Nature
By Rhiannonw
Plant life, animal life, and happenings
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- 3209 reads
A gorse seed
Popping pod propels the seed, each has little tasty ‘lump’: ant out foraging to feed those within its nest, can clasp, – jaws like claws can grip and grasp
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- 2783 reads
Ants
The extraordinary little ant with tunnels underground, or linking up the many rooms within a leafy mound. Their heads are big with strong sharp jaws, their waists are very tight;
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- 7 comments
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- 1626 reads
Beauty on a Dungheap
Bobbing flight, dips out of sight, and up – ‘peep bo!’ then duck below. Perching on the pile of muck, wagging tail perfect stance to give a chance for photo-shot.
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- 10 comments
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- 2085 reads
Bird-feeder Drama
Big fat pigeon sees birds upon the feeder, stalks around below like the avian leader, poking round for pickings, quick to espy ‘crumbs from the table’ when they float from high.
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- 12 comments
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- 2416 reads
Car journey, Sat 2/2/12
The air is sharp and bitter, and icy branches glitter. The dome above pale blue and clear and cold, well-sugared views around the car unfold, gaunt trees reach up like scratchy brooms to sweep,
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- 10 comments
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- 1992 reads
Cloudy Cameos (IP)
Mystery of misty moisture: shadows scurry, shower flurry, filmy fluid falls to earth fuelling food’s future growth. ******* Herringbone and candy floss – patterns picturesque across
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- 21 comments
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- 4151 reads
Conkers
Conker, lying on the ground, are you waiting to be found – while you’re hard and shiny still – by a little boy who will hoard, delight in you, but may bore a hole so he can play
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- 7 comments
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- 1573 reads
Creeping past the equinox
Greening hawthorn, lush thick meadow, willow tinged with greenish-yellow, from the earth now leaves emerging softly-edged mosaic-like covering for the bank, as yet anonymous,
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- 8 comments
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- 1334 reads
Creepy-crawlies
I do like bugs*, and snails and slugs, but slugs are slimey to hold in your hand, and bugs are tickley, and may defend themselves, by a nip or sting,
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- 4 comments
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- 1159 reads
Cultivate or Strangulate (IP)
(of gardens, real and allegorical)
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- 8 comments
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- 1369 reads
Daffodil Bands
… so successfully announcing …
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- 12 comments
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- 2415 reads
Essential Sunshine and Showers (IP)
Lying, listening to the rain, welcome, restful soft refrain. Water falling, filtering down and filling spaces in the soil: seeds soon swelling … reaching for the sun …
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- 13 comments
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- 2510 reads
Is there a moral … ? (IP)
A fable lazy lizard lived in the valley of the Lugg; too lazy to reach out to catch a nice nuitritious bug. He grew more weak, less slick and sleek – when danger was perceived
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- 1855 reads
The Heatwave (IP)
It melted the tarmac, and buckled the rails, it dried up the pond, but the well never fails, it bleached out the lawn, left the farmers forlorn until a breath of a breeze
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- 12 comments
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- 2119 reads
The Times they are A-Changing (IP)
… The stuffy indoor atmosphere, and sluggish thoughts and tension escape into the stratosphere and clear the comprehension …
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- 2426 reads
Trickling trick
Life’s biochemistry, infinite mystery: but we hear imaginative history of decay in reverse, arising complexity: ‘So it has been’, some say – a thing never seen:
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- 1315 reads
Disasters
One day there won't be any more disasters
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- 2 comments
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- 1109 reads
The Male Mandarin Duck!
A colourful drake!
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- 11 comments
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- 2582 reads
Moschatel, or Townhall Clock (Adoxa moschatellina)
Tiny ‘Townhall Clock’: pale, slight and delicate, each face a duplicate, – miniature so rarely seen, dainty structure, tender green, flowers arranged on slender stalk
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- 9 comments
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- 1914 reads
Is it a butterfly or … ?
Is it a butterfly or … is it a moth?
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- 8 comments
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- 2328 reads
Honey Ants
waiting until their needed!
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- 4 comments
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- 1333 reads
Lady’s Smock (Milk-maids or Cuckoo-flower)
Gangly stems on damp clay-ey verge, sun-bleached smocks like a milky surge of many small flowers, lilac-pale; Milk-maids wave in a soggy vale. Lower leaf-stalks with leaflets rounded,
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- 5 comments
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- 1912 reads
Primroses
Clusters of smudges pale yellowy-cream, dappled on banks and in woods, in between the trees, on the ground, soft and delicate smiles, rosettes of fresh leaves, climate gentler awhiles.
