I've had a break - only a few days - from blogging as I've been inundated with paperwork, driving miles to have my hair done and getting caught in the mother of all traffic jams (it wiped out a whole day) and generally writing the beginning of a short story that is, rather like the traffic jam, turning into rather a long story and in this case potentially a novel.

The thing that got me started on the novel was a writing prompt from my OU course. Yes, the one I haven't actually started yet. I was perusing the activities that I'll be doing some time in the literary future and two prompts from a set of ten got me thinking and suddenly some characters were there on the horizon and walking towards me, almost real as they had personalities and histories even. And there it was.... the beginning of the short story that just keeps on growing. Its not even a genre that I would have thought of choosing - a murder mystery - as its not one I'd read and I don't think I have any skills in that direction but... well, they keep coming back to me each and every time I'm not doing something, and sometimes even if I am and their story is just THERE wanting to be told. Its most peculiar.

So have I kept up my Haiku per day? Well funnily enough I have and am enjoying it very much. Perhaps it was the Haiku's that got me moving in a literary sense as they seem to float in from all directions and I wonder if this will stop. Its also nice to find that the ordinary things in life suddenly throw up amazing opportunities for some very extraordinary thoughts and feelings that can then be condensed into writing that takes you in different directions. It doesn't have to be something extraordinary or 'out there' just a set of circumstances that could be as normal as burning toast - though for me this would be extraordinary as I'm abstaining from all things wheaty. But you get what I mean. For instance, what would this image tell you about the person who owned this room? It could tell you a lot or it could give you false leads as to who they really were but... it certainly could give you some food for thought that would / could start a poem or story. I love that this is possible from just a scene along a windowsill.

(I've had a sudden brainwave regarding the name of the erstwhile love interest of the main protagonist of my burgeoning novel. Isn't it amazing how a name can just crop up from nowhere and say 'you know I'm right and I thought I'd make myself known to you or you'll take an age to arrive at me'. I know its the right name, God knows how it came to my mind and when I looked up what the name means it was even more right. Good golly Miss Molly - its a strange old world.)

Well today is an odd one, I'm supposed to be preparing to teach a belly dance class tonight but instead a chance encounter with a piece of music has caught me and I'm wrapped up in it so such a degree that I simply can't break lose. Does music ever do that to you? At least I have written a poem based around it so I can excuse myself a little I think.

Johanna Warren

I heard you singing,

Notes floated sideways

through unlatched window

Born on half-breath breeze

Caught, suspended on

fronds of fennel, there

Like invisible rain-

drops

of sound, held shivering,

Filling the garden

while I stood, rooted

listening.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yF77LlbnYKM

Its a small world isn't it? This seems to be one of those themes of the day I think.

Today is one where I think I should have been doing more... but then I think about all the 'stuff' that I have done and realise that its creative stuff and that sometimes that doesn't show up in the great scheme of things.

I started the day with FutureLearn's Literature of the English Country House and as I'm an old hand at these courses I joined in with the discussions and guess what, a reply appeared from someone I'd met through the Open University and who was taking the same course now she's no long an OU student. She recognised my name and posted a 'hello' which was fab.

Poetry has flowed out and is what I blame for not having carried on stripping the door - nearly finished now and WILL be continued - am currently cooking a mass of packed lunches for a house full of munchers.

My inspiration today came from putting on a cardigan to keep warm in bed while I studied. This reminded me of my grandmother who gave me a bed jacket and if you don't know what one of those is then its either a little bed worn cardigan or cape thing that ends at the coverlets and was very popular for ladies-wot-lunch in the years before they were even thought of. She also denoted some spinnaka-knickers which weren't well received by me but I did my best to hide it. I remember having great fun fitting myself AND a male partner into them at one point but I did manage to create a suitably gracious 'thank you' face while she was present. So these items came up in my poetry. Now I'm feeling all nostalgic and a little dreamy about my Nan and her very complex but seemingly simple character. I cheered myself up with some ice-cream and writing this so at least one of those activities is good for me.
;-)

    
 Degrees of familiarity

Oh hi, let me introduce you to

My new friends

Ben and Jerry.

We met in the freezer isle 

At Aldi,

Oh I see by your face

You’re already acquainted

The whole family?

My goodness!

What a small world it is

And confirms the theory of

Six degrees of separation.

Yesterday I parked my car in leafy Clifton, walked down Park Street which was teeming with hot and happy people, gazed in at the wonders of Diana Porters shop, and went to my favourite cinema of all time - The Watershed.

It somehow feels rather indulgent to go to the cinema in the afternoon. Somehow there's a subversive quality to it, a defiance of convention that the day - especially a bright and baking one - should be spent doing 'stuff' or seeing friends. I agree with the latter but it was a spur of the moment decision to celebrate getting a distinction in my current OU module and a ginger beer, chat with a friend, bar of chocolate and a movie just seemed to fit the mood.

