Thursday 21 May 2020

knowing noa

Noa bounced into our life
   a few days ago all the way from Yorkshire


At eleven weeks and being an Irish wolfhound she is already bigger than Rocket. I've heard a lot of people are getting puppies right now and lots of the rescue centres have actually run out of dogs.I hope someone creates a large slogan saying A PUPPY ISN'T JUST FOR LOCKDOWN.


We wonder what Pixie would have thought of Noa - she might have taken her under her wing and taught her all she knew about the finer foods in life, the best places in the house to find abandoned plates of biscuits, lunch or even Christmas dinner. How to open the fridge with your nose and how to snaffle anything on the kitchen worktop particularly if you can work with someone else to cause a distraction. Often the best things are the ones taken when someone's back is turned just for  moment. Work in tandem if you can,  one of the cats might oblige and get used to the cry of "Oh no!"  "Where's my ......... gone?" or "has anyone seen my breakfast?"


It's lucky I have so much time on my hands right now to concentrate on training and Rocket is teaching her a few tricks like which are the best plants to dig up, which are the best cushions to chew and where the best badger poo is to roll in. They indulge in a lot of bitey bitey face.


I've had so much time in lockdown that I've been recreating Dutch paintings in flower arrangements. This is before Noa arrived. I'm now spending a lot of time mopping up.


Rocket also has been taking an interest in flowers. He says gardening is the new thing.


The roses are coming into flower and are so beautiful


And here is Pocket's petal pillow. Try saying that quickly.
Have you any bon mots for this troubled time? I ask him. But he just stretches out, yawns and says how, by keeping a 2 metre distance from everything did I think he could have learnt anything of  interest though he had heard a good dog joke from the cat down the road.
What is it? I asked.
Dictum meum pactum he yawned.
Oh go on I insist.
What do you get if you cross a dog with a telephone? He shuts his eyes. I don't know I say.
A golden receiver he chortles. And I might tell a dog joke everytime you write a new post he threatens. Oh please don't I say but I can see a glint in his eye.


As well as the roses the sweet peas in the poly tunnel are doing well, lots of blooms to pick everyday. They come neatly after the tulips (see Sorbet below) which are now all over. Sadly few people get to see them whilst observing the stay inside dictum.



strangely - when you'd think I had all the time in the world to write something I have actually not written anything except for a few poems. So below is my second covid ode



Silence



In this time of silence
without the roar and screeching of traffic
and the soaring of planes in the sky
there lies the peace of nature
unbothered by our situation.
Clouds pass silently above the brown singing
of the thrush
the yellow buzz of bees
the green rustling of meadow grass.
There is a silence in our solitude
a silence in our desire to stay alive.
I hear the skylarks singing
the croaking of the overhead rooks
the balance of silence and noise
where a blade of grass can silently break through
a tarmacked path in its desire to live
as man is making his own sounds
with all this time on his hands
the bellow of his mower
the howl of his strimmer
the whine of his electric drill
Yap, yap, bleat bleat he goes
as nature prevails through the endemic,
pandemic screaming of fear
though in fear itself – there is a silence
as there is in love.