In our garden is an ornamental cherry tree, which has plenty of blossoms each year but bears no fruit. At the moment, there are buds on all the branches; I am waiting for the moment when they will burst open. outside the windowthe beginnings of blossomspring inspiration My plan for next weekend is to spring […]
Tag: Haibun Monday
Waking to a Snow Moon
I woke up around three on Sunday morning to a snow moon that shed its argent light over fields and gardens. It seeped through the windows, spreading its sheen across the bedroom floor, bouncing off the metal bedstead and highlighting the ears of our sleepy cats. When I got up and looked outside, everything was […]
A Gasp of Breath
Temperatures are not as low as they were a week or so ago and I’m venturing out earlier for my daily walk, still wearing a thick overcoat with hat, scarf and gloves. It’s only a lap around the village, over the bridge, down past the horses and back around the moorings, where the dyke is […]
1st January 2024
It’s hard to believe that I woke up in 2024 this morning. Back in June 1949, Orwell’s book Nineteen Eighty-Four was published. 1984 has come and gone, I’m forty years older, so much has changed – and yet nothing has changed. The New Year’s Eve television programmes were much the same, and January is just […]
Waiting
Here in North Norfolk, we are still waiting for autumn foliage, although the berries are making up for the lack of colour. There are a few yellow and gold leaves drifting about in the current stormy weather, but they are nothing like the usual glorious displays we have had in previous years. Saying that, our […]
Once in a Super Blue Moon
In the wee hours of a late summer morning, I wake up to a full moon, a huge lantern outside the window. Its beams penetrate the slats of the blinds, sending moon shadows dancing on the wall, painting the cat silver as she sleeps at the end of the bed. I pad downstairs and it […]
To Move or Not to Move
Moving house is something we all think about as we get older: to be closer to family; for easier access to amenities like doctor, dentist and shops; to downsize. I would love to see more of my daughter and grandsons, but love where we live, the familiarity of our small village, the cottage we have […]
Freedom to Walk
Although I am free to walk pretty much wherever I want, this afternoon, I take my usual route. The sun is shining, the horses grazing, and the grass growing tall, waving in the breeze. I think about places I have never been and, hopefully, will never go, where freedom has a high price, and I […]
After School at Grandmother’s House
My mother worked and wasn’t home until bedtime. It was agreed that my younger sister and I would be collected by my grandmother when we returned to school in September and we would have our tea with her. I remember us holding her hands as we walked from the school to cross the main road […]
The Smile of the Mezza Luna
Being a flat county, Norfolk has huge, expansive skies. In the daytime, they are expressive, with scudding clouds and ever-changing colours, whereas cloudless nights are full of stars or flood-lit by a full moon. My favourite moon is the one that looks like a smile, beaming down on me: the mezza luna. tides tumble on […]
writing in north norfolk 