Unfenced existence.

I guess I'm a bit of a loner, I like my own company. I know this sometimes drives Nick wild, as I'll disappear on a walk and leave him with the children. I just get wrapped up in my thoughts and the place around me. Even in company I have to take some time out. The beach is a good example of this, I love going with everyone in tow, but then when I get there I just want to wander alone. I want to breathe it all in without distraction and stay for as long as I please. Preferably with my hair loose blowing all over, the weather wild and windy. It's that standing on the edge of something, out of reach feeling that sucks me in every time.

I had to study Philip Larkin's 'The Whitsun Weddings' for my English A'level. I had never read any of his poems before, but they blew me away. One in particular called 'Here' made a big impact and I have never forgotten it. In the last couple of lines of the last verse, Larkin manages to capture exactly what I feel when standing looking towards the sea.

'Loneliness clarifies. Here silence stands
like heat. Here leaves unnoticed thicken,
hidden weeds flower, neglected waters quicken,
Luminously-peopled air ascends;
And past the poppies bluish neutral distance
Ends the land suddenly beyond a beach
Of shapes and shingle. Here is unfenced existence:
Facing the sun, untalkative, out of reach.'



(Richie your wife's spaghetti bolognese was a triumph - five licked clean (well almost!) plates and five very satisfied people.)