on turning off my pc for 7 days

more time for small stones

today's billboard/today's sky

MAN FOUND DEAD IN CHILDREN'S PLAYGROUND. An almost-circle of translucent moon hangs against egg-shell blue, above the pink and billowing skirts of clouds.

Thank you, goat

A roll of goat's cheese brie - concentrated creaminess with an after-tang of fresh air.

Morning wandle

The ducks wander-waddle in a leisurely manner, zig-zagging the white lines in the middle of the road.

Pricey London restaurant

Here with his nervous parents and quiet girlfriend, he sits on the sofa with his arms in a 'T' and his legs splayed: king of the jungle. His belly spills forwards, his expensive suit is tight across the chest.

Telephone counselling

She wasn't getting what she wanted, and so she hung up. The phone lay dead in her hand.

How long should we hold on to hope?

Two months after sliding them into pots, I give up on my butternut squash seeds. I buy two squash plants from the garden centre and add them to the vegetable patch. The next day I go to throw away the duds. A pale curved shoot has pushed up through the dark earth and is trying to get my attention.

Business as usual

Another cat dead on the road. Outside the garage on the gravel, a cat-caught bird's underside is teeming with another kind of life.

fragment of a life

....I got down because I felt good. That sounds wierd, but I met up with that girl Lucy, and....

No stones

I nearly make something up, but can't bring myself to cheat.

Before 7 am

The things I've seen! An old man in boxer shorts pushing a full shopping trolley along the dual carriage way. A whole field of lavender. A lorry carrying a huge basket, perfect for giant oranges and apples, and a deflated balloon. Mr. Pheasant out for a morning stroll with his lady wife. An old man in a peaked cap throwing an empty plastic bottle from his car. Two fine deer in my garden, startled to see someone else up so early. The things I've seen!

two teenage girls in conversation

- you know what I'm like with relationships, it's all or nothing
- isn't that how it should be?

working outside on a sunny day

even out here, my friend's emails can find me

Fermented

Each thick, sweet mouthful of orange and mango juice contains a hundred miniscule bubbles that burst - pap pap pap - on my tongue.

Problem teenager

She screams as if she's on fire. We've heard it before, we've heard she's a 'problem teenager', that Social Services can't do anything with her. We ignore her as we might ignore a fly dying on the window-sill.

itchy

my eyes itch, and get in the way of seeing

View from the bedroom

I watch the garden through raindrops. These lupins, alliums, cordifolias, lilies, these are the special ones. I planted them.

milk and honey bath bubbles

aren't we lucky to have such things!

In Lime House garden

His birds of paradise plant had been conjuring these alien elegant blooms for ten bright summers.

this colour is my favourite colour right now

the last drops of orange juice in the bottom of a wine glass

A day of forgotten small stones

If you don't pick them up in the moment, they melt away. Even worse, they weren't properly there when I passed them yesterday either.

cold out there

inside invites me to curl up on its soft surfaces and dream of hot sand

Wheeling

Three birds wheel in the sky, attached by an invisible string. When they reach the edges of their parabolas they go into slow motion, and I wonder for a second if they might be kites instead, or model aeroplanes. They circle and loop in the wind.

Long lunch

Depression sifts over me like a fine fine dust made of skin.

Vetch?

A carpet of proliferating tiny flowers, squint and the whole corner of this paddock is a haze of purple-tinged blue. Vetch? My mum would know the right word.

first harvest

a pile of home-grown rocket squeezed into a sandwich

Nicely plump

Thirsty fuschia, it's drunk the water all up. The shocking pink ballerinas are nicely plump.

Too-hot day

The water scorched the sweetcorn seedling's leaves and now they might not make it through the week.

Henry Street

Two police cars are parked in the road, and a woman is raising her voice behind a hedge. Around the corner someone has scattered bread for the pigeons.

mmmm leeks in butter

the smell of being-cooked-for like fingers pressed deep between my shoulder-blades