30th October 2007

Finally got the car fixed but it has been a hectic afternoon. Still it was probably more hectic for the guys at the garage, as they turned it round pretty quickly. So I’m a little more optimistic tonight; which after last night’s depressing little piece is to be warmly welcomed.

I can’t believe it is Halloween tomorrow. I shall switch on the TV and I will not be answering the door to anyone. I sound like a right old moan don’t I? But I can’t be doing with this entire trick or treating shebang. It always strikes me that we shouldn’t take all this stuff so lightly. I’ll have a hunt around for a suitable Halloween picture.

I might write some prose later but if not have a happy Halloween and see you in November.

Had a good day...in a good mood...dont read this...

Sometimes life sweeps away all our notions of infallibility. Events arise unlooked for and a cold world enters so swiftly. Like the icy touch of the first frost on a leafy banana plant; that taken from the tropics to the arctic feels the kiss of autumn burns away its hope and dreams without warning. For it cannot endure and nor can we. Perhaps we could, but we may not and so make each journey home become a new magical adventure. An exploration of paradise in familiarity, comfort and the goal of a sanctuary against the ills of the world. For if you can just make it back there once more when all is lost and you are far from home then you shall truly have lived. For the heart is the home in which it has bled and yet been slowly shaped in joy into the instrument you know it to be now?

We can find love under the sun so easily

On the long beaches and sandy shorelines

Under shady olives, in whitewashed alleys

The sounds of lovers merge into the night

Caressed by cool breezes from the Adriatic

For in Greece we know the gods understand

Take your loves fill through a long summer

But think in the autumn a chill will arrive

The sun retreats and the nights grow long

The world moves indoors, waits for spring

Remember my friends to hold onto love

For it will keep you warm through winter.

Had a scenic drive with Nick this morning around some of the beautiful Trough of Bowland. We went via Clitheroe to Bashall Eaves (sounds like somewhere a hobbit would live,) Whitwwell, Slaidburn, Waddington and Dunsop Bridge. The light was excellent and it picked up the gold’s and oranges of the trees framed on the blue-grey sky. I didn’t have my camera but trust me when I tell you it is breathtaking. Have a look at the following sites and see if you don’t agree. I shall be back soon and this time I won’t forget my camera.

http://www.forestofbowland.com/visit_villages.asp

http://www.countryside.gov.uk/Images/JCA34_tcm2-21084.pdf

So please accept these photos I took in the garden this afternoon. All show the onset of autumn.
My high spot of the week was being told my blood pressure is 150/100 (quite high) so it’s a low sodium diet from here on in. But as I told the nurse if it is so high you’d think it could make it to the most important bit a bit more often...hope you had a good weekend.

Raw words and raw emotion seek to flesh away care

Your heart is steady and true and always you are there

I am perhaps not so soul dependable, but I may wish

That you can understand and still would so love me

For now autumn arrives at our open doors and sighs

We must enjoy what we have and watch time as it flies

Think I posted too many videos last night but I like them all. You Tube is an amazing phenomenon. What is not on there? (Poulenc’s Organ Concerto notwithstanding) is not worth watching. I guess one day they’ll have better quality videos and I guess then TV could be obsolete. By the way click the menu button for more of the same. I actually just found that out too....!

It soon got to Thursday evening again. Been a very busy day at work, but thankfully it is Friday tomorrow. Still haven’t fixed the car but hopefully I shall attempt it myself on Saturday morning...oh dear! Call the wreckers because by the time I’m finished! I remember Scott telling me a few months back that he needed to go to a garage and was going to have to put on a deep voice...that made me laugh so much. By the way thanks for your telephone message the other day. Thinking of you and your mum and wishing you both the best.

somewhere over the rainbow

Amy Winehouse=Rehab

Mark Ronson Valerie New Video

Mark Ronson 'Valerie' making of the video

The trees are all coppery hues and everywhere one looks the landscape is opening up as the thick layer of leaves fall allowing a view through the branches. The wind this afternoon shook the trees detaching whole branches of their golden cargo to descend in equilibrium with the raindrops.

Just been reading my old diary from 2000.....

