STAINED BEAUTY

What beauty can be found in little french village churches.................

From outside......

to inside !

Magnificent in their colours!

ALEX'S TRIBUTE TO HIS GRANDMOTHER

My Grandmother Louise.

I remember her hands,

work-worn and scaly

against my feathers.

Daily scrubbed in service

when she was a young girl and

never idle a moment.

Working fingers. Lean, like her voice,

always correct and

always correcting me, sharply,

best as she knew how.

Hands that bathed me.

Hands that chastised me.

Hands that fed me, filled my own

with the strength a child needs.

Hands that loved me like her own.

Hands that knew pain; that felt,

through the hardy skin,

her love, only one, lifelessly

slip through her fingers

(to rest her hands from his weight)

Hands that touched winter

and denied the cold,

half-way to heaven as the knuckles

told her life in knotches.

These were the hands that shone stone

for a living, a lifetime;

the hands I remember

ground to the bone.

By Alex

my beloved husband who passed away 27th March 2001.

SUNSET IN FRANCE

I was inspired to post these pictures, after visiting cori's blog , as it is true that some photographs never look quite as good when they are posted up, particularly if your blog will not support a larger size? I remembered that I had taken these in November last year, one evening when the sky was really blood red. By the time I had fetched the camera the colour had dissipated a bit, but I was quite pleased with the pink hue it gave everything!

Nature is wonderful isn't it?

HAPPY MOTHERS DAY

TO ALL MUMS OUT THERE .........

IT'S RAINING BOWS !

What fun I had tracking the rainbows! But I didn't find the crock of gold though :(

A TWITCH OF SEVERAL NERVES

A TWITCH OF SEVERAL NERVES.

Bird,

wings, wind arriving.

Clock,

fell sun, face diving.

Darker as bones cramp,

a skivvy for Time.

Discreet sky: a line,

late, perhaps the bird

at flight, or a word

was unwound straight,

merry on its hook.

The stained fingers

that wrote it, long mute,

wearing an ashtray

for their grave of talk.

Twitch,

the silk bird grieving.

Cold,

listen, wind leaving.

By Alex,

copyright delphine

AN ANNOUNCEMENT !

Wonderful news which I would like to share ....

The day before yesterday my sixth great grandchild was born! A beautiful little girl.... mother and baby doing fine, she weighed in at 6lb 12 oz and her name is Natasha!

and here she is less than 24 hours old.......

My family now consists - 4 children ( all girls), 11 grandchildren ( 5 girls and 6 boys) and 6 great grandchildren ( 5 girls and 1 boy) -- isn't that wonderful!

To me that is what life is all about---families .

THE BEAUTY OF FORSYTHIA

Forsythia is a beautiful flowering plant , native to China and was discovered by Robert Fortune a great eighteenth century plant hunter. It was named after William Forsyth who was Director of the Chelsea Physic Gardens in 1770, and one of the founders of the Royal Horticultural Society.



I love the way it blooms before the leaves push through, because you can pick and display the budding branches and watch the pretty lemon flowers open day by day until it is in full bloom.




and this is what I picked two days ago, nearly in full bloom, heralding he Spring!