Yes, it’s that time of year again.
Hearing a helicopter directly overhead, I assumed it was the ultralite that comes round taking aerial photos. Seeing the shadow of the blades cross the vine, I realised it had to be something rather bigger and went outside to see what was happening.
It’s not surprising that there’s a danger of fire with skies this blue, but since the holidays don’t officially start till tomorrow, it’s a bit worrying.
Continue reading “fire!”
Every year around this time, there’s a day when I wake up and do a double take: has there been some kind of chemical attack over night to account for the fine yellow powder covering the whole village?
It lasts for a week or more and the dust gets everywhere. Cars are covered with it and it forms a scum round the edge of any puddle that happens to be around. Continue reading “fall-out”
Although the weather outside (here in central Spain) is hotter than a normal UK summer would be, I’m reminded by Google that today is the first day of spring.
This blog is in desperate need of an update, but if I want to get out there and enjoy the sunshine later on today, I’d better get some work done, so I’ll settle for posting a poem:
Spring
March skies leaked
milky sunshine; now it lies
in primrose pools on the embankment.From ivydark, zodiac
periwinkles blink, then stare
where caterpillar catkins dance
with bumble bees. Under the trees
a crocus campfire kindles.Gold permeates the air: the blackbirds
have been drinking
daffodils.
(First published in Poetry Scotland, 2005, which is quite appropriate, as the ideas started to germinate on a visit to Irvine some years ago.)
Palm fronds spike
at mountain peaks
blurred by clouds and snow.
So yesterday was “Blue Monday“. And I missed it.
Well, I didn’t exactly miss it. I was certainly here, and feeling fairly blue, too, but I didn’t realise till I read the news this morning that it was officially the most depressing day of the year.
We had the weather for it here, all right, with the cold accompanied by the kind of fine rain that gets into everything. Continue reading “blue monday; hopeful tuesday”
don't confuse the narrator 