Woods full of snowdrops and bluebells

Waiting with anticipation

The past couple of days have been surprisingly mild and even some sun!
As I wander the wee garden I look for signs of spring. Primavera is such a beautiful word for spring. At the very moment small snowdrops around the front door are peaking out. The Japanese quince bush has tiny buds, and I have spotted other bulb appearances around. No flowers other than snowdrops. They are so dear to me like wild primroses are also. Spring in England can be summed up by snowdrops, pale yellow primroses and bluebells.
The call of the curlew and the larks too, when they return we know spring is here.
Primavera, the first truth?
Spring is my season I love spring. It fills me with such excitement and love of life again. Joie de vivre.
To express myself I feel as though I need all languages at my fingertips my tongue tip rather.
Growing up bi-lingual I felt as though I existed in an interface between two languages/cultures etc and it was in that space that all was fluid and could be essentially merged. Later in the world at large it was either one or the other.
This needed adjustment and I think it is therefore I really love talking and thinking to myself where I can use whatever words I wish as long as I understand them!
Tell me about your spring.

Sky Stones by Linda Gordon in Devon

Go to the link www.throughstones.wordpress.com and see the new piece by Linda Gordon who is a Devon resident. It is called Sky Stones and it is beautiful. Congratulations Linda! The piece is up in "person" and if you look at the link you can get all the information you may need. Enjoy!
See under links on this blog.

Robert Burns 250 years anniversary!

Robert Burns House and museum in Dumfries, Scotland.

Cottage where Robert Burns was born.

Robert Burns Center on the river Nith in Dumfries.

The Scottish poet Robbie Burns was born 250 years ago today. Above I show the cottage where he was born and then the house he lived in in Dumfries.
Last year I was fortunate enough to be invited to the Burns Center in Dumfries to show the presentation film for In Person 30 Poets and this was in conjunction with an excellent reading by Moniza Alvi. The evening was superb with a friendly audience and a fabulous Indian meal afterwards with lovely people from the center. We stayed at an Arts and Crafts style B and B run by a former PC!

All over today people have celebrated with haggis and single malt and what have you!
I just like to recite his poetry and remember from my childhood my father reciting by heart and one of my favourite books was a Robert Burns with soft tartan covers!

The Chinese New Year of the Ox

Congratulations and celebrations!

To the new First Family in the White House!

Martin Luther King Day

I had a very weird day today! Obama was out there painting walls blue and I went to Newcastle to see two shows at UNN in their university galleries then to the Baltic to see the Fluxus exhibition and Yoko Ono. So far so good.
Then to Brighton Grove to an Asian grocers where we bought spices, herbs, mango pulp, coconut cream, green chili paste, baby aubergines, lovely bulbous garlic and ginger, okra/ladies fingers?!, lentils for dal etc. After that we had a delicious meal at Komal, where we had not been before, which is just around the corner.
Then off to the BBC where Neil did an interview for an Irish Arts radio program on Elizabeth Alexander the Inaugural poet, in the meanwhile I sat reading the New York Review of Books in the lobby getting distracted by Eastenders on and off.
What made the day weird was going to Tesco at the end of it to do a major shop! I cannot deal with that place, I detest large supermercados...yet we were in there for what seemed like hours getting the basics. Like kitkats...
Anyhow driving back home in the dark the sky was very dark and the stars crystal clear. Just as we got to Otterburn however it started snowing and we drove on virgin roads with what looked like stardust on them. Beautiful!
Cannot wait for tomorrow-let the sun shine!