1 This beautiful Christmas cactus was a present several years ago from our eldest daughter and this year it is flowering rather early.
Christmas Cactus
2 I love this poem, “Lines for Winter” by Mark Strand. It is today’s poem in Poem for the Day Two, a favourite volume.
Lines for Winter
Tell yourself
as it gets cold and gray falls from the air
that you will go on
walking, hearing
the same tune no matter where
you find yourself—
inside the dome of dark
or under the cracking white
of the moon’s gaze in a valley of snow.
Tonight as it gets cold
tell yourself
what you know which is nothing
but the tune your bones play
as you keep going. And you will be able
for once to lie down under the small fire
of winter stars.
And if it happens that you cannot
go on or turn back
and you find yourself
where you will be at the end,
tell yourself
in that final flowing of cold through your limbs
that you love what you are.Mark Strand
3 A friend who was with us last night took some amazing photos of the wonderful Three Daft Monkeys launch party. I have his permission to show you the following photos and I also offer you a link to the whole set on his Facebook page.
