London Life

with thanks to London Calling for pointing me in this direction ..a great video for a dark morning..and a wonderful sight to see .. I'm sure we will not be allowed to touch it...fair enough! but wouldn't it be amazing to feel it!

http://www.newscientist.com/blogs/shortsharpscience/2012/01/the-science-of-the-spider-silk.html

http://www.vam.ac.uk/content/articles/g/golden-spider-silk/

(with thanks to Lynne for the link)

Premonitions

Carol Ann Duffy

(Published in The Guardian, Saturday 2 May 2009)

Dedicated with love to the
memory of UA Fanthorpe

We first met when your last breath
cooled in my palm like an egg;
you dead, and a thrush outside
sang it was morning.
I backed out of the room, feeling
the flowers freshen and shine in my arms.

The night before, we met again, to unsay
unbearable farewells, to see
our eyes brighten with re-strung tears.
O I had my sudden wish -
though I barely knew you -
to stand at the door of your house,
feeling my heartbeat calm,
as they carried you in, home, home and healing.
Then slow weeks, removing the wheelchair, the drugs,
the oxygen mask and tank, the commode,
the appointment cards,
until it was summer again
and I saw you open the doors to the gift of your garden.

Strange and beautiful to see
the roses close to their own premonitions,
the grass sweeten and cool and green
where a blackbird eased a worm into the lawn.
There you were,
a glass of lemony wine in each hand,
walking towards me always, your magnolia tree
marrying itself to the May air.

How you talked! And how I listened,
spellbound, humbled, daughterly,
to your tall tales, your wise words,
the joy of your accent, unenglish, dancey, humorous;
watching your ash hair flare and redden,
the loving litany of who we had been
making me place my hands in your warm hands,
younger than mine are now.
Then time only the moon. And the balm of dusk.
And you my mother.

A poem about her dead mother from the poet laureate, Carol Ann Duffy, and read by her last night @ King's Place, with steady gaze and major emotional impact.... travelling back in time through a whirlwind of devastatingly ordinary images that so often tell the story of the dying and the living..of the love and the loss..tracing back from the final weeks of commodes and the paraphernalia surrounding final, painful leavetakings,way back to the happier days of familiar movement, talk and proffered glasses of wine in a spring garden ..

Sit down and make yourself comfy .. listen to some music .. have a browse, while you sip your coffee .. and do leave us a message...tell us what you think ..underneath the chesterfield would be the perfect place ..  or you can always email us..

bestoflondonlife@aol.com

 ♥

Through poetic storytelling and inventive promenade performance, Unfinished Dream reveals the hidden, moving stories of refugees and local residents in one of London’s most contrasting boroughs; all within the concrete confines of a Croydon car park. Meet at Fairfield Halls (Park Lane, Croydon, CR9 1DG)
to promenade to the car park
 21 June - 1 July 20:00pm

don't you just love the look o' this woman?