OTHER STUFF

Sunday, 25 April 2010

No Caption Needed

.... but you can add one if you like...

photo: Zack Clothier/Rex Features

Sunday, 18 April 2010

Heartsease -- by Mimitig

photo by Ekko

Who gives flowers these names?
A rose by any other name is still a rose.
Not so the humble pansy.
Some call it heartsease
Never thought at all why so
Til with the flowering
Of our pansies
I realized what heartsease means.
These flowers with their lovely faces
Ease the heart.
It’s that simple,
That’s why flowers that have no care
Have no feelings for us
Just smile in deep purple velvet
Outrageous bright yellow and
Sweetly gentle orange
Smile.
The garden starts to flourish
As the snow diminishes.
We have colour and we have life.
I can choose some posies for my room.
Daffodils in the green vase are fun,
But too late for St David’s Day.
I search the cupboard and the cabinet
For special pansy vase – from Myrthr Mawr.
Find it, pick the blooms, dead-head the rest –
They’ll bloom again.
I have my pansies, my heartsease and can be quiet again.

photographer unknown.

Saturday, 27 March 2010

A Caption Opportunity...

Thursday, 18 March 2010

March 3rd, 1943 -- by Zephirine

Henry Moore: Pink and Green (Tate Gallery)

Sleep on, lying safely down there on the platforms,
Huddled together in row upon row.
Something terrible’s happened at Bethnal Green Station
But no-one is talking, it’s best not to know.

Sleep on, Harry, Amy, the girl from the chippy,
The chap from the butcher’s, and Vernon and Nell,
When you wake in the morning your friends will be missing,
The steps will be swept and nobody will tell.

When you wake in the morning they will all be missing,
The ones that you loved or you saw every day,
Sleep on now, not knowing a few yards above you
They died on the steps and were taken away.

Try to sleep now, young Alf, lying there in the darkness,
Eyes wide at the shock of the things you just saw.
Try to sleep, Mrs Chumbley, you’ve done all you can
But you can’t put the dead back where they were before.

Sleep on now, the lost, in your rows in the mortuaries,
Brought in by those who worked on through the night
And who won’t close an eye in the nights that will follow.
You will be remembered, we promise. Sleep tight.

(These sites will explain more: http://www.stairwaytoheavenmemorial.org/gpage5.html
and http://spitalfieldslife.com/2010/02/11/alf-morris-survivor-of-the-bethnal-green-tube-disaster)

Wednesday, 3 March 2010

Conversation on the Bus -- by Zephirine

What you got there then?
Leeks.
Leeks?
Yeah, leeks.
Leeks. You going to cook ’em then?
Yeah, going to make soup.
Soup?
Yeah, leek soup.
Leek soup. Nice.
Yeah, nice.

You got a blender have you?
No.
No blender?
No. Chop ’em up.
What, the leeks, you chop ’em up then?
Yeah, I like it chunky.
Soup?
Yeah, chunky. Big soup.
Big soup. Nice.
Yeah. Nice.

I’ll come round then, shall I?
(laugh) Yeah.
Yeah?
Yeah, you do that.
I’ll send you an email, shall I?
Yeah, when you’re coming round.
Have some soup.
Yeah, leek soup.
Leek soup, nice.
Yeah.
Nice.