Dismounting
Dismounting Philip pushes off and starts peddling the ancient penny-farthing he initiates talks with the National Trust realising this is his only hope wobbling alarmingly at first on that high saddle above the big wheel negotiations prove long and tricky numerous issues need addressing he grips the handlebars and keeps his balance one by one […]
Family home
Family home Here’s the National Trust guidebook bought on my day out at Erddig. Look how this great country house has been preserved as it was over a century ago. Grand rooms, but also kitchens, laundries, workshops, stabling and gardens. The whole place overflowing with original furniture and effects from the State Bed to the […]
Impressions of Erddig
Budding fiddle head ferns unfurl their euphony as I consider the impossibility of going anywhere on a penny farthing or a bone shaker. A cluster of ducks bark at each other and delight in badgering the black cat who sneaks off in disgust and hides behind the Pig nose pippin. In the glass house Aeonium […]
There’s work to be done
hand stitch the Axminster wind up the clocks extinguish all cigarettes find keys to fit locks disinfect toilets polish the glass varnish that turtle buff up the brass monitor wind speed net curtain the sun sweep up the cobwebs there’s work to be done launder the bedding whitewash the walls label all photographs vanish all […]
Making memories
let’s welcome the poet teacher and miner our neighbours who visit the landlord the farmer those loyal supporters all lovers all sinners the long distance drivers all losers all winners those who have been some who seek but can’t find if you’re surging ahead if you’ve been left behind you wellybob wearers the bright and […]
History play
History play The driveway leads down into a leafy tunnel of gnarled branches, filtered sunlight flickering across our windscreen. A catch of breath: as if through a gap in curtains we glimpse a stage set, the ancient house out in the open over there in the glare of footlights. Only for a moment, the trees […]
Cogs
The squire, with his maestro hands, mounts his penny farthing and the wheels go around. The black oiled hands of the mechanic crank up the Austin twelve. Not a grain of dirt on the king fisher blue chassis but his hands will never be clean. The unseen hands of the butler, de-corking a 1901 vintage […]
Thank you
Gill – yes – enjoyed Saturday – everybody had something interesting to say and there were some good observations – it will take a bit of time for it all to sink in. Thanks for all your input. I was very happy to get some photographs of the ducks to go with a duck poem […]
The cook
from a knuckle of bone time fashioned a fist one for the right and one for the left a knot of carrot roots veined the surface pumped with sap as sweet as honey wrapped in a tissue paper skin worn taut as the pastry lid on a pie through fire and ice her hands scarred […]
3 Erddig Poems
Erddig Poems The Housekeeper’s Dog ‘Grip’ (Jane Brown, featured in the servant’s picture gallery) Her room would have a fire burning to warm her as she doled out linen, wrote her lists, checked accounts or hemmed and darned. Always her terrier Grip glued to the best pace on the hearth warming his belly at the […]