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- 6 comments
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- 1482 reads
Seashore
— busy land of extremes
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- 12 comments
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- 2318 reads
Mysterious Lichens
Fluffy tassels smoky-green …
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- 6 comments
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- 1516 reads
The Great Wren Escape
courtesy of Springwatch 2011
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- 8 comments
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- 1513 reads
The Limitations of Science to study the past
Science is investigation of recorded information, experimenting, testing theories, giving thought to awkward queries, and alternative suggestions, never jumping to conclusions.
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- 8 comments
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- 2415 reads
Seals
Smooth and shy, and hard to spy peeping from the water. Watch them gliding, swimming by – agile under water. When they leave the sea they heave – pull with each front flipper,
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- 9 comments
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- 2912 reads
Queen Wasp's thoughts … during early May
I slept through the cold in a snug little nook. I woke, drank some nectar, then flew for a look, – to scrape scraps of wood from a post or a pole,
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- 9 comments
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- 1919 reads
The Great Delusion
“Everyone believes it! – it must be true!” “Scientists have proven it!” – No!, that they cannot do! some may feel that it fits quite well,
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- 6 comments
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- 1724 reads
Quirky Meadow Saffron
(seen, Aug 2009 Merbach Hill)
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- 6 comments
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- 1309 reads
Snowdrop
Bulb which grows when cold – two spears protrude and elongate, – the year’s first noticeable growth from still, apparent death of winter's chill. A single stem extending soon,
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- 9 comments
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- 1999 reads
Pussy Willows
Slim and silky, silvery slippers, furry-ears peep, pushing open brown bud scales on Sallow branches, satin catkin flowers ripen. Those on male shrubs soon show yellow –
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- 9 comments
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- 1748 reads
The purple emperor butterfly
The purple emperor butterfly lives in the canopy, quite high; no flowers up there with nectar sweet, so what is there for it to eat? When aphids suck the sugary sap
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- 4 comments
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- 1439 reads
The Weasel (IP)
based on a Welsh poem called ‘Y Gwenci’ (The Weasel) by R Williams Parry, that I liked very much (content and poetry) in my childhood. I stood transfixed (not knowing I was watched)
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- 4 comments
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- 1216 reads
Lesser Celandine
Shining yellow celandines (sun reflected as it shines): mass of stars on hearts deep-green (lovely background of the scene – leaves with softly wavy edges,
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- 4 comments
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- 994 reads
Springing Back to Life — nature (IP)
a patchwork collage through spring, from verse already posted
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- 6 comments
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- 1777 reads
From a window
screeching kerfuffle …
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- 10 comments
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- 1857 reads
Woodland blue
Sea of vivid blue, trees above with new leaves emerging through swelling buds; and cream windflower clusters seem foaming on the swells – woodland flooded with bluebells.
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- 8 comments
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- 1551 reads
Evening Light after Rain
Glittering evening sunlight casts banding shadows, stark contrasts – golden gleam, and flowers vivid. Earlier, skies were sombre, livid – hours of drizzle, torrents rushing,
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- 14 comments
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- 3094 reads
Rabbits! (IP)
Unwelcome explosion! a plague population: they ate the fruit, and nibbled each shoot, they cropped the corn, great swathes were shorn: the farmer’s annoyed, his labour destroyed.
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- 7 comments
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- 1398 reads
Floods
River rushing, water rises, flood-weight pushing, – power surprises, moving cars and caravans; tree comes down, nestlings drown, … but towns in turmoil …
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- 6 comments
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- 1136 reads
Garden Bindweed
It winds, and binds, entangling, and strangling … insidiously, inconspicuously …
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- 7 comments
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- 1337 reads
The Wood-Wide Web
No world-wide net to gather ‘facts’ … inside the soil unseen it spreads
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- 12 comments
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- 2040 reads
Harebells
Splashes of harebells waft and sway – sky-blue skirts in the grass at play! Deep-red foxgloves stand erect – sentinels the troop protect. Vivid in the evening light,
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- 6 comments
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- 1281 reads
Silver swish
Glimpse of silver, swish and skitter, fish-like darting, wriggling slither; little harmless insect flitter, – do you cringe, or jump or shiver? Disliked lodgers little matter
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- 12 comments
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- 3095 reads
Night noises (IP)
With a sniffle and a snuffle, and a sudden snort, the silences of darkness are rare and short, there’s a giggle and a gurgle, and a low long growl, a hiss, a hum, a murmur,
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- 12 comments
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- 1995 reads
The Skylarks Rise Again
When farmers sowed their crops in spring the skylarks were abundant – … untroubled by a growing crop, or mowing chop, or fox or stoat, they’re nestled on …
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- 13 comments
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- 2435 reads
Tree-line, rewindings
from Pentathlon Leaning bent upon his stick, he gazed upon his tree, stark, – struck by lightning a while, now gnarled, its history in his mind unfurled …
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- 2301 reads
Living Tapestry
From lowland lake to moorland bleak, in wood and hedge, high mountain peak, on roadside verge, and rocky shore, through cracking concrete factory floor (disused), and shielded city nook:
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- 2942 reads
Sudden Snow
silently, softly, smothering, enveloping, quieting, soothing, hushing, confining all of the noise and the rushing. Flakes cease from falling, children erupting – chance of rare playground,
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- 13 comments
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- 2334 reads
The calm after the storm (IP)
A whirling storm brought battering harm. A sudden stillness, quaking calm – glittering drops of rain left hanging, tiled rooftops askew, bits dangling; and tentatively emerging
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- 10 comments
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- 1874 reads
Watching Raindrops
Plip! plop! watch the water drop … … sight and sounds that soothe … circles interlocking, mesmerising dreamy rocking, lulling lullaby.
