Whether you judge by astronomical or meteorological criteria, for a few more days at least, it is still autumn. For me, this autumn seems to have been going on for a long time.
I remember snapping this picture, and thinking how well it summed up the ideas of slowing down and taking things gently that are associated with the season.
Continue reading “slowly towards winter”
I’ve been a writer for a long time and I’ve written in a lot of different genres and styles. At the end of the day, though, I think my strengths lie in poetry and non-fiction. The latter includes memoir, creative non-fiction, essays and opinion pieces.
When it comes to fiction, I’ve never really done more than dabble. Certainly I’ve never been tempted by long-form fiction and can’t imagine writing a full-length novel. In my files there are a handful of short romances, fantasy, twist-in-the-tale magazine-style pieces and not much more, other than a few children’s stories.
Continue reading “variation on a theme”
I’ve left it late again before writing this blog post. And I was wondering what on earth to post. Then I realised it’s the first blog post of June. And June, of course, rhymes with moon.
Last night there was an eclipse of the strawberry moon, but that’s not where my thoughts went: as soon as I thought “moon” and “June”, I didn’t start thinking of eclipses, but of the words of the Joni Mitchell song “Both sides now”:
Moons and Junes and Ferris wheels
The dizzy dancing way you feel
As every fairy tale comes real
I’ve looked at love that way
Of course, I misremembered it and skipped over the Ferris wheels, heading straight for the fairy tales.
Continue reading “moons and Junes and fairy tales”
…the jovial chap in the photo below, who looks a bit like Santa Claus on his summer holidays, is in fact supposed to be Hércules en la nave de los argonautas – Hercules in (on?) the Argonauts’ ship.
I had forgotten that Hercules accompanied Jason and his merry men on the Argo, although I must have watched the 1963 film a score of times.
Continue reading “despite appearances to the contrary…”
Well, no, not a bobcat, a tricolour cat.
Perhaps a tortoiseshell, or perhaps a calico; it probably depends on which side of the Atlantic you live. And if you live in Spain, you might call it a gato mariposa – a butterfly.
Continue reading “bobcat”
don't confuse the narrator 