office nursery rhyme

black cat stretched on carpet
yellow daffs in vase
red phone sitting silent
orange candle flame
crumpled off-white tissue
desk lamp resin blue
green ferns in a picture
cup of hot earl grey

Spring springing

Plump new leaves on the elder - the colour of Granny Smiths.

small things to be thankful for

celeriac mashed up with garlic and cream

the warmth of my laptop balanced on my belly

a small glass vase of ruffled yellow daffs

a chance to pause and write these small things down

Stopping for petrol

Suddenly the dark slate sky chucks out great waves of hail.

...days slip past without small stones if you stop paying attention...

Where did Thursday go?

Where did Wednesday go?

a truck zooms past
the white wall
(an eye-blink)
is !TANGERINE!

Taxi driver (recently made redundant from his job in IT)

I ask him about drunken late-night passengers. He says 'it is all a part of the job'. He is equanimity.

Disappointment

There is nothing green on my plate of restaurant fish and chips.

The morning after

Drinking water left out in the sun is now a block of ice, the shape of a tin.

Ordinary miracles in the garden

Bright and luscious strawberries from this tiny speck of seed!

Salmon-coloured rhubarb pushing skywards in the dark!

Gnarled blackcurrant bushes greening up, dreaming of jam!

Peelings, egg-shells, waste, turned into dark and crumbly gold!

game:

catching dead leaves floating in the watering can

Group meeting

We sit and share our dark, our light. We come away bigger and full of love.

The car radio blooms dance music, loud.

muesli eaten outside in the sun tastes better than muesli inside

Weeding the vegetable patch in sunshine

I'm sorry Mr. Slug, I'm going to have to cut your head off.

conversation between friends

she suddenly sees something about herself and wonders why it's taken so long to know it

Three to be taken after every meal

A sphere of good dark chocolate filled up to the brim with liquid caramel.

...a pesky squirrel is stealing the birds' fat balls...

Blackbird

He strides across the gravel as I turn into the drive:
head forward, as if he has business to attend to.

Sleeping cat, interrupted

Fatty sneezes so hard all four of his paws lift off the ground.

Picture in my office

The same blue frog clings to the stems of these daffodil-ish pink Japanese flowers. A pastel yellow butterfly rests on the bottom right of the frame. The frog's heavily lidded eye is inked in thick black lines, unlike the rest. Three years ago I thought it ugly. Now I know better.

The closed-bud jasmine flowers blush.
The open blooms are purest white.
Their honeyed perfume fills the room.
The open blooms are purest white.

My brother's wedding day

The room is full of people who love him.
He chokes up: we choke up too.

Mus minimus

Last night a house mouse wriggled free from Silver's mouth and cowered in the corner of the bathroom. I nudged his bottom with a postcard and trapped him in a pint glass: he pinged around inside as I carried him to the woodpile.

morning scrap

a blur of wings, rosy red breasts

a mug of apple cinnamon tea all the way from Boulder: warming clouds of spicy frangrance rise

My bedroom is growing ladybirds - densely dappled, banging their brittle bodies into the lamp. I gently persuade them onto bookmarks all night, depositing them onto the window sill where the air is cold and the stars are shining.

purple crocus opens up to venerate the sun

Post bird-catching lull

Fatty lies on the kitchen floor, with nothing better to do.