Monday 28 November 2011

November 2011

 

NOVEMBER 2011

She walks along the village street where houses made of stone
hide and then reveal an ancient proud chateau
rising high to meet the sky.

She greatly wonders with surprise at this edifice vast and tall
and whose immense imagination
laboured to create such a visual foil.

She marvels at the awesome sight where none have lived since ancient times
and stands to stare in disbelief
like a visitor for the very first time.

She continues walking downward strokes a cat along the way
until she comes to her favourite place 
a mirror for antiquity, a pretty water way.

She stands to listen better
To the silence of the river
As it travels ever lower
Listens to the talking river
Hears the water chattering over
The weir babbling drops together
As thoughts and smiles of laughter
Walk precariously by the river
Broken branches stepping over
Rocks stones and mosses gather
In awe hearing mighty water
Like a child of Hiawatha
Alone with Mother Nature
Golden brown and fading ochre
Cling to trees as Autumn cover
Carpets leafed grey-brown-a-flutter
Scuffle shuffle smell and wonder
River winds around the corner
Of the silhouetted verdure
Forgets her other culture
City life and social banter
Forgets crowds and people chatter
Remembers though the fun and laughter
Remembers holding hands with youngster
Throwing stones in ocean water
Splash. Allow the sea to chase her.
Remember. Arm in arm. A lover.

Hear the buzzard screel and the caw of crows
Marvel at musky damp beneath her toes
Emanating from stones and leaves
Mother earth and moist wet trees
The sight of vivid verdant emerald
Of grass-bright-green moss-cushions-gold
Wonder the source of this wild French river
As Azerables joins the Gartempe and ponder
The damp wet beauty and olfactory aroma.

Evp November 2011

Sunday 13 November 2011

I am a leaf


A leaf tells of an adventure downstream

I am a leaf floating on the current.
Other leaves float alongside me.
We float separately but some are nearer than others.
Some move faster and overtake me.
I take my time.
I move faster than others,
making quicker progress to reach those who have passed me by.
We’re heading towards the sea, a very long journey.
However, I know not where I am destined
as many of us will reach a different end.

From time to time another leaf falls from a tree and joins us.
Trees were our birthplace
where last Spring we leafed into bright green clothing,
vivid, vibrant, rustling, fluttering in the breezes.
But as Autumn arrived we changed our apparel,
yellow, orange, red, brown, as trees discarded us.

Very few of us will meet the mighty ocean.
Most will be pummelled into the river bank mud
to disintegrate and be transformed into river sediment.
The rain, snow and ice could batter us to death before we’ve achieved our ageing process.

Some of us are in better shape than others.
Some of us look quite elegant and beautiful floating in style.
Others seem to be clutching at the surface of the water with leafy tenacity. 
Others have already drowned and lie at the bottom of the river in swathes.
It does not matter how we present ourselves in life.
We all have the same fate.
We all look the same once we have perished.

We journey on to enjoy the view and as we gently drift,
look down into depths of unknown territory, darkness and murky blackness,
to study the reflections of the trees who still cling onto fellow friends.
Some trees never let our cousins fall from their symbiosis remaining evergreen.

We though are free, abandoned, rejected, call it what you will.
We are made to endure a journey – an adventure downstream.
We may be lucky, we may suffer.
We accept our fate, for now we are gladly carried to what we will become.

Friday 11 November 2011

Peace and Understanding

Peace is essential for living. Not only do we try to remember those who without dignity died fighting in the most dire conditions that you would not even expect an animal to endure but also we try to remember that they died struggling for peace, understanding and acceptance of the differences between different lands, cultures and peoples.  Sometimes perhaps we should try and forget past aggressions and wars so that inner peace within us has an opportunity to develop and bring harmony to the world as well as to our inner soul, our family and friends. 
For many years I upheld the Catholic faith to the best of my ability which was never good enough and I knew that.  But what is perfect? Before that I had my own beliefs which I continued to believe with modification and despite loving much of the Catholic faith especially the songs and hymns which I used to play every day on the piano, I never became a Catholic in the 23 years that I worked within the Catholic environment.  Two more years and I would have been eligible for a Papal medal if the secretary was awarded one after 25 years service to the establishment!   I made mistakes but I did my best not to be hypocritical (yet I think I probably was) and I did my best to keep the peace and to teach children that respect between people is a gift and is something to be valued in our attempt to acknowledge that people are very much the same despite differences in appearance, faiths, beliefs and much more.
When my father died this is the song that came spontaneously and which I sang all alone in a Church in Spain where there was no other family member except my daughter.  He saw terrible atrocities in the war and told me about some on the very last day I ever met him. It was as if a burden had been lifted for him because he said he had never ever told anyone this part of his story.  His only sibling sister was dying and he knew he would never see her again.  Tragically, he died soon after from a traffic accident and lost the power of speech.  He made his own decision not to burden anyone. 
This is the song I sang spontaneously today just after 11am on 11th day of the 11th month of the year 2011 as I sat in my garden listening to the clock strike the hour, as I sat and with my own reflections with hands covered in dirt and imagined those who fought in trenches, those who fought for the Fair Winds of France and England to bring freedom from fighting, to give those who came after Peace.  Each verse is repeated but Peace is replaced with Love, Joy, Hope.


