Nighttime on Still Waters

Just been immersing myself in some of Ryokan's poetry. He was inspired by Han Shan, and reportedly treasured a volume of his poems as one of his very few possessions (as much as an Zen master possesses anything). You can certainly feel his influence.

Leaning low over the water, small bright pink trumpet flowers sit amongst needle like seed pods. Some have split open and have released silvery smoke, silky soft.

Canal-side plants

Willowherb (hairy)

All along the byways
The willowherb
Fuses are burning low
Signalling with their smoke
The coming triumph
Of autumn.

#DailyNature #ukcanals #plants #flowers #naturewriting #naturemusing

I am currently reading 'The Little Sparrow Murders' by Seishi Yokomizo, which is set during the Obon festival. He describes a game played with a cloth ball while singing songs that is associated with this time. Is that a common practice still?
,

Thank you!!

Perfect!

😂

😅
Not missed much. We're just a little further along on the road to hell and the handcart is trundling along nicely!!

8.15
In a flash of light
A line crossed
A path forever changed.
The unthinkable done
There is no return

8.16
The unthinkable rationalised.
A discarded
Half bitten fruit
Lies rotting
In the grass
Below a tree
In Eden.

#poetry #madness #Hiroshima

Oh no!! It's like this type of thing suffuses HE, at the moment. Signed.

A windy day that furrows the canal with ripples. The water is deep blue. Brushing your knees are strong green blades of reed. Sun warm, supple and cool to touch. They're still young, the flowerheads still green.

A close up of ripe seed heads of reed sweetgrass. They are bronze and russet, making them look warm. Each seed head sprouts horizontally from the stem in sharp angular sparks. It reminds me of sparklers on Guy Fawkes' night.

Looking downwards, on a damp day with rain in the air, into a thick clump of reed sweetgrass. Their seeds are ripe and golden, almost pinkish here. If you reach out your hand, it would feel soft, like brushing your hand through cobwebs.

Canal-side plants

Reed Sweetgrass

Fireworks season!
The sparklers have been lit,
Fiery brands that shimmer
In a dazzle of gold.

Wait!
Watch the wind
Spell her name
Upon the sky
With them.

#DailyNature #ukcanals #nature #canals #plants #naturewriting #naturemusing

Back from Blacking (And the ingenuity of drydocks) Could the humble drydock be the perfect example of canal engineering ingenuity? Find out why in our latest episode and join us back afloat onboard the Erica as we e…

Could the humble drydock be the perfect example of canal engineering ingenuity? Find out why in our latest episode and join us back afloat onboard the Erica as we explore some really surprising facts about this often-overlooked marvel.

#ukcanals #podcast #history
www.noswpod.com/drydocks/

Aldo Leopold's quote "One of the penalties of an ecological education is that one lives alone in a world of wounds. Much of the damage inflicted on land is quite invisible to laymen" rings true.
You're far from alone. Don't stop. We can't let our voices diminish like those of the dawn chorus.

I'm pretty sure that you won't be disappointed. It's a book that deserves much wider attention.

Happy, Happy #WITmonth!💃🎉📚 In August we celebrate books written by women in a language other than English that have been translated.

Read (even if it's just one book), share, #NameTheTranslator without whom literature would be less rich. For more, do check out www.womenintranslation.org/witmonth

A Woman in the Polar Night by Christiane Ritter | 9781805330899 | Pushkin Press 'Conjures the rasp of the ski runner, the scent of burning blubber and the rippling iridescence of the Northern Lights' Sara Wheeler '[An] astonishing, haunting

A Woman in the Polar Night by Christiane Ritter | 9781805330899 | Pushkin Press share.google/0balX3lyWmqH...

Cover image of 'A woman in the polar night' by Christiane Ritter, translated by Jane Degras. Published by Pushkin Press.

#WITMonth
Christiane Ritter's fabulous, candid, warm, humane, beautifully observed account of living through the winter night in the high arctic in 1934. Beautifully contrasts most male accounts of this time (and later).
Translated by Jane Degras
@pushkinpress.com

A summer evening, the heat beginning to subside to insect song. In front of us, tall fronds of loosestrife rise to above head height. Purple flowers cling to each stem like an exotic, floral, kebab. Behind lies the canal, and in the distance between gaps in the trees, the gold of a field ready for harvest leads up to a sky of deep blue.

Canal-side plants

Purple loosestrife

All along the bankside,
A vermillion flarepath
Of loosestrife lights
Say, 'Welcome'
And guide you on your way.

#DailyNature #plants #ukcanals #naturewriting #naturemusing #flowers

Oh no! That must hurt! Hope you and Ollie quickly recover.

😅

I remember wearing school uniform (including scratchy grey shorts)outside school time, even weekends. Basically, school uniform was my wardrobe, but as this was the case for all my friends, it is only now that it seems surprising.

Aw, bless him!

Hope you're feeling better and up and about really soon.

A bee haphazardly flits from purple flower head to purple flower head. Lover of damp places, marsh woundwort has been used for centuries to heal wounds and anaesthetic. It is also valuable for pollinators.

Canal-side plants

Marsh woundwort (marsh betony)

Follow the bee's lazy hum
To dull your pain
And heal your wounds.

Treasure these well.

#naturewriting #plants #herbalism #ukcanals #nature

I really need to get a copy. When I was on Twitter, their posts were always great.

Hope you're feeling better soon. I wouldn't be at all surprised if it was, to some extent, climate related. I know it's not the same, but my hay-fever gets worse just before rain.

Really nice to read someone being sensible about ragwort for a change!

Looking down into the sunny we'll deck of the Erica. Teas, hats cushions, and books are out and ready for a relaxed Sunday morning.

"That's why I'm easy
I'm easy like Sunday morning, yeah
That's why I'm easy
I'm easy like Sunday morning."

Lionel Ritchie

[Add any amount of 'yeahs' and 'woahs', and finger clicks as required]

#Commodores #vibe #sundaymorning #summer #relax #ukcanals

Looks like a great event. I'm really pleased to see them returning and growing once again after the pandemic.

Trees - wonderful illustrations and I love the silhouettes of their winter forms on the endpapers. Still really useful 50 or so years later!

Looking out over the canal through a stand of bullrushes. Their brushes, firm and thick. If you grab one, your fingers will sink into their spongey hearts filled with fibrous feathery fluff On the opposite bank golden fields rise behind forest green shrubs. A field ready for harvest.

Like a Moses among
The bullrushes,
We find ourselves cast
Upon the waters
Of unnamed streams.

Cradled;
We find rhythms
And meaning among
The eddys that carry us
And solace in the play
Between light and leaf.

#naturewriting #naturemusing #oldheron #nature #humancondition