Tuesday 24.10.2000

Autumn arrives

How shall I know its autumn? In the gilded leaves that fall groundward to soften footsteps. The air that hangs still, clear and enhances distant vistas whilst cooling fingertips and noses. Or the rain that falls icily and swift from swollen, bruised clouds to run down collars and faces. Or is it the early close of the day in a western sky of cerise and scarlet hues. It’s all of these things and I know it’s autumn, but just for a little while longer my heart wishes to beat summer,

Stars

Looking upward into the night sky a hundred stars sweep unordered across the surface like snowflakes on ebony water. I feel I should believe each point of light a beacon of hope and joy within my life from the past or in the future. My life, the great sum of blackness above, that is just daily routine.

The span of a life; a journey through familiarity that must touch the special and precious at least once to show us the world lives in spite of us and every second is precious. My only unknown is how many stars are left to me? How many more times shall the monotony be corrupted into pure joy? Ponder awhile the thought and realise that all is worthwhile and waste nothing.

It’s going to be a chilly night but I managed to take a photo of the moon this evening up in the garden and also the bark on the tree fern. Hope you like them

Managed to take this photo of my record player's stylus last night. I thought it was pretty clean but no.....I’m pretty pleased with that. Now I can check on them regularly and replace them if they get too damaged.

Here’s an extract for October from the book “A Country Year” by Teresa Hooley published in 1925 or in Roman numerals MCMXXV. If I haven’t written it I think it’s very important to give recognition to those who did.

‘When in a flaming and rain-washed October, the orange and scarlet of the dying leaves is stabbed through by the sunlight, and tinged to a deeper purple and crimson by the lustre of the underlying boughs, it is the supreme moment of all autumn’s splendour.’

Today’s entry is;-

Rooks plundering acorns. White frost and a delicate rime underfoot –

The leaves unsodden
Where infant frost has trodden
With his morning-winged feet
Whose bright print is gleaming yet.

For my attempt I shall say;-

A feisty dowager in gold arrives
The weather has failed and autumn comes
Robes that rustled across her gravel drive
Become melody, softened under fallen leaves
She passes by and the front door closes
The fire is lit and the curtains drawn
She will not now leave again till spring’s dawn

Hopefully below are the sunsets I promised to post last week.

22nd Oct 2007

Been busy for a few days but now the nights are dark and time should be on my side (whether I like it or not!) It had been a good weekend, but you know how an argument starts then develops like a thunderstorm into a brooding, black beast that finally roars and thunders scattering everyone in its wake. So when you have 2 people of the same persuasion it can only wreak devastation till the weather turns to clear skies once again.

Getting to be quite cold now at night, as last week the neighbouring gardeners recorded -3 on their greenhouse thermometer temperature scale. I’m trying to think if that is cold for this time of year but like a morning mist my brain is a little hazy. This proves the value of notes (or a blog). Next year I can just look back on here and see. Just bought a little microscope which I can hook up to the computer so I’ll have a look at that soon and see if i can get some interesting pictures...it’s primarily to look at stylus (gramophone needles) for the record player but it may have other uses.

Gladiator soundtrack

Just posted Fantasia on a theme of Thomas Tallis by Ralph Vaughan Williams...enjoy. What a find as it's a breathtaking piece and this is a live video. Thanks to cheetomoskeeto for putting this on. Off to look for Poulenc Organ Concerto. No can't find it...if you feel like exploring and finding it i'd be grateful. Still enjoy the Gladiator track with Lisa Gerrard's vocals. She is so special she desrves a post all to herself.

Ralph Vaughan Williams: Tallis Fantasia

Here is the sunset tonight from the back step. (When Blogger starts to work again. Hopefully it is a good omen for tomorrow. I’m listening to the Crusader’s track “street life” on vinyl of course from the album of the same name. It’s a great extended version on the album. I love Randy Crawford’s vocals on this track...have a listen here. I added it through YouTube.

A sunset is the last kiss of day
Orange lips envelop horizons
Shade blue sky in dimming fire
Engorge hearts and calm minds
In a tranquillity of closure

The Crusaders - Street Life (1979)

Real life seeps into the cracks of the armour I try to wrap myself in. I am sure if I am honest that I don’t like it very much for it has tinnitus and pain that emphasis the waning years of a life lived in some vigour that are now passing. Though perhaps we become less in physicality we move to be greater in thought and memory. I am perhaps a shadow of who I was but still greater than I ever thought it would be possible to become. That is one secret that may be laid to the world that is real.

15th Oct 2007

Thought you might enjoy these autumn pictures from the garden. I like them all but the one with the cobweb filled with large drops of water is my favourite. These misty mornings fill every shrub with thousands of silken architectural creations. One is under no illusions about how many spiders there truly are in a few feet of ground.

