Tag Archives: robin

Poetry and Robins

11 Replies

 

Robin - singing

Robin – singing

a robin
sings to its mate
when was the last time
I sang
for you?

That is my latest publication. It was a surprise, because I hadn’t ben told it was accepted. Fortunately I always check before sending things again, as editors don’t like simultaneous submissions. It’s in a German publication called Chrysanthemum. After waiting a while, I went to check on the website, assuming I’d been rejected but wanting to double check, and found the magazine had already been published and I am on pages 226 and 227.. It was a pleasant surprise. They also translated it into German. I knew this was going to happen, but hadn’t anticipated the different look (using capital letters) or the different dynamic that would come from what seemed to be a reordering of words.

Here’s the German translation.

ein Rotkehlchen
singt für seine Gefährtin
wann habe ich
das letzte Mal
für dich gesungen?

Robin, Arnot Hill Park

I just fed it into an internet translator and it put it into English in almost exactly my words. This was a surprise, and a superb effort by the human translator. I have to admit I was expecting it to come back seriously scrambled due to the changes in word order I could see and because of previous experience with internet translations.

I also had a haibun published.

Lesson not learned
Only a few miles from where I sit, a mammoth died. Grass grows on what was once
a Roman town. Stone spires show where a great religious house rose and fell, then
rose again. So many empires, so many layers of dust telling one and the same story

dreams of
a second chance
— one more grey dawn

I’m not quite sure what happened in the edit as the title and last line have been altered in the published version. Altered but possibly not improved. What do you think? The original version is shown below.

Lessons we have not learned

Only a few miles from where I sit, a mammoth died. Grass grows on what was once a Romans town. Stone spires show where a great religious house rose and fell, then rose again. So many layers, so many stories they could tell. So many men forget all empires turn to dust.

dreams of
a second chance
—one more grey dawn

Robin at Rufford Abbey

That means that in the first four months of the year I have made 30 submissions and 22 have resulted in acceptance. However, before congratulating myself, I have to remember that the 30 submissions contained 151 poems. Normally a submission contains three haibun or tanka prose and the submissions of shorter poems at often 10-15 poems. So when I say I made 30 submissions and had 22 acceptances this 77% success record could also be calculated as also only 15%. It all depends on how you look at it.

Robin

 

 

 

 

A Wednesday of Mixed Fortunes

14 Replies

The photos today are a robin perching on a bucket. It spent all day in the polytunnel in the MENCAP gardens yesterday and seemed quite happy to share the space with the group. The blackbird which was also in there was not comfortable and spent several minutes bouncing off the walls before escaping. That, I suppose, is why robins appear on Christmas cards and blackbirds get baked into pies.

Julia managed to get these two shots which, I think, are cheered considerably by the bucket. It’s a shame the robin didn’t pose for her, but you can’t have everything.

Today has not been conducive to deep thought. I have spoken to the central appointments people t o establish why I didn’t get my telephone appointment yesterday and, as expected, they told me that it was meant to be a face to face appointment.

“When I rang before I was told it was a telephone appointment.” I said.

“Ah, let me look. No, it was changed.”

“When?”

“Er . . .”

I summarise, but you get the general idea. It had taken me over half an hour to get connected and I was due for my blood test so I had to cut things short without getting an answer. No change there, I swear that customer services training in the NHS is 90% about not answering or incriminating yourself.

The blood test went well, so things weren’t all bad. Now we just need to see what the results look like. They weren’t good last week.

Finally, I’ve been looking at houses for sale in Country Life Magazine. Two of the week’s selection have moats. These are not just ordinary houses. I’m not sure I need a moat, as it just seems like a step too far in both gardening and Health & Safety terms. I like this one – the former home of Sir Quentin Blake, famous illustrator.

Robin on a Bucket – photo by Julia.

