Snowdrops are up in our garden, already, because, I suppose, it is so mild, and they make me think of the poem by Waldo Williams, where he endows this small flower with courage because, for all its delicacy and ‘modesty’, it still pushes through hard, inhospitable conditions – winter earth – ‘like steel’ to lead … More Eirlysiau
I was struck, when reading the book, by this poem included in Ursula Le Guin’s The Left Hand of Darkness. It is a distillation of her abiding interest in Taoism, a worldview that informs her writing, where life is recognised as a mix of darkness and light, as is symbolised by the now ubiquitous taijitu, the … More Admitting Winter
Every year, 22nd November marks the day on which my dad died in 2004. It’s been fourteen years now. Mum followed five years later. It was as if something in her began to leave soon after Dad passed … The mahonia in our garden is one that Dad gave us years ago. It’s still here, … More Dad’s Mahonia
Rebecca Solnit, the American writer, hits the nail on the head over and over. She speaks in her recent book Call Them by Their True Names: American Crises of the paramount importance of right naming – using language to name our world with precision, and remake the inherited stories that are no longer fit for purpose. She … More Naming What is There
From the young pear tree, the first ever three fruit. Lots of flowers decorated the tree in spring and we thought, maybe this year, the tree will be laden. But these – just these – are the fruit that hung on through the summer heat and drought: survivor fruit. They are still too firm to … More Something of the day – first pears
Apples from our tree makes me think of (for me) an abiding theme, as we begin to move from the light part of the year towards the dark – that we can’t have just a piece of the whole, the sunshiny parts of life. We must accept the whole cycle, and, to have apples, the … More Something of the day – fruiting, again
There’s that Zen saying ‘No seed ever sees the flower’ and I’m thinking, in this season of mellow fruitfulness, about transformation, like the caterpillar and its transmogrification to butterfly. How could it ever foresee itself as the latter when living as the former? How can the crab apple seed dream itself as blossom or fruit? … More Something of the day – seed, flower, fruit
This little tree features a fair bit in my poetry and postings. Can you love a tree? I think so. Know so. This is one of the many trees I love, so of this place, planted by us, unlike the wild sycamores, pussy willow and wild cherry trees that planted themselves and are special for … More Something of the day – mulberry tree
Abel’s angel and Linda’s bowl in light and shadow.
Picture a scene from the other night: I am reading by the aid of a bedside lamp, so the bedroom is shadowy. One of our dogs, Beca, jumps on the bed where I am lying. All is quiet for a while, bar the sound of pages turning, our breathing and her little sleep noises. Suddenly, … More Something of the day – dog imaginings
