
Wow last day of March….can you believe its April tomorrow. I wrote this poem for mothers. Hope your mother is comfortable and getting better. Mike’s mother has had her fair share of problems since January too…one scare after another. But she seems to be much better now.
Mike got back from his travels yesterday morning with thousands of photos and tales. He also looked really jetlagged but we are talking long flights here. It was nice to have him back again. He seems to have had a really good time and the weather was great all the way through. They crammed a lot into those 17 days. (4 countries in 2 continents)
Thanks for your gift by the way. I love the bee paperweight! Funny, but as I was opening it, I was at the table which still has the yellow and black bee throw on it that you got me all those years ago. I had a nice 48th birthday sat in the garden drinking coffee and eating snacks with sweet chilli dip. The sun was strong and the skies were blue so who could ask for more. Actually it wasn’t that terribly warm but we managed to have an hour before the cool wind overpowered the warm sun and forced us indoors.
Tender hands from comforting sirens
Strong as steel and soft as lamb’s tails
They birth us, nurture swift and guide
Yet depart their comfort too soon from us
With towering love in a world of ill ease
They make, shape and teach us wisdom
As we grow fast into our lives and rejoice
We are blessed the world gave us mother
Strong as steel and soft as lamb’s tails
They birth us, nurture swift and guide
Yet depart their comfort too soon from us
With towering love in a world of ill ease
They make, shape and teach us wisdom
As we grow fast into our lives and rejoice
We are blessed the world gave us mother
Friday, March 27, 2009
Been busy on eBay selling a few things....hard work really but i made some money and made some room. People that do it for a living must be good but then i guess they have more time. They wont have to fit it in evenings and dinnertime.
Hopefully will get out and about this weekend and take some pictures but if not Mike is back Monday and he should have some really good ones....until later have a good weekend and enjoy the days. I shall concentrate on staying young (that's a joke) and keeping warm, as it has turned cool, wet and windy with the prospect of even a little snow tomorrow.
Hopefully will get out and about this weekend and take some pictures but if not Mike is back Monday and he should have some really good ones....until later have a good weekend and enjoy the days. I shall concentrate on staying young (that's a joke) and keeping warm, as it has turned cool, wet and windy with the prospect of even a little snow tomorrow.
Tuesday, March 24, 2009
24th march 2009
Wow soon got to the last day of the holiday (rest.) Not sure it has been a rest as have been quite busy up in the garden during the nice spells of weather. With Nicks’ help managed to clean out the overgrown pond and tidy up the bog garden. The overgrown pond was hard work and you would not believe the amount of rotting leaves and other stuff that was in there. That took a few hours to clear and probably explains why my back is a little sore now. There are some pictures below.
Had just one day out to The Lake District (pictures below) which was breathtakingly beautiful countryside. We drove to Penrith then Carlisle and then looped around Keswick before coming back to Penrith. Hope the photos manage to capture some of the scenery.
Mike has landed in Sydney and already has walked across THE TOP of the Sydney harbour bridge ...not sure I could do that, been to the Opera House for a concert, been to the Blue Mountains and Bondi beach. He seems really taken with the city...and it sounds fantastic.
I’ll keep this short for the moment and write more a little later...so have a great day.
Wow soon got to the last day of the holiday (rest.) Not sure it has been a rest as have been quite busy up in the garden during the nice spells of weather. With Nicks’ help managed to clean out the overgrown pond and tidy up the bog garden. The overgrown pond was hard work and you would not believe the amount of rotting leaves and other stuff that was in there. That took a few hours to clear and probably explains why my back is a little sore now. There are some pictures below.
Had just one day out to The Lake District (pictures below) which was breathtakingly beautiful countryside. We drove to Penrith then Carlisle and then looped around Keswick before coming back to Penrith. Hope the photos manage to capture some of the scenery.
Mike has landed in Sydney and already has walked across THE TOP of the Sydney harbour bridge ...not sure I could do that, been to the Opera House for a concert, been to the Blue Mountains and Bondi beach. He seems really taken with the city...and it sounds fantastic.