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- 8 comments
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- 1571 reads
City Traces (IP)
The nest of a falcon, pigeons galore, squirrels collecting and burying their store. But we miss the high hills, and the countryside sound, and pine...
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- 1902 reads
Autumn Hush and Dash (IP)
Summer sward now lies forlorn neglected, soggy autumn lawn, mounds of rotting apples, slushy on the ground, a bounty, mushy (crawling insects,...
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- 12 comments
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- 2320 reads
Wood Sorrel
Early spring wood floor-cover: trifoliate leaves, each leaflet heart-shaped – unlike clover sometimes fold along their middle (shape pyramidal), at...
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- 8 comments
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- 1585 reads
Losses and Gains: Clywedog* (IP)
*pronounced Cluh- wed - og a valley flooded in 1967 by construction of the tallest mass concrete dam in Britain Lost farms, lost homes, a harrowing...
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- 4024 reads
Xerocoles* (IP)
*(a term some seem to use for animals adapted to live in the desert – with the heat and scarcity of water) … The desert lizard goes, too fast to burn its toes …
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- 4662 reads
Slowly emerging, January to March
Bleached and scruffy verges, scrawny, thorny, de-fleshed hedges; a flush and blush of green suffuses the roadside edges, while the hedges’ twigs grow...
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- 21 comments
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- 5049 reads
Cowslip
Little standard lamps wave softly, tiny chandeliers, loftily bearing golden, glowing tops buttery pashmina cups; motorway’s monotonous verges...
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- 8 comments
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- 1559 reads
Visiting Slimbridge
[birds, ducks, swans … and …!]
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- 8 comments
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- 1563 reads
Inspiration Point, Bryce Canyon, Utah (IP)
spectators eyes inhale the sight … and ‘oohs’ exhaled from inspiration, and ‘aahs’ of awe – lungs’ expiration …
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- 4 comments
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- 1164 reads
Nuthatch
Stubby black dagger beak, stuck to sooty bandit eyestrip on head which merges with its body – elongated bulb-like bird, plump, sleek, steely-blue...
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- 6 comments
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- 1349 reads
Snake's-Head Fritillary
Flocks of wafting chequered bells mauve or white – and on the latter’s dress the chequered pattern lies a watermark impress. Abundant, when in spring...
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- 4 comments
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- 1070 reads
A monkey nut drama
The squirrels were busy kept coming to bury monkey nuts found far away. A bird table’s wealth embezzled with stealth? the drama was watched day by...
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- 4 comments
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- 922 reads
Long-tailed Tits, or …
Hedge Mumruffin , Fuffit , pinkish fluffy ball Long-tailed pie , Poke Pudding , twittering, chattering call. Acrobatic flits, dart around the shrubs...
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- 9 comments
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- 1681 reads
‘Oh to be in England, now that spring is there’ (IP)
says the swallow …
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- 15 comments
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- 2428 reads
Hedgehogs
Fat little snufflers searching through leaf litter …
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- 8 comments
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- 2025 reads
Dull-day Lamps
Daffodils are glowing though the sky is glowering. I’m glad that they don’t close …
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- 8 comments
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- 1495 reads
Morphing Treescapes
The view of trees so gaunt and grey along the road, is giving way to softening tinge of green transforming … … until we see fresh beauty in autumn colours … and silhouettes on winter skyline …
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- 4358 reads
Marsh Marigold
Splash of giant ‘buttercups’ – King Cups bold, on the dark and boggy bank, glossy Marigold. … blazen in the sunshine – loud contagious laughter.