Ups and Downs, with a Distinct Lack of Ups

12 Replies

I’m feeling slightly better because the infection seems to have gone. Unfortunately the other difficulties remain. This is what happens when a doctor doesn’t listen and only treats one of the two problems. As such, I am feeling well enough to make vegetable stew for tea, but would have practical difficulties if I went back to work. I will either have to get an appointment to talk to a doctor tomorrow, or pack a picnic hamper and  go down to A&E again.

With sandwiches, bottled water, books and a pillow I’m sure I can pass a perfectly acceptable day surrounded by impatience and misery. And, in my case, incontinence. Oh what a joy it is to be alive. Sometimes you only appreciate things as they slip away. Of course, if you put the drama to one side, I am 99% sure they will fix it and that I will go back to not appreciating things again. It’s human nature and I am very weak.

To add to the misery, I just had a rejection. It’s from  journal that has published me before, but it’s a guest editor this month. For a moment I did feel quite down, but that’s the infection rather than any sudden sensitivity.

I know how it goes. Guest editor, shiny new toy. When the publication comes out it will, despite the desire to be different, be much the same. Good writers will always get in. I will read the magazine, note the names, nod significantly as I see many of the same old names, then start reading. Some will be great, some good, some will be worse than my rejected submissions. It’s always the way . You can edit things, but you can’t make poets believe that they aren’t good enough to be published. If we were capable of believing that, there would be few poets.

Time, I think, to shrug it off, keep up my fluid intake, and plan tomorrow’s picnic. You know the old saying about lemons and lemonade? This is “When you have fifteen hours, pack a picnic and a good book.”

Robin at Clumber, Nottinghamshire

When in doubt, bung in a Robin.

Doing what I’m told

28 Replies

Yesterday it was suggested that a post full of Robins wouldn’t go amiss.  I need something cheerful to post, and people like Robins. I can’t do an arty montage because I’m still using the Stone Age editor so it will just be a dull stack of Robins.

I won’t use that to start a discussion on the evils of WordPress, because I am better than that.

Nor will it be a discourse on double standards in politics. It’s tempting, as I watch Kier Starmer struggle to  condemn the Bristol riots whilst telling us that the London riots were fully justified. With such admirable flexibility of spine, and such a wide range of standards the man clearly has a great future in politics.

So here are the photographs.

Robin

Robin

Robin in a Garden Centre Cafe

Robin on a Fence Post

1995 Robin stamp

1995 Robin stamp

Robin – Stoke on Trent

Robin at Clumber, Nottinghamshire

Robin

Robin at Budby Flash

And so we come to the end, and as I can here my lunch sizzling in the oven (it’s leftover pasta bake from last week) this is probably a good time to stop. Check out this link if you want to know more. It is listed as the European Robin after an international panel decided that it was confusing to have different birds called robins in Europe and the USA. Nothing is ever simple, is it? And international groups can’t leave anything alone with attempting to make it “new and improved”.  And as we come full circle to the subject of WordPress…

Am Awkward Day

19 Replies

It’s Monday, so it should be the start of a new week, but somehow it doesn’t seem much of anything – being in that awkward gap between Christmas and New Year. When I was working with poultry it was never a problem as they needed attention every day. The same when I was in the antiques trade – I always had plenty to do in the days between Christmas and New Year because people had Christmas money to spend and time off to attend fairs. Even when the kids were at home, we had plenty to do.

This year, locked down and instructed not to travel, it’s trickier, so I decided that today I would lounge around the house in dressing gown and slipper socks and loaf my life away. It’s after 11pmnow and the plan seems to have worked reasonably well.

As usual, after watching a bunch of high achievers on Christmas University Challenge, I’m left wondering how they managed to rise so high in their professions when they are unable to answer comparatively simple general knowledge questions. Same goes for Celebrity Mastermind, Even the contestants on ordinary Mastermind didn’t exactly shine like beacons of brilliance. The contestants on Only Connect, of course, continue to mystify me.

