Squirrel -chaser comes acropper!

I have the most beautiful black and tan xbreed dog called Ramsay, who we got from a rescue centre as a puppy. If you follow me on Twitter you will have seen various tweets about him. He’s now two and a half years old, and my faithful companion on many a walk!. Of late he has developed a taste for squirrel -not that he’s ever eaten one- just that he loves to chase them (and he’s an extremely fast runner) and then stand beneath the trees they take refuge in and bark at them as if to say ‘come on, make a fight of it, get down!!’

Yesterday, I believe he may have made his first kill. I was prevented from going into the depth of the woods to find out because Ramsay did not come out of the incident unscathed. Whatever it was, it ‘made a fight of it’ this time and gave him a lacerated nose and jaw. I heard his yelp of pain, but couldn’t find him and he ignored my calls to come out of the undergrowth. When he finally did emerge, it was  against the instinctive pull of going down and ‘finishing the job’. I wanted to go and see if the critter was still around and needed help, but as he turned to face me Ramsay’s face was just covered in blood. But whose??

Luckily, my friend was with me and we were able to get him cleaned up and carefully checked over.He had a bad loss of blood from his nose, and a cut on the top of it, but otherwise was ok. We couldn’t find his adversary- in fact we do wonder if it could have been something as simple as a protruding stick or the like which he got caught on. However, when I suggested that, Ramsay’s face looked so forlorn….I could almost hear his indignant ‘What? I fight off a critter and get well bloodied in the process, and you want to blame it on my own stupidity for getting poked by a stick??? How embarrassing!’

So, for the record, Ramsay has made his first foray into hunting, and chased down a squirrel in the woods with the sole intention of making a kill, and in spite of a vicious attack by the aforementioned squirrel, Ramsay went on to win and is healing nicely. (My money’s on the stick story tho’!)

You may wonder where this story links with a poem?? Well, the incident occurred in Black Carr Wood, and this is a poem I wrote dedicated to it to for a poetry anthology on local places of interest. It’s Ramsay’s view of the place (minus the killing yesterday or the unpredictably violent stick!!)

Halcyon days?

The school year is reaching it’s conclusion, and it seems to have been decidedly swift at reaching this stage this year. I think I’m just getting old because, for my children, it seems to have taken an age! And this reminds me of a story my Mother told me about her first day at school, and which I then used to incorporate in a poem. I had forgotten all about this little poem until recently, and it seems a shame to wait until September (when the new school year commences, and it may be more relevant) to put it on the blog (plus, I may forget by then!!) – so I hope you will read  ‘Pastures New’  and maybe recall your own first step into the education system, however long ago it may have been!

Parent beware!

Today is my daughter’s 10th birthday, and I thought I would celebrate it on the blog by sharing a poem she wrote earlier this year. She stunned me by just handing the paper to me and asking if it was any good. I was dumbstruck! 

I hope people will enjoy it. I have not edited it in any way, it is her work and deserves to be seen as she intended it.

Check out  -‘At the seashore’ , and enjoy!

A Prize winner!

This poem was published in the National Poetry Anthology 2008. It was the first time I had plucked up the courage to enter my work in a competition, so imagine my delight to be published. As I sat last evening marvelling at the glory of the new moon, the lines came back to me. It will always hold a special place in my heart because of it’s subject and it’s achievement. Please enjoy  –

THE MOON

Madam Moonlight, Queen of night

spreads her silver

into the night.

Studs the blackness of the sky

with diamond chips

as she goes by.

Turns her face and looks below

to bathe the Earth

in a silver glow.

Her gauzy wings she softly spreads

o’er darkened streets

and sleepy heads.

Softer sister of the sun

she watches Earth

’til night is done;

hides her face in a clouded scarf,

sometimes quartered,

sometimes half.

She reigns in heaven’s canopy

polishing stars

for eternity.

And as the sun rises ever high,

she slips away

in daylit sky.

 

Ceemb 2008

New addition

I thought, before the Summer really gets underway, that a little SpringCleaning wouldn’t go amiss.- This is what happened to me when I found a fabulous diversion from a task! I hope you enjoy and will comment if you feel moved to do so.

Visitors!

How much of a pessimist am I? I began this blog on the advice of dear friends who said I should share my poetry.’ HA,’ I thought,’ Unlikely to be of interest’ – but I did it anyway. I was even bold enough to ask for comments….(fatal, I thought). I never really imagined anyone would read my work, altho I obviously wanted them to.

I was wrong.

As my confidence has grown, so have the numbers of people who have visited my little blog  – lovely visitors to my funny virtual world. I couldn’t offer them coffee or tea, as you would will actual visitors, I could only offer them a share of my work, and the option to comment.

I am honoured that my visitors did just that – they came, they saw, they commented (!!) – and I love that they did. I want them to come again. In fact, I offer them a little presi for coming here- ask me to write a poem on something you may wish to see, and I promise to do my best to rise to the challenge(s). I often do this for close friends and family.

Thank you and please, dear visitors, return soon!