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- 1839 reads
A ‘Mayfly’ Day … (IP)
– early evening swarm above the stream – mating mayflies shimmer; with the setting sun eggs descend, mayfly die, and are no more until … nymphs hatch...
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- 7 comments
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- 1436 reads
Prickles Please (Poetry Monthly)
The last hedgehog in Herefordshire ? … only 1 in 5 people in the UK have ever seen a hedgehog in their garden. No wonder – 95% lost since the 1950s...
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- 1823 reads
A Bleak Interlude
Dark, bleak day – drizzle and downpour, nipping out-door … but tomorrow … ?
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- 12 comments
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- 2379 reads
Fly Free For a Day!
… free from all that pressure for a short and flight-y future:
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- 2 comments
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- 693 reads
Flowing … (Poetry Monthly)
The water seeps and flows through earth and rocky cleft, down narrow gullies flows, through fields meanders, grows …
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- 10 comments
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- 3944 reads
Puffin's puffling
Eyes of surprise, a freak-striped beak can’t squeak or speak with those fish in its beak – stowed in a row with their heads in a fringe for the...
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- 6 comments
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- 1287 reads
Stumpy Toddy (Wren)
phenomenal the sound … huddle in numbers to protect from killing cold, by cuddle
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- 8 comments
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- 2610 reads
Dumped Gold
(seen yesterday, when parking behind a Care Home) Neglected, thrown down out the back: grubby, dumped, forgotten sack, bathed in sunshine, soaked by...
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- 10 comments
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- 1738 reads
The Green Blush
Roadside curtains, dusty dry, of tangled trees – when driving by through March they still seemed spent and sere, but now we’ve watched green blush...
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- 6 comments
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- 1161 reads
Drizzle and Dandelions
Driving in the drizzle, dripping trees obscured by mizzle, road awash, and frequent splash, sodden grass and swirls of rain – wipers swish on ‘fast’...
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- 4 comments
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- 781 reads
The Handkerchief Tree*
Surprise amongst the trees – waving hankies fluttering in the breeze – no artificial ‘prayer’ flags these – doves shine shimmering in the sun? …
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- 6 comments
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- 1227 reads
Springwatch!
… wave your wings to say, ‘Goodbye’ …
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- 12 comments
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- 3670 reads
The Old Oak Chair
… the hidden, tunnelled maze of subways down below.
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- 13 comments
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- 3956 reads
All aboard! the country bus
[The BBC slow real-time country bus ride] Lovely slow ride, we seem to glide … no dash, no tension, no road rage, no rush.
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- 4 comments
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- 881 reads
Two mornings
[first morning:] Veil of mizzle, myopic vision, hemmed in, dozy … oppressing, depressing. [next morning:] Shell-blue sky, all’s a-glitter … de-stressing.
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- 4 comments
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- 753 reads
Watching, not touching!
I do like bugs*, and snails and slugs, but slugs are slimey to hold in your hand, and bugs are tickley, and may defend themselves, by a nip or sting...
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- 2 comments
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- 634 reads
Autumn Tingeing
Sunshine glints on autumn tints:
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- 6 comments
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- 1617 reads
Autumn Colours (i)
Green sugar factories now dismantled with approaching cold …
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- 6 comments
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- 1412 reads
The ‘Icecoming’
Tall-shaders shed … and floating feather-rain …
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- 7 comments
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- 1743 reads
Frost and Sun
…their frosty shadows shrink
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- 2 comments
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- 664 reads
Fog!
A milky shroud, damp cloud, muting, hushing, smudgy trees emerge …I feel enclosed …
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- 4 comments
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- 1243 reads
On Winter Bleakness
A sodden, dreary, weary gloomy day; cloud-ceiling low and leaden …. decorations delicate, sublime … breathtaking sunset fire …
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- 6 comments
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- 1961 reads
Earth Colours
Dark brown, white … green up … spattered, patterned red, yellow, pink, blue … yellowing … (a burst of red, rust, gold) … earth-brown … the next green flourish.
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- 8 comments
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- 1686 reads
Hope in the poison
(Emblem of hope … poison … hope)
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- 4 comments
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- 845 reads
Awakening!
Stark, dry brown trees and hedges: a warm green blush spreads, gradually suffuses – astonishing expanding leaves unfold, push, squirt from tiny lumps...
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- 8 comments
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- 2087 reads
Spring has sprung (at last)
Daylight lengthening, sunlight strengthening, weakening winter’s grip, but temperatures dip … shout spring has sprung!