I’ll keep this short for the moment and write more a little later...so have a great day.
Thursday, March 19, 2009
Wednesday 18th march 2008
Spent a few peaceful afternoon hours in the garden. The sun was strong enough to my face blush and it imparted a glow that I can feel still in the dark evening. The birds are alive and tentatively exploring the feeders I placed around the garden. It doesn’t take long before they are free of fear and greedily feeding of the peanut suet. It is so incredibly peaceful despite the noise from the road. The marvellous human mind can tune out this type of background interference and focus on just the sounds of nature. Or I simply have selective hearing. I placed some compost over the potatoes, read the paper, ate a pie, yoghurt and a bag of cheese and onion crisps...bliss.
Tomorrow I will move some plants from the bog garden and begin to dig the pond out. That should be a nice job to complete in the spring sunshine. Everything is incredibly dappled this afternoon. We had a heavy mist this morning which burnt away in the sunshine leaving shafts of light slanting down through the bare branches of the trees. The shadows at this time of year are cast so long and reveal all the subtleties in the green shades. It was so incredible that I took a long, leisurely walk around the hill. Somebody has cut a small section of the fence at the bottom leaving a gap large enough for a dog or fox to get through and it certainly has as the ground is full of dig marks...the hole though looks like it was made some years ago. It will soon be time for a new fence I think.
It’s 3.30pm and the sun is beginning to dip away behind the pine trees at the top of the hill. I feel much calmer now than when I arrived. It has been my first real spring day of 2009 even though officially it does not start for another three days on Saturday (21st) tomorrow is forecast with warm sun from the get-go so I’ll be ready with everything I need to cook breakfast alfresco for me and Nick...can’t wait.
Spent a few peaceful afternoon hours in the garden. The sun was strong enough to my face blush and it imparted a glow that I can feel still in the dark evening. The birds are alive and tentatively exploring the feeders I placed around the garden. It doesn’t take long before they are free of fear and greedily feeding of the peanut suet. It is so incredibly peaceful despite the noise from the road. The marvellous human mind can tune out this type of background interference and focus on just the sounds of nature. Or I simply have selective hearing. I placed some compost over the potatoes, read the paper, ate a pie, yoghurt and a bag of cheese and onion crisps...bliss.
Tomorrow I will move some plants from the bog garden and begin to dig the pond out. That should be a nice job to complete in the spring sunshine. Everything is incredibly dappled this afternoon. We had a heavy mist this morning which burnt away in the sunshine leaving shafts of light slanting down through the bare branches of the trees. The shadows at this time of year are cast so long and reveal all the subtleties in the green shades. It was so incredible that I took a long, leisurely walk around the hill. Somebody has cut a small section of the fence at the bottom leaving a gap large enough for a dog or fox to get through and it certainly has as the ground is full of dig marks...the hole though looks like it was made some years ago. It will soon be time for a new fence I think.
It’s 3.30pm and the sun is beginning to dip away behind the pine trees at the top of the hill. I feel much calmer now than when I arrived. It has been my first real spring day of 2009 even though officially it does not start for another three days on Saturday (21st) tomorrow is forecast with warm sun from the get-go so I’ll be ready with everything I need to cook breakfast alfresco for me and Nick...can’t wait.
Wednesday, March 18, 2009
The spring sun warms me and feeds my soul like a spring rain on the budding forests. I am living in a green cell with only bars of dappled sunshine and laughter. Days alive to life as I sit on grassy banks holding council with nature and watching butterflies and swallows swoop and dive and feeling right there with them flying in the calm blue sky and though my love is strong and true if ever I should falter, ever would you be strong enough to hold me up high in the air for you are at my side forever.
Wed 18th March 2009
Mike says New Zealand was absolutely beautiful and now they have arrived in Melbourne. He has taken my small pc with him but cannot get it to work so no photos I’m afraid. Shame, but then to be expected really and I did wonder when he decided to take it. Technology is not really at the top of the list for any of the group.
