A River of Stones 24 July 2011

An innocent couple

Coming down from the Golf course, at the end of a walk very high up on the windy hills, we meet the tiny Canadian woman and her tall Canadian husband - in sartorial cream Sunday suit - lovely clear faces, and very nice manners.

River of Stones 23 July 2011

News

This morning Norway. Why!!!

This evening Amy Winehouse. Why again!

River of Stones July 22 2011

Silence

I know - blue sky, patches of, in amongst clouds - the grey, and piled up creamy whites, against the mid-summer green, dark in the shadows. But nothing else? I judge. The deal was to just look!

Yesterday, this was a blank. Today, I reflected on yesterday's silence.

River of Stones July 21 2011

Growing up

I realise with astonishment how much growing up I still have to do - and how difficult it seems, but also how easy it becomes when I stop fearing the consequences.

River of Stones July 20 2011

A new chatroom?

The waiting rooms for visa applications at Embassies......

River of Stones July 19 2011

Today it is the starlings - quarrelling over those peanuts. Quite a vicious lot they are! I have never seen young ones before - dove coloured, but already showing hints of the lean athletic body and the aggressive behaviour of the adult.

River of Stones July 18 2011

The fat pigeon

The fat pigeon is getting fatter still, feeding on the pea nuts I put up for the sparrows. What impertinence!

River of Stones July 17 2011

Sage oil

My flat is clean, smelling of sage oil. This makes me happy. I enjoy just being in it.

River of Stones July 16 2011

I leave, sad, tears barely contained just behind my eyes, and when I walk home from the station, the tears and the rain are wetting my face.

River of Stones July 15 2011

The old people

The band plays and the old people sing along - word perfect, pitch perfect, the sparkle of a 25 year old in their eyes.

River of Stones July 14 2011

The birds in my garden.

The birds in my garden all chasing each other this morning - flitting all over the place. Young blackbirds, tits, sparrows, tumbling, zooming, diving, falling about, and having a really great time. The air is soft. The colours dancing.

River of Stones 13 July 2011

The flute in the fog

A friend telling me the story: Paris, 1968. A foggy night. The sound of a flute leading him down to the Seine, by the Ile de la Cité - Notre Dame looming dark in the thick fog. The rumble of a police boat, manned by a machine gun, a search light breaking through the fog and holding him in its beam. He twists away from the beam, slips into the dark fog, the menacing rumble of the boat intermingling with the sweetness of the flute.

River of Stones 12 July 2011

The games we play.

As adults, we continue to play the same games we have learnt when we were kids - on the playground.

River of Stones July 11 2011

Being quits, or being squirrelled.

Squirrel on Bird food. I am indignant. I go frighten him.

Squirrel dashes in wrong direction, towards the house, flies up the vertical wall, tries clinging to drainpipe which offers no hold. I see him drop, down, down. A thud on the corrugated plastic roof over the neighbour's patio. Silence. Now it's me who is frightened. My heart nearly stops. Now it is me flying - up the garden steps to look down on the roof. He is sitting on the bridge. Looking at me. Not moving. Stunned? Injured?My whole being feels sick. What have I done! He has only been eating some peanuts. Yes yes, they were meant for the birds. But who says? I already write the scenario: The RSPCA. How does one catch an injured squirrel? And then I see him, hanging upside down on the bird basket. And I am glad. I think we are quits!

River of Stones July 10 2011

The Uncle.

That house. That room. In that room, the old man. We put clean sheets on the bed, clean covers on the duvet and pillows. We opened the windows and curtains, to let in clean new air, whilst the old man changed into clean pajamas in the bathroom. Back in his bed, both arms stretched out on the duvet, the man looked content, as neat as the neatly fitted, smooth, totally uncrumpled covers. Why does this make me happy?

River of Stone July 9, 2011

The Japanese Maple in Grange Gardens

Late afternoon light brushes the flat top of the Japanese Maple. Fruit reaching for the light - the ones on top bright red, like large flowers, whilst below, they are small, delicately pale green, like young leaves. Samara - that is the name for a fruit which looks like a propeller. And here is what Wiki says: "A samara is sometimes called a key and is often referred to as a whirlybird, helicopter, whirligig, polynose, or, in the north of England, a spinning jenny."

River of Stones July 7

Outside my window:

Sunbeams cutting through droplets of rain

hanging on leaves and branches.

I am looking at the world through sparkling tears.

River of Stones July 6

The air is behaving like water today - splashing all over the place.

Ok - I have decided to join the River of Stones - but in my own private blog. I started late, and have done just one so far:

Monday July 4

Wineberry garlanded around the Bay Tree:

the Laurel's laurels!

Tuesday July 5 - blank! Why!