December 21st

 

midwinter dawning

ice age hill shrouded in mist

backlit with a jewel

I drove past Pegsdon Hills today. The mist was covering the top of them. The sun was muted behind it, diffusing the light such that it looked like the whole hill was alive with a wild glow. It was stunning. Clearly I couldn’t take a picture as I was driving and I had so much work to do, I couldn’t stop, but for that brief moment my mind was free of meaningless first world problems. Nature and natural forces are inspirational.

I always feel happy on midwinters day, it’s the time of year when the days slowly recover. I’m acutely aware of the encroaching darkness as the days shrink and the miserable rain and cloud come in. So today is the shortest day, tomorrow the day will be longer, imperceptibly so, but the thought of it makes me happy. This has been a year of reflection and sadness, I hope by March with the coming of colour and Spring, something will thaw in me too.

October 23rd

hills hide the dragon

his breath crawls from old dark vents

seething in the fog

Whenever I see fog, especially that rolling fog which seems alive, I think of the film Excalibur, directed by John Boorman. Silly really, but it makes me think of the Dragon, which Merlin (the wonderfully cast Nicol Williamson who died this year) uses as his source of power. The film is cheesy but also elemental in it’s impact, brutal, violent, touching, heroic. It’s a great romp which combines both the Celtic mythology and the romantically influenced chivalrous take on the Arthurian legends from such authors as Sir Thomas Malory which came centuries later.

Merlin and Guenevere played by Nigel Terry and Cheri Lunghi (rights to photo- Excalibur movie)

In the film, Merlin is eventually tricked by the beautiful half sister of King Arthur Morgana (played by the timeless beauty Helen Mirren) and beguiled, so she inherits and learns the Charm of Making. It seems the actors were not on the best of terms to put it mildly, which Boorman used to his advantage in filming. There is a very believable (uncomfortable) dynamic between them in their shared scenes.

Merlin and Morgana (Nicol Williamson and Helen Mirren), they both look thoroughly annoyed to be sharing this intimate moment. (rights to photo –Excalibur movie)

So back to Morgana… After stealing the charm of making, she wielded the power of the dragon, the dragon’s breath to make magic and wage war on her brother (King Arthur – the underrated Nigel Terry) with their own incestuous offspring Modred. It all culminates in a final tragic battle, but I’d be spoiling it if I told you more. What I will say is it has a smattering of well respected British luvvies hamming it up to high heaven and uses a fantastic score, Wagner’s the Death of Siegfried and Orff’s Carmina Burana are exceptionally placed. I’d recommend it. Great movie.

But yes, the fog, I drove through it, thick as treacle. Whose to say there was no dragon out there? Belching fog all over Bedfordshire, before retiring to slumber back under Pegsdon Hills (I’ve convinced myself a dragon lives there).

Finally, here is a scene at the beginning of the film where a mortal weary Merlin allows Arthur’s dad Uther (Gabriel Byrne) to go and conceive him with someone else’s wife… tut tut. But despite this displeasure at such mortal lust, Merlin knew, with the power of his “sight” that a great King would be made of this union…

September 5th

green naked rosehips

stripped of petals windfallen

too early to blush

 

a pinch of angels

float, take root on chalk hills

as hardy thistles

 

Meadow Browns busy

along the sheltered old road

late summer blessings

 

Some pictures from my walk on Pegsdon Hills today. This is a beautiful time of year especially on days like this where the sun isn’t too hot and the breeze is gentle.

Wild Rose

A barren tree

Hawthorn berries, I took a photo of these trees when they were smothered in blossom back in the Spring.

ploughed fields

Sheep

May 31st

Rabbits race to shrub

abacus beads on runners

buff tails disappear

Pegsdon Hills again, I want to make the most of the long evenings. The rabbits saw me lumbering towards them and scarpered, all in the same direction, into the safety of shrubs!

May 29th

Choked on the upslope

longing for the swifts to lift

his weary carcass

Running is hard, one day I’ll beat those chalk steps leading up to the pinnacle of Pegsdon Hills!

May 20th

Crow seedlings scattered

black barbs resonate apart

sad cuts of midnight

I so wanted to see bluebells, but they’ve come and gone. May’s beautiful carpet had been rolled up. I’ll have to wait till next spring now. There were a few here and there, their hanging heads tired, but they were waning, dying. I didn’t realise but the UK has 75% of the worlds bluebell population. We’re privileged to have them. It’s a shame it rained so much earlier in the month, when they would have made the woodland floor blue.

I did see that the Hawthorn’s were blooming though. They cover the hillsides. The little stunted tough little trees, crouched tight to the ground, to stop them being swept off by raging winds.

