Another Small Stone - A Hedgerow Heart...

(You may need to click on this to read it larger!)

 

Here's the Small Stone that fluttered its way into my notebook this week - though it is maybe a little long for a small stone and a bit ragged around the edges. 

Earlier this week one frosty cold morning, I rescued a tiny wren from the paws of my Mum & Dad's cat. She seemed unharmed and I could hardly feel her at all as she sat calmly and patiently in my hand.

I was enthralled by the brightness of her black glitter eyes, there seemed so much spirit contained within that fragile form, light as breath. Her beak was like a single curved blackthorn, a tiny embodiment of Hedgerow and breezes and wild greeness. She didn't cower or tremble in my hand, just waited, full of awareness, sparkling with it.

A bit blurry - sorry!

 We took her across the field and I opened my hand where she coiled poised for a heartbeat on my palm before fluttering into the hedgerow. She could fly and perch on the fence wire, so I hope she was strong enough after her tangle with the cat to get away safe and rest.
I was intrigued by the spirit of her, the bright spark of her enfolded in feathers.
I'm sure she has more songs to sing.

Of Twilight ramblings and Mood Demons...

Well, for the first time in a long time I had an afternoon to myself while the children were at Grandma & Gramps, but I just couldn't focus on producing any artwork - frustrating. All I managed was this rather half hearted sketch which grew onto the page as a manifestation of my mood!
However, restless as I was today, there was so much stunning imagery around to soak in and store up... Looking up into the blue, blue space between apple leaves and willow leaves reaching towards each other, sunlit leaves and bluest blue sky, there were drifts of willow catkin seeds, small thistledown travellers upon the softest breeze. Now and then the bright Swallow flash of ink blue wings and white throat cut across the flawless window of azure, birdsong everywhere...

And last night we sat out through all the slow changes of twilight till midnight around the fire bowl in the night hushed garden drinking Talisker... So it has been words and not images that have come to me these past days... As we watched and listened to the unravelling dusk I scrawled down the raw thoughts as they unfolded with the changing moments... By no means 'poetry' or any kind of wordcraft, here are a few disjointed lines of night thoughts...

The birds sang the day in, now they sing the day out...
I sit in the woody fragrance of the twilit fire
and hear the birds calling their roosting songs,
back and forth
across the moth-misted meadow...

Bats flicker low over cow parsley glowing
star-pale in the diminishing light.
The fragile rose colours have faded beyond the Sky's edge...
The sky deepens again
from duck-egg frailty
to a sonorous depth of blue.
Venus burns, bright metal cold
between black leaves.
A half moon shimers
beyond the rising smoke haze...

A fox barks out
again and again
far drifting across the night meadow
blood curdled shriek piercing the hush of gathering darkness.
No owls call yet tonight
their absence is a gap in the night's rhythm...
Finally, 10:50 pm
We hear the first scolding Toowhitt - Toowhitt
brisk and sudden...

The circle of firelight
becomes intimate, close
the world retreating into darkness beyond.
A lone screech rises up out of the valley,
a peacock's ragged pride
eerie with imagined grief.

A nail in charred wood
trails vivid turquoise
tendrils of flame...

I hope my twilight ramblings haven't been too tiresome! But it was a beautiful soft evening and there's nothing so soothing as listening the night sounds unfold around a quiet fire as the light changes...!
So anyway, after my somewhat restless day that followed such a peaceful night, I cheered myself up by gathering some flowers from my garden to remind me of moths, twilight, and the arrival of glorious summer! I will share them with you too...


(p.s. Castell Henllys is not forgotten, an Iron Age post is on its way...!)