I spent a little time in the garden over the weekend and at this period of the year the time is taken with maintenance and getting things ready for the winter. Still it was a dry and pleasant day although the clouds came later as I finished.

Mikes’ sister and husband came for dinner Saturday. We had a lovely four course meal and watched the England and France rugby match. We won so it was all bearable in the end. Our team played well and deserved to win.

Not long now to the autumnal equinox and the clock change by one hour. Then darkness shall wrap both the mornings and the evenings. Not my favourite time of the year I have to say. Hope you had a good weekend.

If you’re reading this Scott...hope you’re ok. No had any e-mails so wondering. Take Care.

I’m having a bad car week (again). Why can’t they just run forever? Slight case of overheating makes it look like “Thomas the Tank Engine” as it travels down the street as it billows steam from under the bonnet. Other than that it has been a relatively quiet week with mainly dry weather. If i get chance i shall wrap the Gunnera up ready for the winter. I cut a heap of bracken last week and it works as a good straw substitute. In some ways it is better than straw as it keeps the crown of the plant much dryer and insects do not like it.

On a different note add this to your favourites. Johan Hari is a writer in the Independent and this is his piece from this week. I am not sure I entirely agree with some it but I do believe that maybe we need less legislation and more focus on basic right and wrong. To disseminate all societies groups and somehow enshrine their protection in law seems to be a path to madness and will ultimately fail. We need to be moving forward as one whole nation without any influence on how any others live by large groups with antiquated belief systems. However there is not much chance of that anytime soon.

http://www.johannhari.com/index.php

Rant over...time to calm down so enjoy the picture below which was taken at the Quince Honey farm in Devon a few weeks ago. Have a good weekend.

I was watching Brokeback Mountain last night. It’s probably the third time I have watched it and it is a film that reveals itself in ever deeper and sadder layers that are tempered by the uplifting hope shown despite the harshness of an ignorant world. How brutal is nature to any non-conformists to the established order of living.

It is incredibly well shot and it seems hard to believe that such scenery is still found that has the touch of unspoilt world about it. Magnificent vistas set in deep blue skies and crystal running rivers set a heart to soar. If you’ve never seen this film because of prejudice or some other reasons please watch it. It is worth it.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/films/2005/12/16/brokeback_mountain_2005_review.shtml

A soft night dissipates to usher in a golden morn in the soft moving October air. There is music in the air like single notes from a plucked harp that reverberate under the yellowing canopies of the trees. I am witness to autumn born

When the last firework faded
In decaying bursts of embers
From the cool midnight sky
I took your hand and smiled
For life is a huge pyrotechnic
That lights my world in bliss

Hope you enjoy these photos of the small red insect and the wasp. There are still a lot of wasps about but they remain in good spirits. While I was in the garden on Sunday saw quite a few wasp queens looking for somewhere safe to overwinter. I took lots of photos and will post then soon.

Went to Southport Saturday night to see fireworks set to music. This was my favourite music piece. It was a good evening with lots of fireworks. This is a large video file so please be patient.

Below are pictures of
1. Sidmouth harbour and the cliffs
2. Drogo castle
3. The misty dawn from the tower
4. Th house and its tower (Rower Fort)
5. A masterpiece of masterbaking
6. Tree at Bicton park
7. Exeter Cathedral organ
8. Palm leaf in palm House at Bicton

Devon 2007
The house was situated high on top of Rower Hill close to Honiton in a little village called Stockland. On all sides it overlooked the rolling Devon hills. The slopes a patchwork canvas of varying shades of green to the freshly ploughed fields with deep ochre soil. Sunrise and sunset were particularly spectacular. There was a full moon on the Wednesday and the absence of any artificial light made the surrounding countryside dazzlingly bright. Enough light to be able to see 2 red deer grazing below the tall windswept Scots Pine. The only drawback to the situation of the house being the wind, but this was at the top of a hill you must remember.

We visited the villages, towns and cities of..click the link below and pick one

Tiverton
Cullompton
Branscombe
Lyme Regis
Exeter
Sidmouth

http://www.devon-online.com/accommodation/accommodation-welcome.htm


Some National Trust properties.