I am taking a few days of (well a week actually) to relax and enjoy some of the sunshine we have been promise this week. The last two days have been balmy and mild and I shall enjoy sitting in the garden during the weekdays and going off exploring somewhere with Nick. While mike’s away have been rummaging in the attic and found some goodies to put on eBay. Currently selling 2 amplifiers from the early eighties Pioneer SA-8800 and SA-7800 which have lots of interest but as yet no offers of cold, hard cash. Today I am posting a cartridge (for playing records) to China.
Hopefully I shall lots of time to take some pictures this week and write a little more than normal. I think I shall begin a diary again. During my attic raid I came across several old diaries and journals and realised boy I was pretty prolific in the old pen and paper days and I need to get back to writing lots more. Whatever you’re doing have a lovely week.
Mike says New Zealand was absolutely beautiful and now they have arrived in Melbourne. He has taken my small pc with him but cannot get it to work so no photos I’m afraid. Shame, but then to be expected really and I did wonder when he decided to take it. Technology is not really at the top of the list for any of the group.
I am taking a few days of (well a week actually) to relax and enjoy some of the sunshine we have been promise this week. The last two days have been balmy and mild and I shall enjoy sitting in the garden during the weekdays and going off exploring somewhere with Nick. While mike’s away have been rummaging in the attic and found some goodies to put on eBay. Currently selling 2 amplifiers from the early eighties Pioneer SA-8800 and SA-7800 which have lots of interest but as yet no offers of cold, hard cash. Today I am posting a cartridge (for playing records) to China.
Hopefully I shall lots of time to take some pictures this week and write a little more than normal. I think I shall begin a diary again. During my attic raid I came across several old diaries and journals and realised boy I was pretty prolific in the old pen and paper days and I need to get back to writing lots more. Whatever you’re doing have a lovely week.
Monday, March 16, 2009
Thursday, March 12, 2009
It must be spring as the spiders have awoken and are now to be seen across the houses so I dug out some previous diary entries….I always hope it is the same spider. Probably because I wouldn’t want to think there are several that size wandering around the property.
For what do I see but ugliness and something that is alien? It sits and watches me with its brown hairy body and gangly legs and arms. This is my room and it has no right to be here and yet my compassion compels me let it stay for it is deserving of shelter on this wet and windy night. Just stay out of my bed.
Weather is dry but cool and Mr. Spider (the big one) keeps appearing in different rooms. I wonder where he is tonight. So long as it is not in my bedroom I don’t mind. I know he was in the kitchen by the fridge. Because while I was cooking I spied a daddy long legs dangling on a strand of cobweb and there was Mr. Spider advancing toward him. I rescued the daddy long legs and now Mr. Spider will probably come pay me a visit. You watch…or rather that’s what I’ll do.
Wow mister you should have seen the size of the spider that has just run across my bedroom carpet. It came out of the chimney and ran in two complete circles before climbing right into my bed. Boy, I hope that wasn’t an omen or anything. I talked to it for a while. Willing it to stay while I got Mike to catch it and put it out of the window. Made me feel a little better and it stayed put while it was captured in the large jug out of the bathroom. It was spooky almost like it didn’t want to be here and maybe just talking reassured it that I was harmless and just as eager for it to find its way home again. Or it means that I am quite mad…I wonder sometimes if they don’t understand a great deal more than we suppose.
For what do I see but ugliness and something that is alien? It sits and watches me with its brown hairy body and gangly legs and arms. This is my room and it has no right to be here and yet my compassion compels me let it stay for it is deserving of shelter on this wet and windy night. Just stay out of my bed.
Weather is dry but cool and Mr. Spider (the big one) keeps appearing in different rooms. I wonder where he is tonight. So long as it is not in my bedroom I don’t mind. I know he was in the kitchen by the fridge. Because while I was cooking I spied a daddy long legs dangling on a strand of cobweb and there was Mr. Spider advancing toward him. I rescued the daddy long legs and now Mr. Spider will probably come pay me a visit. You watch…or rather that’s what I’ll do.