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- 6 comments
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- 2309 reads
Early April Flowers
White wood anemones, bright-wide in the sun sparkling sprinkled on the woodland floor, while bluebells prepare their blue spring haze; …
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- 4 comments
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- 1091 reads
Short Evening Stroll
Sharp air, evening sunlight …
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- 2 comments
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- 562 reads
Variety
Not too cold, and not too hot, breath of cool air when we’ve had a lot of beating sun for days and days – gardens need rain for the flowers to blaze...
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- 4 comments
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- 985 reads
Ch-ch-ch-ch
Chuffed at change in chiff-chaffs chicks … (based on a comment by Michaela Strachan on Springwatch this year)
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- 11 comments
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- 2107 reads
Evening Song
Rich, deep trilling, chuckles, gurgles twirling …
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- 11 comments
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- 2026 reads
“The Hush of the Snow”
[by James Forsyth] Snow-laden sky, all still, soft chill.
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- 15 comments
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- 3526 reads
Soothing
A quiet, sheltered, hidden glade with dappled light, and ample shade; in days of scorching summer heat, the soothing green a filtering screen of...
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- 10 comments
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- 2069 reads
Waving Across Space
Mysterious waves so energetic
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- 4 comments
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- 804 reads
Reaching
(photo 1) A stricken tree, its bones survive – grey, honed they reach, and taper high to poke the blue, like twisting roots upon the sky.
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- 12 comments
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- 1828 reads
Reflective whimsey
(photo 2) Autumn colours in the pond, high blue screens the fish beyond, swimming in the depth below; will the sky soon overflow down the weir,...
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- 8 comments
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- 1295 reads
Impediments to reaching the treasure
Thorny tentacles entrap feet or legs to tangle, trip … little juicy treasure perch just beyond precarious reach.
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- 4 comments
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- 1010 reads
Micromys minutus
Bright bundle of gingery fur climbing, clambering dextrously up and down and through the tall grass and reed stalks …
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- 6 comments
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- 1176 reads
Evening Sky
High sky gold touched fluff …
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- 249 reads
Autumn Beech Leaves
… shining beech trees …
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- 4 comments
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- 663 reads
The humble …
Slithery, wriggly soil aerators, food for blackbirds, badgers, raptors …
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- 4 comments
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- 978 reads
Oak Apple
Oak apple rosy, nursery cosy: wasp larva fed free by host oak tree.
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- 6 comments
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- 1166 reads
weather whatever
Whether the weather be cold, or whether the weather be hot, whatever the weather, wherever …
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- 4 comments
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- 900 reads
Winter Wonderland
Trudging through the snow – like royal icing fresh – sinking softly at each step … will they have to stay the night? will replacements reach? …
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- 10 comments
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- 1390 reads
Winter Wonderland (2) Sunshine
Blue sky and sunshine, soft snow glitters; warm light, air cold. Walking into town, hard-packed pavement centres – safer foothold on the snowy edges...
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- 4 comments
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- 700 reads
"Goblin Gold"
(or 'Schistostega pennata' ) A disused rabbit hole – what will it hold? about a foot inside, maybe some – goblin gold! In semi-darkness, shines a...
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- 7 comments
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- 1186 reads
Morning mist lifts
misty … mist rising … sunshine sparkles
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- 9 comments
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- 2286 reads
Brown February
Brown etched trees scratch the grey, scattered brown sere seeds still hang suspended here and there; balls of mistletoe, coloured greenish-yellow by...
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- 8 comments
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- 1052 reads
Mesmerised
[This is a revision of a piece I posted some years ago, and based on a Welsh poem called ‘Y Gwenci’ (The Weasel) by R Williams Parry, that I liked very much (content and poetic skill) in my childhood.] “I stood transfixed, just stared ahead, I could not move my gaze or tremble, shake …
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- 11 comments
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- 1681 reads
Growth Spurt
Springing forward to the sun … embryonic leaves enlarging through protective scales emerging from their winter hide-away now they seek the light of day …
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- 10 comments
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- 2207 reads
Trumpeting
Bare bones stand lifeless, gaunt and sere – the wood is dark and drear. … a yellow blast is trumpeting from sparkling gold that spring is back –
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- 15 comments
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- 1995 reads
Spring Yellows
Even when the day is dark primroses clump on the bank, softly smile, and deep in the wood by the muddy stream marsh marigolds glow a deep butter...
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- 12 comments
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- 1575 reads
Dandy Lions
Dandy lions in a crowd, golden laughter lines the road; yellow pom-poms dot the lawn … ‘See this garden, Mummy, can’t we these lovely flowers plant?'
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- 10 comments
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- 2366 reads
Living with …
We get armour-plated armadillos, miniature; at night-time slugs find squeeze-through aperture – stretching, slithering with slimy, shiny trails – ugh...
