Sign
How close is close?
I’d say that we're already there.
Brambles
Blood-red berries and thorns to draw the blood’s red from
the flesh.
Could you ask a plant to make more sense?
Protection
Why the celebrity-standard barrier to keep us away?
I’ve never seen such pampered pampas grass.
McLaren
How many cars are always in their drives?
Plenty, perhaps, but this is the one I notice, saving the
environment from itself.
Sign
Is this to make sure drivers get the imminence of humps
before they get the hump from slowing down?
Worksite
Toilets to let: I like that. But are the workers really
so disgusting that they can’t be allowed to go inside the house?
Lawn
Is the lay of stones a lawn of sorts
or simply an escape from the mowing?
Sign
Who was Ms Whartons, and why did they name the road for her?
Or should I ask: who was Mr Wharton, and why did he hate apostrophes?
Cul-de-sac
Estimated ratio: 50% of roads round here.
More than in life, or just being realistic?
Lawn
How scrubby can a lawn become
before we seek a different designation?
Shelter
Where do we come from? What are we? Where
are we going?
Ashurst. Passengers. Totton. What did Gaugin
find so hard?
How far is it?
Just 500 yards -
but
disappointingly cool.
Crab apple
What can it mean,
all furcoat, work and fruit,
no knickers, play
or leaves?
Daisies
What is beauty? Hard to say,
but here it is in the eyes of the flowers beheld.
Telephone Wire
How did you walk across? Not quite as fast as the electrical energy
for fear of the acoustic conversion of
hitting the ground.
Weather
Why run in this?
Easy enough: on return you’re halfway through your shower.
Sign
At first I assumed this 'K’ was for Kitten, or maybe for Kat.
But is that, in fact, a sodden Kdog or Ksquirrel?
Flood
Is this the pavement? Well, it was last week.
Which isn’t, I guess, the answer for now.
Passage
Why not run under?
Beyond here lies Totton, you need to take care.
What's the art? Maybe how the colour links between the parts
pull the landscape between them into the space of the work.
Lawn
No grass, a new function, no surface on view.
Surely this one has escaped its given status?
Pavement
Is my tread so very heavy?
I didn’t think so, even if I could lose weight.
Farm
How now black cow? Patently patient.
I’d get browned off, chewing grass all day.
Lawn
Can I call this a ‘lawnscape’? The natural and the cultural
conjure organic geometry for our viewing.
Prop
What keeps this fence from crashing down?
I
suspect, despite appearances, just itself.
Stack
The strong winds I grant, but the eerie precision?
That went well beyond the forecast’s brief.
Paint
What’s the appeal of peeling paint? The flouting of the uniform, the equivalent
of patina, the visible textility, the cost and labour saved. Why isn’t
the norm?
Hedge
Taller than
bushes, shorter than trees, wider than fences, lighter than walls…
Is this how
a garden hedges its bets?
Number I
Who wouldn't want to live in the year of their lives -
maximum maturity compatible with no-one yet regarding you as old?
Number II
But is it enough to be
happy?
Should one not be
bright as well, and joyful?
Sign
Time's not all you can pass in this place.
Did you remember to bring the football?
BML2 E2/13D
What can I see from this bridge, bottom right? A yellow gate. A family group. The station.
And the leaves I haven’t counted in the yet that, trainlike, may not
come.
Bottle
What is the term when a water bottle
is wetter on the outside than the inside?
Watch
It’s good to feel we’re safe round here,
but who looks out for signs of aging signs?
Cotoneaster I
Can I justify a couple of lines,
not by asking ‘are these my mother’s favourite plants?’
Cotoneaster II
but by asking whether asking that
amounts to enough of a question?
Velux
Are all velux windows made by Velux,
or has the term just hoovered up the skylight competition?
Dormers
How are things in dormer land?
Only
as they always were, except with a little more room.
Originals
Not
many have left their roofs unlit.
What
goings-on are hidden in those darks?
Hump
If what looks so modest on foot feels so substantial by car,
what does that tell us about the problems of achieving true empathy?
Danger
Know what I reckon? The sign was calmly making its point when
Oop! it fell foul of its very own words.
Caution
What
gives now? It seems
a Give
Way sign has given way.
Speed
Don’t
tell me that a 30 warning
has been
caught exceeding its own limit?
Leaves
Do you believe in autumn?
I might not, but the evidence is strong.
Cat
How do cats classify? Into those who love them, those who
hate them,
and those who reject such simple categories.
Cover
What will
emerge from under? I like the thought
that nothing
will, that this is a case of form over function.
Absence
Does this make the heart glow fondly,
thinking back to the sign that fell?
Tree
Only 40 days to go? I guess this is too big to move,
but maybe
this year’s Christmas will be outside…
Trees
Between the sign and the reality falls the representation.