Knightshayes Court

http://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/main/w-vh/w-visits/w-findaplace/w-knightshayescourt

Drogo Castle

http://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/main/w-vh/w-visits/w-findaplace/w-castledrogo/

Bicton Park

http://www.bictongardens.co.uk/

Other attractions were

A Donkey sanctuary (no feeding the donkeys and not many donkeys). But hey it's free

http://www.thedonkeysanctuary.org.uk/site/1/home.html

Dinosaur World (bit of a rip off at £12 each)

http://www.dinosaur-park.com/

Quince Honey farms (excellent in every way)

http://www.quincehoney.co.uk/

My favourite thing was baking fresh bread in the Aga and jolly good it was too. It was a nice relaxing break. On the way home called in at Salisbury for a few hours. This has a magnificent cathedral. I’ll edit this and put links and photos in the relevant sections tonight.
Have a good day.

Evening sunlight hits the sky and the world below explodes into light. Such are October skies when the light diminishes and yet becomes strangely intensified into a soft glare. Autumn colours and sounds take a day and turn it into a painting by Monet. Everything blurs in this season and all that cannot endure must cease and venture existence on spring. We can only pause and regret the passing of the essence of summer.

Had a wonderful time in Devon and will post it soon. Got lots of great photos so watch this space.

A summer sun now in terminal decline graces the northern skies with the pale watery light of autumn. Crisp mornings and cool evening in ever shorter measure lead back into our homes to discover the pleasures of warm fireside evenings and friendship once again.

Finally watered my leeks this evening and just about everything else. Overall it’s cool but quite dry and the terracotta pots lose a lot of moisture so fast. I sat for a while inside my swinging seat safe behind the mosquito net from the insects. A little moment of reflection taken for myself to allow me to take in the cool air and the incredible calm of the evening. If I were blind still I would feel the approach of autumn.
Saw a small frog...about 50mm long. Must be one that made it through the winter and on into its second year. I haven’t seen any climb out of the ponds this summer but it should be anytime now. I love to see them as it is a hopeful omen that all shall carry on regardless of whatever we have done to the world. When I see them I can feel that I have done something amazing building the ponds

It’s 5.30pm and I have arrived home to a warm evening and I am now sitting outside with the whoosh of the traffic going past at rush hour mingling with the bird song. Despite the traffic noise it’s peaceful and now the heat has gone from the day it leaves a cooling calm. I often find that I need to just sit and unwind when I get home. Failing that I can become rather grumpy (not pleasant!) No chance of that tonight though because it is so fantastic to be outdoors. To finish reading the paper from this morning and to sit smoking as the light dims and the insects swirl around on the miniature thermals that are illuminated by the shafts of light penetrating through the dense canopy of the sycamore. The decay of the day played out in front of me till I feel the need for warmth or a respite from the kissing midges.

The news is pretty grim for the most part and mainly revolves around the couple who lost their daughter in Portugal. The story goes on and on, did they or didn’t they? Everyone seems to have forgotten that the child is still missing. We seem to have been left with two possibilities for her disappearance and both are as awful as the other. It’s all become another media frenzy of speculation and none of it seems helpful. I am beginning to wonder why I even buy a paper anymore.

So I put the paper away and revel in the scent of the neighbour’s dinner wafting over the wall. It is something with a keynote of garlic onions and peppers...a Mediterranean aroma that accentuates the evening perfectly. Why I shall pour a glass of wine soon and sit here and just chill and pretend I am some coast overlooking the Med as the sun sinks low over the horizon. I shall forget all the problems of the world for a little while. Hope you are having a good evening.

Finally managed to sort through the vinyl LP’s the other day and out of around 2000 managed to prune around 100 out. That’s 5% which doesn’t sound an awful lot but it took an age to carry out. I think I am in danger of becoming one of these mad, old people that keep things just for the sake of it. (If I don’t become a hoarder then certainly I shall be old and slightly mad.) Still someone might find something in the pile of records that they really like at the charity shop. I guess I could try to sell them but it’s a rather specialist selling game and in any case most were acquired at car boots and charity shops in the first place.

It’s going to be another beautiful day again despite the nip in the air at the minute. I have just been sat outside with my morning cup of tea wrapped in my dressing gown and it is distinctly chilly. Summer has raced ahead of us this year and now as we find ourselves in the decline of daylight it becomes almost a dream. We shall wake up soon and find ourselves enfolded into autumn.

The weekend slips away like a high tide leaving the shore for the sea. See the two brief days of joy now flowing back to the ocean of the working week. To labour, to industry, to wealth is the siren call of Monday morning and we that can all answer. So it is another week begins.

