ABCD November 2023

Five of us met in Bron’s kitchen on a fine frosty morning two days ago. We had plenty of news to share. Jane has been in Italy helping with her brother’s olive harvest. Bron has been in London working with her very talented grand-daughter on an exciting shadow-puppet project. Pat has been in Wales and will soon be off to Australia. Judith as usual has been to many places bringing back papermaking fibres and news of exhibitions. I have spent three exciting weeks in South Africa and Eswatini, meeting my daughter’s in-laws and seeing as much as possible. We talked about plans for 2024, and Bron’s suggestion of “Thread” as a theme for future work was unanimously approved. Looking at the Dove-droppings for the day, I see that untold secrets were a bit of a theme.

After a delicious and warming bring-and-share lunch we went to visit the tree plantation in Wild Lea. There were still areas of frost on the ground. The trees are doing well, thanks to Bron’s watering during a long drought. The young oaks stood out in their rusty foliage.

Past the Tree House Library and into Wild Lea

The air was bright and clear

A distant poplar was bedecked with huge spheres of mistletoe.

November Dove-droppings

ladybirds hibernating in a clump
have come a long way
to infiltrate exhibitions

harvesting olives with a rake
I found the spit on the rubbish heap
small oaks appear as the mist clears

I was woken by geese in the estuary
the Ordovician cliffs opposite the island
full of boatbuilders

photos developed in the North Sea
with ivy leaves tea and coffee
not a patch on Clare’s flapjacks

stuff I got in Germany
nearly destroyed a juicer
fermented hemp cooked with caustic

it’s strangely heavy
dividing life into portions
I will never do that again

scissors but no left-handed ones
and one scalpel kept under lock and key
in the Doge’s palace

a chain store
for storing chains
down Gas Ferry Road

the castle was occupied by Rommel
nobody knew and nobody ever dared ask
in the island of Reunion

talking in bed
between two rivers
about the last Victorian steamship

heat and good wine
an old palace in Venice
a secret I can’t divulge

I missed the 21st October meeting, when work made from our indigo dyeings was shown, because I returned from Africa that day. Jane has sent me a photo of her box (awaiting contents), and I have made the first and second of many tiny books from my strips of folded paper. Eventually I’ll need to make a box to contain them.

Clare, who was there, compiled the
October Dove-droppings

here comes another person
slimming down
that line of thinking

leave something behind
straddled between the two
almost black

best of all
I like the hairy bits
you just cannot repeat them

seaweeds
inside a drainpipe
one of those lovely surprises

like creatures in the grass
celebrating
two hundred years of thistles

pushing themselves
a soon as the weather
is clement

press the pause button
it’s got a lovely sound
a lovely rattle