Wednesday 27 May 2015

Busy day




Our first whole day with the Busy B.

We are known as Gah collectively.
Or that might be cats.
Or cars.
She likes going to sleep in the sling
while you sing My Bonny Lies over the Ocean
in your dreariest voice.
She wakes from a nap with 
a small self-congratulatory round of applause.
My glasses are not safe.
She likes watermelon, blueberries and pears.
She'll take your arm off for a ripe apricot.
She likes singing and
certain pages of all her many, many books.
She can stand up.
If she falls, she rolls like a stunt artist
in a James Bond movie.
She can rip a velcro pelican bib off with one hand.
This indicates that a meal is over.

An early night tonight I think.

We have another full day of delight tomorrow.


Tuesday 26 May 2015

Backlit



This lamb, on the cusp of becoming a sheep,
is still enchanting us with its backlit ears.


As is the grass atop the old wall it shelters behind.


How strange to find someone in Portland Oregon
has arranged almost identical flowers to yours.


If you don't know Alicia Paulson already
do go and look at her lovely blog.

Friday 22 May 2015

Looking me squarely in the eye






Alice once recommended Instagram to me.
Square pictures.

I'm thinking about it.

Did you know she has a new blog?
Go now.

Saturday 16 May 2015

A lemon on a plate


A new plate made by Nao Nakayama.


A lemon on the new plate.


We have been outside fighting the weeds
and decommissioning the three defunct ponds.

I went on a little longer than was wise.
I was hungry but too enervated to do more than squeeze a lemon
and stir it into olive oil and grated Parmesan.
A sauce for a bowl of tagliatelle.

Thursday 14 May 2015

The good guys and the bad guys



All the greens are gorgeous, of course


but just now,


 some greens,


I must confess,



are more gorgeous


than others.






The top five pictures are Sissinghurst.

The bottom five -
angelica, goosegrass, brambles, ground elder,
gone mad geraniums, bindweed,
tiny pernicious weed in gravel, 
giant what-the-dickens-is-this? weed,

are not.

The bad guys are winning.

Thursday 7 May 2015

Ah lambs!





Ah bluebells!


Ah rhododendrons!


Ah azaleas!


Ah wisteria!


Ah cow parsley!


Ah May!

(And election day,


by the way.)