Thursday was one of the sunniest we have seen for some weeks (unlike the southern half of the country which seems to be perpetually sunny.) We had solid, clear blue skies which I glimpsed all day through the office window. It promised to be a beautiful evening and it was. I sat in the garden with some bread and cheese and a glass of wine and relaxed. Unfortunately wine has a rapid soporific effect on me and I was in bed for 9pm. Not before I had photographed the colours of the sunset sky though (see bottom of this.) I always used to wonder if I could end up drinking too much but now the question is can I drink enough without falling asleep like a dotard. Probably not and there is some small comfort. Another healthy addition and now that smoking is banned in public enclosed spaces (including work) I am smoking significantly less too. Who’d have thought that I would have had a healthy decline into old age? It’s going to be a quiet weekend i think. Everyone is working so I shall sit and read a book in the garden if the weather allows. Still off to Devon in a little less than two weeks...! Hope you’re having a good weekend. I created another blog to put a continuing story on so I’ll see how that goes.

A misty morning with cool air sets this September day. I got up at six am but it is still relatively dark and the veil of mist twisting around the reels and the shrubs is almost mystical. It’s going to be a fine dry day leading into a slightly cloudy weekend but hopefully staying dry. I took a photo so maybe you can get a taste of the morning as I saw it.

It’s a classic late summer day. Strong warm sunshine and deep blue sky with sparsely spread voluminous clouds that rise vertically up into the air. Shreds of cobwebs are lit by the sunlight and lie taut in a mesh of random pathways that disappear into the shady corners. They are the rite of passage for small spiderlings to seek out brave new worlds. Everywhere is dappled and bird calls and bees resonate on the breeze that sways the glass lanterns dotted around the garden. I am content for a little while to forget the working day and think of nothing that could cast a shadow on this moment. A feast of tranquillity to melt away the statistics, reports and meetings. To see the light and smell the air...to live or at least understand why we do so. To feel for a brief time that I have all the time in the world.

Hope you like the picture of the geranium and the video to listen to the birdsong. Have a good evening.

The wind blows across a flat, bruised landscape made from a mixture of blue peat and purple heather. The expansive barren vista reaches out in all directions till it is cropped from view by some small watered dell or long stilled quarry that is crowned with slabs of blackened sandstone. Ancient woods once stood on this place and crowned the top of all the hills surrounding the town. Tall sentinels that watched the dawn of man and his rise to dominance till their fall came swift with his ill thinking hands. Yet even as I sadden for the world that was, my eyes are drawn to a stunted oak that lies in a small hollow. It’s twisted stem and branches trace out a torturous path of growth. Barely three feet tall it clings to its spot on this earth with a tenacity and will that puts me to shame. Here it has lain for the last decade and waited for the world to change and spring sylvan siblings from under its spartan shade. Waited for me to stroke the earth and place a token at its roots. It is done.

1st September 2007
Here we are so soon in September already. Spare a thought for Greece and its people suffering from the fires and it teaches us that we should not complain as all we are having is a little wet weather. I love Greece and its people and history. Must be a great feeling to belong to a people that gave us so much that we built the European civilisations on it so long ago. Hope it all gets back to normal soon.

The rain continues and the odd time the sun comes out it produces a thousand mirrored echoes on all the wet leaves holding drops of water. It’s really quite beautiful but I miss sitting out in the garden. Still off to Devon in three weeks time and I’m looking forward to that. Nick definitely is ready and a week of laughs and food and wine will do him the world of good. I prescribe hours in the hot tub for him (and me!)

Nothing planned for the weekend as such...made some bread this morning (getting good at this black art now) went to have a haircut and now doing a little writing. Hope you have a good weekend.

Soft footsteps shape the world into a better place than the big paws. It is better to live a life less than extraordinary because hard roads lead us to the stars and the knowledge that you always tried to do the right thing is a benison set beyond any material gains. Decency and honesty may seem to have a poor return on the investment but it sets a soul to rest.

