Morning mist

the way ahead,

usually meandering gently between the bridges

instead vanishes into the damp muting white

Crows

Two big black crows stalk the garden

one has a beak full of gathered catkins

the other picks at the dry grass

Adventure playground

Watching the children on the rope bridge

I fancy I can see my boys hanging

and shouting amongst them

eyes shining and determined to be the last

to climb down.

Random Hail

the sky pelts me spitefully with tiny hailstones

Ash wednesday

a lady stops to show me

the smudge of black on her forehead

I am politely bemused

magpies

four magpies feasting in the gutter

scatter to the four winds at my approach

Alice again

Alice tells me she comes down stairs backwards,

like a toddler.

She says the stairlift is too slow.

Birthday

Alice is 90

A defiant clutch of cards announcing this fact surrounds a solitary pink floating balloon.

unobservant

I have been doing this duty for three months and three days and this morning as I closed the gate at 77 Alan Road I noticed a huge Monkey Puzzle tree in the front garden, it dominates a street of mostly neglected scrubby hedges or concreted driveways. Why did I never see it before?

decorating

sticky paint trapped in the creased skin of my knuckles.

a productive afternoon.

Green eggs and ham

I do not like Green Eggs and Ham

I do not like them Sam-I-am

we chorus in familiar unison for the benefit of a bemused baby

through the kitchen wondow

grey squirrel with it's tail twitching violently perches high up

watched below by a disappointed cat