Full Moons, Images and Words

Dear Diary,


An Irish Blessing for you:

May you have warm words on a cold evening, a full moon on a dark night and a smooth road all the way to your door.”

It's a Full Moon tonight





And now for the images:


The stairs in my wee cottage






The view from my kitchen window







Some lavender in my garden




Remember my mystery plant?


Verbascum




It grew





And the borage seeds grew too





The bench who lives by the river


The front garden and the river bridge




The dear old bike who lives by the old woodshed



The new willow arch on the river bridge




The sheep, they have gone now but here is a memory




Before I go I will leave you with a poem.

I told you I was reading Dannie Abse's book The Presence.

This is one of his poems. If one can be in love with a poem, I am in love with this one. I am ashamed to say I have only just discovered this man's writings and his use of language is an inspiration


Not Adlestrop


Not Adlestrop, no - besides the name
hardly matters. Nor did I languish in June heat.
Simply, I stood, too early, on the empty platform,
and the wrong train came in slowly, surprised, stopped.
Directly facing me, from a window,
a very, very pretty girl leaned out.

When I, all instinct,
stared at her, she, all instinct, inclined her head away
as if she'd divined the much married life in me,
or as if she might spot, up platform,
some unlikely familiar.

For my part, under the clock, I continued
my scrutiny with unmitigated pleasure.
And she knew it, she certainly knew it, and would
not glance at me in the silence of not Adlestrop.

Only when the train heaved noisily, only
when it jolted, when it slid away, only then,
daring and secure, she smiled back at my smile,
and I, daring and secure, waved back at her waving.
And so it was, all the way down the hurrying platform
as the train gathered atrocious speed
towards Oxfordshire or Gloucestershire.

Dannie Abse


I'm sure we've all been there haven't we?



And remember this quotation, as I am in photo-mode tonight:


Fear is a darkroom where negatives develop. ~Usman B. Asif

Bye for now,
Go mbeannai Dia duit,
Cait