It’s Halloween so old grumpy (that’s me) won’t be answering the door tonight that’s for sure. In any case they might think I’m in costume. Which is like the phone joke doing the rounds at the minute “Can I borrow your face for Halloween.” Very droll...or is that Troll.

We’ve had a mild week but the weekend is going to be wet and then we head back to cooler weather next week. Well we do, but some will be in much warmer climes...hope they have a good time.

We had a round of musical chairs at work this week so who knows what chair I’ll be sitting in by the end of the year. Guess we just keep playing the game until the music stops. When they lift retirement age to 70 (now 65) half of us won’t see it anyway. So you pay in all your life and then drop dead before you want some back.

“Human’s greatest monsters of them all” (to quote a line from Doctor Who)

Happy Halloween!

Where can one now escape the wet and cold that settles over the hill and trees bringing a prelude to the harsh weather that winter shall fling upon us? Raindrops dash leaves down to blanket the ground where they that settle as a reminder of this now spent summer. As day inexorably fails to dusk and the sky deepens to mauve, as I close the curtains on the world I see silhouetted against the trees a pair of bats. It was so wonderfully enigmatic to watch them but a little sad that this was perhaps the last time I would see any till next year. I close the curtains and retreat into the world of winter nights just as the owl begins to call
Work has been ok lately but seems to consist of mostly ‘get nowhere’ days that make you feel the whole thing is totally frustrating. Still no matter how ugly things may seem the world always shows us just how beautiful and precious everything is and how just one small joy can make a day or a life.

Greatest Sci-Fi Shows Women Characters


Babylon 5 – Mira Furlan.

Farscape – Claudia Black

Battlestar Galactica – Tricia Helfer

Stargate: SG-1 – Claudia Black

Star Trek Enterprise – Jolene Blalock

Star Trek – Majel Barrett

Star Trek: Voyager - Roxann Dawson

Star Trek: Voyager – Kate Mulgrew

Night now rules till March and now that the clocks have changed by 1 hour for the winter it is 6.00am and I can hear the birds beginning to sing although it is yet not quite light. They are welcoming the dawn to life and the sky is becoming a lighter blue with every minute that ticks by. It’s been a dullish wet weekend but the clouds have parted at times to reveal the sun and a blue autumn sky. The strong wind has shook loose many of the leaves that were clinging on and now bare branches are beginning to arch across the sky. They open up views further to the distance and in a good way the loss of the leaves brings the benefit of more light around. Let’s face it we need every bit we can get at this time of year.

Thursday 22nd Oct 2009

Wow time goes by so quickly some weeks. Normally I can find some time at work to write but not for the last few weeks. It’s been fairly quiet all round, but the days have changed fast as we go through the month. We started the month on the end of summer and now slide onto the edge of winter. Trees lose leaves like a burnished snowstorm and the first frosts have blackened all the tender plants that haven’t been protected. Still for the first time I’m ahead of the game this year and have protected my specimens with fleece so hopefully they may be extra luxurious next spring. But I guess we’ll have to see what kind of winter we get here. I have planted winter cabbages but maybe a little too late. But they may do well if it’s mild. My winter jobs include digging a new pond and cleaning out the existing ones. Oh and trimming all the wayward willow trees to open up the garden to more light. Mike will be busy packing this weekend ready for the cruise...3 weeks in the sun. Lucky bugger!

Nick's probably goggle-eyed watching his new TV and after helping him set it up i have been wrapping up the tenders with fleece...look kind of Grecian don't you think?

I was amazed that there is no frost this morning after it being so clear last night before bed. It must have turned a little milder during the night. The trees seem to be holding on to their leaves. The Beech trees along the cemetery wall are still clothed and the colour may become a magnificent orange and yellow. I’ll try to remember to take a photo over the weekend.
I am full of a cold at the moment (but I have magic socks) and keep warm during the night. It seems to make all the difference if one’s feet are warm. Now who kept telling me that?

I have posted this prose before but not in a writing mood tonight and I like this. I have twiddled with it somewhat (of course!) I wonder how many writers if given the chance would entirely rework a best-selling book. I'll put the full version on tomorrow.

I have been up to the garden with a backdrop of gentle rain but it is surprisingly mild tonight.

What hungers for your affection?
Looks toward the crescent moon
And makes wishes for the other
Till there is nothing left to give

What makes a smile grow strong?
Within a furrow of growth
With clear water wrung free
From a gentle, giving soul

For under the stars you sit
A rainbow upon your shoulders
Love everlasting, inviolable as night
And as deep as angels sleep

You hide in the indigo night?
Calling me ever onward?
Is the spirit of you; your hand
Framed in moonlight, beckons

Faltering I stretch out my hand
For even in the dark alone
Amid the howling of wolves
I do not feel fear or doubt

Warmed by the rays of the sun
Breaking upon a green world
What waits in highest cloud?
That bestrides the dawn?

We are alike, two souls flying
Free on a wind of change
That keens and bears us
Upward toward eternity; we the

Foundlings who cried lonely tears
And the universe listened
See now the stars fly by so fast
As your hand holds mine always

She passes softly into creation
A shining gentle autumn light
Never to dim, but remain forever;
Sleep mother dear for a little time
Till I come one day and wake you
Though I knew her less than I wished
I know she can never really disappear
For you live on and her heart is within us
She a gentle heart that made a world
The more comforting for you and me,
And now resides in us so tenderly
Mothers are friends and inspiration
They teach us to love the world
But to love ourselves and others first
They grew and nurtured us and will
Live on for we all will remember them

The world is a season changeling
It matures fast to a ripe autumn
In walls of yellowing leaves now...
Hanging tremulously in the wind
Or in yellowing sheets underfoot,
That crackle with the foots tread
Strewn deep on now diminishing
Grass growth that stills and slows
I kick their desiccated bodies
To the northern wind of change
Feel briefly that I’m now 10 again
Instead of my normal age of twelve
Knowing beyond doubt I do love autumn
But not its cool echoing shades pointing
Towards the coming cold of winter

All that glistens is perhaps not golden
But the walls of bronze and yellows
Held aloft to the sky in barken arms
Shine like a benison in the noon sun
And lead me home by autumn paths