By Slanted Light

It's been a rough few days (weeks...), what with Job 1 and Job 2 and on top of that continued bombardments from Madam about my foodsaving project, but with no concessions whatsoever (gaaargh!), but I snatched a couple of hours today to wander up to the nearest Cathedral city for a bit of shopping, and happened to get there just at dusk...



Tonight was supposed to be my last Job 2 night, and I actually booked a day off tomorrow - and then I stupidly said yes when I was asked to pick up some Job 2 slack, so... waaaah! All I want is a bit of time to just dust! This weekend - surely this weekend I will have time for catching up on things like dusting and taxes (yeurch) and then lovely Pros-y things? Surely...!

How're you doing? *g*

The sky is grey, the pavements are wet, but I walked past this park on my way to coffee this morning, and now I'm sitting watching lots of twinkling lights around the concrete grey shops, which I can absolutely forgive in November in big cities that could do with some non-grey happy. *g* Plus, pretty.

Yesterday afternoon looked pretty good too, involving, as it did, meeting heliophile_oxon for a drink and putting-the-world-to-rights at a Pros location - The Great Northern Railway Tavern, from Stopover. We sat in this corner, actually... I think the lads sat at the next bench along, but it was taken when I got there. Plus a bit rearranged anyway after... oh my, forty years and just over six months. *g*

Although to be honest I was relying on old memories from being there years ago, and I wasn't at all prepared. I took a couple of pics, but none the right way (again, people... *g*)

Still the same glass in those windows though! *g*

I was in bed so early for me last night - before 10.30pm (!!), so up at a decent time today, which was good. Slightly ironic, since I'm on holiday for a couple of days, but good for getting up early for the meeting on Sunday. Today... is about first of all finding some comfortable shoes, after a realise-my-boots-leak catastrophe minutes before I had to leave to catch my train yesterday, and swapping them for more waterproof boots that are on the other hand, not great for walking lots, which I definitely want to do today! Not actually sure what I'm going to do after that though - too much to choose from! Christmas market on Southbank at some point, I think, and perhaps back via Leicester Square for similar reasons (well, it might be November, but since I'm here...) Or - through the parks and nip into the Scarsdale, just for the sake of it? Um... I'll see where I end up and what the weather's like, I guess. And being me, what I'd really like to do is some writing... *g*

Today was such a lazy day... It mostly just looked like this.
I'm still a bit in shock that it's dark so early now too. Now it feels like autumn! It's been rainy and windy today too, which helps rather - a nice excuse for lovely lush staying in and reading... *g*

And here it is - Halloween...

Poetry for October
The Haunted Oak
By Paul Laurence Dunbar

Pray why are you so bare, so bare,
Oh, bough of the old oak-tree;
And why, when I go through the shade you throw,
Runs a shudder over me?

My leaves were green as the best, I trow,
And sap ran free in my veins,
But I saw in the moonlight dim and weird
A guiltless victim's pains.

I bent me down to hear his sigh;
I shook with his gurgling moan,
And I trembled sore when they rode away,
And left him here alone.

They'd charged him with the old, old crime,
And set him fast in jail:
Oh, why does the dog howl all night long,
And why does the night wind wail?

He prayed his prayer and he swore his oath,
And he raised his hand to the sky;
But the beat of hoofs smote on his ear,
And the steady tread drew nigh.

Who is it rides by night, by night,
Over the moonlit road?
And what is the spur that keeps the pace,
What is the galling goad?

And now they beat at the prison door,
"Ho, keeper, do not stay!
We are friends of him whom you hold within,
And we fain would take him away

"From those who ride fast on our heels
With mind to do him wrong;
They have no care for his innocence,
And the rope they bear is long."

They have fooled the jailer with lying words,
They have fooled the man with lies;
The bolts unbar, the locks are drawn,
And the great door open flies.

Now they have taken him from the jail,
And hard and fast they ride,
And the leader laughs low down in his throat,
As they halt my trunk beside.

Oh, the judge, he wore a mask of black,
And the doctor one of white,
And the minister, with his oldest son,
Was curiously bedight.

Oh, foolish man, why weep you now?
'Tis but a little space,
And the time will come when these shall dread
The mem'ry of your face.

