The View from Here
Where I mostly stay anchored but also take opportunities to roam around in a wide radius...
THE SAP IS RISING
I took a meandering route to the pharmacy this morning, looking for something for a cough that is becoming persistent. A head cold that I’ve had all week is easing, less tissues being used at last, but a cough is taking up home now. It’s not Covid, I have tested, and for that I am thankful.
As I walked by the river, glittering and restless in the noon sun, I spotted a couple of teenagers under the arches of the ‘new’ bridge1, in shadow. She with long dark hair that moved and flowed as she talked, the guy with his back to me. They both wore t-shirts, no jackets, it is so mild here for February! A couple of sports bags lay on the ground between them. Young love, maybe? Maybe not?
Spring is making its appearance, the sap is rising in us all. As I took a photo of the river I could hear birdsong from the far side.
I have identified another opportunity for my WIP, for this I need to choose <1k words to send with my application. A writing friend in Scotland has generously offered to help me choose what would best represent this. I am also considering sending an extract from it to a lit mag, I’m now just dithering about a title for this extract.
A couple of weeks ago I could hardly bear to look at it. Now I’m beginning to feel there’s a rising momentum with this ‘far too long in gestation’ piece of writing, and not before time I hear some folk close to me say!
We have two bridges here, one is always referred to as the Old Bridge, the other as the New Bridge. The latter actually has an official name, but nobody here uses it. The Old Bridge? It dates from the mid 1400s, so yes, ‘old’.
I relate your dithering Margaret. I did a small blog last week and took days! Sometimes I think about doing a Substack site. Then I worry it would eat up my life. Tho maybe it would help me learn how to let things go!
"The sap is rising" .. written like a poet of the soil