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29th June: Ten Things of Thankful

June 29, 2026June 29, 2026humanist55

Things for which I give thanks this week…

Sensitivity Warning – there are a lot of plants in this week’s post so Hay fever sufferers, read at your discretion…

1.- Our Olive Tree seems to have loved the weather this Summer has seen fit to throw at it the heat waves alternating with rainy days and has produced a bumper crop of its tiny flowers – whether these translate into olives remains to be seen – the conversion rate never seems to be that high – but meanwhile we live in hope!

2.- I promised you some Cyanotrope prints in last week’s post and yesterday, I duly unpacked the flower press and made my first prints – I think everybody starts with pressed flowers and grasses…

But I also made a giant negative in Photoshop by first turning a picture black and white and then inverting it and printing it onto transparent inkjet film – the resulting negative can then be used to make a cyanotrope print…

3.- We went out on Saturday, to Harlow Carr Gardens in nearby Harrogate. It is run by the Royal Horticultural Society and offers interest all year round – even in winter with illumiations…

Barbara, pretty in pink and echoing this rose arch that leads to a sub-tropical garden…

The thing about big gardens is that they allow for big drifts of a single species – so here, as Clark would say, are Something Someting…

and this drift of Someting Something Alliums…

Not the prettiest coloured alliums but unusual and like a tiny city of Fairy mushroom houses…

4.- Of course its not all flowers that are worth seeing – below some interesting architectural ideas – -possible projects to beautify the estate, Clark?

Fancy stonework forming a bridge over a stream…

An insect hotel complete with a living roof…

And a classic living roof on the bike shed – lots of Sedums I think…

5.- There are always amusing names to be seen…

6.- Back in our own more modest garden, I have often noticed how weeds can get to quite a size before we notice them providing that they resemble the plants next to them. The left-hand picture below shows my favourite Allium, I only have the one bulb, and it grows slowly, to a prodigious height and when it finally colours up, it resembles a large Loganberry. Behind it to the left and in the right-hand picture, is a grass and I cannot decide if it is common (and therfore a weed in my book) or an ornamental grass – either way, it has a head almost the same size as the allium and I was late to spot it and put it on “weed-watch”…

And talking of disguises – here are some cacti disguised as Yeti…

7.- Enough of plants – I am grateful for the thoughts that comments provoke and last week, Clark, yes, him again, asked, in the light of my modded “Mod” scooter picture “So, tell us… your youth, Mod or Rocker? (my money is on your being (or at least sympathizing with) the Mods?”. Well, I struggled with this, to all intents and purposes, I was neither – not as in belonging to or dressing like either cohort. I don’t really appreciate those tight suits the Mods wore though I appreciate the ir desire to look smart at weekends after shitty jobs during the week. On the other hand, I also have a sneaking admiration for the Rebel Rockers. Truth be told i am not much of a joiner of groups and my sister yesterday told me that neither is she, and that she is reading a book “The Gift of Not Belonging: How Outsiders Thrive in a World of Joiners” which looks at explore the distinct personality style of the otrovert ― someone who lacks the communal impulse and does not fit in with any social group… Of course, I do belong to certain online groups, such as this august body! But back to Mods v. Rockers – what I do appreciate from both camps is the music – Paul Weller and the Style Council, The Kinks on the one hand and Deep Purple and Meatloaf on the other. So I don’t know if that answers your question, Clark…

8. The heatwave is over 31.5 C in the living room is too much!

9.- My cyanotrope prints and lino prints which I also intend to do, give me a much less arduous source of postcards for the Poetry Postcard Festival which begins in early July and runs to end of August. Last year saw me making original postcard-sized paintings for the 31 recipients, which was a welcome return to painting but a lot of work. It is interesting to make and give away original art that you havent’t lived with for a while – teaches the Zen of non-attachment…
You can see last years efforts here. And if you fancy having a go at the Poetry Postcard Festival – its not to late to sign up here.

