Moving on (7)

 3 5 12

            Though there's no worry, RB rings to say,

            We've not exchanged with 146 today

            Because, though all was ready at end

            Their solicitor closes each Wednesday pm.

            The move will go ahead but technically,

            The final exchange must wait until Friday.

            He phones again, he needs eight thousand pounds

            So that all the loose ends can be wound

            Up and hopes that we were quite aware

            And have the ready cash - with some to spare!

            Sky texted our new number for the phone

            But it will be two weeks before we own

            The new landline and in between will need

            A dongle for the laptops to proceed.

Brian Hick May 2012

©copyright Sally Hick 30.4.24

Moving On (6)

30 4 12

           Bob from Andrews, all excited, rings

          To fix a date for moving all our things.

          We suggest the fourteenth of May

          Hoping we can all stick to that day.

 1 5 12

          Calls go back and forth, as worryingly

          It seems the Masters have yet to agree

          The moving date; meanwhile our new home

          Is sitting empty, all sad and alone.

          We agree to meet at 146 to place

          Some curtains, and a pot plant so the space

          Does not look quite so empty even though

          We still don't have a date - god it's so slow!

 2 5 12

          While we are hanging curtains in the bay

          My mobile buzzed with messages to say

          That they've agreed a date - 15th of May!

          And Mrs M apologised if they

          Had held things up because La vie Francais

          Is even slower than Les sangs Anglais.

          So now we start to ring round and email

         To ensure the changes do not fail

          Nationwide and Sky, E.on and Tax

          Various pension offices and banks

          Southern Water, British Gas, LV

          WNO, National Theatre & RSC

          Then tomorrow, when this first list ends

          We'll get round to family & friends.

Brian Hick May 2012

©copyright Sally Hick 29.4.24

 1157

Ancient sages in

Stained glass may glower, but above

A Green Man grins down.

Historic Warwick;

Truth to tell the castle costs

Far, far, far too much.

Brian Hick May 2012

©copyright Sally Hick 26.4.24

 1156

Bertie of the 23rd

Lorks, Jeeves, you really do know everything.

There are times I hardly need to think at all.

You sort out all my little problems -

There's a snifter just when I need it to perk me up.

You keep me on the straight and narrow

So I don't let you down.

I mean, even when things get a bit iffy

Or I might just have done something - well, you know -

You just go right ahead and sort it all out;

As if there was nothing wrong in the first place.

You make life bearable - even when Aunt Agatha is here -

You know, Jeeves, there are times I feel like royalty.

I mean - I'm so dashed lucky.

I think we need to keep things just the way they are.

Yes - sir.

Brian Hick May 2012

©copyright Sally Hick 25.4.24

 1155

I'm not in Hastings

This year, but the sun tells me

Jack must now be dead.

Brian Hick May 2012 Jack in the Green day

©copyright Sally Hick 24.2.24

 1154

The door is locked, the gate is barred

But through it I can see

An uncut lawn, a sprouting hedge,

A blossoming plum tree;

All signs of a returnig life

Green from what was grey;

And all that has lain long as dead

Resurgent, live, today.

And what of me, behind the door

Protected from the blast

Of life and change, of energy

Which challenges the past...

Brian Hick April 2012

©copyright Sally Hick 23.4.24

 1153

You eased me to this day

Yet I cannot hear your voice;

The words get in the way

Insist there is no choice;

But You do not compel

You simply wait and give

Until my heart, o'erwhelmed,

Knows what it is to live.

Brian Hick May 2012

©copyright Sally Hick 22.4.24

 1152

                          ON becoming 67

Sixty-seven - well, it's better than being dead -

But there are times, when everything is aching

And I'd like that extra glass, but dread

The thought of lonely hours when I lie waking

Torn between the gentle warmth of bed

And the Gaviscon which I have left downstairs.

If only I could eat like I once did

And drink into the night without a care,

Watch the late-night film knowing for sure

I'd stay awake until it reached its peak,

Instead of drifting off in this old chair

To back to back repeats of Mock the Week.

Thank goodness, I have friends who all ignore

My grumpy side, which can be such a bore!

Brian Hick April 2012

©copyright Sally Hick 19.4.24

                                                    Norfolk Coast Path

                                                    Friday

                                           Larks in the dappled

                                Sun on Weybourne cliffs guide us

                                             On our final day

Weybourne Priory, cliffs, larks

Skelding Hill past golf course

Art on the sea front

London style lunch but cheap

Abandon hill walk stay on beach

Heavy going so only get

to West Runton

Ladies have cakes - orange and maple / coconut and lime

Make for pier to complete the walk

heavens open up

Shelter until it goes over

But still raining as we leave.

