Category: Journal
-
25 September: Idling Thoughts on a Road Trip
25.09.23 Driving South Along the Mosel River 7:25Fog licks the morning in curls, and rides like wingless birds on grapevines. Hushed on terraced steps. River reflections that come for solitude. This is the Mosel River. 8:00The old church tower is a spike into time. We are small. Solitary. Rising essence of water, we are this.…
-
22 September: Idling Thoughts on a Road Trip
21.09.23 (563 words: reading time 3 minutes) 09:57Cows find their way on to fields where they shouldn’t. It is life beyond language. 10:00Hay stacked in blocks of henges. The next farm, rolls ambered disks. Like fallen moons. Grounded on a field. With cows. Wind haunts the air. 10:20Birch. Curvaceous green in the wind. Air is…
-
21 September: Idling Thoughts on a Road Trip
20.09.23 09:00He’s refusing to talk. You’re writing down everything I say. No, I’m not, I tell him. I didn’t write what you said about your foot itching yesterday. Well, okay, I have now, but you forced my hand. 09:01He has an adorable grin. I love to hear him laugh. 10:50He and I have been through…
-
20 September: Idling Thoughts on a Road Trip
19.09.23 08:10The rain is a tantrum. It’s dashing itself against the window as if it were a ship on the rocks. He’s staring at it. It will pass, he says. You sound like Nostradamus, I tell him. Or Moses parting water. 08:15He’s still standing at the window. Looking. Rain and sea. Wind in syllables. This…
-
19 September: Idling Thoughts on a Road Trip
18.09.23 8:03Nobody on the beach this morning. A pitched wind; high seas. Not like yesterday’s sun and Sunday. There’s a scattered kaleidoscopic of litter. Left to blow away. 8:15Sails up. Jibs full. Hulls cut the waves, tack and turn. Out-pacing seagulls, who shout at the wind. 08:30My hair’s never been longer than my shoulder. I’ve…
-
18 September: Idling Thoughts on a Road Trip
17.09.23 07:53 (Kerteminde Denmark)There’s a man walking a small white dog on the beach – it hates waves and disappears into the long grass. Seagulls above, circling, searching for breakfast. Or the dog. Two women breast stroke against the Baltic waves. 8:20Those two women still dripping of Baltic, walk down the street wearing bathrobes and…
-
17 September: Idling Thoughts on a Road Trip
16.09.23 07:50 (Münster, Germany)Breakfast: Birchers (overnight oats) made with yogurt and blueberries. It sticks to your ribs. He says, It’s also stuck on my t-shirt. 08:10“Oh, look,” he says, “there’s a young person! What’s he doing here?” I tell him, He’s probably selling walking sticks. It’s off-peak rates again. Pensioners on the move. Come September,…
-
16 September: Idling Thoughts on a Road Trip
15.09.23 05:10 (West Sussex)It’s autumn, dead end gardening, rose crush, rudbeckia rot, a grim faced dance, and the moon hangs like a fallen log. I’m not pleasant company before sunrise. 08:25 My granny, the one with the goats and white rabbits, was a herbalist. She said that hair is magic. Don’t let it fall into…
-
21 August: Spontaneity
The sun has found me, its warmth strikes my face. I half expect God to say, “Lift up your face,” but all I hear is bird song. And it’s enough. This is my daily walk. Footpaths. Encroaching brambles. Shoe laces that won’t stay tied; it’s a gradual undoing. I’m undone by a newfound appreciation for…
-
3 August: The July Journal 19.7.23
Wednesday, 19 July: Tiled Rooftops Arrivederci Italia.This is Bourgogne,and it’s about wine today. Vineyards, and wooden presses.Dust-flaked villages,and yellow stone houseswith shutters closed on white heat. But I want to see Beaune.Next time, he says.Which meansI’m not going to see Beaune. Arrived.Dijon.The city.Not the mustard. Nevertheless,I plan to buy mustard.Lots of it.For not seeing Beaune.…
It's Still Life 