Let Yourself Bloom

I have recently been on a guided walking holiday in Spain, exploring the hills and mountains behind the coastal resort of Calpe. Our guide was local to the area and an expert on birds. Mario ‘spoke in birds’. He told me this when we first met and when he discovered my love of birds and of Merlin, the birding App which helps identify birds by listening to their song. Walking alongside Mario was a delight and during my time with him, I discovered several new birds to add to my ‘Life List’, including the Eurasian Golden Oriole and the Griffon Vulture.

May has been a month of exploring more mixed media painting styles and trying to relax more and enjoy my painting. I’m letting myself bloom and have fun just playing around with different materials, enjoying the process and not caring about the finished product.

I continue to write poems and this month I have had a go at writing a Villanelle, a Sonnet, and a Golden Shovel. It’s been a challenge but these forms appeal to the logical side of my nature.

Under Spanish Skies

Cicadas trilling, lemons glistening, oranges blooming sweet

Almond blossom creamy peach, juniper berries ruby bright

Burnished Spanish skies, scorching grass, terraces incomplete

Vultures soaring over mountain tops, sunlight flashing white

Mario speaking ‘let us open our ears, listen for the Nightingale’

Closing my eyes, becoming aware – of silence, presence, scent…

… of pine, of earth, of wild boar dung and then, oh perfect tale

‘Mario, I heard a Nightingale’ but he has gone and I am spent

Dry stone walls, winding paths, distant hills, hungry goat cries

Warbler, Siskin, Finch I hear, but Mario is nowhere near 

Lilac clouds pillow puff, turtle doves coo, slow wind sighs

Broken hearts, loose rocks, lizards, snakes, memories disappear 

Waiting under Spanish skies, I ponder, musing in my mind

Where has the vulture gone, will it be the bird or him I find?