 We shelter

But are still wet when we get back to Glendale.

Brian Hick April 2012

©copyright Sally Hick 18.4.24

                                                Norfolk Coast Path

                                               Thursday

                                         A warmer morning

                                 But by lunch the rain returns;

                                   Thankful for small mercies

                                         If Glendale's toilet

                                     Paper were any thinner

                                         It would not exist.

On with the walk but first we have to leave the car at Cley

And take the Hopper back to Wells, thankful that the day,

Though overcast, is free of wind and penetrating rain.

Damp underfoot the path from Wells to Morston is quite sound

Helping us to make up time

Morston oysters The Anchor alpacas and a dead mole

The rain and MUD, tea at Blakeney - no shops

Change in river course not on map

Get to Cley - nothing!

Wading through the sliding mud, it's onward till we drop

And as we get back to the car, the rain decides to stop

Brian Hick April 2012

©copyright Sally Hick 17.4.24

                                             Norfolk Coast Path

                                          Wednesday

                                     Cold and overcast

                               But today's rain comes as a 

                                      Blessing from BVM.

To Walsingham, the No29 goes all the way

But guided tours are off until late June, so we must pay

To show ourselves around the Abbey grounds and holy wells

Though cut our visit short as icy rain returns in squalls

Preferring coffee in the shrine cafe, or visit to

The Shrine Museum, the court and cells, for undesirables who

Got extra time for looking around, for whistling or singing

Whilst those who did far naughtier things are sent on via the shipping.

Soup, back in the shrine cafe, before we make a start

To walk round the Rosary Way which lies at the heart

Of Pilrimage to Walsingham - a journey for the mind

To focus ever more upon the mysteries, to find

A new way through the Labyrinth of emotions which entwine

Our seeking for the spiritual, our sense of the divine

Until within the Holy House we know that we have come

Not to an end but to a place where new quests are begun

For this place is a vehicle, a means of moving on,

A start of possibilities for life once we have gone

Back to our normalities, our families, our friends,

Where love and mercy daily find that giving never ends

And shrines, however beautiful, however filled with prayer,

Are dangerous if we come to believe that only there

Can we fulfil our purposes, experience true worth

When all the time, where're we are, we've all the gifts of earth.

The Albatros is open so we dine

On pancakes, beer and Scrabble until nine.

Brian Hick April 2012

©copyright Sally Hick 16.4.24

                                                Norfolk Coast Path

                                               Tuesday

                               Squalls from the south west;

                            Leaden skies, troubled puddles,

                                     Windswept daffodils.

                                      Dark rain in torrents

                              Freezes my right eye and cheek;

                                  Soaks through the map case.

Deepdale Marsh in driving rain at least keeps up our pace

Arriving at The Hero as if it were a race

To arrive before the party of thirteen OAPs

Who've booked ahead, all need the loo and swarm around like bees.

A kite over Holkam marsh

Dropping, waiting.

Four small birds

Too far off for recognition

Spin up, attack

Dive bomb

Until

Little by little

Driving across the marsh

Beyond the distant woods

They leave the sky

Deserted

Safe.

Brian Hick April 2012

©copyright Sally Hick 15.4.24

                                                   Norfolk Coast Path

                                                  Monday

                                        Early clear bright skies;

                                     Clouds  roll in but disappear

                                         Leaving evening calm.

The Wold Way leads us on to where St Edmund's Chapel stands

Then off across the dunes to trek the miles and miles of sand

Before The Lifeboat for light lunch - oysters & whitebait -

Which was worth it, though we had a fair old time to wait

Considering they were not full, but no one seemed to worry,

You'd think we're all on holiday, so no one's in a hurry.

Larks across the dunes

Scared by our approach

Rise, dip, soar

Till high above

They sing their safety

Laughing at our plodding

Earthbound plight.

A muntjac deer

Ambles round the golf course brush

Unseen pheasants squall to warn us off

Across the ploughed field

Hares circle

A pair of quail who dip and dive

Then lope away

To fade

Against the dark earth of the bank.

Brian Hick April 2012

©copyright Sally Hick 12.4.24

           Norfolk Coast Path 

                  Sunday

             Norfolk winds

Lashing rain and blinding hail;

       Brashness of sunlight.

