Nighttime on Still Waters

@noswpod

Hello, I am Richard. I live on the narrowboat Erica, seeking to create something beautiful in a conflicted & fragmented world. Advocate of hedge-wisdom. #naturewriting #canals #wonder #podcast #rain #night #rooks #myth #stormydays

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Nighttime on Still Waters@noswpod· 20d

Canal-side plants Arrowhead Chaste bathing beauties Dip below the water As each boat goes past. #naturepoetry #ukcanals #plants #nature

There among the soft silt and cloying mud at the water's edge (and wherever the canal is shallow) little cherry blossom flowers crouch beneath great green arrowheaded leaves. Plunge your hand into the sun warmed water. Feel the tangle of stems. Here is life. The faint shirt you hear are dragonflies. We are in a world of wonder

Nighttime on Still Waters@noswpod· 21d

Canal-side plants Teasel 'Come,' Says the teasel, 'Let me charm you With goldfinches And between my bristles The wild haze Of moorland heather. For we all have wilder hearts That beat to untamed winds' #naturepoetry #ukcanals #plants #wildness #nature

Spiky pin cushion egg-shaped heads of Teasel (be careful when you reach out your hand to feel them). A haze of mauve/purple lingers between spikes. If Venus had plants ,this is what they'd be like.

Nighttime on Still Waters@noswpod· 25d

We walk through Drifts of loosestrife That dance with tiny wings. All the while, the canal Dreams in the syrup sweet Afternoon sun. #naturepoetry #ukcanals #plants #nature #summer #bees

Tall fronds of purple loosestrife beside mirror calm waters of the canal. A bee lands on one of the flower heads, clinging like a,rock climber.

Nighttime on Still Waters@noswpod· 25d

Canal-side plants Marsh woundwort Soul friend You too love The shady places Of midnight greens And moorhen call. #DailyNature #naturepoetry #ukcanals #plants #flowers #summer

Feel for where the air is damp and cool. Stetch out your hand for the brush of sedge,rush and iris. Is there the scent of still water gently stirred? Then here, you might well find the soft trumpets of foxglove-silk petals of marsh woundwort, forming a pillared pyramid.

Nighttime on Still Waters@noswpod· 27d

Canal-side plants Bindweed Strung along the towpath The great bells of bindweed Ring out their silent peels. The canal listens For the chimes We cannot hear. #naturepoetry #DailyNature #ukcanals #plants

We're crouching down among the reeds and rushes beside the canal. Just in front of us are two hand-sized bells of pure white ,with creamy centres. Touch them. Feel the soft silk of their petals. Magpies squabble above us. Lambs call out for their mothers. The canal listens for the chimes we cannot hear.

Nighttime on Still Waters@noswpod· 28d

And the path leads on to who knows where? Disoriented little souls, dry and exhausted. We all need aa helping hand sometimes; we all need a glimpse of clarity. Together, we find water. #life #frog #souls

Disoriented little frog on my walk this morning. Together we found water.

Nighttime on Still Waters@noswpod· Jul 10

Canal-side plants Nipplewort They call me An invasive weed To pull me up By the roots. A nuisance A threat. They do not see me Rise lotus-like, Transforming your ground With the beauty Of such nectar-rich life. #naturepoetry #ukcanals #plants #naturewriting

Bending low to enjoy two small flower heads. They are summer-yellow, the petals lie horizontal. Tall spiky stamen give a lilly like appearance. Such intricate beauty.

Nighttime on Still Waters@noswpod· Jul 4

Here it is looking a little more like candyflossy.

A close up view of hemp agrimony florets. The buds are exploding into tiny oinky-white, fluffy, stars. Apparently, its cut stem smells pleasingly aromatic. I am not sure if the flowers have a scent. And do you know what? I completely forgot to smell it! I'll check when I go past it again.

