summer time

Today we are back on British Summer Time, so it would make sense if the blog post were about summer or clocks.

Yesterday, the weather was glorious and there were plenty of summer-like flowers to be photographed. For some reason, though, although there were plenty around, I failed to take a picture of a dandelion (either in bloom or as a clock). I did find these water buttercups**, though:

I also found daisies:

And here’s an old poem with clocks and daisies in the last verse:

Cat, Dog, Fish, Flowers

The mooncat has snagged
the kapok stuffing
from the cushion of the sky
and ravelled it
like wool between her claws.

In a half-dismantled kennel, Sirius
loiters in his dreams of postmen,
bold letters and history enamelled
into coffee-morning insignificance.

Sideways carp widdershin
in criticism of striped deckchairs;
they back-comb canvas thoughts, smoke
endless French cigarettes and flick ash
across the headlines to smudge
the limits of bourgeois opinion.

My pillow leaks
a mantra of the edge-phenomenon
of even daisy petals counted
on an abacus and spun
and hung to dry, circumferential
to the station clock.

 
I think I’ve posted the first verse as a stand-alone piece in the past, so, to make up for a semi-repost, and because those water buttercups** are so magnificent, here are some more of them:

** (Edited June 2015) I find I was wrong. Although the flowers are from the Ranunculaceae family, they are not water buttercups. I’m fairly sure now that they are Caltha palustris: kingcups or marsh marigolds.