Heat Haze

 

It seems like you could, but

you can't go back and pull

the roots and runners and replant.

It's all too deep for that.

You've overprized intention,

have mistaken any bent you're

given

for control. You thought you chose

the bean and chose the soil.

You even thought you abandoned

one or two gardens. But those

things

keep growing where we put them -

if we put them at all.

A certain kind of Eden holds us

thrall.

Even the one vine that tendrils out

alone

in time turns on its own impulse,

twisting back down its upward course

a strong and then a stronger rope,

the greenest saddest strongest

kind of hope.

 

 

A Certain Kind Of Eden, by Kay Ryan via 1

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Outfit:

1930s style dark floral dress: from a charity shop

Vintage 1950s rose head scarf: inherited from granny Kiki

Black sunhat: old from the high street

Nude pumps: old from New Look

Silver earrings, just seen: from Accesorize

 

 

 

The Soundtrack:

 Sergei Rachmaninov: Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini in A minor

 

 

 

All photos taken by me in our garden, using the self timer during the final gasp of our hot summer.

 

 

 I am delighted to be a part of the next Visible Monday, hosted by Patti from Not Dead Yet Style, click on the website link to see her outfit and those of many others.

 

 

P.S. Not that any of us need any help with dressing and living well, but I found this recent documentary about inspiring octogenarian beauties absolutely brilliant and think you would too. Click on the link here to watch it:

Fabulous Fashionistas: Channel 4 Documentary

 

 

For Kiki The Bluebell Fairy

My hundred thousand bells of blue,
The splendour of the spring,
They carpet all the woods anew
With royalty of sapphire hue;
The Primrose is the Queen ’tis true
But surely I am King.
Ah yes,
The peerless woodland King.

 

The Song Of The Bluebell Fairy by Cicely Mary Barker, via 1

 (Barker's illustration is that of Granny Kiki as a young girl) 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Outfit:

 

Kiki's Vintage 1930s Pale Gold Tapestry Silk Satin Wedding Dress: made by late granny Kiki for her own wedding day!

Inspired by her love of Medieval gowns.

 

 

 

The Soundtrack

 

Beethoven: Pastoral Symphony

 

 

Photographs taken by me, self portraits using the timer on my little digital camera, often by propping the camera between tree branches as I don't have a tripod. 

Strange over exposed light effects created by my camera, for no apparent reason. I like them!

 

 

I'm delighted to be a part of the next Visible Monday, hosted by the lovely Patti from www.notdeadyetstyle.blogspot.co.uk, click on the website link to see her outfit and those of many others.

 

Also linking up with Jane 's great new Shiny T Tuesday link up, where the theme is When Patterns Speak, click on the link http://textgeorge.blogspot.com.au/2013/06/shiny-t-tuesday-when-pattern-seduces.html to see her outfit and others.

 

Blossom To Blossom

 

 

From blossoms comes

this brown paper bag of peaches

we bought from the boy

at the bend in the road where we turned toward   

signs painted Peaches.

From laden boughs, from hands,

from sweet fellowship in the bins,

comes nectar at the roadside, succulent

peaches we devour, dusty skin and all,

comes the familiar dust of summer, dust we eat.

O, to take what we love inside,

to carry within us an orchard, to eat

not only the skin, but the shade,

not only the sugar, but the days, to hold

the fruit in our hands, adore it, then bite into   

the round jubilance of peach.

There are days we live

as if death were nowhere

in the background; from joy

to joy to joy, from wing to wing,

from blossom to blossom to

impossible blossom, to sweet impossible blossom.

 

 

From Blossoms by Li-Young Lee, via 1

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Outfit:

 

1910s/30s Style Floral Ruffle Dress: bought from Ebay a few years ago

 

Green Silk Sash: vintage fabric from Kiki's days as a couturier

 

Green Patent Ballerina Pumps: a gift from my mother from the Boden sale

 

White Cotton Parasol: from Ebay

 

Vintage Style Silver Teardrop Earrings: from Accessorize

 

Vintage Style Green Pendant Necklace: gift from my mother

 

 

 

The Soundtrack

 

Edward Elgar: Enigma Variations

 

 

With many thanks to the inspiring Sara of Ladylike Delicacy for introducing me to the joys of an old photo generator in her delightful post 100 hundred years ago..

 

Photographs taken by me, self portraits using the timer on my little digital camera. 

The eye infection continues, but is no longer painful, and the gp says it will take as long as it takes, so I am treating it with a good dose of ignoral.

 

 

I'm delighted to be a part of the next Visible Monday, hosted by the lovely Patti from www.notdeadyetstyle.blogspot.co.uk, click on the website link to see her outfit and those of many others.

 

I'm also delighted to join Shoe Shine, a great new event hosted by the uber-cool Bella of http://www.thecitizenrosebud.com/, click on the website to see her cute shoes and those of many others.