Or should I say an image of the two together, battling to be
prime?
Moss
Is it enough
to call this ‘moss’? Don’t 12,000 different species,
a thousand of those in the UK, justify a little more respect?
11.09 from Brockenhurst
How still can a
speeding train get,
abstracted to a
filter for a landscape of rail-thin strips?
Sign
Will they report
the certifiable runner
taking photos of
nothing and notating the same?
Arch
Why this arch? No other dwelling boasts such pomp -
and that’s sufficed: the setting is determinedly plain.
Scaffold
How high are they going? Don’t they know
that there’s a ‘low’ in ‘bungalow’?
Carpark
Is lockdown the best time to park?
It would be were there anything to park for…
Bonnet
Have the human and the natural ever achieved such harmony
as when the tops of trees are reflected in a car?
Easter Island
Is this Easter Island? No heads have fallen:
I submit it cannot be.
Drip I
Who’s
jumping first?
Not I, says the smallest, I’m frightened.
Drip II
Not I, says the biggest,
I’d fall too hard.
Drip III
Not I, says the middling drip,
not every context contains a ‘just right’.
Pool
Light falls… Or does it?
Surely there’s no gravity involved.
Posts
I’ve only just
noticed that there isn’t a notice or even a noticeboard
on these
noticeboard legs. Has a message gone missing as well?
Sign
What does this
mean? No bikes allowed? Beware of bikes?
No parking up the
pole? I’ll have to check the Code…
New Lines
What do you mean? The
words may be old
but I promise I never wrote these before.
Ashurst
Ashurst in Ashurst? A house name so literal and unimaginitive
it’s turned out to be original.
Hat
Is it true that you lose most heat through the head?
And is that confirmed or refuted by the ice on this hat?
Tennis Ball
I’ve seen a serve hit the fence round the court
before it's bounced - but how far out can this mis-hit have sailed?
Donkeys
What is there to
say about donkeys?
They can see all
four of their feet at the same time.
White Clouds
Why is a this
house sign occluded by green?
I could understand
grey, if white’s out of order on days like these…
Cook Inside
But who’d cook outside
on a day like this,
however they
reflected on the pleasures of the barbecue?
Lawn
If this is the over made out of the under,
why doesn’t it just collapse?
Frisbee
How much respect is due? Not just the precision of length and direction
but the spin-down on the middle of the pillar
that was chosen…
Shelter
Will this
be repaired? I’m hoping not:
the curvature
brings a welcome touch of Gehry to the scene.
Window
The
inside light illuminates the unlit light without, and I wonder...
have I
got the world the wrong way round?
Wyndley
What blew this sign down?
Must have
been a Hurrycayne of sorts.
Palm I
I was about to hand it to this palm
for getting ahead of the climate curve
Palm II
but maybe they’ve always grown well around here,
as this other specimen suggests?
Cooper
If this were a barrel, what would I say?
That the hoops are loose and the bilge off
kilter?
Horses
‘Why the blazes’, asks the bay, ‘haven’t I got a rug?
Does chestnut hair provide less warmth?'
Scar
How long has it been since the operation?
Given the length of the laparotomy, I doubt
the trauma’s healed.
Fences
What does it take to join the Society of
Garden Barriers?
Were I a fence, I’d surely seek such mutual support.
Sign
Didn't 'knellers' used
to ring the bells?
I like the word,
I won’t be told I’m wrong.
Construction
Is this designed
to corral the leaves?
If so, it isn’t doing very well.
Stoach
You don’t?
It’s a dialect word
for mud
that’s been trampled by the passage of cows.
Emergency
Has something
happened here? I doubt it.
We’re only ever
the place on the way.
Field
What do I want with a tyre? asks the horse.
What do I want with a horse? asks the tyre.
Thorns
Did I see them? If I had
my leg would not be shown.
Snail
Do they really need to be told to slow down?
Might their shells shake off if they edge over 20 feet per
hour?
2 Ashdene Road S/S
Where did I find this? Hidden
behind a fence
like an innocent garden
Dene Way S/S
and then – though they're designed not to be noticed –
I spotted another
81 Ashdene Road S/S
and started to wonder: are
there enthusiasts who track sub-stations
like castles or birds or football
grounds?
Disproportionality
Are you seriously suggesting that a post of this substance
is anything close to what this fence requires?
Construction
Is this designed to drain the rain?
If so, it isn’t doing very well.
Notice
Cold caller? By no means -
I’m here to offer some very hot deals!
Slark
Really? I’m unshocked: I made up the word
for a verge that’s been slabbed by the parking of cars.
Anti-slark
Will these prove too modest to deter?
Even on foot I could drive them down.
Seat
Is there a problem
with vandalism? Not yet, I suppose:
this is as far as it’s got.