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- 5 comments
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- 1046 reads
May Sky Melody
Burbling song resounds around the dome bubbling, erupting exultantly two little lungs breathe in, pour out in synchronous duet bursting, echoing over...
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- 6 comments
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- 801 reads
Number Spellings!
I oneder …
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- 8 comments
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- 1196 reads
Treasured Mud Oasis
Turning vehicles have lowered little carpark’s centre, scoured – heavy rain brings spreading puddle, slowly shrinking to the middle – irritation, but...
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- 6 comments
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- 875 reads
Identification – non-native?
Seeds to attract nectar-loving wildlife … search our many flora books … maybe?
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- 4 comments
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- 799 reads
Brightness without burning
Sitting sheltered in the shade, Leafy filters cool the skin, soothe the eyes, and thoughts within …
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- 11 comments
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- 2031 reads
From a Nonet of Eggs …
Nine little nestlings, beaks open wide –
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- 4 comments
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- 1025 reads
Our golden, fiery ball
Boldly arcing across the blue, rivers a-glitter, sparkle anew, colours awakened, vivid the scene (– moonlight just paints with a silver sheen), rays...
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- 7 comments
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- 1106 reads
Of Limpets & the Ebb and Flow of Stress
(Littoral life) … inter-tidal ecoZone – metaphorically
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- 7 comments
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- 1167 reads
Storm
Rain ground-pounding lashing, lightning flashing, booming sound of thunder crashing – winds howling gales bashing rifting, lifting; water standing...
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- 11 comments
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- 1957 reads
Inter-tidal life
This was written for my children long ago, to try to capture the underwater scene change. I posted it some time ago as simply ‘Seashore’, but thought it was worth reposting for the August topic of Poetry monthly.
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- 9 comments
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- 2145 reads
Temperature drop
countryside and fashion
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- 13 comments
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- 2260 reads
Quince
Misshapen shiny pear with clinging fluffy hair, bright yellow, perfume sweet – too hard and tart to eat raw – flesh cut and chopped cooks, mushes...
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- 17 comments
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- 2407 reads
Autumn Splash
A final fling from flavonoids, and …
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- 15 comments
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- 3244 reads
Chirpy, Cheeky …
Cheeky chipmunk’s cheek-pouch cache … bright-eyed fat-face packing, stacking winter stock.
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- 11 comments
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- 1411 reads
3 Wintry Haiku
wilted world … friends foregather… Snow, softly …
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- 5 comments
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- 836 reads
Cywydd [Cuh-with] Form, Wintery
Skies scythed by trees skeletal …
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- 15 comments
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- 3066 reads
Bare beauty
Trees with costume windswept, lost, stretch their branches sculpted, – bare and beautiful, upthrust, from grounded trunks, well-rooted – earth-bound branches …
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- 9 comments
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- 1648 reads
Pitch Black
How often have you ‘seen’ full darkness of the night? … running, stumbling, helpless, humbling …
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- 6 comments
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- 1143 reads
Snowdrops
Pure pearls emerge from winter’s earth, out of decay and wilting drabness, dearth of colour, life, growth …
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- 7 comments
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- 1164 reads
wintering in warm Britain …
Turnstones – not shown in photo!
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- 6 comments
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- 928 reads
Seasons Connect
… The sunshine weak … ’til seeds awake … the seeds awake …
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- 11 comments
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- 2663 reads
The fruit of the elm
That favourite, lovely shade of lemon-green patterning an end of April shell-blue sky, pale posy bunches, taut tissue coin-wings …
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- 11 comments
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- 2835 reads
Speedy Connections
… so much in the blink of an eye, or a flicker of thought.
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- 16 comments
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- 3912 reads
Mistletoe
Orchard trees bare of their leaves … with these tangled green orbs we now see suspended dressing the winter skeletons; these squatter plants with …
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- 11 comments
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- 1833 reads
Unseasonal Hail!
Under fire from pelting ice granules, like gravel chucked, crunching underfoot – soon melts, sun shines, briefly.
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- 6 comments
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- 863 reads
Golden Blast at the Roadside
Sudden spillage on the verges, orchard, lawns – molten gold explosions, splashes, brilliant swarms: dandelions’ moment, reflecting sudden sunshine...
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- 9 comments
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- 2104 reads
Bog Brilliance
Dark and dank and waterlogged – … secluded haunt of otter shy, sheltered from intrusions idle – sunshine flag gives indication, … no invitation to wander pleasantly up yonder … enjoy my lemon brilliance …
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- 11 comments
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- 2188 reads
Ethiopian de/re-forestation
They cleared the forests to grow more food … Arboreal ‘islands’ remain … believing they are stewards of God’s creation … maybe soon ‘islands’ will expand to link up once more
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- 7 comments
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- 492 reads
Black Taff – FreshTaff
early 1980s On the bridge high over the river Taff a little girl drops her hankie, by mistake – down, down – it floats ahead (no Pooh-sticks...