10.- Managed to complete anothe week’s 10 grats…

Have a great week y’all – hope you have the weather you desire or need…

Hush was a breakthrough song for Deep Purple and on one level it is a pop song with catchy lyrics but underneth is a throbbing, driving energy that can scarcely be contained…

Musings

June 26, 2026June 26, 2026humanist55

I would love to have a muse, I think
faced with a blank page
or a knotty prompt
she would be there in a blink
with ideas and inspiration
chewing the cud, I imagine
her gifts to me quite gratis
she would require
no acknowledgement
of our collaboration
a relationship too good to be true

Why are muses generally “she”
or is it in opposition to
the poet’s gender
– opposites attract and all that
can I pay to go on a course
to get my gal
is there an Agency for muses
that pairs you up like speed dating
could AI write me the perfect
letter of application – guaranteed
to find the perfect match
a muse for life – no shallow fling
here today
abandoned to blank page
tomorrow

Instead, if I choose
to accept this prompt
or if I wake with an itch
that only the laying down
of poetry can sooth
I face each piece of poesie
on my own, flying solo
never knowing where the words
will take me on today’s adventure
but within a moment
the idea arrives
the point of departure
then buckle up for the ride
here goes blue sky thinking…

Over at dVerse Poets Pub, Grace in Meeting the Bar: Critique and Craft, brings us a last prompt before our two-week Summer break and its a doosie – an Ars Poetica that goes to the heart of our craft of writing poems…

21st June: Ten Things of Thankful

June 21, 2026June 21, 2026humanist55

Things for which I give thanks this week…

1. – We managed a day out to Hebden Bridge where we stopped at our regular coffee shop and managed to fill in all the obvious words in the Daily Mail Saturday mega crossword whic h required ongoing coaxing and focus to achieve. the Daily Mail is an obnoxious tabloid rag but we buy it only for the crossword – the rest goes straight to the outside lavatory for toilet paper ) or would if we had one…)
I didn’t take any pictures except this one to illustrate how steep the town is at its fringes – follow that road up – it must reach 1:3…

2.- I have been preparing for two new hobbies bookbinding – I have some volumes that are precious but in need of some repairs – and cyanotrope print making – as always, as soon a s you watch one video of something on Facebook, your feed is flooded with them! I sent for a book on bookbinding and as my friend Akua is running a Mini-book exchange of Speculative Poetry books, my first attempt is a concertina fold miniature book containing a single poem…

Everything is miniature except for the bow since I can’t tie one smaller than this!

3.- Cyanotropes prints are made by coating paper or fabric with special chemicals (which I have now ordered) – placing plants, feathers, stencils or negatives onto the prepared sheet and exposing it to sunlight (ultra-violet) and once washed, the exposed areas turn dark blue. As a young teen, our neighbour’s son, who was doing a PhD in chemistry, made up a chemistry set although he didn’t follow through with any experiments to do! I managed to spill on e clear liquid on my bedroom carpet and to my horror, it turned into an ever darkening stain – I have reason to believe that this was one and the same chemical…
I used to have a large flower press when we lived in Ireland but abandonded the wooden bits when we moved back, but kept the threaded rods and so to furnish materials for the cyanotrope prints, I have cut some new pieces of wood and on the way back from Hebden Bridge, picked some bits and pieces to press – watch this space…

4.- In one of the living room (upstairs) windows, is a Yucca plant which has grown evermore contorted as it fills the available space and last year, I had to remove a branch which was growing into the room, spindily from lack of light. I cut it up and planted the lengths in pots from which I got two successful takes.

The two babies are shown below, however, growing in the foreground pot, is a vigorous “weed” called Creeping Wood Sorrel. I showed you some of my windowsill gardens before and in one of them, which my late sister planted, was this self same plant. It has trefoil leaves like clover and whilst the plants in the office are spindly from lack of water (the rest of the garden are drought tolerant succulents) nevertheless, it not only returns each year but displays an astonishing trick. Once the minute seed pods are ready. the fling out their seeds – explosively – and we find them not only coating the windowsill but stuck to the paintwork 2 and a half feet above.