Wow mister you should have seen the size of the spider that has just run across my bedroom carpet. It came out of the chimney and ran in two complete circles before climbing right into my bed. Boy, I hope that wasn’t an omen or anything. I talked to it for a while. Willing it to stay while I got Mike to catch it and put it out of the window. Made me feel a little better and it stayed put while it was captured in the large jug out of the bathroom. It was spooky almost like it didn’t want to be here and maybe just talking reassured it that I was harmless and just as eager for it to find its way home again. Or it means that I am quite mad…I wonder sometimes if they don’t understand a great deal more than we suppose.
Thursday 12th march 2009
Mike has set off to the southern hemisphere but the holiday didn’t go to plan. The cruise has been cancelled. The boat is in dry dock and they only told them 3 days before they were due for going. How disappointing is that? I think I would have been going mental but they patiently rearranged everything and are now going for just over 2 weeks flying Manchester-Singapore-Auckland-Melbourne-Sydney-Singapore and back to Manchester. I reckon they are just getting close to Singapore as I write. Have a lovely holiday and see you in 2 weeks.
I have another audit / assessment at work tomorrow but then hopefully (all going well) should get a little peace and quiet for a time. I plan to take a few days off next week myself with Nick so hope the weather is pleasantly spring-like, but who cares? I really need a rest. I plan to get some stuff out the attic and put it on eBay...have sold several things lately and it is a bit of a learning curve but I’m getting there. Don’t know what the plans are for the weekend but they definitely involve a glass of wine and something deliciously savoury. If I don’t get chance to post anything for the next few days it’s because I am relaxing.
Have a wonderful weekend.
Mike has set off to the southern hemisphere but the holiday didn’t go to plan. The cruise has been cancelled. The boat is in dry dock and they only told them 3 days before they were due for going. How disappointing is that? I think I would have been going mental but they patiently rearranged everything and are now going for just over 2 weeks flying Manchester-Singapore-Auckland-Melbourne-Sydney-Singapore and back to Manchester. I reckon they are just getting close to Singapore as I write. Have a lovely holiday and see you in 2 weeks.
I have another audit / assessment at work tomorrow but then hopefully (all going well) should get a little peace and quiet for a time. I plan to take a few days off next week myself with Nick so hope the weather is pleasantly spring-like, but who cares? I really need a rest. I plan to get some stuff out the attic and put it on eBay...have sold several things lately and it is a bit of a learning curve but I’m getting there. Don’t know what the plans are for the weekend but they definitely involve a glass of wine and something deliciously savoury. If I don’t get chance to post anything for the next few days it’s because I am relaxing.
Have a wonderful weekend.
Tuesday, March 10, 2009
Planted my potatoes tonight and took this picture of the full moon...it's not very good but i thought i'd share it. It's about time someone invented a camera thats sees the same as the eye. The moon to the eye looked so gorgeously full and yellowy bright but has become a distant blob in the photo.
Have a good evening
Have a good evening
10th mar 2008
It is 6.00 am and I just woke up and I can hear the birds singing which is wonderful because i can still hear it and it is a blessed start to the day. The first light rises at the window and I take some paper and write the first things that come into my head.
Music decays; transmutes to silence
So another dance stills and ends
The footwork retreats, partners untangle
Just one more to follow and then...
I can sit out the music for a time
Arcs of light increase
And snowflakes cease
Nature must awaken
The winter is taken
Why was never the question?
One may not change what is
Rather it was always when
Or so always now or then
Ever it should have been who
It is 6.00 am and I just woke up and I can hear the birds singing which is wonderful because i can still hear it and it is a blessed start to the day. The first light rises at the window and I take some paper and write the first things that come into my head.
Music decays; transmutes to silence
So another dance stills and ends
The footwork retreats, partners untangle
Just one more to follow and then...
I can sit out the music for a time
Arcs of light increase
And snowflakes cease
Nature must awaken
The winter is taken
Why was never the question?