Peace is flowing like a river,
Flowing out through you and me,
Spreading out into the desert,
Setting all the captives free.


On another note:
Today I was speaking to a friend about the larger pansies which compared to the diminutive ones seem to have a disappointed attitude as they bow their heads. 

Saturday 5 November 2011

September 2010

In September 2010 I started to try to think differently, to take one step at a time - 'pas a pas'.
I found a quote in Labyrinth by Kate Mosse. which seemed to identify purpose.   
As I can't locate the quote I'll have to read the book again and when it is found I will post it here!


I began to enjoy 'le chaleur' et l'ombre' - the heat and the shade in different parts of the house and garden - at least 29 degrees celsius. It makes me feel HUMAN and NORMAL.  I watch the harvest coming in and see the bare, exposed fields with the crows or rooks cawing cavernously, making me nervous about Winter.  

Restless in France was having to think positively and optimistically for Autumn was yet to come and she who loves colours, smells, mists and moistiness enjoys October.  She has a lot to plan even when planning makes little difference. 

Friday 4 November 2011

Waxing Lyrical - Poems from July and August 2010


Waxing Lyrical 1: Homage to sheep, stones, solitariness and standing still


Sheep are like Stones….except that the latter do not move.
‘Twixt sunrise and sunset one can meditate whilst observing herbivores grazing on the grass in fields and one thinks that their movement is imperceptible. 
Let one’s mind drift, look away or dream, and look again and one becomes aware that they have all changed places, surreptitiously.  However, if sheep feel threatened or intimidated by a clap of the hands for example they bleat furiously and run together.
Eating machines are what sheep are… unlike stones in walls and stones in fields, that existing since creation, perhaps have not moved far from their original place over thousands, nay million, billions, trillions of years.
A sheep born as a humble lamb soon learns to get on its feet to avoid danger, to dance and skip and move on to eat.
Does luck come into it if it should it be killed as a lamb or as mutton?
I climb upon the wall, the dry stone wall, over one metre high.
I could not have done this five years ago!  
How wonderful to have such a commanding view over sheep and stones.
I am as strong as this blade of grass… oh drat, it has bent a few centimetres from my thumb.   Breaking it off again it stands tall and strong again.  I will not weaken as before, I say!
I stand in this seemingly special place that I have learned…yes, learned to love, 
this wilderness where one hardly ever sees a soul except of the woolly variety.  
I have been back in France for less than 24 hours. 
It is now twilight as I overlook the barren sprawl of countryside, the trees … and SHEEP .. or are they STONES?
I stand up high on this stone wall with a view, up and down the lane before me. Behind me in another field are more sheep and their friendly pony and beyond to the west are layers of sunset rays, amidst blue, blue skies and streaking, fluffy-white clouds.
Oh magic, marvellous moment to remember,  an exquisitely warm evening, cities far away as I stand here solitary in wild, deserted countryside not a soul to be seen, save sheep and stones.… all alone … and all alone in a beloved France, with beloved England far away, as all souls are always all alone.
 
Ep  9th July 2010   
VDV - knowing that time stands not still and brings changes that cannot be fought against.

Waxing Lyrical 2: Homage to a river, acceptance and stillness

In the August shade I sit solitary against a tree trunk.
Summer into Autumn, roots bare and brown, 
writhe like snakes upon solid brown earth on L' Isle de L’Anglin.
When Winter comes these tree roots will be submerged beneath surging waters.
But for now, Tall poplars, leaves mirrored in a looking glass 
create a meditational water garden wavering constantly and continuously.
Diamonds grow like deep, dark glossy jewels on the water surface 
as ripples meet ripples, to and fro, from bank to bank.
Lilypads on the quieter side of this isle invite demoiselles and dragonflies to flit in a different garden of delight.
Willow weeps and wails, whilst a dozen ducks without drakes form a flotilla floating downstream.
Quiet voices, peaceful movement, disturb a potential silence; tranquillity as people prepare for a fête.

Ep August 2010  
AsA - knowing that acceptance is a wonderful thing and can create a different kind of stillness.




