Alleyway in Horndon

And why would I object to exploring Horndon on the Hill's alleyways, stinging nettles and all, bare-legged (as opposed to leg-less) with my short shorts on?

Thames barge in textiles

This was my fave at the Textiles on the Hill exhibition

Belated blog

RIP Donna Summer

Definitely one to download onto my iPod

Birthday girl

The birthday girl was given a Kindle today:) I've spent hours looking up all the books I want to read, but I've been good and only downloaded one - The Secret Mandarin by Sara Sheridan.

Meanwhile, whislt scrolling down the list of available Kindle books I noticed Jonathan Livingston Seagull by American writer Richard Bach - a book that I think I was given when I left senior school(?).

The lyrics for Sting's song may have been influenced by Richard Bach. He said:-

"If you love someone, set them free. If they come back they're yours; if they don't they never were".

Bach also said "Don't be dismayed by good-byes. A farewell is necessary before you can meet again. And meeting again, after moments or lifetimes, is certain for those who are friends"

To see the world in a grain of sand,
and to see heaven in a wild flower,
hold infinity in the palm of your hand,
and eternity in an hour................ Auguries of innocence - William Blake

Tears, idle tears, I know not what they mean,
Tears from the depth of some divine despair
Rise in the heart, and gather to the eyes,
In looking on the happy autumn-fields,
And thinking of the days that are no more.

Fresh as the first beam glittering on a sail,
That brings our friends up from the underworld,
Sad as the last which reddens over one
That sinks with all we love below the verge;
So sad, so fresh, the days that are no more.

Ah, sad and strange as in dark summer dawns
The earliest pipe of half-awaken'd birds
To dying ears, when unto dying eyes
The casement slowly grows a glimmering square;
So sad, so strange, the days that are no more.

Dear as remembered kisses after death,
And sweet as those by hopeless fancy feign'd
On lips that are for others; deep as love,
Deep as first love, and wild with all regret;
O Death in Life, the days that are no more!

Lord Alfred Tennyson