Soft footfalls can no longer tread
The hallway, kitchen, garden or bed

No comfort is given me at time of need
No longer noisy madam at dawn to feed

No yowls of anger when her, I ignore
Bless you Fifi and your miniature roar

Upon my shoulder now lies no velvety fur
Nor soft feline breath, from a gentle purr

My world has changed and now I must too
But I will never forget the wonder of you

I shall now think that above all this sadness
Are the 25 years you brought me gladness

News at the minute is pretty grim with what seems a daily shooting incident (and much of it up in the north of the country.) it’s hard to work out if things are getting more lawless or whether the media is simply reporting more items. Media reporting can be very cyclical when it really should be stable and that has the effect of raising things to a level way beyond their overall impact. What did someone say “there’s lies, dammed lies and then there is statistics.” I don’t think it was actually that but it could have been. Whatever the problems is, it does seem that Britain is becoming more lawless and that is bad for everyone. Probably why everyone wants to leave but I’m not sure it’s any better in other places.

On a brighter note it is going to be a warm and dry bank holiday weekend. I have been up since 5.30am peeled 10 onions which are slowly caramelising in some butter (takes about 1 hour.) Feasted on a rather large duck egg and some toast and watched a squirrel dance nimbly across the top of the wall. I’m ready for work. Whatever you’re doing have a great weekend.

Thursday 23rd Aug 2007
It’s a rare beautiful evening filled with crisp air following on from a beautiful sunny day. The birds are singing and the breeze is gently rustling the yellowing leaves in the tall sycamore tree. Mr Mouse has put in an appearance and for this one rare evening I can sit with the laptop out in the garden with a glass of “Turning Leaf”. (It’s like blackcurrant juice for grownups.) There are so many things to see in this handkerchief of a yard such as a snail laconically moving in the shade of the wall perpendicular to the growth of the clematis leaving a trail of silver across the magnolia wall. The insects that ride on the cool dusk air and caress me in their itchy embraces of annoyance. It is now almost time for the alates to take flight once again and I imagine them huddled below the earth awaiting the destiny of millennia that brings them again to this month. To the never ending cycle of renewal that marks August and the release of a million fertile queens into the air to mate and take harbour in safe and secret places ready to found new spring dynasties. Never more so the wasp and bee queens who carry the existence of a species in a tithe of their summer strength. Who survive without armies and servants all alone in warm and dark crevices till the days change again and the world is made anew. I have no army, nor servants and founded no dynasty and yet I feel I know why they can do nothing only but survive. As I have and will, to see many more August alates take flight and seal the world in harmony.

August draws to a close and with it the last hope of high summer is dragged low in a succession of days comprised of milky skies that fade into ever darkening evenings. Strong winds rock the trees and shake loose; yellowing paper crisp leaves that fall to earth and lie on the ground like sadness. For their (and my) time was too short; spent waiting in vain for the summer that never would come. It was the year that went by in the rain and now heads toward autumn. Would that the golden tree fall to come should be filled with golden days of sun to end a dismal year.

Wind enters the valley in cool deliberate waves as the breath of a jaguar tracking its prey. Rain sits abreast the wind and rides the slopes of the hills and the breath of the jaguar is felt upon one’s cheek, soft and malevolent. It emanates from a subliminal threat that creeps unseen and intuition from times long gone seeps into the heart to instil the wish for us to be somewhere else while the danger passes. It is not a good time to be outdoors and we need to head home across ground rendered smooth by time and ancient footsteps.

Sleep is slow to leave today as dawn graduates its light over a drenched landscape which is stretching long and green into the retreating night sky. The first yellow strands of sunlight fall on and between sylvan fronds and small patches of warmth descend into the mist that traces the rise and fall of the ground. It is the middle of August and I slowly awake.

15th Aug 2007

All returns to rain once again and silvered clouds are pouring down sheets of clearest water onto the waning growth of summer. There is some Lammas growth around on the trees but it looks like the main expenditure of growth this year was in June and July due to the abundant rain. I have never seen all the trees look so healthy and lush as they do this year. One gets the feeling that this wet summer will carry them through the coming years in better stead than they otherwise would have been. Still that said the first few leaves are falling (more accurately probably being blown from the branches by the strong wind,) and it is said that to catch one before the equinox brings good luck.

