A winter poem

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My first poem of the year was inspired by this painting by my mum Pat, thank you!.

A sense of woodland

Trudging through mud and leaf litter,
with his faithful companion Ned
a man surveys the landscape,
testing his path with a stick
from the same birch wood.

At the gate the dog pauses,
paw suspended, alert, ears wide,
and the pungent stench of vixen,
barely perceptible to human senses,
overwhelms its olfactory nerve.

A gleam of solstice light falls
on a startle of rabbit, a clear acre distant.
The man fumbles for his pipe and baccy,
scrapes squelchy leaves from his soles.
Ned flops with a disappointed grunt,
a screech of jays laugh from naked branches.
Then once more the silence is palpable.

What’s inspiring you right now?

 

Hello

Posted on Posted in Devon, Musings, PhotographyTagged , , 36 Comments

and a very Happy New Year to all of you.

For various reasons I haven’t been around for several weeks, I’ve missed you, and  I’m sure you’ve all had a busy time as well. My time has been happy and also very sad, but I hope to be back to normal now.

Here are a few images from recent weeks.

I expect I’ll post a Wordless Wednesday tomorrow, it may even be wordy, and I’m finishing a poem. I’m anticipating some aches, pains and bruises tomorrow, because with the help of Flora and George, I slipped on the rocks at Sidmouth beach today. It was one of those slow motion moments where I thought I’d saved myself, but no, thought I’d saved myself a second time, but no, back I  went, my skull missing rock by an inch. I could only laugh!

May 1942

Posted on Posted in Exeter, samsungographyTagged , , 5 Comments

On the night of 3/4 May 1942, just after midnight, 20 bombers arrived over the town centre, and in 70 minutes devastated the town centre and Newtown area. Bombs fell in High St, Sidwell St and Fore St, starting fires in the houses and shops there, which were soon out of control. Fire brigade and emergency services struggled to tame the fires, under the threat of unexploded ordnance and despite strafing by German bombers.[1] Reinforcements from the fire services at Torquay and Plymouth arrived to help; eventually 195 appliances and 1,080 personnel were employed to bring the fires under control, which was largely achieved by 5 May, though sporadic outbreaks continued until mid-day of 7 May.[1] 30 acres of the city were devastated, 156 people were killed and 583 injured.

Cornforth, David (10 March 2014). “The Exeter Blitz – April and May 1942”. Exeter Memories. Wikipedia.

Fifty years later,

Time passes, things change and people heal.

It’s day eleven of Becky’s #timesquare challenge for December, and there’s still time to join in