Sky Watch Friday for the new year

As the new year sweeps in, in all its glory, to each of you, in different parts of the world, as you celebrate at different times ....

XX EVERY BLESSING FOR THE NEW YEAR XX

I am the Notebook of ...

This is my most amazing Christmas gift. Why? Because, it is a notebook. And, for its words; those on the cover and those just inside ....



Here is a transcript of the words on the cover:

All of these words and all of these pictures and these small scraps of purpose and intention and dreams will walk alongside of me and keep me company on this my great journey and will serve to remind me to savour all my days spent upon this earth.

What makes this cover so very special is that this is how I write letters. When I come to the bottom, I somehow do not turn the page but continue up the side and around the top and back down the other side. Don't ask me why - it just happens!

And here are these wonderful 'word bells' on the inside of the cover.



Another transcript:

This bell will ring when the leaves fall
This bell will ring when people say that we are boring
This bell will ring when from nothing something comes
This bell will ring when I am cruel to you and make you cry
This bell will ring when we touch in the dark
This bell will ring when you take me in your arms and hold me

So beautiful.

Although the notebook is mine, I offer, to you all, the sentiments of these words, on the cover and just inside, for the coming year and may it be all that it needs to be for each one of you xx

Wordless Wednesday

Sunday Snippet

My grandson made a book for me for Christmas. I have chosen this as my 'snippet'

Once upon a time there was a cat. One day a christmas tree arrived at his house. He was really happy, because he could take the decorations off the tree and put them under the bed! Every day he did the same thing. He was the happiest cat in the world! Then, one day father Christmas came and said, stop scratching that beautiful Christmas tree, it's for me to put the presents under. "Here's a Blue Bear for you"
Happy Christmas Everybody!

Sky Watch Friday

PEACE ON EARTH ....... and in Cyberspace

Have a wonderful Christmas Day!

Wordless Wednesday

Sunday Snippet

I am posting two snippets, from books that I read this week, as they seem to belong together. The authors' styles reflect the naivety portrayed in the characters.

From 'Tin Toys' by Ursula Holden

'I had never seen a train. It was so long I couldn't see the end. The platform was thronging with people with cases, the train windows were filled with faces.'

From 'Our Spoons came from Woolworths' by Barbara Comyns

'After about ten weeks of married life I began to feel rather sick, not of Charles and married life - just sick in myself. At first it was just a whisper of sickness and I began to think that I was imagining it, then I thought that maybe it was the strawberries; they were very cheap that year ...'

Cyberspace ... and all it entails

Oddly, with the cyber warfare and hacking that appears to be happening, just now, I realise that 'Violet Jelly' contains this very element; very topical. So, I hope that some children decide to read it this Christmas. Meanwhile, have fun with this excerpt!

Larry and Pansy Soup have been trapped by Number Cruncher and hope to escape by what they believe to be a way out.

'The 'Staircase to Freedom' leads to Scientific Language Guru's tower. It tips them into the tower room. They are terrified. Everything moves.The floor makes waves. The walls breathe in and out. The ceiling pings up and down. But, worst of all, Scientific Language Guru is all over the place. Here - there - everywhere. There - here - not there - not anywhere. Scientific Language Guru repeats itself over and over, blazing and fading around the room.'

'Violet Jelly' by Ann Sharples

www.annsharples.com

Wordless Wednesday

Moorhen Monday - a one off

A Family Portrait

Sunday Snippet - snipped with large scissors!

We freely share words, thoughts, ideas on our blog posts. But, how brave are those whose writing, even as it is penned, places them in imminent danger.

Irina's poems of the seventies were crisp, mischievous, and romantic. She certainly defied the stereotype - that of a poet who spends long hours at home, preferably in a half-lit room, searching for metaphors and being otherwise unhappy. In fact, it was awfully hard to catch her at home at all. She couldn't stand small rooms, lifts and narrow corridors. She was always outdoors....

With time her poems became more reserved. She spent longer hours writing ....

So writes Ilya Nylin of Irina Ratushinskaya.

And I undid the old shawl

And I undid the old shawl -
And at once there came to me
The four winds from all the roads,
From the clouds of the earth.

And the first wind sang me a song
About a house behind a black mountain,
And the second wind told me
About an enchanted arquebus.

And the third wind began to dance,
And the fourth gave me a ring.
But the fifth wind came laughing -
And I recognised his face.

And I asked: 'Where have you come from?
And who has sent you to me?'
But he looked into my features
And said nothing.

And I touched his shoulder -
And sent all the others away.
And this wind blew out the candle,
When night fell.


Irina Ratushinskaya

All from 'No, I'm Not Afraid' translated by David McDuff

Sky Watch Friday

Perhaps a time of reflection for those who cannot freely watch the skies.

I think of Nobel Peace Prize winner, Liu Xiaobo .... and I think back to Russian poet Irina Ratushinskaya, who was sentenced to seven years hard labour for writing her book of poetry 'No, I'm not Afraid' ....

From her title poem, 'No, I'm not Afraid'

'No, I'm not afraid: after a year
of breathing these prison nights
I will survive into the sadness
To name which is escape.'

Wordless Wednesday

Sunday Snippet

These two extracts are from a book 'Forest of the Night' by John Rowe Townsend. It was bought for my teenage daughter, many years ago, and has somehow found its way to my bookcase.

Chapter 8 page 51:

'Asleep, all are asleep, deeply asleep. Soft through the streets, the boy moves, brushing the furry dark. Across the wide road, quiet now, marked out by lamps. The lonely lamps in line. no wheel turns now.'

Chapter 11 page 73:

'The boy says, "Hold my hand. Don't go."
"I can't come farther. You have to face it alone. You have the strength."
"I don't feel strong."
"Yes, you are strong, you have shown it."
"How can I fight such power?"
"You face it, do not fight it. Face it with questions."
"If I can face it, I shall know the questions. That I know. But can I face it?"
"Yes, you can face it. You are yourself, yourself."

The language is uncomplicated; direct. Haunting and menacing.

The story is based on William Blake's poem 'The Tyger'

Sky Watch Friday

Into the sunset

Flying towards a past experience ...... adventure ..... mind aglow with the memories .... a glorious return ... soul replenished

Multicultural

The word reminds me of the

'coat of many colours'

which I envisage as having many textures, besides.
Sewn together; interwoven with patterns of thought
and custom intermingled.

Is it possible? A multicultural society.
Can each of us embrace, totally, all that is in another?
In part, perhaps?




Angora(cross), Toggenberg, Alpine
Blossom, Violet and Daisy ... multicultural goats in unseasonable snow.

Wanted to share this photo!

Wordless Wednesday