The Swan family on The Penryn River are growing up.
Family of 8
One of our friends has made this little ukelele for his four year old Grandson who added the paintwork.
Arlo’s ukelele
LiveWire 4 wanted to take home the wedding flowers she had collected from the beach so I tied them up ready to be taken after Marmite on toast for breakfast!
Sandy wedding flowers
I love having lots of eggs from real chickens and it pleases me to see them on the egg rack with their bits of straw!
I’m not sure what this bird is, an Egret perhaps? I saw it on the Penryn River yesterday but have yet to identify it. (My son-out-law tells me it is a Little Egret. Thanks T)
Egret?
The table in the garden, waiting for chairs, another plateful and us!
Summer supper in the garden
I have never seen the Penryn River mud looking so green at low tide.
The Penryn River at very low tide on a very hot morning
After singing I saw two swans with their cygnets, eight of them! I shall look forward to seeing them all on the river at some point.
Swan family
I was looking in one of my favourite collections of poetry for one for today, Poem for the Day Two and there found, for yesterday, a poem that I used to teach and that I found very moving, Louis MacNeice’s ‘Prayer Before Birth’ which, it is speculated, was written as a father’s reaction to bring a child into a world at war. His daughter, Brigid Corinna, was born on 5th July 1943.
I am not yet born; O hear me.
Let not the bloodsucking bat or the rat or the stoat or the
club-footed ghoul come near me.I am not yet born, console me.
I fear that the human race may with tall walls wall me,
with strong drugs dope me, with wise lies lure me,
on black racks rack me, in blood-baths roll me.I am not yet born; provide me
With water to dandle me, grass to grow for me, trees to talk
to me, sky to sing to me, birds and a white light
in the back of my mind to guide me.I am not yet born; forgive me
For the sins that in me the world shall commit, my words
when they speak me, my thoughts when they think me,
my treason engendered by traitors beyond me,
my life when they murder by means of my
hands, my death when they live me.I am not yet born; rehearse me
In the parts I must play and the cues I must take when
old men lecture me, bureaucrats hector me, mountains
frown at me, lovers laugh at me, the white
waves call me to folly and the desert calls
me to doom and the beggar refuses
my gift and my children curse me.I am not yet born; O hear me,
Let not the man who is beast or who thinks he is God
come near me.I am not yet born; O fill me
With strength against those who would freeze my
humanity, would dragoon me into a lethal automaton,
would make me a cog in a machine, a thing with
one face, a thing, and against all those
who would dissipate my entirety, would
blow me like thistledown hither and
thither or hither and thither
like water held in the
hands would spill me.Let them not make me a stone and let them not spill me.
Otherwise kill me.
Walking through Penryn this afternoon, I happened upon a treat – two window boxes on the back of a car! I smiled all the rest of the way to get my hair cut.
Two window boxes
Here is another window from Studio 10 where the Frida Kahlo Exhibition opens on Sunday.
Frida Kahlo
It is always hard to leave a place you love but more than that, it is the leaving behind of the people that you love. Sophie Hannah says that she wrote this poem when she was leaving Manchester for Cambridge and wanted to reassure a friend that her decision to leave did not mean that she no longer cared for them. The poem has a lovely rhythm about it and is easy to read aloud, giving me the feeling that she is speaking directly and in person to the one she is leaving. The poem also makes me think of times when we are left by someone and it was not their intention at all……
Leaving and Leaving You
When I leave your postcode and your commuting station,
When I left undone all the things we planned to do
You may feel you have been left by association
But there is leaving and leaving you.When I leave your town and the club that you belong to,
When I leave without much warning or much regret,
Remember, there’s doing wrong and there’s doing wrong to
You, which I’ll never do and I haven’t yet,And when I have gone, remember that in weighing
Everything up, from love to a cheaper rent,
You were all the reasons I thought of staying,
And none of the reasons why I wentAnd although I leave your sight and I leave your setting,
And our separation is soon to be a fact,
Though you stand beside what I’m leaving and forgetting,
I’m not leaving you, not if motive makes the act.
Singing this morning with The Suitcases overlooking The Penryn River was, as always, beautiful.
First night went brilliantly. Here are some photos from the preparation but then it was all on, singing our songs four times as each group of visitors, 30 mins apart, went on this glorious story walk around St Euny Graveyard. Click on any photo for more detail.
I love the Penryn River in all its moods and love that I sing every week with the river in view.
We can all adjust our sails!
We have been to see Ballet Rambert tonight – three wonderful dances but Ghost Dances is the best ever. We first saw the dance sometime in the 1980s and loved it then. It is a most powerful piece that didn’t disappoint tonight. If you ever get the chance to see it, please do.
From the programme.
The Penryn River was so still this morning – utterly beautiful.
After singing we all stopped in at The Muddy Beach cafe. This is the water cooler.
On my way home, I stopped off at Burncoose Nursery to have a walk around their beautiful grounds. It was stunning! Every corner turned revealed another breath taking sight. Please join me on my walk.Click on any photo for the caption and detail.
Commentator Award
Thank you, Tina Liu