Further on in the walk, we came to “our tree”. It’s a funny tree, so skinny, yet perched precariously right on the hill crest, where the winds would assault it from all sides. On my drives I often look for it in the distance and get a feeling of security and warmth when I catch it’s crooked thin shape in my sight. Today “our tree” had what appeared to be scratch / claw marks in its trunk. I got excited. An ABC? (Alien Big Cat)? Are these the claw marks of a large wild cat running free in the hills, fields and woods? I should have used my free hand to act as a scale, but the scratch marks were approximately 1.5 inches apart. Of course it must have a rational explanation, but it’s fun to imagine. I’m going back tomorrow night, so will try to remember a tape measure!

But today’s Haiku was about the three Crow feathers I found. They were perfect. So inky, with that metallic black glaze reflecting off them. I took them home. I like to look at them. I admire and envy crows.

May 19th

 

rooks float black net cast

silent waves on the hillside

a distant caress

Going to Pegsdon Hills tomorrow.

May 10th

 

In the bluebell wood

enchanted laughter echoes

May lovers embrace

I had to run to the station this morning, worried I’ll get a fine, as I left my car there overnight. I caught a glimpse of bluebells in someone’s wild flower meadow/garden. The year is flying by. Need to get back to Pegsdon Hills, this time of year is magical, a carpet of blue in the woods kissing the edge of the hills.

April 27th

Sheep sewn like buttons

rain flattened bodies shiver

curls drip in their eyes

tumbled in valleys

they look toward the hill crest

beckoning blue sings

Two Haikus squashed together today. Although strictly you don’t have to follow the 5-7-5 structure, I have to date. So it was quite nice that these two worked so well together.

The story behind today’s offering is as follows: As I drove home from work in the horrible dark rain, I saw a flock of unhappy sheep on the lower slopes of Pegsdon Hills, they were utterly drenched, the poor things, looked like they had sunk into the earth, squashed little cotton buds, mushrooms or indeed buttons sewn into the hillside. They looked like they were freezing cold, you couldn’t see their faces because their fringes were slapped in their eyes. I wasn’t sure whether they could see a little hint of a blue sky at the crest of the hill, but it was there. Sadly it was late in the evening, so whatever brief respite from the rain they did get, wouldn’t have dried them out.

April 7th

Reared up on hind legs

taut and lissom hare surveys

green and pleasant land

 

Was it a hare we saw in the grass on Pegsdon Hills as we drove past? Probably not, it was dusk, we didn’t get much of a chance to study it, but I’d love to see one, they’ve always eluded me. Once I did think I saw one, it was certainly rabbit/hare like in shape and it seemed to be striding rather than hopping. It looked big. But part of me doubts the way I perceive things. Until I’m 100% sure, I can’t say I’ve seen one. It might be my brain planting a wish into the way my eyes interpret the real world. Can’t say for sure.

Hopefully I’ll catch them boxing at some stage this spring, that will be a sight to behold. I make no apology for quoting the great talent that was William Blake in this Haiku :)

(pic from bbc website)

March 11th

 

Queen bee emerges,

Crawls from the sombre litter,

Leaps into sunlight.

 

Saw a bumblebee (again) today. Second one of the year! It was up on the ridge at the top of Pegsdon Hills. Was almost certainly a Queen considering the time of year. Unlike honey bees, the poor bumbles only live a few months, the Queens just one year. They form relatively tiny colonies, compared to the thousands in the honeybee hive (who hibernate over winter). Before the old Queen died in the Autumn, she laid some regal eggs, these bumblebee Queens flew away after being fertilised by a male, finding safe warm havens to survive the winter. In spring, they emerge, looking for a spot to create their colony, to being the process again.

I wish her luck! With her bizarrely impossible aerodynamics!

February 25th

Shadows tumble down,

Rabbits wait, flat in their scrapes,

Between the hawthorns.

My second visit of the year to Pegsdon Hills. Saw a flock of long tailed tits, a bullish wren shouting at me to get out of its territory, a robin, chaffinches, blue tits, great tits, a skylark singing high in the sky. And most excitingly a pair of Red Kites circling and crying their sad mewing call as well as a pair of buzzards too. Up high on the ridge these big birds of prey swooped and soared both above and below my sightline, scanning the ground for tasty prey.

February 11th

Ice miracle, dawn,

Splintered light, diamonds scattered,

Mist cowled serpent coiled.

 

I drove to Hertford this morning, was babysitting for my two young nephews. The sights along the way were breathtaking. Because it had been so cold and dry overnight (the air temperature was –12C when I was driving around 9am) it meant a rare phenomenon occurred. A hoarfrost. Where the moisture in the air freezes on trees and plantlife, leaving it looking like something out of Narnia. Completely white and glittering like jewels. It truly felt like a magical kingdom I had no right to witness. I’d woken up to a new world.

Pegsdon Hills looked magnificent and beautiful. I imagined an old ice serpent, an ancient dragon, stirred from a long slumber, who in its waking had frozen the land hard but left it staggeringly beautiful in its harshness.

I didn’t have my camera, I would have stopped and snapped at the sky, at the rolling mist, at the crazy light refracting through the ice everywhere so you couldn’t tell where the sun was in the sky. It was magical, some days make you truly appreciate being alive.