winter warmth in other ways

 ahah ! bit of excitement in the over sixties community where i reside. wall cavity filling ... indeed!

many holes being drilled, noisily.
many workmen in overalls wielding the instruments required for wall cavity filling.
i guess i will be privileged to be even warmer than i already am. scotland can be cold but mostly we have this blanket of cloud cover to keep us moderately warmer than those who exist under clearer skies than ours.

still, i am reliably informed that i will save on heating costs and considering they are executing the procedure on the outer walls of  my apartment for free. solely due i believe, to my somewhat impecunious circumstances, well, who am i to say them nay!

sunday, day seven

and i realize that i am somewhat neglectful when it comes to this particular blog. perhaps my mind is less nomadic than it once was?

no matter, it is indeed sunday, day seven. giving up smoking is one of my somewhat more irregular activities. i give up smoking for one reason only - money. unfortunately, i need the money i spend on cigarettes to do other things.
given a perfect (for me) world in which my bank account held sufficient funds for the varied and interesting uses i have for money ...
well, i would smoke till i choked!
yeah, yeah, i know, how bad it is for human beings to suck in carcinogen filled smoke into their lungs.
i am also fully aware of how bad us smokers smell to the smoke innocent world.
damn, of course i do, how many day sevens have i lived through!
by day seven i can sniff a smoker at fifty yards.

giving up smoking always seems like a good idea at the time. naturally the amount of time for which it seems like a good idea varies.
i have smoked since i was sixteen, that would be - not the recent past! i like smoking and i find it a comfort - who knows why.  the addiction of the body is fairly easy to beat. the addiction of the mind is another matter altogether!

happy birthday

never forgotten
in my heart, always ...

the bravehearts

the sea mist rolls across the irish sea
meandering,methodical and magical
our ailsa rises shrouded from the sea bed
dignified in delicately encroaching darkness
the solitary flashing lighthouse light
a warning or a beckoning bewitching beacon
calling the far away heart to come home
to rise to the inspiration of scotland's call
the wailing bag pipe sounds of blood and history
reminding those far travelled to distant lands
of hearth and home, of highlands and heather
the beauty of her, the enchantment, carried within
the generations lost to the lure of adventure
the exploration of far away places
excitingly exotic, enchanting the bravehearts
who carry within, the memory of a green land
grey days and beating rain, hot broth and baking bread
stone walls, two feet thick, our armour against nature
blessed spring sunshine, lovingly embracing green hills
where the nodding blooms of daffodils
burst vibrant sunshine yellow, scattered by the hand of God
the golden yellow stain of gorse, seeps and slides
across the hills of ayrshire, lighting the landscape
a promise of the pulse of summer, whispering
come home stranger, come home from outwith
breathe once more the hawthorne and the heather
soar with the eagles, follow the call of your blood
home to scotland's green shores and the pride of your history


Copyright © 2011 by Eryll Oellermann

tortoise trouble

wolfpack

follow the leader ...

is peace possible?

has this chaotic world of ours ever truly experienced peace?

we, humanity, are we capable of living in peace with one another? on the evidence produced thus far i would have to say  ... "no"!

fight or flight is the way we are programmed to react.  as groups, tribes, nations, we tend to fight! this is the programming which has helped us to survive and elevated us to the pinnacle of the food chain.

time to reprogramme! it will not be easy, it will not be soon, it will take the concerted effort of many.

every small step will count. every child who is encouraged in kindness and taught to respect, instead of fear, the differences between us will weigh in on the side of peace.

we fight because in our arrogance we believe ourselves to be better, superior, right. if you differ from me in opinion, sexual orientation, religion ... the list is endless. why then, you must be wrong because... i am right.

we have to learn that  'i am right' does not equal 'you are wrong'. we need to become 'we'.  we differ, we are different, we will learn from one another and we will eventually come to understand that there are a multitude of ways in which to be 'right'.

hopefully in the far distant future war will become a forgotten concept.
no more will we send our sons and daughters to die on the blood soaked fields of  war in order that the views of those who triumph may be written into history ... 'i was right'.

there is no rightness in death and suffering.

