CONNIKA

FROM MY WINDOW TODAY

It's been a pretty dreich day today but at least we're getting some rain.  We've had quite a cloudy week.  What is it Mr Elliott said of Mr Prufrock?  'Let us go then, you and I, when the evening is spread out against the sky like a patient etherised upon a table..."   The photo on the computer?  'Memories' of walking with Emma in the early morning sunshine as the market was being set up in Nice.

A fuller picture of the markets...

Just remembered another 'memory' from Nice and line to match from Mr Prufrock...

...I grow old...I grow old...I shall wear the bottoms of my trousers rolled.  Shall I part my hair behind?  Do I dare to eat a peach?  I shall wear white flannel trousers, and walk upon the beach...

Think I've done my dash for the day dear readers.

Au revoir!

 

 

 

 

IT'S EMMA'S BIRTHDAY TODAY

I cannot believe it's been thirty six years since this girl was born.  I remember the beautiful poetry book David brought into the hospital, the continual tears of joy, the nuns who moved around quietly in the afternoons, shutting out the light for us to 'rest', the crazy dreams, the visitors, cards, flowers, and when I was home again, a photograph taken with her in my arms and a yellow daffodil in my hand to record that she was born as Spring was starting to appear.

GOD'S GRANDEUR

 

GOD'S GRANDEUR (Gerald Manley Hopkins)

The world is charged with the grandeur of God.

It will flame out, like shining from shook foil;

It gathers to a greatness, like the ooze of oil

Crushed.  Why do men then now not reck his rod?

Generations have trod, have trod, have trod;

And all is seared with trade;  bleared, smeared with toil;

and wears man's smudge and shares man's smell:  the soil

Is bare now, nor can foot feel, being shod.

 

And for all this, nature is never spent;

There lives the dearest freshness deep down things;

And though the last lights off the black West went

Oh, morning, at the brown brink eastward, springs -

Because the Holy Ghost over the bent

World broods with warm breast and with ah! bright wings. 

AN EARLY START

To say that we made the most of every moment we were in Nice isn't an exaggeration.  Here's our early start - street lights still on and the moon still up!

THE RUSSIANS ARE COMING!

On the first day that Emma and I arrived in Nice, we decided to take an hour's bus ride around the city to get a feel for the place.  The bus took in the esplanade area, the old town and the hills above Nice. 

The earliest "tourists" to come to Nice were Russian - and some eventually settled there building huge homes overlooking the bay.  The architecture in this area is described as Baroque.

NICE

Yes it's Nice in France!   Emma and I flew over for a long weekend this past weekend.  Although we were only there for 3 nights, we walked our socks off in seeing the place.  This is one particular walk we did which took us up into the hills around the city.  On arrival, the first thing that hit me was the art deco architecture, the "world" walking on the esplanade, the rocky beach which is broken up into private and public bays and the blue, blue sea of the Cote D'Azur.  This photo is over the small harbour where ferries come in from Corsica and Sardinia and the war memorial in the distance.  More postings on Nice to come. 

SERVING ALE FOR OVER 900 YEARS

First day in England, we headed off to the ancient pub The Royal Standard in Beaconsfield, Buckinghamshire for lunch.  It was such a culture change from one day being in the cold, dry winter of Toowoomba to the warm English summer of Buckinghamshire.  The inside of this pub is just gorgeous and after lunch, we headed up the side lane to do a lovely walk - the first of many walks over stiles and through wheat fields. 

HAPPY BIRTHDAY EMMA

It was dear Emma's birthday yesterday.  She, her husband Michael and two boys Hamish and Angus live in Buckinghamshire, England and I'm going to see them NEXT WEEK!!!!  Yipee!!!