Sue Vincent's Daily Echo

Going West: Fish, Chips and Cormorants

Posted on September 9, 2020 by Sue Vincent

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We were starting to get hungry by the time we arrived at our hotel in Lampeter, a small university town in mid-Wales that deserved more attention than we had time to give it. Personally, I blame the football. The trouble was, it was the European Championships and we arrived as the match was starting. And Wales were playing England… so the pub was packed, noisy and every TV was surrounded by a crowd of supporters. Food, we were told, was off the menu until after the match and inevitable post-mortem period.

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That was okay… a brief discussion revealed that we both rather fancied fish and chips… and the best place to get them is always beside the sea. I hadn’t seen the sea for a while… and it wasn’t all that far. Unless you take the wrong road, or miss a turning because you are talking… but even then, driving through beautiful countryside to find an alternative route is no hardship. And it was worth the drive… the sea was beautiful in the late afternoon sunshine.

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The sky seemed to laugh at any thought of the torrential rain we’d had for half the day and the sea was an inviting blue… but, we really were hungry by that time and the little seaside town of Aberaeron, with its inlet and pretty, multicoloured houses, was bound to have what we fancied. Fish, chips, mushy peas and a pot of tea for two… it doesn’t get much better than that.

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Satiated, we sat for a while by the estuary in the evening sun, watching the seagulls… and a cormorant who was also having fish for dinner. It was amazing to watch its mastery of air and water as it dived, resurfacing a huge distance away, over and over. They are incomparable fishers and have always fascinated me.

Continue reading at France & Vincent

Posted in Birds, Photography, Stuart France and Sue Vincent, travel, Wales, wildlife | Tagged Aberaeron, fish and chips, lampeter, sea bird, Wales | 11 Comments

Names Matter: gonned… Stuart France

Posted on September 9, 2020 by Sue Vincent

Well, the next day, har husband he took her inter the room, an’ there was the flax an’ the day’s vittles.
‘Now, there’s the flax,’ says he, ‘an’ if that ain’t spun up this night off goo yar hid.’ An then he went out and locked the door.
He’d hardly goon, when there was a knockin’ agin the winder.
She upped and she oped it, and there sure enough was the little oo’d thing a settin on the ledge.
‘Where’s the flax?’ says he.
‘Here te be,’ says she. And she gonned it to him.
Well, come the evenin’, a knockin come agin to the winder. She upped an’ she oped it, and there were the little oo’d thing, with five skeins on his arm.
‘Here te be,’ says he, an’ he gonned it to her.
‘Now, what’s my name?’ says he.
‘What, is that Ben?’ says she.
‘Noo, that ain’t,’ says he. An’ he twirled his tail.
‘Is that Ned?’ says she.
‘Noo, that ain’t,’ says he. An’ he twirled is tail.
‘Well, is that Don?’ says she.
‘Noo, that ain’t,’ says he. An’ he twirled his tail harder, an awa’ he flew.

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Posted in Books, Don and Wen | Tagged esoteric, Fairy Tale, Folk Tale, mystery, Mythology, psychology, Stuart France and Sue Vincent, symbolism | Leave a comment

Serenity ~ Frank Hubeny #writephoto

Posted on September 9, 2020 by Sue Vincent

Blue on blue with patient blue
Caressing me and also you.
But should you say it’s red instead

Continue reading at Poetry, Short Prose and Walking

Posted in photo prompt, Photography, Poetry | Leave a comment

Dear Don: ‘Molten-Minds’…

Posted on September 9, 2020 by Sue Vincent

Dear Don,

It’s weird, isn’t it…how driving a straight road is mind-numbing, boring and sends you to sleep on more levels than one, while walking the old straight tracks just frees the mind and lets it roam… Perhaps it is to do with walking the earth… the physical relationship between the physical body and the planetary body that makes the difference…

You may be on to something with ‘seeing essences’. Or maybe it is seeing from essence, rather than preconception…or both. We didn’t see anyone at all after James at Ilkley that night… that was part of the weirdness. We had switched off normality and must have been asleep within minutes of the encounter. We were not acting rationally at all.

I had a look for a reconstruction of the Loki Stone, and this was the best I could find… an old drawing, but it does bring out some of the details. Perhaps because the stone is still in such a good state of preservation, there doesn’t seem to be a better one out there.

Speaking of twins… which seem to be cropping up again a fair bit lately… There were a good few curious stones at Kirkby Stephen though, including the capital with the twin wolves/dogs and the human head with legs. They don’t seem to be either gorging or guzzling either. We never did get to the bottom of that one.

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Posted in Books, Don and Wen | Tagged Gosforth Cross, interpretation, landscape, Loki Stone, magic, mystery, Photography, psychology, writing | Leave a comment

A Silver Light ~ Na’ama Yehuda #writephoto

Posted on September 9, 2020 by Sue Vincent

A silver light,

In blue

It was.

A glimmer on

Still

Water.

Continue reading at Na’ama Yehuda

Posted in photo prompt, Photography, Poetry | Tagged blue, dream, imagery, light, meditation, ocean, Poetry, silver, writephoto, writing prompt | 1 Comment

Getaway…

Posted on September 9, 2020 by Sue Vincent

Since the first days of lockdown, I have not had a day off. Not even weekends. Like so many people, we missed the break we had planned, even though it was a UK trip. The three of us who run the Silent Eye haven’t met since the virus reared its ugly head and two of our planned workshops had to be postponed till next year.

Meanwhile, it has been chaotic at my son’s home with all the building work, my health has suffered and this morning I am once again at the hospital having x-rays.

This afternoon, however, I will be hitting the road and heading for Scotland and our first Silent Eye weekend of the year.

And I’ll be gone a while, as we are taking our time on the road, planning to meet a friend on the way and squeezing in what adventures we can with the little time at our disposal after the workshop.

So… the blog will be going pretty quiet, although I have set up a few posts to publish while I am away.

And there should be loads to share when we get back 🙂

Posted in Blogging | Tagged break, travel, workshop weekend | 37 Comments

Serenity ~ S. S. #writephoto

Posted on September 9, 2020 by Sue Vincent

At the beginning of the end

when evening still ripples maybes

but quietens the edge of seas,

the wave waits for just that second

unsure, to stay, go, or be friends

Continue reading at Mindfills

Posted in photo prompt, Photography, Poetry | Tagged decima | Leave a comment

Honesty #midnighthaiku

Posted on September 9, 2020 by Sue Vincent

Posted in Photography, Poetry | Tagged haiku, honesty and wild garlic, wildflowers | 5 Comments

New Book Launch ‘Eternal Road -The final stop’ by John W. Howell ~ Jane Sturgeon

Posted on September 8, 2020 by Sue Vincent

Reblogged from Jane Sturgeon:

Eternal Road - The final stop

It is my pleasure to invite the lovely and talented John Howell to my blog to launch his new novel ‘Eternal Road – The final stop’. We met some time ago in this blogging community and it has been delightful to get to know John and his girls. His Thursday posts on the antics of Lucy and Twiggy never fail to brighten my day and I am sure they do the same for many others. John is a prolific writer and it’s great to have him over for a visit today. I shall happily hand over to John…

Thank you so much for having me on your blog, Jane, and for helping me launch ‘Eternal Road – The final stop’. I know you are busy and have just completed a move, so I’m grateful to be here. Let me describe the book. Eternal Road is the story of two people finding their way through the selection process leading to the place where one will spend eternity.

Continue reading at Jane Sturgeon