We went saw Slow West which was rather good and I'd recommend it to anyone who likes journey movies, or any movie that has depth and layers of meaning. It reminded me that one of my little ambitions is to have a movie projector so that I can screen movies in the garden on summer evenings and chill in that ultimate luxury of al fresco movies. I've even got a little sketch in my mind of how I can configure what has to be one of the smallest gardens in town to allow for such indulgence and if I get time I'll post an image here so you can see what my little heart desires. But wait, that dream goes further. In this dream I own a camper van and take my projector everywhere to have the fun of a cinema by the sea, in a wood, or car park at the foot of a mountain. Agh, the wonders of the imagination.

Today however has brought rain, quenching the parched soil in the potted herb garden, creating fantastic sounds on the leafy canopy beyond the garden and a necessitated rushing to the garden to retrieve white sheets and pillow cases left out to dry. The house is full of the sound of birds, pattering of rain and the outdoorsy smell of water and fresh air from the sheets hanging like ghosts of yesterdays sultry abundance over chairs, and dangling from book shelves.

Some might call it unfortunate, other might think the house looks unpresentable but I'm loving the scent and the wonderful continuance of my little dream of the cinema for after all what could be better for receiving images from a projector than a hanging bed sheet?

summer rain on leaves 

brought dreams of sea rushing through

pebbles on beaches

Another day in paradise.... well, if you don't mind the acrid smell of stripping decades of paint and varnish from a door that is. The lengths to which I will go just to prove that I can get this door looking good! Apart from that I am on a high after the OU course results came in yesterday and with some very gratifying news.

So today I have pruned the ancient apple tree that is trained along walls and over a cheap metal trellis marvelling at the way the tree has taken over and now gives strength to the diminished metal structure. The apples are coming and even needed thinning due to their abundance while below its trunk ground bees are making a purposeful trajectory in and out of their subterranean queendom.

As an homage to the wonderful weather I have donned the most ridiculous pair of floral shorts, more like pants with pom-poms on. Over the wall children are playing in the school - two weeks till the summer holidays? - while the tall trees of the abandoned railway track (now grandly called a nature reserve) nod and bow in gentle breezes.

If you're wondering if I'm keeping up my Haiku per day resolution, of course, no matter what there are always haiku's tripping off my pen! Not only that but I'm going to give the students of A215 a surprise by suggesting we compile a book of poetry - an ebook - as we progress through the course. Heady times!

Excited shouts and

Laughter in playgrounds tell us

Holidays are nigh.

Just back from my wonderful holiday at Strete Barton House, leaving the familiar for.... well, more of the familiar to be honest. Its strange how a whole series of coincidences cropped up, from the  decor, books on the shelves, the wooden floors, to the art on the walls. If you're thinking that I chose the holiday and its because I chose it then this is hardly a coincidence, think again. No, this was a present and the person who booked the little break was also totally unaware of any coincidences apart from the similarities of names.

Mind you, they didn't have a half stripped door or other delights of mid-decoration that I have at home, which was a relief.

However, the important question is.... did I write while I was away? Yes I did! I wrote, took photos as visual memory aids and read just a tiny amount too. Sadly I've arrived home to find that my computer memory is almost entirely used up so I've had to post the images to Facebook lest they be forgotten but I'm going to cut-and-paste some here to show you what I'm hoping to use as inspiration over the coming weeks. You could say that the images I've chosen are mundane and you may well be right, but often seemingly mundane things set a whole array of images and associations in my head and these three images did just that.

I've also taken the creation of my book a little further and am beginning to see links and linking devices that I can't wait to share with you. But wait, I'm getting ahead of myself. Here are my images and if I get the opportunity to post just some of the ubiquitous haiku or other poems later today I will. Right now I'm celebrating other mundane things such as washing clothes and cleaning the house as tonight is the birthday celebration of someone very dear so I am a woman divided.
 ;-)

Today I'm writing from Strete Barton in Devon, a totally adorable village that offers endless possibilities for creative inspiration. I'll try to post images later but for now I'll add just a few Haiku efforts penned this evening after walks on the beaches, sitting in the gardens watching bees doing their thing and generally chilling. If you like pebbly beaches where the sand and waves have tumbled the pebbles to smooth semi precious gems, salt lagoons with birds whirling overhead and lovely little cottages with birds nesting in their thatched roofs then this is place is for you.

     Night By The Sea

The red and blue moon

Sliced by sharp waves, floated free

Of its sky born twin

     Swallows

Small arrows whirling,

Calling, flit past our heads as

Evening falls round us.

 

     From My Window

The black inky sea

With golden path extending

Shoreward, calls to me