Nighttime on Still Waters@noswpod· Jul 4

Canal-side plants Hemp agrimony Slow winds the canal Through calico fields. Two drakes break cover From a jungle of iris leaves. Surprised by the strawberry blush Of floral candyfloss. #naturepoetry #ukcanals #plants #DailyNature

We're standing looking down the canal. Rooks call with chaotic antiphonies from a heraldic sky. Reach out your hand. You will feel the warm soft tickle of young hemp agrimony florets. They will turn into fluffy floss in a day or two. Behind the canal a glimpse of fields turning brown and dusty

Nighttime on Still Waters@noswpod· Jun 30

John Moriarty's 'What the Curlew Said'. I love this book so much. It is like a mountain spring, always fresh, always replenishing. #naturewriting #Philosophy

Nighttime on Still Waters@noswpod· Jun 30

Canal-side plants Morning glory Up with the lark, Fresh faced. Lazing in the sun all day. Even by late afternoon They are still wearing Their pink and white Striped pyjamas. #naturepoetry ##DailyNature #ukcanals #plants #summer

Just above the water, teetering on the very edge of the bank, the delicate trumpet petals of a morning glory. The petals striped candy pink and white. This one os early, catching the first sun, other flowers, remain still furled beside it.

Nighttime on Still Waters@noswpod· Jun 23

Sages have come And their names are now lost Bullies also came, terrorised, And now their names And faces are forgotten. The hemlock The dew The raven's call Remain #naturepoetry

Tight fists of hemlock blooming at the water's edge.

Nighttime on Still Waters@noswpod· Jun 21

Thick chalk-cliff skies And a sticky warmth That threatens heat A fish surfaces Gulps Then decides To go back home And then Everywhere And everything Is suddenly golden. #naturepoetry #solstice

If you can imagine a steep bank of golden sunshine, gentle, enfolding, as soft as evening summer lawns, you are close to what I felt when I took this photograph. It is a bank of hawksbeard. They a like small dandelions. Each a petalled bowl of sunshine.

Nighttime on Still Waters@noswpod· Jun 12

Soft the wash of rain Soft the feathered touch of yarrow Soft the call of wood pigeon Hidden in ancient trees. The canal responds in kind. #DailyNature #naturepoetry #ukcanals #nature #rain #summer

Raindrops form a pattern of circles That patina the tobacco waters of the canal. In the foreground chervil and cow parsley drink deep. The scent of stirred water. The gentle plink of water on water.

Nighttime on Still Waters@noswpod· Jun 6

My first mug of tea A morning of liquid light Rooks hawk on wild winds #naturepoetry #haiku #birds #summer #poetry

Looking through a pane of glass spotted with raindrops. The world outside is blurred greens and greys. Let's stay inside and enjoy our tea.

Nighttime on Still Waters@noswpod· Jun 3

Canal-side plants Red campion Sitting Listening to the rain Rattle upon the roof Thinking Of red campion Dozing in the sun. #DailyNature #naturepoetry #plants #flowers #ukcanals

A warm sunny spring day. The canal has borrowed the sky's cornflower blue Deep rich washes of green. Cerise pink five-bladed petals of red campion glow in the foreground.

Nighttime on Still Waters@noswpod· May 28

Canal-side plants Vetch (hairy) Fae sown Sidhe woven Snake warded Tiny fingers Tightly knotted Sun flare On water #naturepoetry #plants #ukcanals #flowers

Strange terraces of emerald green fronds and tiers of purple flags twine and hang down from the canal bank. The water ripples with summer wind and sparkles with light.

Nighttime on Still Waters@noswpod· May 26

You know all those trees That bristled with song And mottled sunlight? The ones the council said Don't match our risk assessments And the folks complained Made the paths untidy With the abundance of their life? The ones the council cut down? Doesn't seem such a good idea now, does it? #trees #heat

A canopy of alder branches doing so much than more than you could ever begin to imagine.

Nighttime on Still Waters@noswpod· May 25

#Canal-side plants (Cheating a bit, not typical, but local to here) Salad burnet Crisp scent Swirls underfoot Cooling the already Warm air Roman blood And Tudor melancholy Stories in each leaf and flower. #ukcanals #plants #naturepoetry #wildflowers

Close up of a young flowerhead of salad burnet. Forming the end of a long rigid stem, it looksa little like a popsicle or a peeled pomegranate. Exotic and full of medicine and history.