Teacakes with Elizabeth to get us on our way

Before late lunch in Ely, with time enough to stray

Into the Cathedral where St Etheldreda lies

And Mary hovers over us with strange vacant eyes.

Lady Chapel

Above the altar

Bathed in light

The architect did not intend

The figure

Jars the softness of the stone

With starkness.

The shattered void

Remnant of Cromwell's wrecking crews

Has no point of calm,

No human heart.

Only an ambivalence in blue

Where painted breasts

And vacant eyes

Await the snakes' return

To resurrect the Goddess

From the blinded Theotokos.

Brian Hick April 2012

©copyright Sally Hick 11.4.24

                    Norfolk Coast Path

St Edmumd, England's Saint and gentle sage,

          King and Lord of Anglia's Thanes

             Martyr to marauding Danes,

          Join us on our Norfolk Pilgrimage.

North Norfolk Coast - the wettest walk that we have ever done;

Hours and hours of driving rain and scarcely any sun,

But are we vexed? Do we give in before we've even started?

Not likely - we've wet weather gear and all of us stout-hearted.

After years of striding out in snow and sleet and hail

Nothing daunts us OAP's nothing makes us quail,

As long as there's a tea-room near and a quiet B&B

An old pub with real ale, and somewhere to have a pee.

Brian Hick April 2012

©copyright Sally Hick 10.4.24

 1151

How should I record our Norfolk walk?

Immediately pentameters ensare

And even if I try to break the mould

The form seems to assume I will not dare;

Yet each walk takes its own particular shape -

A sonnet cycle for the South Downs Way

An epic poem up on Hadrian's Wall

Reflective snippets for a single day.

But even when ideas begin to come

It takes some time before the hedge and mead,

The muddy path, the misty river bank,

Settle to the verse which you now read.

            So far I've abandoned several tries.

            It seems that I must wait for Norfolk's skies.

Brian Hick April 2012

©copyright Sally Hick 9.4.24

 1150

New Blue

A good day today;

Unexpectedly ordered

A new Hyundai.

Brian Hick May 2012

©copyright Sally Hick 8.4.24

 1149

12 4 12

Our fox has been around this morning

Sitting alongside next door's fence

Where an old mattress and lumber pile

Make a high place in the sun.

About two, he wandered down

Across the grass, back leg atwitch,

As he tried to reach his ear

Before he stopped behind the holly.

From the window I can see,

Down behind the bench, his tail

Swinging casually side to side

As he scratches at his fleas.

When we move house will he greive

Or simply miss the food we leave?

Brian Hick 12 April 2012

©copyright Sally Hick 5.4.24

 1148

Driving home I was confused.

We had sat and talked

From two till after four.

Mostly inconsequential

Unil near the end

We talked of money

Skirting round

The shadow in the room

Agreeing that we needed

Proper legal help.

But only driving home did I recall

That was the first time

In more than sixty years

That we had been alone together

For more than fleeting moments.

How often have I heard at funerals

Whispered regrets

That now it was too late.

We must talk again.

Brian Hick April 2012

©copyright Sally Hick 4.4.24

 1147

Rain all day

from drizzle to downpour

And nobody

Complaining.

Brian Hick April 2012

©copyright Sally Hick 3.4.24

Similar weather today, but in 2012 I believe it came after a long dry spell

 Moving on (5)

 2 4 12

            Rang the secretary, still no news

            So we'll just sit tight and sing the blues

 3 4 12

            Minor panic, message left to say

            That 146 have packed and moved away;

             On checking this, the truth is not so thrilling

            They've merely moved the boxes they are filling

            To their new address - and wondered if

            We'd like two cupboards left there - as a gift.

13 4 12

            Two weeks now and still no date in view,

            No reason given, so we have to stew

            With tempers fraying, nerves stretched on the rack;

            It may be weeks before we can unpack.

20 4 12

            We are all in limbo once again;

            It seems the Masters have not signed their name

            And at the moment can't even be found

            Though agents and solicitors abound.

23 4 12

            Rang Andrews, who know no more than we

            And Smarts are in the dark, but all agree

            No panic, but there'll be no advance

            Until the Euros flow across from France.

24 4 12

            A call to say the Masters have now signed

            And forms are on their way from France, aligned

            To their deposit which may take some days

            As foreign banks do things in foreign ways.

25 4 12

            It seems that all is well but we still wait

            Until the cash arrives to set a date.

26 4 12

            RB calls to confirm all is arranged

            But our buyers want to be here for the exchange

            So yet again we will have to wait

            Before we can agree a moving date.