Real Life Christmas Card...

During the summer on a holiday in Assynt, we bought some Highland Stoneware, including this vase. The colours of Christmas seem very apt for this piece.

Assynt of course is also the setting for much of the poetry of the late Norman McCaig; someone I had the great pleasure of knowing. Perhaps these words from Norman are an unusual Christmas message, but they make me think and so I give them to those who view this Blip as my Christmas gift:

Real Life Christmas Card

Robin, I watch you. You are a perfect robin -
except, shouldn't you be perched on a spade handle?

Robin, you watch me. Am I a perfect man - except,
shouldn't I have a trap in my pocket, a gun in my hand?

I, too, am in my winter plumage, not unlike yours,
except, the red is in my breast, not on it.

You sing your robin song. I my man song. They're different,
but they mean the same: winter, territory, greed.

Will we survive, bold eyes, to pick
the seeds in the ground, the seeds in my mind?

The snow man thinks so. Look at his silly smile
slushily spilling down the scarf I gave him.


It is months since I last blipped, but I think I need to start again. No better time than the Christmas period, which is a time of hope and joy.