The wonders of Nature know no bounds…

5.- Evidence of our English eccentricity, below is a scooter belonging to a neighbour just around the corner. If you are English, you will recognise this pimped up scooter as as the preferred mode of transport of the “Mods” – “celebrated” in the film Quadrophenia which features the music of The Who…

Apparently the Mods are still alive and well and at least one lives round the corner…

6.- Our run of rainy weather has been replaced with another heatwave – it will reach 30°C on Wednesday…

7. My beloved New Jersey based writing group is taking its Summer break after tomorrow but that will let me type up some of the pieces before the Autumn as well as have time to do the Poetry Postcard Festival in August – if you are interested in sending 31 spontaneous postcard poems to strangers (and receiving 31 back) you can sign up here.

8.- Glad to see the numbers at this here TToT are rising and enjoying the new contributors of gratitude…

9.- Glad for my health…

10.- Glad to feel, as my friend Akua says by way of a signature expression “Joy in the Making”…

Have a wonderful week y’all…

Utility saints

June 19, 2026June 19, 2026humanist55

If only I had been born Catholic
a Saint for every occasion
Saint Anthony would have been on speed-dial
since I was always losing things
I was well known for it—that and
forgetting what I was going to the shop for
but now I have acquired the habit
of carrying a little black notebook sadly
not for the phone numbers of paramours
but that I might return from the shops
with what I went for, amongst other things
and when, as a vicarious observer
of the sainted folks, I heard of
Saint Jude, Patron Saint of Lost Causes
I had a sneaking affection for him
I bet he would know how
to help a serial forgetter of shopping.

Over at dVerse Poets Pub, Björn Rudberg (brudberg) in Uncategorized, invites us to submit a poem of our choice for Open Link Night which will also be live on Saturday 20th 10 AM on New York time…

14th June: Ten Things of Thankful

June 14, 2026June 14, 2026humanist55

Things for which I give thanks this week…

Grateful to keep my hand in with surveying and drawing up buildings. My boss met a fellow Pakistani entrepreneur whilst on a recent business trip to China (Its a small world) and we went to Bolton for me to draw it up with a view to creating a self-storage warehouse…

I had to take Barbara for a blood-test in Skipton and thefar bank of the stream which runs past the surgery, was lined with Angelica. I love the sweet, herbal taste of Angelica. I once infused some stem and some Fennel heads in gin – a great success… Angelica, whilst not rare, is rarely seen in such profusion hereabouts…

And also at the peak of its blossom this week, is Elderflower. I remember my parents attempting to make Elderflower Champagne but every bottle exploded…

I have not shared a texture photo for a while but I happened upon a sleeping dragon and quietly photographed its scales!

Truthfully, it was a car front grille that caught my eye in the supermarket car park and an *amuse buoche*, as I crouched to take the phote, a woman leaped out of the driver’s door asking what was wrong – I hadn’t noticed the two women sitting chatting inside lol…

After the blood test, Barbara and I drove to our son’s house in Leeds to deliver an important medical letter (he is still registered at our surgery so his post comes here) – it was raining as it has all month and so harly suitable for an outdoor coffee (outside for smoking unfortunately) but unwilling to drive staight home, we made ourselves post-men. It was a two-hour round trip so I put mt Spotify on to entertain us, and more than once, i found myself tearing up at the tracks that shuffled on. The first time I found myself unable to sing a song (accompanied by my ukulele), was Elvis Presley’s In the Ghetto – both the sincerity of Elvis’ delivery and the nature of the song made it impossible for me to sing it. On our trip to Leeds, on e tearing up was The Walking Song – paean to friendship by the late Kate McGarrigle and her sister Anna. The other was Strange Fruit – the Nina Simone cover, although Billie Holiday’s original is equally if not more powerful.

