Pond Life

We're up to 16 empty nymph cases now - wow! So had to take some more pictures.

 

Guess they left some of the tadpoles - they are just sprouting the back legs now

 

Red Demoiselle near empty casing

 

I like this picture a nymph has emerged and then another has crawled up and emerged upon the empty case.

Wagging

Two brown eyes set in silky fur

Sit on the hearth and look into air
The little dog with the cutest face
Patiently waits; knows his place
But not for nought is my resolve flagging
We all know which tail does the wagging
He plays his hand and wins the game
Every contest the result is the same
He may demur and hide if I holler
But it's definitely me who's wearing the collar

Mr Juncker

 

Mr Juncker has won the vote
For those wishing to keep the EU afloat
But most of us are so past caring
The whole debate was getting wearing
If Mr Cameron wants this reform
He best remember to do no harm
We're fed up of this tiresome debate
About this and that and the bloody rebate
The vision is bigger than individual hearts
The EU is better from the sum of its parts
I like Mrs Merkel for she seems quite able
Let's drop the attitude; get back round the table
The world is too small now to go it alone
Britain no longer commands a global throne
Why is it so hard to make our politician see?
The EU brings only freedom to you and me

Scripts

Scripts and flowing text

Stream across vast media
Words are a cipher of being
All is written; all is told
Thought is being mapped
Like mariners lost at sea
Learned to map the stars

Pause

My consciousness stops
Pauses on precipice edge
And without reflection
I descend light as air
Slower than water
Like a leaf adrift
That is shook down
By an autumn wind
And though I always awake
I can't believe
How peaceful it all is
To fall without a care

The day after solstice

Chemtrails or X Trails (look it up)

We all love a good conspiracy theory

 

Jack Key's reservoir that was

 

 

Dappled

 

Darwen Tower nearing sunset (love the shadow)

Nymph

Birthed in water

I am of the aeschna
A fearsome sprite
Voracious predator
Nightmare nymph
Of woodland ponds

 

I emerge into high summer

Become an gleaming jewel
Glittering cobweb wings
Upon iridescent abdomen
A broach fit for any Queen
But first you must catch me

Yesterday watched dragonflies emerging out of the pond. I never actually saw one split out of its casing but counted at least 12 nymphs dotted around the plants and grass by the pond. How do they all know to emerge on the day after the solstice. Nature is simply amazing is it not? I just emailed the Dragonfly society to ask if they could confirm the species. I think they are Southern Hawkers. The nymph lives for up to 2 years in water before emerging as a dragonfly for 6-8 weeks in summer.

 

Bridge

Flowers fill sunlight hours

On a high summer crossing
Passing day wither the sun
Though not yet the heat
Walk over day to night
In fragrant layers of colour
And wish for a full moon
On this blessed solstice day
So the night and day merge
And only our shadow is seen
On scented, rainbow bridges
Set fair beneath a starry sky

Fold

 

The dark enters the world
A serpent that folds and slides
About remains of the day
Until all light is trapped
Within its obsidian coils.
Then who may keep you safe
Within the spirit of the light
If not I

Butterflies

Lest we might consider

In our bitter fields
Stripped of growth
There is hunger for justice
Lies now pour out
Like butterflies
Velvet soft and pretty
Angels in a summer sky
And we never remember
Beauty makes us forgetful
Till the winter comes

Diplomacy

There is a cooler wind now

Streaming along a cloudy sky
From the east it comes
To drive out the heat
And awaken us into reality
That a storm is coming
And it cannot be stopped
Humanity has failed
Because diplomacy did not

June Garden

Badger

If a badger should come into my garden

Then I would consider the night kind
One less would face the dogs or rifle
And I would have summer dusk
The veil of night that draws over day
To sit within my kingdom of midges
And watch my stripy badger pawn play

