"Summer Sun"

Great is the sun, and wide he goes 
Through empty heaven with repose; 
And in the blue and glowing days 
More thick than rain he showers his rays. 

Though closer still the blinds we pull 
To keep the shady parlour cool, 
Yet he will find a chink or two 
To slip his golden fingers through. 

The dusty attic spider-clad 
He, through the keyhole, maketh glad; 
And through the broken edge of tiles 
Into the laddered hay-loft smiles. 

Meantime his golden face around 
He bares to all the garden ground, 
And sheds a warm and glittering look 
Among the ivy's inmost nook. 

Above the hills, along the blue, 
Round the bright air with footing true, 
To please the child, to paint the rose, 
The gardener of the World, he goes.


From 'A Children's Garden of Verses', written in 1885 by Robert Louis Stevenson (1850 - 1894)




We had a little trip to Maldon, Essex, in the sunshine this afternoon.  After dinner, I watered the plants and did a bit of tidying up in the garden.  I'm rather pleased at how well this clump of large daisies is doing - it was a bit of a mess in the spring, and I've been keeping an eye on it to make sure it would look good for the summer.  Taken with the new camera in poor light at 8 p.m. this evening.  Too much going on at the moment in life, so I'm still fumbling around with the camera rather than using it properly.  The salesman at John Lewis gave me the link to a youtube video which takes even beginners through the controls on this model step by step, so I really must sit down and study it for a while.