It occurred to me, that this tearing up is a form of gratitude – for the life and musical contribution of a singer no longer with us, or for a deep sentiment painfully articulated…

A pen-pal of mine wrote a poem for her acquaintance, the late, great Sonny Rollins which you can find here…

On which note I wish you all a safe and happy week…

Elevenses

June 12, 2026June 12, 2026humanist55

At the eleventh hour we stop for tea
biscuits – bourbons, custard creams and digestives
birthday cakes for birthday boys and girls we see
abstemious or decadent their choice lives
or dies, pointer to their personality
but cake is cake, no judgement do we give
anything that elevates the office day
is most welcome so we always like to say
a merry office band forged in this routine
so that whatever friction there has been
dissolves in tea, lasting discord seldom seen…

Over at dVesre Poets Pub, Laura Bloomsbury in Meeting the Bar: Critique and Craft is the mistress of poetic form and today invites us too write either a Hendecastich , a form by Michael Fantina, or the one I have chosen to write to (first rhyming scheme) – The Eleventh Power by Christina Jussaume:

11 line poem
1 stanza
11 syllables per line
rhyme scheme of abababccddd or ababababccc,
an uplifting theme

An Inquisition of Punctuation

June 10, 2026June 10, 2026humanist55

Is poetry a written form
or is it meant to be read
aloud if only by
the voice in your head
Concrete poems would convey
nothing of their shape by recitation
whilst Limericks demand
reading aloud their ribald rhymes
no hesitation
and if as poet you hope for
someone else to do the honours
consider giving a little guidance
in the matter of delivery
a comma gives the slightest pause
especially midline for line breaks
require not the little tadpole
or even a period’s emphatic end
I like a space hyphen space
to indicate a slightly Longer pause or
see line three for a positive gap
a dramatic pause
a pause for effect

In Ulysses
James Joyce
gives us a manifesto
for stream of consciousness
but Virginia Woolf in Mrs Dalloway
reads so much easier
the stream guided with a
modicum of punctuation

Unlike composers of music
we poets are not tyrants
issuing cryptic instructions
in superscript
for volume and speed
forte and piano
andante and lente
leaving limited room for
conductors’ interpretation
we poets trust our readers
to read and rehearse
to infuse the best intonation

The semicolon has no place
in poetry or fiction
that tadpole crowned with a dot
and do all questions
require a question mark
I’ll let you be the judge

And so to round off poems
stories and comments
my addiction is to the ellipsis
whose merits I have debated with
tonight’s muse and I think
she is persuaded that
it means so much more than
duh duh duh
for me the ellipsis
leaves a little open
forgoes finality
invites contemplation
if not response
and so I give you
an imaginary ellipsis

Over at dVerse Poets Pub, Melissa Lemay in Uncategorized (Poetics), invites us to write without punctuation…

7th June: Ten Things of Thankful

June 7, 2026June 7, 2026humanist55

Things for which I give thanks this week…

Misky’s series of poems The Old Woman With No Cat which always makes me smile if not laugh out loud – the entire series is available to read here: The Old Woman With No Cat.
I have come to the top of the waiting list for a partial lower denture courtesy of the student dentists at Leeds Dental Hospital. I have been a volunteer patient for the students on and off since 2015 and have passed through the hands of about 5 or 6 generations of studnts. Treatment is free bar your dedication to turning up every other week for a whole morning or afternoon. I enjoy the contact with this age group, the free treatment up to and including, crowns, bridges, and now a denture. I also enjoy popping into the Leeds Art Gallery and taking a look at som favourite paintings.
I hope I haven’t shown you this before, but it is a large painting (c 9′ x 5′) of a Norwegian fiord and both the painting and the subject are stupendous…

