Here is an extract from a poem created to celebrate the balance of nature. It is from my book, A Denagerie of Poems.

Christmas roses that glisten and gladden the eye                                                    winter brings jasmine as steel clouds go by                                                              unbidden flowers within reach of the senses                                                                    look forward not back and enjoy present tenses.

***

If we stop and enjoy what is there all the time                                                         Nature’s cycle of growing and dying sublime                                                                      we renew with her rounding of days short and long                                                          so we gather together and sing her sweet song.

Denny Bradbury

I have just finished reading C J Sansom’s Heartstone. It is his latest in the Matthew Shardlake series set in Tudor England. All are very readable and as with all good books I felt sorry that it had come to an end. I want to find out what happens to the hapless lawyer after his latest adventure.  This book had a particular resonance for me as it takes Matthew to Portchester Castle where I played as a young girl with my sisters. The smell of the sea, the wonderful tower where eventually French prisoners of war would be housed, the grassy moat all brought back wonderful memories. Now I know that it might have housed Catherine Parr I shall look for her shadow next time I visit the castle.

Denny Bradbury