In other words, I’ve watched far too many quizzes today. However, while I’m watching quizzes I’m not eating, so that is good. We still have chocolate and biscuits in the house, as we are cutting back. I suspect we may not finish them until well into 2021. That’s partly lifestyle choice and partly over-exposure to Weight Watchers adverts.

I just found that I can select a month when looking back at old photos. Seven years on WP and still haven’t learnt how to do it!

Seal pup – Donna Nook, Lincolnshire

This is a seal photo from the days we were allowed to travel.

 

22.07 and not a thought in my head

6 Replies

I’ve let the day run through my fingers again.  It is now one hour and fifty three minutes to midnight and I don’t even know what I’m going to write about. There isn’t even anything I can use in my drafts folder.

I note from checking the internet that Black Lives Matter called off their demonstration in London today rather than contribute to the problem. That, I feel, was the right decision and has put them right back on the moral high ground. Really, being anti-racist is to always have the moral high ground, but you know what I mean. Vandalism never looks good. An organisation that will give up its right to make a peaceful protest is clearly one that will, eventually, prevail.

The trouble with modern life is that we have so many people who know “their rights” and not enough who are prepared to think things through. Just because you have a right doesn’t mean you should exercise it. If I were ever to go on Room 101, “people who know their rights” would be top of my list.

Talking of this, we had a right to protest about Tibet when the Chinese President visited during the early years of Tony Blair’s premiership, but we weren’t allowed to exercise this right because Tony Blair was concentrating on trade. Tony Blair went on to even greater hypocrisy, we allowed various other shady dealings and I got older. With age comes the realisation that you can’t do anything about it, which is why I confine myself to shouting at the TV and asking young people to stop mumbling.

In the meantime I’ve been thinking about statues.

I haven’t come to any conclusions, I just thought I’d tell you I’d been thinking of them.

I quite like civic sculpture (or public realm enhancements to use the jargon term) and think we should have more of it. We have some round Nottingham on roundabouts, such as a depiction of the Flying Bedstead, racehorses outside the race course and various robins and wickerwork. I’ve often thought they would make a good subject for a series of posts but it’s tricky parking and taking a photo when they are on a busy road.

The timings contained in this post may be nonsensical as I note my watch and computer clocks differ by over an hour. I’ve been using the computer as the more reliable one but just did a time check and my computer clock seem to be 77 minutes slow. Technology! Pah!

Photos are selected from the free Media Library as I can’t find any of mine and didn’t want to steal photos from the local paper.

art beautiful bloom blooming

Photo by Magda Ehlers on Pexels.com

 

 

 

Pictures of Happier Times

17 Replies

I couldn’t find the photos I was looking for, so I hope these make a suitable substitute.

Captain Cook’s Plinth
Captain Cook – Whitby
Microlight at Sandsend
Microlight at Sandsend
Whale Jaw – Whitby

This group is from the Whitby area, in the days when we used to get into the car and drive where we liked. With hindsight, we should probably have done less driving, both from the viewpoint of pollution and cost. We will be making some changes once the lockdown finishes.

Grape Hyacinths
Daffodils
Daffodils
Forsythia

Spring flowers are always good – I am missing them at the moment as we live in an urban area and the local front gardens are a bit of a wasteland. We will be looking at the front garden with a view to making it more of a spring garden – at the moment it is great for butterflies and pollinators but it is only just about to start. We should look at starting the flowering earlier. We have said this before but always put it off on the grounds we have plenty of time. As current events show, this isn’t actually true.

Scones – Thoresby
Scones – John Lewis
Scones – Peterborough

Apart from driving where we liked, we could also have as much food as we liked. The fragility of our supply chain has been an eye-opener over the last month, as has the behaviour of panic-buyers. It has been very dispiriting to see pictures of bins of discarded food at a time when some people are struggling to get any at all.

