Singing as the Darkness Lifts

  RAINBOWS AND CHICKPEAS    PodBean Link for those who like to listen This morning the day felt quiet as if it was snoozing its way into Bank Holiday Monday, and I found myself almost tiptoeing outside to breathe the air. It was clear and fresh.   Alt text says this week’s photo is a rainbow over a field of tall grass. I say it is a rainbow on the country walk. I also say it is a wonderful sign of keeping going. Colour against grey. My dad always kept going. He was a completer, hardworking, patient. Before vehicles were designed to be plugged in to help find their faults when things went wrong my Dad would work to find the problem and solve it. He was clever, methodical and always determined. I know he wouldn’t have turned around and headed for home when it rained heavily on a walk, so this week I didn’t either. If you tune in regularly to this blog you will know I am very much a fair weather walker, and that I am learni...

POET FEELING PROUD PodBean Link for those who like to listen. This week I had expected to be writing about the air not smelling of cow dung because it never has on a Monday morning...   Sometimes I call my mum when I am out on a walk and sometimes on these walks there is a distinct smell of cow dung. I tell her this. I like this smell. It reminds me of early family holidays on a farm in Sussex. It is one of those scents which seems perfectly organic to me. But lately that smell has been tinged with mown grass and doesn’t smell as ‘pure’. I have been telling her this too. She asked me recently why the air never seems to smell of poo in my blog, and I said it doesn’t on Monday mornings. I expected to be recounting this today and noting that it might one day, but not yet. And what do I find when I step outside this morning... the distinct scent of the cow dung from the field on the country walk! So this morning the air smells of cow poo for the first time...

EMBRACING MY SHADOW     PodBean Link for those who like to listen. This morning the air is all sweet grass and tea rose as the cockerel announces the new day.   Alt text says this week’s image is a collage of shadows of a person's face and a person's head. I say it is me trying to take photos of my shadow with flowers for eyes.   I laughed when I compared the recent ‘dandelion eyes shadow photo’ with one that I took six years ago. In the older picture I had not at first noticed the flap from my camera which gave me the look of Frankenstein’s Monster. I liked the progress of my photography, but the time gap surprised me. It didn’t feel like 6 years had passed. I have a good memory for some things and this means that I often think things have happened recently even when they haven’t. I also noticed that I hadn’t paid much attention to the proportions of the human head during my art o-level, so my ability to get the eyes in a relatively anatomic...

 SOMEBODY’S MISSING     PodBean Link for those who like to listen  This morning the air has been sung in fresh by the dawn chorus. It carries hints of green and fuchsia.   Alt text suggests that this week’s photo is a person sitting on a lawn with flowers. I say it is a photo of my lovely dad and the flowers we chose to celebrate his life at his funeral.   This is the first new month that has started without my dad being here. I’ve learnt that I want to tell everyone what I learned from him. I’ve learned that one of the best things I can think of to do right now is carry forward the very special parts of him to the best of my ability. I’ve also learned that writing some of this down in a poem felt right, but that reading said poem when we gathered together to say goodbye to him required a large hanky and plenty of time for deep breaths.   I am so glad he came into my life when I was young and built us a family to be proud of. There’s so muc...