A short video of our trip to Florence, Italy.

SWITZERLAND

SOUL’S joy, now I am gone,
And you alone,
—Which cannot be,
Since I must leave myself with thee,
And carry thee with me—
Yet when unto our eyes
Absence denies
Each other’s sight,
And makes to us a constant night,
When others change to light ;
O give no way to grief,
But let belief
Of mutual love
This wonder to the vulgar prove,
Our bodies, not we move.

Let not thy wit beweep
Words but sense deep ;
For when we miss
By distance our hope’s joining bliss,
Even then our souls shall kiss ;
Fools have no means to meet,
But by their feet ;
Why should our clay
Over our spirits so much sway,
To tie us to that way?
O give no way to grief,

by John Donne

TANZANIA

Even though I have decided that black is my latest favourite colour, I love the colour of this handbag.

Purple leather Dolce and Gabbana handbag.
It has a front zip pouch, branded photograph tab, four handles, silver D ring detail, an internal zip compartment, and is fully lined in black canvas.
It fastens with a magnet, and has a detachable shoulder strap.
Price £470.

ITALY

O coil, honied envoy of the spring,
Cease thy too happy voice, grief’s record, cease:
For I recall that day of vernal trees,
The soft asoca’s bloom, the laden winds
And green felicity of leaves, the hush,
The sense of Nature living in the woods.
Only the river rippled, only hummed
The languid murmuring bee, far-borne and slow,
Emparadised in odours, only used
The ringdove his divine heart-moving speech;
But sweetest to my pleased and singing heart
Thy voice, O coil, in the peepel tree.

O me! for pleasure turned to bitterest tears!
O me! for the swift joy, too great to live,
That only bloomed one hour! O wondrous day,
That crowned the bliss of those delicious years.
The vernal radiance of my lover’s lips
Was shut like a red rose upon my mouth,
His voice was richer than the murmuring leaves,
His love around me than the summer air.
Five hours entangled in the coil’s cry
Lay my beloved twixt my happy breasts.
O voice of tears! O sweetness uttering death!
O lost ere yet that happy cry was still!

O tireless voice of spring! Again I lie
In odorous gloom of trees; unseen and hear
The windlark gurgles in the golden leaves,
The woodworm spins in shrillness on the bough:
Thou by the waters wailing to thy love,
O chocrobacque! have comfort, since to thee
The dawn brings sweetest recompense of tears
And she thou lovest hears thy pain. But I
Am desolate in the heart of fruitful months,
Am widowed in the sight of happy things,
Uttering my moan to the unhoused winds,
O coil, coil, to the winds and thee.

by Sri Aurobindo

INDIA

Husband Creche ~
Is he getting under your feet?
Why not leave him here while you shop!
Free creche, just pay for his drinks!

No doubt husbands everywhere would like a ‘creche’ where they live.

EGYPT

I heard an Angel singing
When the day was springing:
`Mercy, Pity, Peace
Is the world’s release.’

Thus he sang all day
Over the new-mown hay,
Till the sun went down,
And haycocks looked brown.

I heard a Devil curse
Over the heath and the furze:
`Mercy could be no more
If there was nobody poor,

`And Pity no more could be,
If all were as happy as we.’
At his curse the sun went down,
And the heavens gave a frown.

Down pour’d the heavy rain
Over the new reap’d grain;
And Misery’s increase
Is Mercy, Pity, Peace.

by William Blake

ENGLAND

A video of our trip to Italy.
The Vatican City in Rome.

ITALY

Being walkers with the dawn and morning,
Walkers with the sun and morning,
We are not afraid of night,
Nor days of gloom,
Nor darkness–
Being walkers with the sun and morning.

by Langston Hughes

LESOTHO

I posted this because it made me smile, it cheered me up, as I am feeling blah today.

It’s a giant panda cub enjoying a stretch and a yawn.
This cute baby lives at the Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding in China’s southwestern province of Sichuan.
The cub was born a couple of days ago.
It’s one of four cubs born within 14 hours of each other in China.

Four cubs in 14 hours, that’s great news for their dwindling population as Chinese experts say there are only 1,600 pandas living in the wild in China, mostly in Sichuan and neighbouring Shaanxi and Gansu provinces.

THE NETHERLANDS

Yesterday evening before I went to sleep I decided to read my tarot cards.
I wish I hadn’t.

I have had my tarot cards for many years, and I’ve never had a bad reading, until last night.
Now I wish I had just read a book instead.

The reading wasn’t all bad, but every time I turned over an unfavourable card I kept going until I turned over a good card.
Trouble is, my OCD had really kicked in, and even when I read a good card and told myself to stop; end on a high note, I couldn’t.
By the time I finished my reading I had used practically the whole pack. So the reading means nothing.
I know it means nothing, but I still can’t seem to shake the feeling of doom.

Deep down I know it’s probably all crap, but as I was feeling low I decided to get an online tarot reading.
Unfortunately it didn’t lift my mood though, because the online reading was very similar to the reading I did for myself last night.
Weird?!
So then I got an online horoscope, actually lots of online horoscopes, and they all said similar things too.
Freaky?!

I am trying to think positive.
I believe in positive thought.
I know what positive thinking can achieve.
And yet ……. I just cannot shake this worrying feeling in my tummy.

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The lotus flower is sometimes used as a symbol of enlightenment.
The lotus has its roots in the mud,
Grows up through the deep water,
And rises to the surface.
It blooms into perfect purity and beauty in the sunlight.
It is like the mind unfolding to perfect joy and wisdom.

New Zealand