4. I am grateful that before the age of photography, painters recorded scenes of historical significance – even if they had to employ considerable imagination. The painting below tells a sad tale form the days of the infamous British Empire and yet another ill-fated attempt to control Afghanistan. You can read the story below…

5. Summer is the time for nature in all ots fecundity and I offer a selection of “weeds” which have caught my eye this week…

I don’t know what these purple “weeds” are but one man’s weeds are another man’s flowers…

Albrecht Durer painted a littlr watercolour of a “foot of grass” and in this tribute, you can see how many plants have colonised what began as planted grass – clover, dandelions, buttercups, and I can see at least two species of grass and i don’t know what else…

This is no weed except by virtue of its growing in the wrong place – it is, I think, Wheat!

Some people take no care of their front urban “gardens” except to clear all vegetation from them periodically, but here, Blackberry runners are eagerly racing out in all directions from a tiny diamond of bare earth…

6. My weather app says expect Saturday to be the first rain-free day – AND ITS SUNDAY!!! Still, gratefull not to have to be watering the garden.

7. Grateful that biting the bullet and paying for a continuous blood monitoring device has brought my diabetes under better control…

8. Ten Things of Thankful…

9. The sun has just come out…

10. Something that is on the tip of my tongue…

Have a great week, everybody – stay safe and healthy!

Breakup 101

June 5, 2026June 5, 2026humanist55

I sometimes wonder if the internet
was made for people to share
their 101’s with others
first came porn, stimulating the medium
just as it had with home cine film
then the cat lovers started sharing
cats doing the strangest things
long before AI allowed you
to craft such behaviours to order

Companies got in on the act
and no firm was complete
without its website
schilling its wares in
better or worse fashion
after all, you get what you pay for
with advertising and websites

Steadily, though, in the background
the democracy of individuals
shared their passions in ever more
sophisticated 101’s. How to make
kombucha, kimchi, and sauerkraut
How to do Tunisian Crochet and Why You Should
4 Ingredient Low-Carb Bread
seedy crackers, cottage-cheese cheesecake
recipes from every culinary tradition and country
liberally seasoned with adverts
As 101’ers try to monetize their craft

But where is Break-up 101:
50 Ways To Tell If Your Relationship
Is On the Point of Collapse
– is this too negative for jaunty bloggers
will it fail to garner followers
and accrue comments
old-timey newspapers and women’s mags
had Agony Aunts who responded
to readers’ letters
“Dear Joyce how will I know
If he loves me so…?”
And songs dispense wisdom
“There must be 50 ways to leave your lover”
“Should I stay or should I go now
If I go there will be trouble
And if I stay it will be double”

Did the meme of inevitable collapse
fail to make the grade
on the World Wide Web
or am I just stuck
in the wrong silos…

Over at dVerse Poets Pub, paeansunplugged in OpenLinkNight, Uncategorized, invites us to submit a poem of our choice…
I wrote this in my writing group in the shadow of “My Mother’s Love” by James Allen Hall to the prompt, “Write about a time when collapse was inevitable…”

Something Blue

June 4, 2026June 4, 2026humanist55

Something old, something new
Something borrowed, something blue
And a sixpence in her shoe.

Something blue
blue notes?
Blue Moon
full twice in a month
Singing the Blues
but not today
– getting married
in the morning!
this morning
no more Harvest Moon
fear and fumbling
stripping off
something borrowed –
for the hope of
fertility
Making Whoopee
though we know
how that ended up
will you still love me
When I’m Sixty-four?
– there may be trouble ahead
Stormy Weather
Life is an ocean
Love is a boat
put a sixpence
in my shoe
here goes nothing…

Over at dVerse Poets Pub, Dora in Poetics, invites us to riff on one or more phrases from the Victorian rhyme:-

Something old, something new
Something borrowed, something blue
And a sixpence in her shoe.

Weddings, love and the blues are the subjects of so many songs and who knows what streams through the consciousness of a bride to be…