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- 14 comments
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- 1688 reads
Autmn's faces
Autumn – a time of change and chills. Sometimes a glowing summer glimpse … sometimes a sodden grey …
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- 7 comments
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- 1119 reads
Harvest!
Apples galore, trees shaken to pour fall flood …
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- 6 comments
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- 736 reads
November Bloom
Appealing petals– delicate curves, blended shading, soft shapes, bloomed touch-texture.
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- 8 comments
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- 1267 reads
Robin’s Pincushion
beautfiul colourful rose bedeguar gall … 'save whallop' …
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- 10 comments
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- 771 reads
An Obliging Treecreeper
What’s that skittering up the tree? – brown as the bark, so hard to see. … – it seemed to patiently wait until we were suited and done – then …
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- 13 comments
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- 1593 reads
Chill
Roadside shorn of colour, bleak, waiting for the sun to break through the misty veil to cheer, waiting …
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- 9 comments
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- 890 reads
Storm
Whooshing, whirling. pounding wind, rushing powerfully, wild, tearing branches, tiles, and pushing, loosening roots and toppling, crushing; rainfall...
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- 7 comments
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- 743 reads
Dennis in Herefordshire
[Sunday, Monday] Dennis passing, rainfall less – though …
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- 3 comments
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- 353 reads
Trumpeting!
They’re out! a golden shout …
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- 4 comments
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- 433 reads
Chlorophyll Green
Capturing sunlight the leaves to power their multiplication for shade from shower or heat of noon-light intense, so bright: the soft, soothing screen...
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- 7 comments
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- 839 reads
Signs of Spring 1)
Bursting out of tiny bud, stretching up tinged red, greening in the sunlight – power for growth.
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- 4 comments
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- 365 reads
Signs of Spring 2)
Hardly noticeable, tiny flowers: if the sawflies don’t arrive and munch (none came last year, so hopefully no cocoons in the soil – must remember to...
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- 2 comments
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- 252 reads
Signs of Spring 3)
Even in those little tended, sun shines on the garden flower bursts, and in the dead wood floors scattered primroses peep.
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- 6 comments
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- 837 reads
Signs of Spring 4)
New life resting, nourishment close by, – or gamboling with the other newborn, zestful infants thrilling with their energy, and thus strengthening...
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- 6 comments
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- 377 reads
Signs of Spring 5)
Magnolia by street light. So strange those waxy, marble tulip-like-orbs delicate, easily spoilt by frost, that emerge from strange buds on leafless...
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- 16 comments
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- 1681 reads
Signs of Spring 6)
The gentle greening of the weeping willow by the industrial site, spiky catkins hang too, hardly noticed among the trailing leafy stems.
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- 9 comments
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- 924 reads
Signs of Spring 7)
Star-like white flowers of blackthorn, sloe, sprinkled, sparkling on leafless hedge branches; greening of hawthorn, May-tree, with tight-flower-bud...
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- 5 comments
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- 674 reads
Signs of Spring 8)
Ground Ivy, (not really an ivy!) the leaves always there creeping in the leaf litter, (go reddish brown in strong sunlight) but studded with such...
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- 2 comments
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- 215 reads
Signs of Spring 9)
Graceful ‘greyhound’ stretching twigs, firm, sooty buds – late to open – before the leaves appear, see first the bursting flowers’ purple froth, and...
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- 9 comments
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- 914 reads
Signs of Spring 10)
Day’s Eye: One of the earliest to respond to the turn of the seasons, it’s beauty undervalued, bright white stars glitter in the sunshine, setting...
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- 7 comments
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- 827 reads
Signs of Spring 11)
Promise of berries for winter red, for feeding the cold-weather birds, but some will be picked with their prickly leaves – broad waxy leaves for...
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- 3 comments
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- 340 reads
Aaron’s Rod (Mullein)
Striking spike shoots up from the woolly furry star-like pile of leaves on the wasteland floor … surprise and laughter among the scrub and stones!
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- 104 reads
Unmown ‘lawns’ – plant conglomeration
Golden ‘Cat’s Ears’ flourishing, where drought and soil unnourishing has left the grass short, yellowing … but on the other lawn, abundance, of variety – self-heal, cinquefoil and clover daisies, moss …
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- 9 comments
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- 945 reads
Well-connected
Two legs that carry me around, two arms … my eyes say, ‘Run!’ and legs get the message, and even …
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- 12 comments
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- 819 reads
Film in the night sky
[from our garden, north Herefordshire 11/8/20] A realm lights up in the sky momentarily, between cloud mountains: gone in a flash, but reappearing...