I was looking up Lammas and came across this site which details the Celtic seasons and moons...quite interesting so have a read. Probably a little too Wiccan or pagan for me but it is interesting to read what was believed in and wonder what we shall believe in future millennia. I am quite sure it won’t be any of the religions around at the minute. Certainly hope not anyway. Or that they have transmuted into benevolent and loving creeds. We’re not seeing much evidence of that though.

http://www.firetree.net/wheel/TimesAndTides/festivals.html

What panoply, (an impressive and magnificent display or array of something) of creatures are feeding on my fruit and nut mix on the wall outside the window. It’s ranging from a mouse to all manner of birds and squirrels. The pigeons are my least favourite as they gannet everything in sight and with a rapidity that makes me and KFC look sluggish. My favourite is Mr Mouse because he’s so cheeky and because of the fact that he has been living so close all this time and I never knew. How quick they all learn the times food is proffered to them. Somebody thought it was a waste of my money but I think it’s worth every penny. I also need to do good because I need good karma after the death of the aged spider in the sink the other day. It was big and brown and had a leg span of 100mm toe to toe and it has spent several years traversing between the upper and lower parts of the house. Always to be found moving about in early spring and late summer. Its last resting place was in the bedroom fireplace because often I could see it waiting for the lights to go out. Then I often thought that I could hear its little feet moving around the wooden floor and would leave the door open to let him out. (What a psychologist would make of that I would rather not think of!) But the mini beast could seriously move when required. Like some demented waltzer on string brown legs. Creepy things really I guess but live and let live and as mother always said “a house with a big spider was a lucky one.” (Lucky for the spider mainly, I suppose.) Just as well there is another even bigger one tucked away in the attic...perhaps there are dozens. Boy, am I never going up there again.

Been to water the leeks and potatoes tonight and got bitten by a new fiendish beetle type bug that I have not yet identified. So great, there is another mini carnivore to contend with now. Hope you’re faring better.

The sun and the mouse both shirk visibility
One retreats behind opalescent clouds
The other behind an opportune shrub
I hide from nothing sat in the evening
Awaiting another sign of slow intent
That the world should stir and show
Why I cannot help but love it so

Age cannot dim nor time reverse, the withering regret we become as agents that fall through time and space. A slow descent into minds made mad with hopeless courage. How can a life last longer than this? Time stretched into horizons that imagine vistas of wonder striding into the distance and echo the creation of the world. The heartbeat before the universe was rent and in a cataclysmic birth spawned the stardust that invades and nurtures our being. For that which makes us in the end tears us apart. Yet through it all never should hope leave until the last breath is drawn and peace takes us to those we have missed and the next great adventure.

6th Aug 2007
It’s been an extraordinary few days (the more extraordinary for being dry at least.) Why the temperature rose to 74 degrees yesterday...how hot is that? I am of course being a little tongue-in-cheek but it was pleasant to sit among the plants in the garden and feel the sun. Watch the birds, squirrels and now even a mouse that appears to be living in the sangria jar at the bottom of the box bush eat the mix of nuts and dried fruit on the wall.

Saturday I bought 2 memory foam pillows and must from now on remember to never buy any more memory foam items. Or buy the top end stuff...that was like floating on a cloud but then again that was probably the stratospheric price tag.

Sunday rose early and made breakfast with Saturdays homemade bread and duck eggs. Laid the garden table and Nick and I had a relaxing breakfast. Then made a flask of coffee and with the Observer newspaper sat on the swing to watch the world in the sunshine and devour the news. Perhaps that is the wrong way round for the news devours us in incredulity, horror and repugnance in equal measures. The leader columns argue for this brave new world while all the time promulgating the hatreds and prejudices of the old one. Because the media learnt a long time ago that trashy smut and hysteria sell and that the greater part of humanity doesn’t want to know real life is not so nice. What a bad discovery that was. Here's something from a cloudy day recently.

Patches of black hang and fester like a brooding melancholy in a deep blue sky. Sunshine floods through the voids that trace the darkness around the clouds releasing words and thoughts that slice across a darkening sky illuminating an idea. What but a world of infinite marvel could take the measure of regret and turn it into unbridled joy.

Words are chameleon and summer verses can change into winter curses if uttered or written coldly without sincerity. The warmth and vitality of the sincere heart swiftly eviscerating into seemingly empty posturing by a misplaced verb read with eagerness. So I will choose what words to speak carefully for time is passing and it means much to let you know your future shall be as delicate and exquisite as the last rose that blooms in the autumn. All that shall see it shall be renewed for the days ahead and carry the hope that there is still love in the world to carry us through to spring.

