Sunday, 1 January 2017

Milking time





Martin's spoon traced the figures of ancient Chinese peasants etched in the landscape of the blue willowed breakfast plate.   A thought scurried across his mind.  

‘One day I will go there’.
 
He paused for a moment, to catch the morning sunlight filtering through the laced curtain and turned to his aunt standing by the stove.

'Auntie, please, please may I leave the table?' 

An approving wink set him free.    ‘Aye, go on son’

He darted across the chequered red and black tiled floor, stuffed his feet into plimsolls, rattled the grated door mat on the front step and spilled into the farmyard.

The sharp bite of the Derry air, fresh from the Rock Heads that dipped in the North Atlantic blew away the last cobweb of sleep.

Sunday, 18 December 2016

Christmas on the other side of the world





















There is no Christmas this year Bobby.”   
Vicky, his elder sister laments. She explains that she had over-heard Lucy`s mother telling auntie Chipo that she had over-heard her husband talking to Ziyepi the kraal head that the bread delivery  van was stuck in the mud across Nyamachesi River.
Even if they pulled it out, the river is in flood.   It is Christmas Eve. 

Saturday, 27 August 2016

I never liked Leonard Cohen back in the 70s......

guess you mellow with age......

RIP Marianne Ihlen