Desdemona’s Presence

Mist on the still fields' early dawn.

Pregnant with false perception, 

I fall below the horizon.

On occasion clouds obscure me,

Sometimes I am so thin you look right through me,

Or you don’t even raise your eyes.

Cast down at the floor or to your hand,

Oblivious days distend to weeks.

Yet I am still here, constant, stalking 

An incipient tiptoeing presence then a sudden ambush!

A spiked bright sickle jagged in your eye

I am eternally present, where were you. 

Moon shadows and mushrooms

So, who else got up in the middle of the night to see the ... (take a deep breath) lunar eclipse blood red supermoon? Or perhaps you have more stamina than me and you just stayed up?

The above is a really brilliant photo taken by one of my Facebook friends, Tracy Green, in her garden, in the cold, using her I-phone and a pair of binoculars, dressed only in her PJs.

This one was taken by MTM at about the same time to show scale. When we walked Missy before bed, the moon was so full and round and bright, we were casting moon shadows. It's no wonder before we had astronomy predicting these events people got frightened by the moon slowly disappearing and turning red without any warning.

I like both photographs but I think Tracy's is really super. She also takes marvellous shots of various fungi she comes across on her dog walks, she often posts fabulous close ups of all kinds of mushrooms. Of course, it's an ideal time of year for that though I think (hope) she gets dressed for those expeditions ...!

Moonbeams and trees

I'm very fond of the moon, I particularly love it when you can see the moon during the day; so different than when she's out at night. During the hours of darkness, on a clear night, she's a beacon and you can't miss her, she demands you look, admire and wonder at her majesty.

On a clear blue sparklingly shiny day like today, she's almost in disguise. Here she is tippy-toeing through the tree tops pretending she's a little bitty cloud. Mysterious and cloaking her true nature but still inspiring and drawing the tides, still "chaste and fair" and "seated in thy silver chair" (Ben Johnson). It calls to mind another poet, Ted Hughes who says of the moon

"The moon has stepped back like an artist gazing amazed at a work 
That points at him amazed".

To more mundane matters, removal plans are going well but to DH's chagrin, I have gone into list mode. If I have things recorded and written down so I don't forget, it enables me to sleep at night! I had a list for jobs that needed doing on Sunday (complete in total, all items ticked off and list disposed of). Still to be completed is the "List of moving jobs to do the first half of the week" (4 items left to complete but I've still got Wednesday morning to finish that one off!)

The next list is the "List of moving jobs to do the second half of the week", it's the longest of them all but on the plus side, one of them is already crossed out!

Shorter lists are the "List of moving jobs to do on pack up day" (Monday) and "List of moving jobs to do on day of move" (Tuesday). Wow, so this time next week, we should be safely domiciled in our new home.

One of the Sunday jobs was to sweep the paved area outside the backdoor. I swear I did this but look - it already needs doing again.

The horse chestnut and willow trees in and around the garden are half way through shedding. But I think I'm going to get away with the major leaf event in our garden which is when this ash tree shrugs off its foilage.

Look it's still green, will it stay that way for another week?!