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- 12 comments
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- 1573 reads
The answer to ‘nature deficit disorder’
out into free therapy, and don't deprive children
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- 7 comments
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- 636 reads
Dog’s Mercury
Emerging through the littered leaves of the woodland floor …
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- 9 comments
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- 535 reads
Wild Rose …
pink blush of beauty climbing the hedges … fragile, fleeting ….
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- 17 comments
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- 1226 reads
Out of safety to please
Cosy bulbs lie safe below, spikes extend … white drop droops to shine and shiver …
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- 9 comments
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- 425 reads
Transformation!
Tired, muddy woods and gardens dead leaves rotting, brown stems wilting, cloud oppressing daylight weak: we’re glad of warmth in bright within...
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- 4 comments
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- 231 reads
River in Spate
Downpour falling river filling spilling tumbling … the ocean vast at last.
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- 11 comments
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- 1411 reads
Contrast focussing thought
If we hadn’t sat though winter drear would the snowdrops rouse such cheer? Would the …
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- 17 comments
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- 2471 reads
White stars and meadow bells
Woodland stars … Rich yellow cuplets …Fairy-skirt cowbells mauve …
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- 18 comments
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- 1775 reads
Hawthorn
White May bouquet, tumbling in the hedge, pattern delicate, exquisite: white petals, pale green centres, red anther spots, (sometimes the petals rich...
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- 8 comments
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- 459 reads
Crisis Moment
Battle in the blood: hostile invaders immobilised, stabbed, or eaten …crisis as invaders beaten …
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- 9 comments
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- 479 reads
Essential Cycle
There’s a crowd of us here where we’re forming a screen shading and cooling the place I have been; soon we will bunch – each group falling …
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- 14 comments
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- 611 reads
The Wind in the Willows
The wind in the willows … buzzing and teeming …winter remembrances picture …
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- 17 comments
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- 1164 reads
Complicated lives of the little creatures!
…build retreats on rocks and vegetation with … skilfully spin a fine silk net, all set … eco-engineer …
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- 13 comments
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- 834 reads
Trees
Gnarled roots extending, gripping, stabilising the soil branches lifting, spreading leaves to shade and shelter, exchange gases, refreshing the...
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- 11 comments
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- 427 reads
Some January colour
Cloudy patterns in the sky, sinking sun can touch, apply hues of red, a tinge of fire – colour that can cheer inspire when the daytime views are dark...
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- 11 comments
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- 372 reads
One-leaf therapy
Even in winter you can look at a leaf soothing green and patterns seen of veins and texture, the varieties and subtleties of nature can bring relief...
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- 13 comments
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- 385 reads
And then there is …
[ A slight edit of an old one] A whirling storm … until — it was suddenly still …
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- 11 comments
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- 227 reads
Warm welcome
sparkles, soft smiles, and strident heralds along the lanes
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- 26 comments
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- 917 reads
Blossom
Billowed dresses, pure snow-white … specks of gold wave …
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- 23 comments
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- 888 reads
The wonderful wild bells!
… deep hue, glowing bells gently waving, … (so unlike the Spanish burly, sturdy, stand-up stiff and straight garden ones …
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- 19 comments
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- 382 reads
Competition
Goosegrass shoots up clinging, climbing choking, smothering the hedge …
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- 13 comments
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- 212 reads
Puff and scatter!
Beautiful sphere of fairy parachutes to puff and fly away and one infect a sward’s smooth place with bursting taproot strong and long establishing...
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- 15 comments
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- 214 reads
All Seasons' Refuges
Into the woods in the springtime … in the summer … in winter, and each time come out more ready
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- 15 comments
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- 111 reads
Welcome sound
Lullaby rain: gentle rhythm pattering droplets’ refrain softly strafing the thirsty earth soaking, hydrating wetting the wilting all that was waiting...
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- 9 comments
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- 71 reads
Herefordshire Harvest
Juicy harvest: fruit galore how the rosy apples pour – filling juice and cider store: gathered, squeezed and pulped before winter comes when fruit...
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- 11 comments
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- 63 reads
Shiny treasure
Spikey case around soft mattress cushioning the conker’s fall shining polished horse-chestnut ball copper gloss that brightens up child’s gaze of...
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- 11 comments
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- 71 reads
Field Bindweed
Little pink and white soft striped trumpets ‘necklaces’ brightening up the verge like marsh-mallow treats dotted here and there smiling, skitteriing...
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- 11 comments
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- 52 reads