 I was born in Derbyshire in 1949 and since 1981 |
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A gentle hill and winding Wye, beneath a tranquil English sky - there stands the house of Haddon Hall where lived a beauty bold and tall; A girl with hair like molten gold lived in this manor, sweet and old - 'tis Dorothy of whom we speak, heiress to king of all the Peak. Od 'Madcap' Doll, the tale unfolds as all the history books have told how Dorothy Vernon's heart as won by Manners, Earl of Rutland's son. Though Geeorge Vernon did not approve, '...if music be the food of love, play on...' and threats of dungeon deep sweet Doll from Manners could not keep. When, at the Hall, a ball was held Doll slipped away on stroke of twelve through side-door off the ball-room floor, now known as 'Dorothy Vernon's door'. And then, anon, the maiden's flight led down some steps, in moonlit night, as dew that 'lights upon a rose, or River Wye that sweetly flows - With Manners dressed as forester the couple then eloped to Leicester so John and Dorothy anon betrothed were at Old Ayleston. All's well that endeth happily - Haddon passed to John's family, so when you picnic by the wall, remember Doll of Haddon Hall! |
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for Terry Frost Blue movement Semicircle of the sun Upside-down in water Hand-painted buoys Booms and cables Carving a path A corridor of green Furled canvas sails Tilted at angles Sloping, sandy floor Ropes draped across Describing brown arcs Illusory space Locked harbour Flat surface. |
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Season of crinkled leaves of brown and golden-ochre all around the russet tones of nature's birth raw umber decorates the earth discarded like a robe of youth time's testament to yearly truth a dry and crispcold canopy that nature frosts so visibly end of the year when sunset weaves its canopy of golden leaves! |
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A picture-postcard hamlet with walls of honeyed stone, with clematis and annuals round path of stepping stone, while climbers create sun-traps where more fragile plants may grow, wisteria and honeysuckle - Alpine plants on show - is now forever England an idyllic country scene with cottage-garden lavender and sprinkled lawn of green with terraces, and patio - a topiary or two - an English country garden under sky of saphire blue! |
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Table mats with modern scenes patchwork quilts of blues and greens famous Cornfields, old church towers Lott's house on the rippling Stour. Springtime lambs and lolling sheep laundry workers - peasants reap drops of moisture hanging fine English landscape - summer wine! |
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I reminisce on Lady Jane as by some crenellated tower the weedlap murmers in the rain - imagining her perfumed bower. The rainy season: River lyn turbulent with grayling, trout; a foil-flash like rippled tin - serried ranks of growing doubt... Her tutor, Aylmer, pored on Greek and Jane - she heard the ancients speak - reluctant, though to wear the crown - immaculate, in green-gold gown. Now Old John stands upon the hill above the peaceful, timeless rill and round about her ruins go the fallow deer and the roe. |
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Neutral, half-way house monochromatic, monotonous calm I think of grey matter, colour of chimney-smoke atmospheric colour of fog and mist indecisive a grey political area passive, polluted in-between neither here nor there slate-grey, colour of clay indeterminate gradations of tone between black and white. |
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