A bit of Saturday

I managed a full week of daily postings. From now on you should expect some irregularity. It's good for the soul.

Here, however, are a few pictures and a video from last week.

Taken a few days ago, this video is a master class in risk assessment and environmental analysis. It's not the same to "let things slide" as to just; "slide". I'm learning a lot.

Today is still Saturday. As I mentioned, I'm superstitious. I guess this means that signs or portents or anything which has some resonance with my two neurons, but has absolutely no rational basis, can indicate some hidden pitfall or a great boon.  

First thing this morning, on the way to breakfast, we met a nun in full regalia, wimple and stuff. They often cruise in pairs which would have been ok but this one was a solitary beast. Being dressed up in black and white is the human equivalent of a magpie. We did have a natter with her though, which might mitigate the bad luck, like saying "Hello captain" to the avian variety. Later on we also discovered, or rather the dogs discovered, a black cat that had recently gone to meet his maker. I consider black cats to be lucky, so this is like discovering the death of good fortune.  

Don't be silly daddy!

   

Later on in the day, as you might divine from the photo we went to the beach. And there was no bad luck.
He now has a few very nice habits. Saying hello to everybody, sometimes cars as well. He blows a mean kiss, and says goodbye. He' s almost pronouncing "yes" properly too. On a good day it comes out as, "yea".

After breakfast we take the dogs for their constitutional. At the beginning of the walk, at least, Jacob still goes in the back pack and the dogs drag me cross-country.

Tricky footwear

And some very pretty flowers in the park in Santa Cristina

Various wild flowers on the walk too

Poem for today; (This is a poem that has obsessed me for many years) It's a "rondel" and the structure is very strict and difficult to write. Typically they are based around a very limited number of rhymes and, according to Wikipedia the structure is as follows: The first two lines of the first stanza are refrains, repeating as the last two lines of the second stanza and the third stanza. (Alternately, only the first line is repeated at the end of the final stanza). For instance, if A and B are the refrains, a rondel will have a rhyme scheme of ABba abAB abbaA(B)
The meter is open, but typically has eight syllables. In this one there are ten. It's somewhere between a song and a prayer.

From To X 
 

The car arrived that brought you to the place: 
As you got out I saw your very groin. 
Thus goddesses, nude upon a distant quoin 
Reveal their chaste religion to the race. 

The aged, usual guests who sit or pace, 
By chance I casually wandered out to join: 
The car arrived that brought you to the place; 
As you got out I saw your very groin. 

Later it seemed impossible to trace, 
As you politely spooned your macedoine, 
That I had known the dark skin near the loin; 
Already in another time and space 
The car arrived that brought you to the place. 

* * * 

The long road greyly striping scarp and vale 
Ran from the city to our meeting place. 
You came by quieter and more devious ways. 
Like beasts, our two cars rested nose to tail. 

I left a lie behind to smudge the trail, 
And, conjuring up your speculative embrace 
(The long road greyly striping scarp and vale), 
Ran from the city to our resting place. 

Whose lie was it made the sunshine fail, 
Who knows? It was a fairly equal case. 
Rain started, as I set out to retrace 
(Passing at first your face, returning, pale) 
The long road greyly striping scarp and vale. 

* * * 

I rediscovered during our affair 
Perceptions that in my Dark Age had gone. 
How, say, astonishingly high upon 
The spine the fastening of a brassiere. 

That every trivial thing in earth and air 
Can constitute a mysterious eidolon, 
I rediscovered during our affair. 
Perceptions that in my dark age had gone 

(The prurient disproportion of the bare: 
Pinks, so conceived of, nearer cinnamon), 
But that the gift of the youthful simpleton 
To make dearth richness was in disrepair, 
I rediscovered during our affair. 

* * * 

From the great distance at the end of caring 
I saw our weak attempt at happiness; 
Of you recalled a certain buttoned dress, 
Cringed at my characteristic lack of daring. 

The tortuous machinery of pairing 
In our case seemed of utter pointlessness 
From the great distance at the end of caring. 
I saw our weak attempt at happiness 

Related only to the lust for sparing 
Our lives the terror of complete success. 
And gone the absorbing, vital kind of chess 
I played to bring about your baring, 
From the great distance at the end of caring.