On a lighter note we are going to Devon at the end of Sept with the girls from Stevenage that Nick used to work with. It’s our third holiday together and we always have a great time. Last year we baked bread in the Aga and got beaten by the girls at snooker. This year the manor house is high on a hill and has a starlight Jacuzzi situated at the top of a crennellatedtower…we cant wait for that. In Hungary it is possible in winter to take a hot thermal bath outdoors while the snowflakes fall around you so I think given this is the UK it will most likely be a bath in the rain with a cloudy sky and howling wind. But no matter, we’ll still have a great laugh.

Another great weekend has been and gone. A curry with Nick’s friends from Stevenage on Friday was a hoot and a wedding of a great couple Nick and I met at the last wedding of Bun and Kutie. I think I rather drank too much at the wedding and we can blame Rice and Nicoise for that (bride and groom.) It was a fabulous wedding. A perfect English summer day and an amazing wedding service with blue robed choristers in the small village church of Kings Walden. As the happy couple signed the register they sang the 23rd psalm (which is also the theme to the vicar of Dibley…a religious sitcom featuring Dawn French. If you haven’t seen it yet…doh!!! Where you been get the DVD? It is especially good because it is religious humour that doesn’t destroy the message of Christianity. I have put the music below off YouTube for you to listen to…you must get the CD of Choral Works by Howard Goodall.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HTIjlwIWFd8&mode=related&search=

The reception was probably the most extravagant I have ever been too…. (Not that I go too many.) Good old working boy me, more used to pie and peas in working men’s clubs (hee-haw.) Tattinger flowed like the clear, rushing melt water of a Himalayan river in spring underneath a cream linen sky (marquee.) There An Abba tribute band, Spanish guitarist and disco and the food was divine. So thanks guys for inviting us we had a great time and wish you every good thing for the future. And a special mention to your great friends from the village…real people with no pretensions and so very friendly. Hope you’re having a good honeymoon in Devon. Enjoy the pictures and music.

Write again soon.

Misty emerald drowned vistas crowd the senses as,
A summer swims in rain setting a world to growth
The perigee is past and the nights claw back swiftly
The time lost to the light, yet the plants still grow
Still rise up tall and shimmer in the dewed dawn
Into the height of summer made gloriously moist
So I wait patiently for a turn of days to come again
To feel once again skin warmly kissed by the sun
Yet for the moment I cannot but revel in the life
That rises from the earth and reaches for the sky

7th July 2007
Weeks and weeks of ceaseless rain have poured from the heavens. Perhaps that sounds like an exaggeration but I am being perfectly accurate. There are the odd intervals of sunshine and these always seem to occur when I am at work or driving to and from work. It’s not been very good summer so far…alfresco dusk suppers, hearty breakfasts consumed in the garden have been absent. One can only hope that it brightens up soon. As I make my sandwiches for work each day (salad on brown rolls if you want to know,) a grey squirrel sits atop the garage roof peering at me through the window. Most days it has sat there in the rain and looked so bedraggled, crouched upright on its hind legs like some type of miniature English marsupial. I relented yesterday and put out a dish of pine kernels and it had a feast. So this morning I put out some more but he hasn’t been around yet. I keep an eye out though.
With all this wet weather, both birds and insects have been almost absent. Which begs the question where do they go? Maybe I should try to get out more eh! Well I will if it ever stops raining.

21st June 2007

The light softened to dusk and on a backdrop of blue-grey sky sits the green growth of June. A rising wind scatters one-by-one the petals on the climbing hydrangea and they fall to the floor in a spiralling path like soft and delicate white moths fluttering to earth. Above the shelter of the wall the wind takes the tall and upright fronds of the Tasmanian tree fern and scatters them so they become like giant hands strewing the confetti that is the spent blossoms. Yet despite the movement there is no sound only the swift moving sky which ushers in the thunderstorm to come

18th June 2007

Weather has been as I wrote last time. The rain did come and enveloped everything in a grey wet, gloomy kiss. However luckily I did manage to take some photos of the garden in early June. There are few posted below but if you want to see them all click here to go to the Sunsets and nature site. It’s a lot but couldn’t decide which not to use. Probably the one of me with the saggy bits showing.

http://groups.msn.com/SunsetsandNature/shoebox.msnw

Mike has borrowed the camera for his cruise (the maritime type of cruise,) so unless I can use Nick’s you may be deprived of photos for a few weeks. I’ll let you know what the glitter squad got up to on the high seas. How you keeping there in Pa by the way? I am well and had my first new potatoes last weekend…they were worth every bit of effort and water…absolutely delicious. Will try to post again later but if not take care and be in touch again soon.