Anti-slark
Now that’s
an anti-slark! Could anything more than a bike
or less
than a tank disturb this grass?
Palace
Who is in
charge of this palace of plastic?
One rather
well hidden black cat.
Flag
So what if some matters end up the wrong way round?
No-one denies the job being done.
Radiator
Is this the best way to heat
the garden? Only, perhaps,
if bringing in rain is the
best way to mop the floor.
Decorations
December already?
I’ve never seen a Christmas pony,
so I guess we were
bound to get deer around here.
Berries
Isn’t it odd that nature devised its Christmas decorations
well before Christ's people had evolved?
Bags
Why no bins?
Perhaps the Council reckons we’ll accumulate less,
not knowing that
we’re all binned up inside.
Deerleap Edge
Are they taking
the Rudolph?
I mean, how many
deer can clear an eight foot wall?
Anti-anti-slark
Can we say it didn't work? Note: I didn't kick it,
I'm not that sadly desperate to be right.
Culvert I
Is one
culvert entrance much like another?
I do my
best to differentiate
Culvert II
as a serial refusenik of serial identity,
but it
may well be so…
Fruit
What do
you give a tree for Christmas?
I can’t
think of anything else.
SCWW
So crusted with winters it’s tricky to read, let alone guess…
Southampton Corporation Water Works Stop Valve?
SV4
‘Stop
valves are used to isolate leaks, or in extremis to cut off supplies
while
allowing standpipe distribution’. Are we in the relevant extremis?
Marker post
What is
the warning? ‘Never presume that the pipeline runs in a straight line
between markers as there could be a bend or the posts may have been moved.’
Sign
What does this tell us? That yellow can be
a persistent colour, blocking off data without even being the sun.
Midday
Light falls… Or does it?
Surely there’s no gravity involved.
Pipple
What do
you call a rather small apple? I’m not sure,
but this house
must be named for the seed from which they grow.
Cider Tin
Apple in a holly hedge? I was
surprised.
But here’s to the unpredictable
– a toast!
Drive
It’s curious that
every car is black today.
Or is my
photography biased?
Pothole
Is this really worthy of being framed –
either by the painter or by me?
Lawn
How manicured can grass appear
before an AstroTurf suspicion's introduced?
Sign
We're in
the New Forest.
What did
the signers expect?
Lights
‘Do they know it’s Christmas?’ looks like
one question we don’t need to ask.
Bath
What's the right way up for a bath in a field?
Depends,
I guess, on whether you’re riding or washing.
Bath
Am I tempted?
Little.
I’m not
that sweaty yet. And I’d have to break the ice.
Boat
How does the song go?
Row, row, row your bath, gently round the lawn…
Bear
What a wind that was! Don’t polar bears
have trouble enough with melting ice?
Mitten
Which likkle baby lost a likkle mitten?
And why
has it been placed so high, so far from likkle reach?
Time
Is it waiting for a man?
Not, I suspect, if he's the one under here.
Lamp
What light is thrown on the state of the world?
Any solutions will remain in the limits of the local.
Sign
Yes, but stop what? The routine of running? The spread
of the virus? The causes of inequality? Or simply these questions?
Paul Carey-Kent, October-December 2020
Notes:
Questions Beyond the Park: During April-September 2020, I ran daily around Ashurst and Colbury Recreation Ground (see the photo-poems 'Isolated Dialogues'). During October 2020 I ran instead around the nearby streets.
Ashurst Close - Ashurst is a village of 2,000, five miles from Southampton and just inside the boundary of the New Forest National Park. There are many bungalows.
Cul-de-sac - It is a measure of Ashurst's residential and retirement character that around half of its roads lead nowhere
Bus Shelter / Tahiti - It's not often you find an art book left in a bus shelter. This one seems bound to contain Gaugin's D'où Venons Nous / Que Sommes Nous / Où Allons Nous,1897. It seems unlikely, though, that this is the Tahiti in which Gaugin lived in 1890-93 and 1895-1901.
Deerleap Edge - In fact, fallow deer can jump up to six feet high, so the wall is not so out of their range as I had assumed.
Sign - I later discovered that this was part of the Puddle Jumpers Childminding 'Room on the Broom' Halloween Hunt
Passage - Totton is a perfectly normal town, but by the standards of Ashurst, just a little edgy.
Sign (bicycle) actually means ‘Route recommended for pedal cycles on the main carriageway’. It is reported that the highway code signs for bicycles are widely misunderstood.
Palace: there is a black cat in front of the black car!
Stoach / Slark - Slab (slippery mud) and stoach (mud trampled by cattle) are two of the many dialect words for types of mud - others include sleech (mud used for manure), gawm (sticky, foul-smelling mud), slob (thick mud) and stug (watery mud).
October-November 2020 - The question everyone was actually asking was: just how bad is the second wave of Covid-19 going to be?
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