Toothy Wraiths

Everywhere in peaty, damp, moorland air

Are the stinging, stabbing wraiths of summer
They come sideways in all the shaded idylls
There is no escape, no sweet spot of calm
Where they cannot penetrate and attack
To back, ankle, calf and cuff they cling
Siphoning off the precious blood in irony
To form the basis of the next annual horde
And being how I am over the years that pass
It has probably sharpened their fangs more

Thunder

The sky shall turn a mighty black

Upon the sound of thunder crack
Swallows gather upon power poles
Rabbits flee down sandy holes
Rain begins to downward pound
To spit and curse the eager ground
Lighting weaves like a violet eel
Swimming across the thunderous peal
Midday turned shadowy as night
The tempest passes; returns the light

Coal

Of long lost coal trapped deep in tar

Black rock to diamond is not very far
In troubled shadow if we pray for rain
Touch the crescent moon and wish again
The oracle draws down the ragged sky
But never once does he need ask why
The embered dawn and purple night
Delight the weary in emotional might
I thought once all my time was spent
Now I realise each day is heaven sent

June garden

Laburnum

 

 

Pond 3

 

Pond 1

Double laburnum flower looking like 1 very long tassel

 

Central walkway

 

Late apple Blossom

 

Yellow Poppy

 

Shield Bug

Clemency

Thought would indeed indicate clemency

Clemency through the empathy of pain
Thought would also indicate reason
Reason through understanding of pain
Thought indicates nothing within humanity
Humanity effete creature of chances error
We destroy all that is sentient around us
And there is no consequence for the soul
It is a waking omission of honour in us all

Pattern

Hidden among the wrinkles

There's a story on my skin
It is quite a beautiful tale
But you only see it
If you look long enough
and...
Without prejudice

Bluebells

Now upon my green, green hill

Fade from view the daffodil
Bluebells wither under sunny sky
Apple blossom ends as petals die
But such joys memory may recollect
When to live within nature we elect

Nemesis

No nemesis ever seemed so unwelcome

The touchstone of delinquent want
Now walks away before the dawn
It has slumbered in irregular thought
Breaching the angry night in dreams
Now it could never be anywhere else
Floating past on chance's ebbing tide
To say goodbye upon a passing night

Wraith

The imagos stir then sleep

Colourless wraiths
Encapsulated in paper
That cannot come forth
Until the wasp colour runs true
And they gnaw out their cell
But their home is cast down
They cannot know
Rain slushes its rigidity away
Or that outside the Queen rages
For she has worked so hard
Chewing wood for a month
To make her palace of paper
Now it is gone; she is lost
Tired; so tired; her children are dying;
Upon the ground in the May rain
She mourns, she regrets, and then she leaves
And the imagos still sleep
Until water washes away coverings
And the blue tit comes
To think nothing of great compassion
When there are young to feed
The Queen must begin again
There is wood to grind
And her abdomen is full of eggs
That will not wait another summer
Perhaps there is time enough left

Summer

A perfect, green day I have to say
Is always found in the month of May
But what delights might come too soon
Now on the horizon is flaming June
On the warmest wings does summer fly
Its zenith reached in hot July
Of all the months of heat and dust
I love most the winds of August

Candle

But no candle flickers in the still, hot night

Nothing that is wrong is yet to be put right
When lovers do feel such unanswered pain
Know truly that there is everything to gain
For if a man does his best in loves fair game
What but his pride, can ever be put to shame?

Yesterday

 

Black headed Gull

 

 

Robin

 

Wholly Dapplement

 

Roe deer last night

 

Late spring lambs last night

Drop

Slither into my bed like a cobra

Bring not one drop of rain
Nor breathe out blowing wind
But together we may raise a storm
If we make no sound;
Moving with the softness of cats
Velvet pads stroking on silken cloth
Till all stills in the sated purr of joy

Veins

See another sun rise out of the night

A dragon aflame, riding morning's sky
Opened by warmth nectar runs freely
From gems that nod on slender stems
Sweet blood from unstoppable heartbeats
That emanate from the very Earth itself
Bees leave comb for these glorious veins
And the honeyed vampires drink their fill

Aegean Flowers of Mykonos