"Time is free, but it's priceless. You can't own it, but you can spend it. Once you've lost it you can never get it back."
~Harvey MacKay

resurrection

the train slides past
glasgow central the sign says
here and gone
on a journey to elsewhere
the trees which shield the line
summer green on their away side
buffeted and brown
from where i stand, blowing smoke
and contemplating
the wind blew day after day
from the north
she blew harsh and insistent
the wind blew until
the then spring green turned
brown, dry and dead
why ...
was it the icelandic ash
carried through the air
driven into their living cells
or perhaps the sheer persistence
of wind force
and the trees stood
half living, half dead
when the wind stopped
i watched and wondered
resurrection
the weeks passed
next to, in between and above
the death dry leaves
mother nature pouted
and produced small swellings
which burst and unfurl
a summer growth of spring green
soon the green will hide the brown
birth will mask death
life, a study in resurrection

Copyright © 2011 by Eryll Oellermann

friend of a friend

"a stranger's just a friend you do not know!"

swans swimming

the mouth of the river doon, ayr.

"Everything has it's beauty, but not everyone sees it"

-Confucius 

life

"Life should NOT be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in an attractive and well preserved body, but rather to skid in sideways, chocolate in one hand, body thoroughly used up,
totally worn out and screaming "WOO HOO what a ride!" ~ Unknown

thanks to hahn for the reminder!

super moon

19th march 2011 - super moon ... something for a wolf to howl for!

the softening

the long dark is softening ... preparing for her summer holiday?
perhaps she finds this whole dank, cold winter thing as tiresome at times as we do.
she might well be thinking ... "i am well pleased to see the back of you lot till next autumn." 
of course, her sibling, the short dark will still be with us. fighting for his place on these far northern shores. he is still a learner, a young dark incapable of keeping the light at bay except for a few hours close to midnight.
soon, soon, the drawn out golden days, reluctant to leave.
sitting on the porch, chair tipped back, boots up resting on the railing, watching the long day die in an unimaginable blaze of red and gold behind ailsa craig.
we see and feel the magic of the long light through wisdom gained during the long dark.
the dark and the light, twin souls, spinning through time.                                

the fox in the sun

i came home today ... to troon, been away for a while. awoke to sunshine and on the drive over only the woods were still hiding amidst a light mist veil.

my daughter and two of my youngest grandchildren came over for lunch. it was my daughter who spotted the fox!
i had not seen the fox in so long i had almost given up on him. i believe the sighting of 'my' fox is an omen for me. a message from beyond, portending some shift in the focus of my life!

well, today's message must be a biggie! the fox is sitting next to the railway line, right opposite my kitchen window, he has been there for hours. a train just rolled past and i was sure he would have taken off for some safer less public place ...
but, no - he is still there enjoying the warmth of the sunshine. to give him his due, he has moved a foot or so further away from the actual line.
yeah, he may well be a mystical fox but, ain't nobody claiming this boy is lacking in commonsense!

under the crescent moon, or ... the death of a seagull

dating the animal doctor has changed my life in more ways than one. in scotland a vetinary surgeon is bound to offer a twenty four hour emergency service. result - the phone will ring in the small wee hours and my girl will roll out of bed and be on her way to tend to the sick and injured of the animal world.

one evening, fairly soon after we first met, we were on our way home from an outing. her phone rang, on the other end, a gentleman who had found a seagull with a broken wing, as she was not home he had put the bird in her front garden!
yeah, i guess you can tell, the animal doctor is a village dweller - what can i say!

we were thankful that 'the boys' were safely ensconced in the house and that the seagull would at least have been spared the indignity of being eaten by a hound dog!
the winter dark was with us, a crescent moon rode high in a clear and frosty sky. my girl aimed her car lights into the darkness of the garden and turned to me ...

"will you lend me a hand?"

wtf! i am a happily retired flat dweller sans pets. i hardly know this woman and she is expecting me to rummage around in the dark cold and actually capture a seagull! cool as a cucumber i said ...

"yeah sure, of course."

it took us a little while to find and lay our hands on mr.seagull, the wing was so badly broken there would be no fixing it.
so on a dark winter evening under the light of a crescent moon, i held the seagull immobile whilst my new friend administered death to replace pain.

ice is nice

recently scotland has been a wee bit colder than normal.
traffic on the bridge over the river ayr was really slow. i did wonder why... and then i saw THE ICE!
i was so happy when i found this video on you tube, enjoy!

wordless

wordless


tonight the hours creep by undisturbed
by sleep
there was a time when unwritten words
might wake me
buzzing in my night time brain
begging to be penned
no more, fine words no longer my excuse 
for insomnia
for that once unrelenting fountainhead 
of inspiration
lies neglected, dry as the desert sands
devoid, desperate
struck down and bled strangely dry
by writer's block
a humiliating state of self indulgent lack for the wordspinner
left wordless

Copyright © 2004-2011 by Eryll Oellermann