Firing up Autumn

Reflect

      on these flowers…

            those colours…

clashing, unco-ordinated,
sky blue with burnt orange
lemon against scarlet.

Yet here, reclining by the garden shed

michaelmas daisies drowse and fall

where chinese lanterns’ fiery brilliance

weave through the smouldering fuschias

exulting in their own exuberance…         

while in the dusk, the evening primrose

glows pale in the half-light, illuminates

the burning beds of early Autumn,

and nearby a red admiral,

          the glittering remnant of dying summer.

 

© Sue Burley

September2018 

 

Returning from Buxton

You set me down in the lane, not far,

just half-a-mile from the five-barred gate,

so weary from the tourist trail round

the pump room and pavilion gardens.

I stand entranced by the buttercup fields,

fat lambs tugging at their wary mothers,

and the slope pushing up to dense woods,

mystical and shadowed in bluish haze.

You know I need this solitude –

to admire the pair of sleek swallows

refining their high wire act and hear

pheasants rasp from fragrant hedgerows.   

Tempting to linger; but there you are

at the door waiting, and the path back

threads between high, hay-scented meadows.

                             Nearby, cars grumble over cattle grids.

© Sue Burley Rev. April 2015

(Published in Summer 2015 ed of  "The Dawntreader"

and "Old Malden News," June 2017.)

A Spring Garden

Impatient for summer

her bare toes curl, settle

into soft moss; she savours

sweet violets, but dreams of lilac.

Catching her eye a pale brimstone

lemon yellow, sails on waves of air.

Snow blossom unlocks a fragrance

with the promise of summer's plenty.

Nearby. the willow's green mist quivers.

A sharp breeze cools the wavering sun.

She shuts the garden shed, breathes in

the freshness of cut grass and shivers.

Sue Burley

'A Spring Garden', was published in the Spring Issue

of "The Dawntreader" 2017

My grandchildren have updated the Christmas 2016 Mural, to become the "EASTER DAY Mural"
 or the Murial as we call it!!


There was much fun creating this!!

Before Christmas, I encouraged two of my grandchildren to paint a Nativity scene on the hall wall.

This is what they came up with................

 

 



 I've not regretted it, as it turned out to be a great project.  And sometime in the Spring, the hall and landing will be completely redecorated!!!

I found this gem while reading the daily paper. . . . . . . . .

At present my life is a bit upside down, and this struck a chord and made me think:
It is a parable as told to a child by his grandfather.

Grandfather:
There are two wolves inside us who are always at war with each other.

The good wolf represents kindness, goodness and love.
The bad wolf represents greed, hatred and fear.

The boy thinks for a second and says,  "Grandfather, which one wins?"
The Grandfather quietly replies:           " The one you feed".


(As told by Sarfraz Manzoor - journalist)
                                                              

Summer's End

There is the sun, pale but slowly lifting

through smoky shreds of tangled cloud,

and overhead the moon becalmed and fading.

Such tender days give no sign of easing,
though captive leaves sigh for the clench of frost
and fumbling bees are somnolent and loitering.

Beneath my feet, the luscious grass still springing

near scarlet hips already ripe, yet
summer’s breeze is warm and softly lingering.

In truth there has to be an ending,

but turning leaves drift one by one –
so calm the fall; so strong the sap still rising.


Published in 'The Dawntreader', Summer 2016