One may not change what is
Rather it was always when
Or so always now or then
Ever it should have been who
Sunday, March 08, 2009
See what a difference a few years makes to a person....ha, ha. I could never be accused of always trying to present myself in the best light. Why it looks like the Darwen gypsy campsite complete with a rather swarthy looking member of the travellers. Well it was snowing quite heavily this morning. I burned the last of the wood and stood there listening to the sound of snowflakes sizzling on the side of the brazier like meteorites burning up in the atmosphere as they hit the metal and dissolved instantly. It was a rather cold and miserable morning and I got soaking wet as you can see. The highlight was Mr Toad watching from the undergrowth. Boy he was a friendly thing but with the warm fire I thought he might get too close so I put him in the pond. But if he was as wet and cold as I then perhaps he really needed a warm.
I think I have used this before sorry….but have changed lots of it
A cold wind weaves across a valley lit by golden rays. For this day the march of spring halts under the breezy onslaught. A soft grey sky sprinkles light rain over an eager land. It hits the moist earth and is absorbed quickly to permeate through the underground tracery of roots that lie hidden deep in subterranean spaces that once nurtured the dinosaurs. Some will be used to swell leaf buds and open flowers and some retained within fleshy orange roots that hug the very bones of the earth. Long through the winter they have caressed the cold layers and now they shall catch and hold their watery cargo in readiness for the heat and drought of summer.
Bumblebee queens soon shall awake take to wing and in vacant mouse holes brood fat larval offspring in waxy cylinders constructed lovingly from the bounty held within the body of mother from a summer now gone and from the first nectars of spring. They shall forgo the cold and rain to fertilise the early spring flowers.
Bumblebees are the vanguard of the insect army awakening.
Wasp queens shall await the call a little longer and lie hidden still in anticipation of warmer days where mandibles honed to razor sharpness shall strip wood to make papery abodes that shall last but till autumn and unleash a bloodlust on the insect world borne on a yellow and black storm.
Wasps are the warriors of the insect army awakening.
Her majesty Queen honeybee surrounds herself with children numbered in thousands and feels their warmth. Yet spring calls to her softly to come outside but she cannot answer the call trapped surely as a slave within the hive to lay constantly when she would give all to leave the fortress of her children and fly free on the wing and let the sun gleam once more upon her silken wings.
Honeybees are the unsung angels of the insect army awakening
A cold wind weaves across a valley lit by golden rays. For this day the march of spring halts under the breezy onslaught. A soft grey sky sprinkles light rain over an eager land. It hits the moist earth and is absorbed quickly to permeate through the underground tracery of roots that lie hidden deep in subterranean spaces that once nurtured the dinosaurs. Some will be used to swell leaf buds and open flowers and some retained within fleshy orange roots that hug the very bones of the earth. Long through the winter they have caressed the cold layers and now they shall catch and hold their watery cargo in readiness for the heat and drought of summer.
Bumblebee queens soon shall awake take to wing and in vacant mouse holes brood fat larval offspring in waxy cylinders constructed lovingly from the bounty held within the body of mother from a summer now gone and from the first nectars of spring. They shall forgo the cold and rain to fertilise the early spring flowers.
Bumblebees are the vanguard of the insect army awakening.
Wasp queens shall await the call a little longer and lie hidden still in anticipation of warmer days where mandibles honed to razor sharpness shall strip wood to make papery abodes that shall last but till autumn and unleash a bloodlust on the insect world borne on a yellow and black storm.
Wasps are the warriors of the insect army awakening.
Her majesty Queen honeybee surrounds herself with children numbered in thousands and feels their warmth. Yet spring calls to her softly to come outside but she cannot answer the call trapped surely as a slave within the hive to lay constantly when she would give all to leave the fortress of her children and fly free on the wing and let the sun gleam once more upon her silken wings.
Honeybees are the unsung angels of the insect army awakening
Thursday, March 05, 2009
5th Mar 2009
Woke up to another white wonderland this morning
4th Mar 2009
Woke up to a white wonderland this morning with a snowfall of giant flakes that lazed down from a grey enigmatic sky. Everything was white and perfect….it’s a long way off summer I guess.
