Evening

A day of intermittent showers, interspersed with brief spells of sunshine but, so far, no sign of the thunderstorms that were forecast. I walked up to communion this morning, once again carrying a quantity of home made fare (this time, lemon butter biscuits) to share with everyone afterwards in the Atrium at coffee time.

As for the rest of the day, well I’ve finished a really tricky alteration job on an edge to edge cardigan with a pretty metallic thread running through it. I bought it a couple of years ago – it had dropped shoulders with quite thick seams which sat 2" below the top of my arm, and which were quite uncomfortable (mainly because I kept thinking my bra straps were falling down!) 

After weeks of hesitation, and with a deal of trepidation, I unpicked the sleeves, cut off the excess fabric of the dropped shoulder and re-sewed the sleeves back in on the correct shoulder line. I then inserted thin shoulder pads to make it sit better and am totally thrilled with the result. Now that it fits properly, I will probably wear it all the time!

The evening arrived and I hadn’t taken a photograph so, in a gap between showers, I gingerly went out into the garden and, whilst scanning the raindrop-spattered flowers, I found this snail which had obviously been making a meal of my day lilies.


Evening

’Tis evening; the black snail has got on his track,
And gone to its nest is the wren,
And the packman snail, too, with his home on his back,
Clings to the bowed bents like a wen*.
 
The shepherd has made a rude mark with his foot
Where his shadow reached when he first came,
And it just touched the tree where his secret love cut
Two letters that stand for love’s name.
 
The evening comes in with the wishes of love,
And the shepherd he looks on the flowers,
And thinks who would praise the soft song of the dove,
And meet joy in these dew-falling hours.
 
For Nature is love, and finds haunts for true love,
Where nothing can hear or intrude;
It hides from the eagle and joins with the dove,
In beautiful green solitude.

John Clare


*I believe this refers to a boil or cyst on the skin