I feel the rope against my bark,
And the weight of him in my grain,
I feel in the throe of his final woe
The touch of my own last pain.

And never more shall leaves come forth
On the bough that bears the ban;
I am burned with dread, I am dried and dead,
From the curse of a guiltless man.

And ever the judge rides by, rides by,
And goes to hunt the deer,
And ever another rides his soul
In the guise of a mortal fear.

And ever the man he rides me hard,
And never a night stays he;
For I feel his curse as a haunted bough,
On the trunk of a haunted tree.

Pictures for October
Tonight was supposed to be writing group, except that the other half of the group asked if we could go to the pub instead, and what's a girl to say...? I was fairly amazed, however, to find that my current reading had followed me... I've got slightly off-piste, you see, and I've been reading Rainbow Rowells latest, Wayward Son, which is the sequel to Carry on Simon, which I had to re-read to remember the characters, but... well, I had to buy the sequel because the book itself was just so amazingly pretty. More about that when I post my bingo tomorrow, but... yeah, so my favourite character is Basilton Pitch, and I've just started a fanfic (shush...) where they're battling goblins. Happy halloween, my local pub! *g*

Some pics taken on the way home (home less than barely 400 yards away)





Prosfic for October
Paper Flowers still before bed... I'm sleepy when I get there, that's the trouble!

...and the Lads!
Okay, kind of halloween-lads...? *g*
And here's to a happy November for everyone!

Gosh, the 29th... nearly there!

Poetry for October
Come, Little Leaves
by George Cooper

"Come, little leaves," said the wind one day,
"Come o'er the meadows with me and play;
Put on your dresses of red and gold,
For summer is gone and the days grow cold."

Soon as the leaves heard the wind's loud call,
Down they came fluttering, one and all;
Over the brown fields they danced and flew,
Singing the glad little songs they knew.

"Cricket, good-by, we've been friends so long,
Little brook, sing us your farewell song;
Say you are sorry to see us go;
Ah, you will miss us, right well we know.

"Dear little lambs in your fleecy fold,
Mother will keep you from harm and cold;
Fondly we watched you in vale and glade,
Say, will you dream of our loving shade?"

Dancing and whirling, the little leaves went,
Winter had called them, and they were content;
Soon, fast asleep in their earthy beds,
The snow laid a coverlid over their heads.

Pictures for October
Today's pics come with a story. Off I went for a walk today, taking autumn-like photos along the way... As I walked down the drang (second pic) I heard children's voices, coming closer, and closer... sure enough, two young girls appeared at the end of the drang, walking towards me. They came closer, and closer... and then stopped. "Excuse me," the bigger one said. "Have you seen a killer clown down here?"

I hadn't seen a killer clown down the drang (further interrogation revealed that it would jump over the walls with a knife in each hand), and the girls seemed slightly disappointed, and not at all worried at the prospect... I took some more pictures of the fallen leaves, and the vanished ivy, and took myself home where I bumped into my landlord. We chatted, and I told him the story of the little girls and the killer clown. "Well," he said. "A lady I know told me a story - she'd been coming home along the drang one night, and she saw a woman suddenly cross the path in front of her - through one wall into the drang, and straight across and through the other wall out again..." Huh I thought. I live in such an old and new village - and winter dark is always winter dark...

Prosfic for October
I'm going to read Paper Flowers for bed again... *g* I did glance at today's Big Bang (*waves*) but it threw me because the lads weren't named the lads! I know why it's done, in historical AUs, but... they're not my lads then...

...and the Lads!
Okay, nothing to do with October this one (um, the trees may be slightly brown-tinged in the background?!) but it matches Doyle's jacket from yesterday's pic... *g*

Poetry for October
It was such a gorgeous day today that I took myself off to a local National Trust place for an autumnal wander, and found that they had a poetry trail, with poems by month - and even one particularly for today! It's kind of topical - I'm pretty sure I have mice in my ceiling. Actually I'm not at all sure that they're mice... but still.

Pictures for October





Prosfic for October
Actually (*whisper it*) I haven't read any Pros today... I've been reading Wayward Son by Rainbow Rowell...