 

Meet Me Under The Ballerina Tree

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I have been taught never to brag but now

I cannot help it: I keep

a beautiful garden, all abundance,

indiscriminate, pulling itself

from the stubborn earth: does it offend you

to watch me working in it,

touching my hands to the greening tips or

tearing the yellow stalks back, so wild

the living and the dead both

snap off in my hands?

The neighbor with his stuttering

fingers, the neighbor with his broken

love: each comes up my drive

to receive his pitying,

accustomed consolations, watches me

work in silence awhile, rises in anger,

walks back. Does it offend them to watch me

not mourning with them but working

fitfully, fruitlessly, working

the way the bees work, which is to say

by instinct alone, which looks like pleasure?

I can stand for hours among the sweet

narcissus, silent as a point of bone.

I can wait longer than sadness. I can wait longer

than your grief. It is such a small thing

to be proud of, a garden. Today

there were scrub jays, quail,

a woodpecker knocking at the white-

and-black shapes of trees, and someone’s lost rabbit

scratching under the barberry: is it

indiscriminate? Should it shrink back, wither,

and expurgate? Should I, too, not be loved?

It is only a little time, a little space.

Why not watch the grasses take up their colors in a rush

like a stream of kerosene being lit?

If I could not have made this garden beautiful

I wouldn’t understand your suffering,

nor care for each the same, inflamed way.

I would have to stay only like the bees,

beyond consciousness, beyond

self-reproach, fingers dug down hard

into stone, and growing nothing.

There is no end to ego,

with its museum of disappointments.

I want to take my neighbors into the garden

and show them: Here is consolation.

Here is your pity. Look how much seed it drops

around the sparrows as they fight.

It lives alongside their misery.

It glows each evening with a violent light.

 

 

Happiness by Paisley Rekdal, via 1 

 

 

 

 

The Outfit:

 

40s/50s Style Floral Chiffon Dress With Silk Lining: bought from the sale at Toast years ago

 

Vintage 70s Does 40s Blue & White Tilt Hat: from Ebay

 

Black Lace Peep Toe High Heels: old from New Look

 

 

 

The Soundtrack

 

Anita O'Day: All The Sad Young Men

 

 

Photographs taken by me, self portraits using the timer on my little digital camera. 

I've had an eye infection for over a month now, which means I'm allowed to wear neither mascara nor concealer to cover up those dark shadows under the eyes. But I've decided to think of the gorgeous ambassador for dark shadows, Jeanne Moreau, and celebrate my dark rings as seductive, maybe even intellectual looking....

 

 

Apologies I've not been visiting and commenting on your posts much lately due to overwork, looking forward to popping by your lovely blogs this weekend!

 

 

Gypsy Spring

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Oh I am a cat that likes to
Gallop about doing good
So
One day when I was
Galloping about doing good, I saw
A figure in the path; I said
Get off! (Be-
cause
I am a cat that likes to
Gallop about doing good)
But he did not move, instead
He raised his hand as if
To land me a cuff
So I made to dodge so as to
Prevent him bringing it orf,
Un-for-tune-ately I slid
On a banana skin
Some Ass had left instead
Of putting in the bin. So
His hand caught me on the cheek
I tried
To lay his arm open from wrist to elbow
With my sharp teeth
Because I am
A cat that likes to gallop about doing good.
Would you believe it?
He wasn’t there
My teeth met nothing but air,
But a Voice said: Poor Cat,
(Meaning me) and a soft stroke
Came on me head
Since when
I have been bald.
I regard myself as
A martyr to doing good
Also I heard a swoosh
As of wings, and saw
A halo shining at the height of
Mrs Gubbins’s backyard fence,
So I thought: What’s the good
Of galloping about doing good
When angels stand in the path
And do not do as they should
Such as having an arm to be bitten off
All the same I
Intend to go on being
A cat that likes to
Gallop about doing good
So
Now with my bald head I go,
Chopping the untidy flowers down, to
and fro,
An’ scooping up the grass to show
Underneath
The cinder path of wrath
Ha ha ha ha, ho,
Angels aren’t the only ones who do
not know
What’s what and that
Galloping about doing good
Is a full time job
That needs
An experienced eye of earthly
Sharpness, worth I dare say
(if you’ll forgive a personal note)
A good deal more
Than all that skyey stuff
Of angels that make so bold as
To pity a cat like me that
Gallops about doing good.

 

 

The Galloping Cat by Stevie Smith, via 1

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 The Outfit:

 

Vintage 1970s Sweetheart Neckline Green Dress: from Ebay

 

Pink Shawl: a gift from a friend

 

Vintage Bracelets: passed down from granny Penny

 

Purple Embroidered Pumps: a gift from Barcelona from darling Mr Eve

 

Hoop Vintage Style Earrings: Accessorize

 

 

The Cat:

 

our girl Nico

 

The Soundtrack

 

Django Reinhardt: Anthology

 

 

Photographs taken by me, self portraits using the timer on my little digital camera.

 

I'm delighted to be a part of the next Visible Monday, hosted by the lovely Patti from www.notdeadyetstyle.blogspot.co.uk, click on the website link to see her outfit and those of many others.