After holding back and buying only what we needed, we spent a nervy couple of weeks worrying about supplies. If it ever happens again I’m not sure what I’d do, because our political masters and supermarket CEOs were wide of the mark when they talked of “plenty” of food being available and “robust” supply chains. I haven’t been able to buy flour or even a bread kit for the last month. We even had two weeks when we couldn’t buy courgettes or potatoes.

Robin
Sheep in Derbyshire
Robin in a Garden Centre Cafe

Finally, a few Robins and a sheep – something to look forward to as things return to something that resembles normality. I’m not sure they will ever be quite as they were because I sense we are all a little more afraid of what the future may hold for us.

It’s tempting to get philosophical and political here, but instead I’ll end with a feelgood story.

Plans, plans, plans

9 Replies

The plan for the morning was to rise early, sneak downstairs as Julia slept and get writing. I have haibun to write, submissions to make and a new ambition to fulfil.

I want to hit my sixth WordPress anniversary with an average of 365 posts per year. I’m currently on 333 a year. I think that means I have to write 365 next year, and a further 160 to catch up. That’s 1.5 posts per day.

So, I need to examine the reasons for my deficiencies in posting.

One, obviously, is idleness, indolence, sloth or laziness. There are some nice words for it, but it all boils down to one of my defining character flaws. I don’t like hard work.

Two, which is a similar thing, my talent for procrastination, time-wasting, loafing and wandering off on the internet, either to play games or browse Wikipedia. Recently I found a new games page and I am now a dab hand at Nine Men’s Morris and, thanks to Wiki, can also discuss its history and variations.

Three, memory. I sometimes forget to post. You’d think one a day would be simple enough to remember but I have a lot to remember, such as my name, computer passwords and what Julia just said to me. Some days it’s hard just remembering how to walk and breathe at the same time.

Four. Sometimes I just fall asleep at the keyboard, leading to fifty five lines saying ggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggg etc

Or, worse, with the pattern of a keyboard impressed in my face, like one of Dr Who’s more low-budget adversaries.

Today I will attempt multiple posts.

Watch this space.

Today’s picture is the recycled Robin from the Garden Centre in Scone Chronicles 3.

An Unhappy Man

13 Replies

The header picture is today’s entry in the Nugget or No-gett Competition. Answers at the bottom of the page.

I had a car accident yesterday, just one more brick in the wall of misery that is my mediocre life.

It wasn’t even an impressive accident.

The short version is as follows.

I had to move my car to allow someone out of a space in front of the shop where they shouldn’t have been parked in the first place. I was irritated. I forgot to engage the electric handbrake properly. Normally it engages itself if I forget.

The car ran down the slope (it’s so gentle I didn’t even notice it until yesterday) and gently came to rest against the car parked next to it. If I’d left my wheels straight, or if he’d been parked straight the cars would probably have not been damaged at all. But above all, it wouldn’t have happened if I had put the handbrake on.

So there you are. A minor collision at less than walking pace while neither driver was in the car. Some scrapes and paint transfer and, in my case, one dinge in the paper thin metalwork of my car.

It’s going to cost me £400 despite being insured, and I’ve already spent well over an hour on the phone in the last two days. Much of it was to a cheerful lady who was, she told me, based in Cape Town. I wish I was. They have good weather, penguins and a high crime rate. We have drizzle, idiots and a rising crime rate.

If you’re going to be robbed you might as well be warm and watching penguins as it happens. They aren’t puffins, but they are an acceptable substitute.

Puffin at Bempton Cliffs

Puffin at Bempton Cliffs

This is a Puffin. Cute as a penguin, but able to fly. It also had a chocolate biscuit named after it.

Presumably they outsource the call centre because it’s cheaper. This has, so far, not shown up on my insurance costs. Over the last few years, despite a full no-claims discount and, until last year, an impeccable driving record, my policy cost has rocketed. I’m beginning to think they have abandoned actuarial tables and are just making things up.

 

Answer: That’s right, it’s a Herring Gull, so No-gett.