O M G

So the big move is having ongoing upheavals roaring through most of my life.

One of those upheavals is moving into the retirement village just as it is getting set up for fibre internet. This takes a while to to do anyway. And it takes even longer for our residential complex. Today after my six phone calls over the last fourteen days I got an email from my internet provider to say my installation has been delayed. The office administrator here assures me that they are having problems with all the internet providers. I prefer to do my emails and blogging on my computer and have never bothered working out how to do it on my phone.

Family members have been making stupid suggestions so I have promised them to chop off various limbs if they tell my to ring my ISP with various stupid suggestions. Insistence on my doing computer stuff on my phone will bring instant execution – ie head chopped off. Everything is too hard at the moment.

It all seemed simple to start with. Parents lived all their lives in our largest city – the megalopolis. Left us a very ordinary house at a great price.
Siblings and I ended up in much smaller regional cities. With inheritance share we each managed to buy ordinary homes in our regional cities. I managed to buy into a small place in this village. Great idea when we have one middle aged couple of relatives living in the same city as five elderly relatives in their seventies in various states of decrepitude.

Ultimately we all think I did the right thing – as long as I do not chop them up in pieces.

I miss pottering through the blogs I follow in the evenings in between doing this and that. I am expecting to get to the library at least three days a week and use their wi-fi. The village does not have wi-fi in public areas !!! I never thought to ask, or that it would be necessary.

Miss you all and will do what I can to keep in contact.

At The Beach

Across the sand sprawls
the narrow river from its
winding course to the sea.
Salt laden sea winds buffet
a cluster of cottages in the
shelter of ragged ageing
macrocarpa trees.

We enjoyed several summers
in the end one. Boards cracked
and warped by the sun and wind
shed flakes of paint in every
wind blast, rust crumbs flew
from the corrugated Iron roof.

Inside chipped painted hardboard
lined the walls, chips peeled off
the linoleum’s hessian backing.
Above the kitchen bench shelves
held mismatched cups, glasses, plates.
Below the drawers held equally
worn cutlery and utensils.
Sagging beds and bunks with
thin battered pillows lay under
thin worn blankets and a
film of windblown sand.

At low tide we dug on the
beach for cockles* , at high tide
we caught small fish from the dinghy.
We climbed trees, followed tracks
found caves under rocky overhangs.

At nights we slept soundly
to the sound of wind, waves,
and the rattling of dusty sand.

*cockles: known in some countries as clams.


Previously posted March 2017.

Weather

The weather does not read
or follow the local forecast.
In heavy rain my umbrella
keeps my upper half dry
while my shoes and trouser
legs become wringing wet.

Today’s forecast was for cloudy
skies when I got up early to
catch one of our little city’s
few buses in time for my
errands in town. As I left
to catch the bus the skies
blackened, letting loose a
mighty torrential deluge.

Still needing to get to town
with no sign of rain or
darkness abating, along with
all other stranded souls I
called a taxi which finally
arrived and charged more
than the free bus ride
granted by my pensioner card.
And still it rained.

the weather has offered
no refund. I am the one
left carefully adjusting
my pensioner budget.



Previously posted March 2017.

Summer

Our first cicada this summer
sang today, several weeks
after they started singing on
earlier years, so late in Summer
after many cool cloudy rainy
weeks that we are now close
to what have always been
the Autumn months.

Will the cicadas have much
less time to lay eggs ?
Or will summer stretch
across the Autumn months ?

Our first monarch butterfly
laid eggs on my swan plants
today, some weeks after they
used to start laying eggs.

Will they have enough hot
weather to lay eggs this
summer ? Or will only
a few butterflies hatch ?

Summer is so confused
this year the insects
are in crisis mode ?


Previously posted March 2017.

Cicadas are about the size of crickets or slightly larger.
Their song is very different and much louder.

I have seen no praying mantises this summer.

In An Unknown Land

He wakes in a room he has
seen before, can’t think when,
in his pyjamas, in the bed.

Two women in white uniforms
come in, very cheerful, they know
him, help hi m to shower and dress.

He’s remembering he’s been here
some days now, the men in the
corridor greet him by name.

In a dining room with many
small tables more white uniforms
serve the men breakfast.

After breakfast he potters around
has midmorning cups of tea but
then needs a pre lunch snifter.

Alas all alcohol is locked away
in the nurses’ office medicine
cabinet, very securely locked.

Late afternoon they dole it out
sparingly, must be careful
with old man medication.

He remembers past good times
when he drank long and hard
with equally hard drinking mates.

What would they say if they saw
him now ? But they can’t, they
are gone, he’s outlived them all.


Previously posted March 2017.

Progress. I have located my blog writings.
Still accessing the internet at the library.