When I was a child, I lived in a town in Surrey called Mitcham, which is now part of South London. I remember it as a safe place. I knew pretty much everyone in the road where I first lived with my grandparents and later, when my parents moved to a small estate consisting of […]
Tag: Haibun Monday
Italics
When we were children, my husband and I lived in different blocks on the same housing estate and attended the same infant and junior school, where we sat in separate desks in a classroom where we were taught by a teacher neither of us will ever forget. She was grey-haired and stern, wore a twin-set […]
Winter Moon
When we lived only yards from a beach, we took many late night walks with our Jack Russell cross terrier in all kinds of weather. The wind on the North Norfolk coast is a force to reckon with, together with the mounds of sand that drag your feet. Jasper, our dog, loved the flatness of […]
Remembrance
I haven’t been out in the garden much since early autumn and recently I was too ill to even think about it. On Tuesday I gazed out at the last flakes of rusting leaves and a leaden sky. I watched Luna, our black and white cat, meld into the shadows; marvelled at the gold and […]
Best Laid
These days I don’t lay my pen down while I think – it’s a computer mouse, which has reminded me of Robert Burns, his wee timorous Mousie and best laid plans. I have the messiest desk and study, with piles of correspondence, letters, poems to submit and paper to recycle, as well as my boxes […]
Owl Encounter
We were driving across the flat North Norfolk landscape after a visit to my father-in-law, dark beet fields stretching out on both sides of the road and no other vehicles to be seen. It was dusk, the clouds were low and the car’s heater couldn’t shake the chill in the air. Light was fading fast. […]
Kindness
We have lovely next-door neighbours, who are elderly and have suffered ill health, but they are always there for us. Soon after we moved in seventeen years ago, they invited us to a birthday party. When we go away, they have a key in case of emergencies. If I arrive home and they happen to […]
Ghost Nets
I read recently about an exhibition that took place in the summer at the Asian Civilisations Museum in Singapore, called ‘Ghost Nets of the Ocean’. It was created by artists from Darnley Island in Australia, and consisted of suspended brightly-coloured sculptures of fish, turtles, squid and jellyfish, all made from ocean debris, including abandoned fishing […]
Frost Whispering
There are many things that I love about autumn: the kaleidoscope of ruby, amber and citrine foliage; the pungent smell of undergrowth and damp soil; mysterious mist and fog; and the first early morning frost sketching cobwebs and snail trails with its silver touch. Fresh frost is silent until I listen closer – and hear […]
Eloquence
My favourite poetic form is the dVerse Quadrille, with its challenge of a limited number of words, freedom of layout and choice of whether to rhyme or not. However, I tend to gravitate towards the sonnet, with its history, famous sonneteers and advocates, as well as its rules, which were made to be broken – […]
writing in north norfolk 