Thoughts of a Soo

Singing as the Darkness Lifts, Episode 34 Show Time! PodBean Link for those who like to listen. This morning the air smells of yellow-flowered Spring. The moon has been full this week and I went out to walk under it in the middle of the week, but somehow missed its rising. It felt good though to be remembering the joy of walking under a full moon and all those moons I stood under and wrote poems for in 2022.   Alt text says this week’s photo is “a red scarf in the air”. I say it is Petulia, a shawl designed by my wonderful wife that we took for a fly before travelling to Wonderwool Wales to exhibit it as one of her designs. I also say it looks as though it is dancing freely against a bright blue sky.   There’s something exciting about greeting each other with “Show Time!” at a yarn show as the gates open and the customers stream in. So much has to happen before then... pack the cars to the brim, travel, unload, set up, flop into bed, tweak the dispay

  Singing as the Darkness Lifts, Episode 33 Add Value Bring Joy  PodBean Link for those who like to listen     This morning I have scented the world. It is salted vinegar on moss. At the weekend I bought myself a wire brush and some organic cleaner to help remove the moss from the driveway and the smell is in the air. It was quite therapeutic to see what could be removed by hand, and to realise how much mud collects in the grooves to let the moss grow. The mud gives the same scent as beach mud when I disturb it and it needs to go because it makes the surface slippery after rain. Once I was hit on the head by a cake tin because of moss and mud. I had got out of the car from visiting a friend and was bringing back an empty tin when I slipped and landed flat on my back. I must have closed my eyes at the sudden shock and when I opened them to concentrate on whether or not I was hurt I saw the tin just before it hit my forehead. It was quite a good comedy moment t

  Singing as the Darkness Lifts, Episode 32 A Statue of a Moose with Donuts on it   Podbean Link for those who like to listen and this week it is a listening one really!     Today the air carries the sweet scent of rose petals. I see magnolia flowers, daffodils, cowslips and primroses, but sense roses.   Today’s blog title is gifted to me by alt text and I wonder if I will one day photograph the moose with doughnuts on its antlers. This photograph was my ‘Eat the Storms’ photo for the most recent episode and I thoroughly enjoyed those two party rings (and the rest of the mini packet) after spending a good chunk of the day in the garden.   So not only does Damien B Donnelly give me Saturday tea time back each week with the wonderful podcast of poetry and interviews he also gives me the audio for this week. Because it is launch day for ‘Welcome to the Museum of a Life’ I have decided to include here a taster from each

  Singing as the Darkness Lifts, Episode 31 A Collage of a Person and a Pizza Podbean Link for those who like to listen     I am a really good listener and this past week I have listened to myself a lot. I have listened to the wonderful silence that exists in my head when I am in the rhythm of a long drive and also found some of my procrastination and impatien ce quite amusing.     During the middle of the week I felt like I wanted to see fitness results from the walking I wasn’t doing. ‘Just start’ or ‘crack on then’ usually works for me when I am stuck, but it didn’t get me out and walking very much this week! I was ignoring myself and ignoring the fact that I know it feels really good when I get cracking!   It took me until Sunday to sort out my thoughts on walking , when I realised I had walked a proper walk the previous Sunday and if I did it again then I was effectively establishing a new habit! I found I could even picture walk three and th

 Singing as the Darkness Lifts, Episode 30 Study in Blue   Podbean Link for those who like to listen  Today my brain tells me the air carries the smell of acorns. I do not think I actually know what acorns smell like so this makes me temporarily confused. I settle for the fact that it smells green in some way on this rainy morning where the clocks have recently changed. ALT TEXT tells me it thinks this week’s photo is, ‘a close up of a ring on the ground’. But really it is the most recent of my #ElasticBandPhotos and I call it ‘Study in Blue’ (A discarded elastic band on the ground is twisted in rounds and there are blue stones in the pavement.)   The photo was taken during my recent trip to Herne Bay. I wanted to be able to share elevenses with my mum on her birthday and share family time. There was time to do some good catching up while I was there and lovely walks by the sea too. It always amazes me how much can be packed into a couple