My new book, The Quiet Moon, is now published and available from all good bookshops and online retailers. A selection of which may be found here. A few people have asked about signed copies. I was hoping to set something up with a local shop but that route seems more complicated than it might be.Continue reading “The Quiet Moon”
The Moon of Smoke
This morning was keen not to wake. Not fully. The ground was frosted and a cold fog hung beneath the still. Dawn crept quiet, a reluctant trudge from black into grey – and there to wait a while. I climbed into the clear of Eggardon and all around me the hills and rolls stood likeContinue reading “The Moon of Smoke”
White-tail
I was 8 years old when I saw my first eagle. We were holidaying on Arran and it rained every day for a fortnight. But it didn’t matter that Scotland was wet, I had gone with a firm belief that I would find gold in the mountains and despite the conditions, serendipity soared over usContinue reading “White-tail”
The Shortest Month
I once worked with a Sci-Fi nut who took pride in seeing everything, knowing everything and being first to everything. With a brand-new Star Wars film on the horizon he was saving pennies and beginning to bubble. And in order to ensure he saw it before anyone else he knew, he bought plane tickets toContinue reading “The Shortest Month”
Catkins
Hazel catkins hang like lanolin lanterns. Little lamb’s tails that shine against the chocolate brown of the ploughed field beyond. The leaves remain tucked up, but the season is shifting. Spring is coming but winter has yet to bite. There is a different kind of cold out there though. Clouds casting shadows where even theContinue reading “Catkins”
Slipping
It can be difficult to roll with nature’s fluctuations. Man has, after all, gone to extraordinary lengths to avoid them for himself. There is much to admire in what we have achieved as a species – science, welfare and medicine have created a world (certainly in the West) which, though far from equal, does offerContinue reading “Slipping”
Institutionalisation
I spent some time in a secure unit when I was 20. Actually, ‘secure unit’ is being generous – it was a Mental Hospital, dating back to the First World War and since bulldozed and developed (for housing, obviously – nobody gets mentally ill anymore). ‘It’s nothing like One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest,’ theyContinue reading “Institutionalisation”
Stranger Things
Despite the recent heatwave, the blistering temperatures and sweaty, sleepless nights, it still feels as though we are waiting for summer. Not a settled period of pleasant warmth and sunshine, but more the essence of the season. A sense of stopping and feeling, a pause of worry and an ease of workload. An expectationContinue reading “Stranger Things”
Cuckoo
I miscounted this morning and thought this was our 8th spring in Dorset when it is in fact our 9th, but the difference is slight, and the sentiment all the more significant as a result. I heard a cuckoo – the first I have heard here. It was far-off, and came through the thick ofContinue reading “Cuckoo”
Curled up
January. A thick head and heavy limbs. Uncomfortably numb. Comfort comes in sleep. A gentle drift into dreams. They aren’t always pleasant, and many are bizarre and untouchable, but my subconscious is kinder to me now than my conscious. No guilt for not doing, for spending too long in bed. For not being gratefulContinue reading “Curled up”
Kevin Parr 