A Poem to Note the First Glimpses of Autumn

The geraniums on the balcony/the sound of the sea on the pebbles/seagulls gliding at eye level/or balcony level/grey sea/grey sky/a feeling of Autumn/the scent of nemesia.

It ought to be possible to turn that into a poem. I think it was the seagulls swooping at eye level in front of our balcony that were the strongest note in the symphony.

We have had some rain recently, some grey and cloudy days, and the sea has been noisy on the pebbles. I have been loving it all and wishing I could manage a poem about this moment when summer starts to tip towards Autumn.

I want to say that no matter how long I live - and how many seascapes I see - I will never see the one I saw then. I will never see the same one twice, such is the glory and variety of Jehovah's creation. 

So here goes - and I am trying not to look like "the actor Wolf Hall" in Upstart Crow, just before he auditions his very important and sensitive rendering of Thomas More.

Balconyscape   by me

It was there for a moment

cloud moving, sea so nearly still

balcony geraniums 

waving gently to the grey Channel

nemesia scenting the warm air

it was a symphony punctuated by seagulls

gliding at balcony height 

But where are our murmuring starlings? 

will they come tomorrow

and be part of the many scapes I hope to see 

as the years, the millennia go by, 

loving them - loving all of it - more and more

as they come and they go.

Well, for the moment, that is the best I can do.  

I sat out on the balcony in the sun on Monday morning, starting my study for the week, continuing in the Book of Acts, noting this week how the original Christian congregation was ordered, and how the congregation is organised in the same way today.  In fact I sat out there so long I was a bit late for our Monday Zoom, only to find that neither of my sisters had arrived, it was just John waiting - and he had only just arrived himself. Anyway, in the end we all appeared, along with the Derby family, and had a nice Zoom session.

Nute has had a swing, a proper swing, put up in the garden!   How wonderful. Exactly what I would want if we had a garden.  I would love a sunken bath too - but it is possible that the flat downstairs might not be too keen about it.