Nighttime on Still Waters@noswpod· May 17

Sainfoin. How could I not include a snatched photograph of this beautiful and incredibly valuable flower?

Nighttime on Still Waters@noswpod· May 14

Walking along the towpath With Du Fu on my mind. So many echoes and resonances Collapse of state, cruelty of power Is this comforting or terrible? The importance of the poetic mind To measure human existence Against the immensities Of time and nature. #poetry #justangstreally #DuFu #historycycles

What would Du Fu (Tu Fu) (712-770 CE) see here? A bridge, a path, the glimpse of green water, an explosion vegetation.
"The state is destroyed,
But the mountains and waterfalls remain
In the ruined spring,
Grass and weeds grow everywhere..."

Nighttime on Still Waters@noswpod· May 12

Mother and a host of tiny ducklings (Don't count them. Just enjoy). A raven alights on the One Oak And barks at the morning sky. A thrush peels off notes in triplicate Expansive, avant-garde. I listen with the untutored ears Of a school boy Taken to the Proms. #naturepoetry #birds #naturewriting

A bubbling fountain of hawthorn, snow white and sweet, stands beside the canal. The steep banks are beginning fill with new growth vegetation. The sky is washable with woollen clumps of clouds.

Nighttime on Still Waters@noswpod· May 8

Swallows flit Bat-like over Hawthorn clouds Dandelions give Time back to the fields. In a sad world A May sun And the playfulness Of lambs Drives human idiocies Into the shadows. #naturewriting #naturemusing

Looking downwards onto 6 tiny orphaned lambs. Some are looking up, others are looking to the side. In truth, it's a constant whirl of movement. Nuzzling, and pushing. One pamb, off camera, has a curled top lip so that it looks like she is smiling. I hope she is happy right now. A black sheep, larger than the others, looks up. After the picture, one of the others nuzzles her nose.

Nighttime on Still Waters@noswpod· May 5

Canal-side plants Lady's smock (cuckoo flower) I listen in vain For the cuckoo's call But at least Deep along the bankside Can be heard milkmaid's song. #naturewriting #ukcanals #plants

The delicate pale pink flowers on lady's smock or cuckoo flower, so called because it flowers when the cuckoos arrive. Another local name is milkmaids. I think it is one of the most beautiful flowers we have.

Nighttime on Still Waters@noswpod· May 1

Aw! Happy birthday, Frodo!! Maggie says Happy birthday (but she's also looking enviously at your cake!!).

Nighttime on Still Waters@noswpod· May 1

These gently folding fields Home to shadows and sheep And trees who have become Old friends. #naturepoetry #spring #lambs #nature

The dip and swell of an English field deep in the shires. Ewes with their very young lambs cluster under the shadows of ash and hawthorn. Nearest to us, a mother looks down at her lamb. The grass is rich green, starred with dandelion gold. The sky is a cloudless blue.

Nighttime on Still Waters@noswpod· Apr 27

You don't have to worry, The canal knows the way. Take your time Still waters will guide you. You're already there. #ukcanals #poetry

NB Erica makes her way under April sunshine along a rural stretch of the canal. The sky is blue, the fields rich with emerald, and the trees (willow and ash) are greening. The mirror calm canal water stretches in a slow bend to the left.

Nighttime on Still Waters@noswpod· Apr 26

Canal-side plants Speedwell Before the great dividing The earth and sky were lovers. Exiled, the earth said "How can I live without The feel of your blue upon my skin?" The sky said "I will cut out the bluest From my heart And sprinkle it Upon your green lap." #naturepoetry #ukcanals #plants

Germander Speedwell. The deepest of summer sky blues. The flowers are tiny, but then again aren't all the most precious and most valuable actions tiny? I'm glad of the tiny things you do which you think no one notices.

Nighttime on Still Waters@noswpod· Apr 25

Canal-side plants Garlic mustard Straight backed Soldiers on parade The hint of garlic The fire of mustard Marshaling your taste buds And pleasing the eye. Thank you Generous troops Of hedgerow And towpath. #naturepoetry #ukcanals #plants #spring