Haiku

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Sunflower season

Golden Sunflowers

Yearning for enlightenment

Turn to face the sky

The sunflowers have been washed out this year in some parts of the Cotswolds due to the dreadful wet summer.  At Snowshill most of the young plants died as their roots rotted in the rain=soaked earth.  But there are still some sunflowers around and I delight in them.  The ones in my garden have just come into bloom and they are magnificent.

In Cheltenham ladies College there is a beautiful stained glass window depicting sunflowers ~ in Victorian times they were considered a symbol of faith in God as the sunflowers appear to be turning their heads to face Him.

I painted sunflowers on my summerhouse doors as for me they signify the arrival of Autumn, my favourite season.

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Summer Sunday

Sweet the skylark’s song,

Over fields of lavender,

Where tireless swifts soar.

The sun shone today for the first time in ages so I went off up the hills above Broadway to Snowshill and the Cotswold Lavender Farm.  The wonderful aroma of lavender fills the air here, it is a heavenly place.   I could hear a skylark singing his heart out although I could not see him.  But the sky was filled with the swifts; ceaselessly hungry they swoop and soar for flies.  They had to share the sky with a bi-plane which was looping the loop and doing wonderful aerobatic tricks, leaving smoke trails between the clouds.

On the way home I was brought to a halt so many times in farm gateways by the beauty of the Cotswolds.  I was mesmerised by a sloping field full of hares!  I have rarely seen hares in the wild but today there were whole groups of them feeding happily in full view and occasionally jumping for joy.  It was a privilege to watch them and take photos.

I meandered through Compton Abdale so that I could see the ‘crocodile’.  This is a very old stone carved to look like a crocodile which covers a natural spring so the water gushes out of its mouth.  It looked strange today dressed for the jubilee with a flower crown on its head!  There is a tradition of well dressing in England which apparently stretches to springs too!

I could not resist taking a photo of a typical Cotswold stone house complete with roses by the door and wisteria round the gate.

I will post my photos below for you to enjoy.

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Poppy time in the Cotswolds

Cotswold Countryside,

Golden harvest, honeyed stone

Punctured by poppies

It is hard to  describe the beauty of the Cotswolds in June or the joy I feel when I suddenly come across stray poppies in the hedgerow, clusters by the roadside or profusions swamping a field of corn.   But a picture paints a thousand words so enjoy my photos!

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Finding the still point

Cast off by the sea,

Sandstone, beauty concealing,

Pure quartz lies entombed.

Just back from a holiday on the Jurassic coast of Dorset (www.jurassiccoast.com), I am reflecting on how much I enjoyed the break.  Being by the sea in lovely weather is such a joy,  and May in Dorset is especially magical.  The rhododendrons, azaleas and camellias are in full bloom; the young swans are hatching in their hundreds at Abbotsbury Swannery, and the national collection of water lilies at Chickerell is breathtakingly beautiful.

We stay in the simplest of log cabins in an area of total peace and quiet with awesome views.  It certainly raises the spirits and clears the mind when you have no network coverage on your phone, no TV, no internet and no computer to distract you!  I planned to do lots of writing but I didn’t.  Instead I read Thomas Hardy’s poetry, and, taking inspiration from the natural world around me, I did lots of drawings and zentangles – yoga for the brain!

Going on holiday gives us opportunities to open our hearts and minds to wonder and beauty.  We have time to notice the lamb sleeping by his mother; the blue tit helping itself to the crumbs from your picnic; the poppies growing by the roadside and the cygnet trying in vain to hide under the mother’s wing.

I realise that these small beautiful moments are happening all around me all the time, the difference is I take notice when I am on holiday.

“Two men looked out through prison bars,

One saw mud and the other saw stars”

I don’t know where or when I first found this quote, but it is so relevant.  Life is not on anyone’s side ~ it just goes on ~ and we make of it what we will.  Whatever happens to us we have choices about how we feel and what we focus on ~ is it the mud or the stars?

The Haiku is about a very ordinary stone I found on Chesil Beach.  It is a type of sandstone, roughly shaped by the sea over millennia.  But on turning it over I saw a deep hole, like a cave in the stone, filled with quartz crystals.  The beauty of it seemed to reveal the sacred hidden in a most unexpected place.

When I worked for a time at Prinknash Abbey I used to share the chores with a wonderful old monk.  He was always so happy, building up the fire, sweeping the floor, even scrubbing out enormous pots and pans.  His philosophy was to treat every task as a gift to God, not a sacrifice.  He fully immersed himself in each task, doing it with reverence and radiating peace and stillness.  I suppose today we would call this “mindfulness”, I called it the sacrament of the moment and I try hard to follow his example.

On holiday in Dorset I think I succeeded in seeing the good in everything I did as my photos below will show.  I hope you enjoy them.

Lovers for life
Thomas hardy’s house in Dorset
Sunset on Chesil Beach
Water Lily
Bleeding Heart Flowers
Footprints on Chesil Beach
Abbotsbury Swannery
Chesil Beach
Lily in Dorset
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Hearts under the hammer

There are some things that are just too sad to write stories about and so I write Haiku.

Scored in syllables

Sharp shards of sorrow spill out

solaced by sharing.

One of these is the auction of of my parents’ possessions, relics of my past.  The setting was ironic ~ an old school, and the weather was in tune with my feelings ~ the heavens hurling their hurt on the deserted playground.

 The timing could not have been worse, viewing on what would have been my father’s 89th birthday.  There is no happy ending here, a family stripped of its history under a hammer, and the grieving just goes deeper.

Some of the antique dolls mum lovingly collected over the years

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Haiku

As it is National Poetry Month I thought I would write a Haiku.  Traditionally the Haiku has 17 syllables divided into 3 parts, the first with 5 syllables, the second with 7 syllables and the last with 5 syllables.  The Japanese Haiku is written in one long line whereas the English Haiku is written in 3 lines.   Generally the Haiku is written about nature or the seasons and the words paint the picture in the reader’s mind.  The Haiku should appeal to the senses and encourage the reader to meditate on the topic.  Mine captures the moment the fishing ends ………..

Sun sets, fishing stops

Herons hover overhead

Fish glide into reeds