Author Archives: @julforres

On leaving the home park this morning I pause to listen to the sweeping sounds from the hedgerow, and see a handful of blackbirds in the open branches, traffic was passing and I curse the roar and fade of the engines, but as i do I begin to hear the matrix, the call response fromContinue reading “Thursday 23.12.2021 blackbirds, swamp cypress,dipper and mouse”

The Glen river and path twine about one another and criss cross 11 times in the short 3/4 kilometre of the valley. The Valley itself a glacial secret lying in the fabric of the city. Now filled with bare trees the sound echoes through, from all about its environs, the hum and thrum of traffic,Continue reading “Tuesday 21.12.2021 path and river”

The leaves are now almost all grounded, becoming earth, I have read that Elm is planted in cities, valued for its rapid disintegration from leaf litter to mulch, these yellow leaves are not skidders. An identifying feature of an elm leaf is the sand paper texture of its upper surface, raspy. For weeks they haveContinue reading “Monday 13.12.2021 Elm”

Crab apples, I’ve known they were here for the last few weeks, from the scent that hangs in the air, just haven’t seen them fallen in the same place as last year, under that tree, and looking up there are precious few on the branches. After the weekend winds and rain I find them, piledContinue reading “you’ll be glad you did it yesterday tomorrow ~ Monday and Tuesday and Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday 15,26,27,28,29 & 30.10.2021”

I have been picking up conkers from the Horse Chestnuts nearby for the last month, as they fall to the ground the impact finds the seams on their outer casing and the deep brown eye peeps warmly from the pith. I pick up the conker and the remaining thirds of shell fall softly away inContinue reading “conker and moon Sunday 24.10.2021”

Its Thursday and I finally got into the Glen on a bright morning, it’s been some time coming, busyness presses in from all sides and it was Sunday when I last set foot in the Glen. So this posting is a bit of a mishmash crossing the weekend from Thursday to Thursday. The council gatesContinue reading “Openings and closings Thurs 21.10.2021”

The Glen sun that rises at one end and sets at the other. Our wee group are coming together as Treepuka to present a Samhain Celebration of dance, poetry and art in our lovely Glen. It will take place on Sunday 31 October…Hallowe’en itself… the threshold of the coming year and a very special timeContinue reading “Samhain in the Glen Saturday 9.10.2021”

Conscious that there is a small window of light before the dusk falls I hop over the barrier into the Glen. There is a new gate, grey as shiny steel and crowned with trident spikes, who owns this gate but the council, opening up another pedestrian entry point to the Glen for them, its lockContinue reading “October dusk Friday 01.10.2021”

I take with me some Japanese Calligraphy paper, the charcoal I made from Willow and Alder and some waxy old stumps from a bag of crayon debris… all blackened on the skin but inside the oily grime is the colour of yellow gold and more… and so I rub the Gréine and Thoir and thenContinue reading “Frottage Tuesday 28/09/2021”