People keep commenting on the prevalence of birdsong during these lock-down days. Perhaps it really is louder and closer or maybe it’s just the reduction of background noise makes it… read more →
The news with its litany of loss, anxiety and uncertainty is leavened by images of the more-than-human world coming closer to us, encouraged by the lack of traffic, fewer people… read more →
I dream a lot about houses, my own, other people’s, houses I know and houses that exist only in dream-towns. In waking life, I’m intrigued by the faces houses have,… read more →
I’m blogging today whilst working on stories, whilst making marmalade, whilst feeling poetry bubbling up alongside the pith and peel in the pan. Last autumn was for me, in the… read more →
This disarmingly simple poem by Lisel Mueller is called Curriculum Vitae and describes a long life in 20 short stanzas with allusions to the great events of history. The… read more →
It was with huge relief I saw a baby great tit make it out of the giant flower pot where its parents have woven the hugest complicated nest of moss… read more →
The half-way point of the year has passed. The longest day was celebrated at two labyrinths. The garden is starting to ‘go over’ partly because of the hot, dry, sunny… read more →
I can’t keep out of the garden. I am not a natural gardener – ‘gardening’ feels a bit domestic for my taste, all that taming and tidying, a bit like… read more →
In poetry therapy and expressive writing groups, loss is always close to the surface and informs much of what it is we want or need to write about. As Kahlil… read more →
It’s beautifully brrr in Kent at the moment – still freezing at 11am with bright blue skies. Last night, I went to hear Andy Miller (who is not Andrew Miller) speak… read more →