It was the morning after a terrifying storm, and we were woken by the telephone in the very early hours. My husband was called in to secure tubes and sheets on scaffold, and to help tidy up the very large gas site, where he has worked for over twenty-seven years. As his car was out […]
Tag: Haibun Monday
On first hearing The Planets by Gustav Holst
Of all the music created by Gustav Holst, Mars, the Bringer of War was the most terrifying to my young ears. The first time I heard it was in a music lesson at school, in which we had to work out the planet for each of the seven pieces, and I sensed darkness, drama and […]
Spring is already here…
In our garden we have green daffodil leaves, a small clump of snowdrops, buds on the cherry tree and honeysuckle tendrils. I’ve seen catkins dangling from branches and fuzzy pussy willow buds on my way to and from home. And we have cock pheasants strutting about noisily, facing up to each other. Mother Nature hums […]
And we begin again
The new year always makes me melancholy. The idea of having to start all over again is depressing, having been through it so many times in my life. I try to ignore it. On New Year’s Eve, I shut the curtains on fireworks and revelry, read a book and listen to music. The next day […]
Hawk Moth Caterpillar
When I was little, we lived with my grandparents and later, when my parents had a place of their own, I spent most of the summer holidays with them. If I wasn’t staying over, my nan would collect me in the morning and take me all the way back at the end of the day. […]
Labour Day
No wonder they call it labour – it’s hard work! The build-up was difficult enough, what with the move from Germany to Ireland via London, getting to know new people and surroundings, having to travel forty miles and back to the nearest hospital for check-ups, and then falling over a paving stone on my way […]
Hiroshima Shadow
Where a bicycle bell once tinkled, a memorial bell now tolls. When the clouds lifted and radioactive dust had settled, only shadows remained, ghosts burned into concrete, brick and stone, haunting the ash-covered landscape. What happened to the bike and its owner? Only the faded outline remained, and the hope that someone returned and rode […]
Lest We Forget
I’m not one for parades or any kind of gathering where there are crowds of people – they panic me, and I feel unsafe. I prefer to keep the memory of the people who died at war with a poppy on 11th November, known as Remembrance Sunday. There are many kinds of poppy these days, […]
Picnic Under the Stairs
When I was nine or ten, we moved from a two-bedroom ground floor maisonette to a three-bedroom top floor maisonette on the same estate. I got the box room: it had a huge box that was the top of the stairs, which took up almost a quarter of the floor space, leaving room for a […]
A Fool for April
In these days of fake news, I wonder whether pranks will be played in The White House. There have been some interesting April Fools’ jokes in the newspapers and on television throughout modern history. In 2017, the Irish Times reported that Dublin was getting its very own ‘Trump Tower’, when it revealed that ‘Trump Dublin’ […]
writing in north norfolk 