Wheelchair walking Shorne Country Park

We have just got back from a day out to Shorne Country Park.
I had a great time wandering the paths and tracks around the park with my wife Heather and our good friend Phil. I am permanently in a wheelchair ♿as I suffer from Primary Progressive Multiple Sclerosis and can no longer stand or walk. The park at Shorne is one of the Kent County Council KCC country parks . I have a parking permit, because I have a Blue Badge  it  enables me to by a years parking for all of the parks, our registration is automatically logged upon entry, Marvelous what modern technology can do. Well we got there and as per usual the first stop was the🚻 toilets. We had a few minutes wait as the disabled facility doubles as a mother and baby change place and we got there just as a baby and his family took him in for a nappy change. The main building is a futuristic wooden creation housing a great cafe and offices and meeting rooms etc, Phil got the teas and we sat outside on the paved area sunning ourselves and doing that old favourite 'people watching'  !! Being a Friday afternoon 12:30 the place was busy with mums and grandparents with toddlers and a few like ourselves retired and out for an afternoon adventure.
The walk started after our tea break. We headed off in search of a view point called the Knoll but our sense of direction was as we headed in the complete wrong direction.We passed the fishing lakes and I stopped and spoke to one chap who reconed he had caught fifty fish 🎣(we have all heard about the one that got away) I saw several other people fishing but not one of them had caught as many. Afer the fishing lake we took a right instead of a left and happily headed in the wrong direction. We had a pleasant three hours walk round trying to rite our sense of direction but we failed to find the Knoll. Wheelchair access and surfaces were great if at times a little bumpy. Some routes in wet weather would be un passable We headed back to the cafe as it stops cooking an hour  before it closes. We got to the cafe just in time (minutes to spare) and had fantastic bacon and brie baguettes 😋and a drink. I managed to sleep😴 in the wheelchair♿ in both ↑↓directions

Fishing lake

Water Lily

What is poetry?

I write poetry for my own amusement, I assume it to be poetry. I have never had any formal teaching on how to write poetry but I had a desire to put words to paper to save lest they be lost. because through my life and I have lived a lot of years I have had thoughts that I wish I had put into written form but they like a puddle in hot sunlight have evaporated. Many things, thoughts and dreams have evaporated, gone into the ether of life. Gone forgotten, sometimes just beyond my grasp a fleeting memory but so faint to have no form, a shadow disappearing out of the corner of my eye there but not there. I took to having a pencil and paper near by say by the bed or never far away! Of course when you have the means to record these fast vanishing thoughts the masterpiece the recall of these wonderful toys of your play on words I never remember them, those wonderful imaginings when aroused from sleep. Those thoughts that rush in and tickle the grey matter and are gone only come when there is no chance of recording them. So the stuff I put to paper is never the good stuff the wonderful images I paint with words in my subconscious remain there in the sub subconscious just out of reach. The wonders are never recorded, no the ones that escape are the ones I wish to write down. But those that do get written they are the dross the far distant cousin the one who is unkempt unshaven and down at heel. The one with whom I wish not to be associated. The poetry I write it is inferior of far lesser quality than that that escapes. The good stuff never gets recorded it is just out of reach, that illusive mist, the vapour that is unable to be bottled. A wisp on the wind an illusive ghost there but beyond reach. So as I ask myself "what I write is it poetry" what will the answer be? The answer is also a sprite who is fast of foot and speeds away the answer is I don't know. The answer is like the question "what is"? It will remain as such until I am strong enough to say "this is" but for now I remain weak and in the back of my mind keep asking, asking for permission to be able to say "this is and it is mine"

I have just re read this post two years on. I haven’t put pencil ✏️ to paper much at all this year. Lockdown has been to horrible that I haven’t wanted to record any of it. Maybe it’s time for change and I need to get my thoughts down on paper. Maybe it will help my mental health? 

Kate Bradbury the Wildlife Gardener

I have just finished this wonderful book. Gardening for wildlife is one of life's joys. Seeing birds visit your bird table or watching them flit to handle from feeders is for me better watching than most things on the television. Personally I have been a bird watcher from an early age and still remember receiving a copy of the Observer book of Birds at around age of seven and I had a vast array of wildlife books around that time from aunts and uncles. Now at the tender age of 62 I still  enjoy watching birds and although I cannot get into our garden anymore (wheelchairs don't negotiate steps) I give the odd direction to the wife. We both like to see nature flourishing and Kate Bradbury has written this wonderful book to help and encourage even the most timorous of gardeners.
The photographs are excellent and are all in glorious colour. The text is written for the beginner as well as the expert. The cover has a quote from Alan Tichmarsh describing it as "a joyous book" which is praise indeed.

I recently also read The Bumblebee Flies Anyway: A Year of Gardening and wildlife also written by Kate Bradbury. So if you really want a wildlife fest go get a copy or do as I did and order it from  your local Library. Kate is a good writer and draws you into her wild(life) world. She writes for several publications Gardeners world Magazine (BBC)  the Sunday Times The Guardian RHS Magazine and many others,

 

Brighton Beach Rod Stewart

Here is another, more up tempo but equally depressing song. This time by Rod Stewart about an early love and his memories of the time on Brighton Beach. You can read about the story behind the song once again in the Telegraph

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Is Bruce Springsteen depressing

Is Bruce Springsteen depressing? I am sitting here with the Essentials Album playing on itunes and it is making me want to slit my wrists. is a dream a lie if it don't come true or is it something worse
have go to be some of the most melancholic lyrics. I  googled those particular words and came up with lots of debate on those and the other lyrics from THE RIVER. Driving people to suicide must be big business as Springsteen has been at it for years  and his songs are extremely popular. Maybe it is how I am feeling today? But maybe I am not alone, googling Springsteen and depressing songs it seems others have before me come to the same conclusion! Here is a link to an article in The Telegraph written in 2016 titled Bruce Springsteens 10 saddest lyrics.   As I said maybe it is how I feel today old age and thoughts of a younger me or am I particularly grumpy today ? I have just deleted four old blogs so this post is somewhat of a new beginning, lets hope future posts reflect a happier me!! 

thats Springsteen talking about the track and here it is being performed all seven minutes of it. Fill yer boots