Midweek Ramblings

Dear Diary,

War does not determine who is right - only who is left. 

Bertrand Russell

Hell, it is a week since my last post, I really must try harder, it seems I have had lots to do and have not been able to put my mind to blogging.  This morning though I woke feeling the need to write down my thoughts, they are very random, I apologise in advance.

There are things I need to help me get going in the morning; things that make them bearable because I am a night owl and do not function well at day break.  What do I need?  Amber nectar first which is a big mug of Yorkshire Gold laced with local honey - though the Welsh stuff  is now £4.95 a jar which I cannot afford so I am reduced to buying the inferior supermarket jars, whatever is the best buy - it is usually from abroad.  I realise the honey is expensive because of its scarcity - the problem with disease that beekeepers are having.  Perhaps I should become a beekeeper myself?

My radio brings me back to reality and this morning and I have a treat in store - Johnny Walker - no not more amber nectar of a different kind but my favourite DJ who is sitting in for Terry Wogan.  He plays my favourite tracks but I don’t know how he knows they are my favourites?

So this morning I avoid Radio 4 and the Today programme, it is always doom and gloom as news always is and it unfailingly raises my blood pressure.  I get so angry about things especially what I hear on Radio 2 news today - the death of another soldier ten days after being blown up in Afghanistan.  It seems like the First World War to me sending young boys off on patrol (?) to their almost certain death.  And they are no more than boys, I am a mother of a son myself and I can only barely imagine the pain the mothers of these soldiers are going through.    I know one mother of a soldier out there who is a borrower in the library and she has become very quiet when she comes in - she used to be bright and bubbly.  It is difficult to know what to say to her.

 I think we should get out  of Afghanistan and soon.  When will Man ever understand the futility of war?  Which reminds me, someone has recommended a film directed by Clint Eastwood that is about this very subject, I must order it (I forget the title, anyone know?).

I digress, sorry.

Other things I need.  A shower and a short yoga session to get my blood circulating and relieve tension,  Then I need my cranberry juice, my organic porridge with cinnamon, ground almonds and fruit, my daily fix of ‘supplement’ pills, another mug of the amber stuff and then my day can begin.  Am I set in my ways would you say?

Johnny has played Chris Rea, Roxy Music, Eva Cassidy , George Harrison, Manfred Mann and many more lovely tracks.  I know they are old songs but the sign of a good songwriter is if the song  is still good twenty years later.  After all no-one says that classical music is old so it is not worth listening to.

Talking of classics I want to force a book on you if you haven’t already read it.  It is Deaf Sentence by David Lodge.  So laugh out loud funny,  so tearfully sad, so very moving.  I will say no more,  Just read it.

It’s not the weather to be outside today, apparently we are going to be in the tail end of a hurricane called Bill.  I may have a polish-fest in the cottage, (a very rare event for me getting out the duster) and some ‘proper’ nice smelling polish is called for.  I have a daily battle with cobwebs too as I never kill spiders, I only remove their webs.  (If you want to live and thrive, let a spider run alive - that is a gypsy saying).

Before I go I want to share with you this poem that won the recent Welsh Poetry Competition.

All I could say when I first read it was Wow.


The Origami Lesson



To make Derry Railway Station,
fold the gentle Foyle
beside this end, thus,
where the train breathes at a slight curve,
and for the white fence,
press the line
upon the middle crease
in a fine rain, then
unfold the sheeted roof wing by wing
in line with dim bridges
and the rounded wall.

For Evarethilion,
begin by folding lengthwise
and separating
amongst bright enamels.
To make the unearthly shine,
fold the top point –
which will be the blade –
into a garnet beast, and double back
the silver pommel
into the dotted fist.
Align the creases as if
a rainbow were a staircase
upon which
folded feet boldly tread.

The leaping gnu.
You may use the shimmer
from a lake amidst grassland,
but a hill will do.
Divide the top half into three hearts:
cow, horse and goat.
Take point X upon the hoof
and fold the top edge, thus,
upon its grunt,
so it is roughly equal
to the distance from
the far sun that pours
beneath black clouds to the brown,
dusty horizon.
To make the water,
turn the world over,
and crease.
Your gnu will fall from the mountain fold
towards sunset.
The valley fold will open upon it,
and his beautiful beard
will make a tasselled shadow.

John Galas


I shall sign off now; when I started writing this the pine trees outside my window were completely still, now they are starting to wave at me energetically and the aspens are quaking - Bill must be on his way.  I’m off to batten down a few hatches.  Sorry its been a bit of a ramble today.  Better than nothing I hope.

Bye for now,
Go mbeannai Dia duit,
Cait.