Thursday 3 November 2011

To marvel at the water's edge










More frequently do I arrive at the river
to marvel at the water’s edge,
to walk against the current, or to walk with the flow,
to sit on a rock contemplating the wondrous day,
to hear burbling,
to meditate how deep reflections of trees are
with upside-down trunks playing trickery,
causing my mind to think that the course of water runs so deep,
when in reality
the river bed is not much more than a metre below the surface
on which leaves float,
where here and there
a surprise splash of frog or fish breaks the quiet surface tension
between wetness and air.

Towards the evening sun of October
look up high
to the bright blue sky and watch a distant plane paint its path,
look down low
to see the ball of heat reflected with sparkling, twinkling, diamante rays.

A small breeze buffets newly grown poplar shoots arising from old trunks cut down last Autumn before Winter 
to make way for Spring growth.

Passers by with dogs,
elderly arm in arm,
young in a different embrace,
family scenes,
solitary ones,
all enjoy pleasure from this garden.

I alone, learn to be alone, walk alone at my own speed,
having to wait for no one else but only me alone in my world,
not lonely,
yet sense aloneness
as I frequently arrive at the river to marvel at the water’s edge.

Evp
October 2011


Wednesday 2 November 2011

Entertainment

Some acquaintances are extremely talented and their association "La Fausse Compagnie" presents a variety of quality entertainment for the public.  The aim is to take the current several day event to different villages where little happens.  So to Vicq sur Gartempe...and at the water's edge. "Lire en Vienne" presented a poetry reading "Au fil de L'eau" in French, of course, followed by soup and wine for free. 

On a different day music for a Bal was played by button accordion and drums. My two left feet were invited to be a partner for either E or F in the Valse.  They steered me each time!  After a while I became rather melancholy when I kept hearing the tunes I play and I wanted to be on the playing side of the instrument rather than the listening side.
In the darkness Spacefish did his act and after that there was a 5 minute Mime from Momette who had no mouth.   My fascination was with the excellent performance from two astounding women accordionists who could not only PLAY, and I mean PLAY... this instrument in different styles without music, but could sing, and I mean SING ...even in an operatic manner as well as cause much merriment and mirth within themselves and the audience.  One was tall and one was short and yet so beautifully entwined were they in their performance. Brilliant.   The repas on the Saturday evening was Celeri Remoulade, followed by Poulet avec Prunes, and a variety of prune, plum or apple tart. Seasonal fare!  It was great fun and lovely to be out and about.  I never get my attire correct... went in trousers ... but then nipped home to wear something more 1950s style... black and white polka dot skirt, black polo neck sweater, kitten heels and my ¾ length autumn brown satin coat. More womanly!












A week later I went rather timidly to a cabaret version of the poetry presentation in the village hall where I live. The readers were dressed as matelots (sailors) on a theatrically decorated stage, with a slideshow of watery scenes.  There were two sea shanty songs for audience participation, but I declined to sing “A la santé du roi de France et merde pour le roi d’Angleterre” for the refrain/ chorus!!! The two hour entertainment cost 5 euros which included a glass of cider,  plus 1 euro for a slice of home made Reine Claude tart and coffee.  One French lady who I met at the previous entertainment was very welcoming and ensured I sat at a table with other people rather than alone. No one else spoke to me but I enjoyed just trying to understand the extracts that included Jules Verne, Hemingway, Homer and Victor Hugo…I read the programme!

UPDATE: November 21st 2012  Go to:

http://www.lafaussecompagnie.fr/spectacles-le-chant-des-pavillons.html

where you can travel from webpage to webpage to listen to and see more information.

Tuesday 1 November 2011

An up and down journey to keep fit

Start your walk after a fine lunch at LA PLACE AIMÉ OCTOBRE
Walk along the LA RUE DE FOUR BANAL and around the loop of the road in front of the château. Be aware of traffic.
 Keep descending along the RUE DU PONT going past a house on the right which has this plaque.

  Arrive at the bridge over the River L'Anglin and bear right.

Walk under the bridge along the RUE DE DONJON, past an unused gate on the right.

Turn left below the château to climb LA TRANCHÉE DES ANGLAIS.  This pass, possibly without steps, was made by Les Anglais in order to seize the château in 1356.







































Arriving at RUE DU CHÂTEAU turn left, (yes you have been here before)
then ascend the steps at LE TRUCHON (a family name?) which is on your right.

Turn right at RUE DE FOUR BANAL (yes you have been here before)
and proceed down the slope of the TERRIER DU CHÂTEAU where once carriages traversed before the loop of the road was created.
Turn right (yes you have been here before) and then proceed up the slope of LA CUEILLE where once water would have been collected from the low town.

where you can gather your breath, turn right to RUELLE DE L'ARCEAU.

Turn right to return to LA PLACE for refreshment.
N.B. There are different coloured chairs for the two café-bar restaurants.  Try one at the start of your journey and the other when you have finished.
It's a good physical exercise and should take you no more than about 30 or 45 minutes depending on how long you stop to admire the views!!!!!!!