Category: village life

there’s a poem in the woodshed

I’m absolutely convinced, and have been since I first saw them six or seven years ago, that there’s a poem in the stacked logs in our greenhouse/shed.

detail of log pile
The woodpile has obviously changed over the years, and there must be notes in half a dozen different places now, but the poem simply won’t come together.
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roses

I remember a summer evening

when you brought me roses,

full-blown, blowzy,

stolen from a neighbour’s garden.

I laughed, 

and listened to your promises

as you crushed the falling petals

underfoot.

Originally published in The Coffee House, Issue 10, 2003.

The old poem is included mainly as accompaniment to the photo, which I wanted to include to add some colour to the page after a number of fairly wordy posts. However, now I’m here and on the subject of roses…
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censorship, censure and nonsense

An email with the subject line ‘escultura censurada’ caught my attention a couple of days ago and had me wondering whether the sculpture in question had been censured or censored.

fountain - el baño de Ataecina

Reading on, I think both verbs were appropriate.
Continue reading “censorship, censure and nonsense”

blues composition

cat with blue buckets
When I reached for the camera to take this picture, I think there were actually four cats on the steps and it should have been titled ‘black and blue’, but the other three are younger, more agile and less amenable to having things pointed at them.
 

benchmark

stone bench

I am amused by this stone bench up beyond the bull ring in Arenas de San Pedro, Castilla y León, central Spain.

Well, not so much amused by the bench, but by the engraving on it, which seems to be extraordinarily apt:

Banco de Castilla engraving on stone bench

Banco de Castilla no longer exists as an independent bank, but I am glad the benches it sponsored have not been removed. They are indeed bancos de Castilla – Castilian benches.