3rd Mar 2009
It’s March…whoa where did February go? The first tentative green shoots are appearing on shrubs and in the garden the daffodil flower stems (although still sheathed in green) shine yellow underneath.
Had a busy old week last week as we are now in the management audit season (there’s another Friday.) The last one is Friday the 13th March so that’s hopefully not too much of an omen and turns out to be somewhat auspicious.
Mike is bust getting ready for his three week trip to the other side of the world. (Australia and New Zealand via Singapore.) Should be a great trip lucky old sod!
Saturday went to Halifax which was quite interesting. it’s an old wool town (Yorkshire is built on wool as Lancashire was built on cotton. I think they made more money or something because the houses seem more imposing and solid. not like the endless rows of jerry built terraces you find in Lancashire.
Sunday began to tidy up some of the tree trimmings by making a fire in the burner and burning a little bit at a time. It’s amazing really just how much will burn in a short time and the ash I use around the fruit trees and bushes. Haven’t seen a frog yet but they generally begin appearing mid-March. Jobs for this weekend are clearing up the last of the twigs and branches and planting the potatoes. I really want to dig another pond at some point this year and that needs to be done before the end of May and the midges return. I hope we have a good summer.
Saw on the news a story about whales stranding themselves on a Tasmanian beach. Reasons for this behaviour are not yet clear but perhaps it is a yearning to be once again on the land. Some inherited and ancient collective memory that remembers a time before they entered the water. Perhaps it is the next evolution and they will come ashore one day. of all the creatures in the world whales must be one of the most enigmatic but whether they will survive to make an evolutionary leap is unlikely.
Woke up to another white wonderland this morning
4th Mar 2009
Woke up to a white wonderland this morning with a snowfall of giant flakes that lazed down from a grey enigmatic sky. Everything was white and perfect….it’s a long way off summer I guess.
3rd Mar 2009
It’s March…whoa where did February go? The first tentative green shoots are appearing on shrubs and in the garden the daffodil flower stems (although still sheathed in green) shine yellow underneath.
Had a busy old week last week as we are now in the management audit season (there’s another Friday.) The last one is Friday the 13th March so that’s hopefully not too much of an omen and turns out to be somewhat auspicious.
Mike is bust getting ready for his three week trip to the other side of the world. (Australia and New Zealand via Singapore.) Should be a great trip lucky old sod!
Saturday went to Halifax which was quite interesting. it’s an old wool town (Yorkshire is built on wool as Lancashire was built on cotton. I think they made more money or something because the houses seem more imposing and solid. not like the endless rows of jerry built terraces you find in Lancashire.
Sunday began to tidy up some of the tree trimmings by making a fire in the burner and burning a little bit at a time. It’s amazing really just how much will burn in a short time and the ash I use around the fruit trees and bushes. Haven’t seen a frog yet but they generally begin appearing mid-March. Jobs for this weekend are clearing up the last of the twigs and branches and planting the potatoes. I really want to dig another pond at some point this year and that needs to be done before the end of May and the midges return. I hope we have a good summer.
Saw on the news a story about whales stranding themselves on a Tasmanian beach. Reasons for this behaviour are not yet clear but perhaps it is a yearning to be once again on the land. Some inherited and ancient collective memory that remembers a time before they entered the water. Perhaps it is the next evolution and they will come ashore one day. of all the creatures in the world whales must be one of the most enigmatic but whether they will survive to make an evolutionary leap is unlikely.
Tuesday, March 03, 2009
So come to me tonight demon and take me fast and warm to your chest. Wrap your arms around my waist and hold me tight so the world ceases to exist except for the one you have created for me to enjoy. Let me feel the warmth of your caressing fingertips and lips. Come let me taste all of you as you taste the very essence of me. The world closes into night but for us time shall not intrude into our moments of passion for they shall be wanton and deliciously private whenever we desire them. I so desire it greatly my angel and only your sweet touch upon me shall I take from the world.