...and the Lads!
Sometimes I just have to go with the timeless gorgeous classics... though it could be autumn light, couldn't it...? *g*

Poetry for October
Autumn
by John Clare

I love the fitfull gusts that shakes
 The casement all the day
And from the mossy elm tree takes
 The faded leaf away
Twirling it by the window-pane
With thousand others down the lane

I love to see the shaking twig
 Dance till the shut of eve
The sparrow on the cottage rig
 Whose chirp would make believe
That spring was just now flirting by
In summers lap with flowers to lie

I love to see the cottage smoke
 Curl upwards through the naked trees
The pigeons nestled round the coat
 On dull November days like these
The cock upon the dung-hill crowing
The mill sails on the heath a-going

The feather from the ravens breast
 Falls on the stubble lea
The acorns near the old crows nest
 Fall pattering down the tree
The grunting pigs that wait for all
Scramble and hurry where they fall

Pictures for October
There have been autumn winds...

Remember this wall at the start of the month, and even just the other day...?

Prosfic for October
Paper Flowers still - and of course Decrescendo for the Reading Room at ci5hq. Love Erushi's fic...

...and the Lads!
Doyle - that face! No wonder Bodie's looking... *g*

Poetry for October
Grace
by Wendell Berry

The woods is shining this morning.
Red, gold and green, the leaves
lie on the ground, or fall,
or hang full of light in the air still.
Perfect in its rise and in its fall, it takes
the place it has been coming to forever.
It has not hastened here, or lagged.
See how surely it has sought itself,
its roots passing lordly through the earth.
See how without confusion it is
all that it is, and how flawless
its grace is. Running or walking, the way
is the same. Be still. Be still.
“He moves your bones, and the way is clear.”

Pictures for October



Prosfic for October
I seem to have slid around the fic I was intending to read this month, and I started Paper Flowers by Kitty Fisher last night, cos it was there all printed out and easy to grab hold of, and it's a nice safe read that I know I like... But I will get back to some halloween-type reads!

...and the Lads!
Another Minori pic today, because I want something sleepy... it's bed time!

Only ten days left of October...

Poetry for October
Autumn Song
by Dante Gabriel Rossetti

Know'st thou not at the fall of the leaf
How the heart feels a languid grief
Laid on it for a covering,
And how sleep seems a goodly thing
In Autumn at the fall of the leaf?

And how the swift beat of the brain
Falters because it is in vain,
In Autumn at the fall of the leaf
Knowest thou not? and how the chief
Of joys seems—not to suffer pain?

Know'st thou not at the fall of the leaf
How the soul feels like a dried sheaf
Bound up at length for harvesting,
And how death seems a comely thing
In Autumn at the fall of the leaf?

Pictures for October
The shorter days of autumn...

Prosfic for October
Present Company by Rebelcat last night - and perhaps combined with too much Buffy earlier in the evening not a very good idea, because I had some rather eerie dreams (including thinking that I woke up and heard the gate outside open, around 2am, when it shouldn't have been!)

A bit different this morning - Practical Demonstrations by Jane, as part of a project. Not as difficult as Old Longings, but still... I just can't see Bodie calling Doyle "pet" at the end of every other sentence, and wanting - quite seriously - to tuck him into bed at night... *headdesk*

...and the Lads!
Well, you should hold hands when it's getting cooler outside... *g*

Poetry for October
In theory the first day of autumn was a while ago, but I'm not sure it was really, because it's only just starting to feel like this...

Pictures for October
The road home. Dark before 7pm - what is this?! Mind you - it is an October road, isn't it... *g*

Prosfic for October
Finally read The Other Game: A Post-Game Wrap-up (Hmmn... not convinced, but do see the discussion!)

This morning I read A Different Beginning by Rob, from UK Paper Circuit Folder 1. Interesting premise, but it goes a bit soppy for me at the end.

Then I started Jane's Old Longings because it was next in UK Paper Circuit Folder 1, but I'm not sure how far I'm gonna get with it. It sort of reads like a lesson in its-okay-if-there's-different-sexualities, which means it's dated now (well, I'd like to think it was dated for everyone, but presumably not - although if you're reading slash fic to start with...) There is much protesting about how it's okay to be gay, and how you can't blame someone for being raped, and... all of that, which just seems like duh now, all these years later on. Thank goodness...

...and the Lads!