Haikai Series XI

Poplar seeds rising

Through sunlight to the castle:

Snow on the river.



Raphael replied:


Acorns collecting

Around climbers on the cliffs;

In the damp earth, roots.


Paul responded:


Abundant fruitfullness:

Walnuts everywhere underfoot,

Even in the bedrooms.


8 October 2006
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Haikai Series VIII

Five Fruit Flies

Rescued from drowning in wine:

A summer evening.



Raphael replied:


Five white lies

Obscured in conversation:

Loneliness amongst friends.



Paul responded:


White lies the moonlight

Dark the shadows of poplars,

Harsh the Heron's cry.



For the Droad Paul wrote:

Locking up the house:

How can I shut the shutters

Against the bright moon?

8 October 2006

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Haiku VII

A new East wind

Halts the hot air baloon's flight:

Turns them Westward.



Raphael from The Hague replied:


On my bicycle

Winds veer, east by east by east;

Always in my face.

-

The Walnut Harvest

It is time to prepare for the walnut harvest. Soon the walnuts will be falling. There is a risk this year that the winds associated with ex-hurricane Gordon will do some preliminary work on the harvest, bringing down not only the nuts but branches and even trees themselves as it storms up from Portugal on its way to the Irish Sea.

The ground will have been prepared by my neighbour Patrick who breaks the soil beneath the trees to a fine, plant free tilth and cuts the grass between the trees. The walnut barn will have been swept out, the drying cabinets cleaned. Finally the fan dryer will have been brought out of the shed where it has been doing nothing for eleven months and will be connected to the gas supply. The hose will be connected for the washing and when all this is done the harvesters will set off with baskets to collect the nuts from where they have fallen beneath the trees. The smaller Grosjean nuts will fall first and later the larger almond shaped Franquette. They will be washed on the sloping floor of the barn and put in the dryer, and when there is a suitable quantity the dryer will be started. After about 48 hours a few of the nuts are tested to see if the central septum separating the segments of the nuts is dry enough to crack in two pieces like a potatoe crisp when bent. If the septum is still soft and flexible then drying will continue for a few more hours. The crows will keep watch on our activities and may even sneak into the barn to steal the odd nut which they are sometimes able to open. At the end of October the last nuts will be beaten off the trees with a long pole. There is a local saying that a good beating only ever improved a wife and a walnut tree (discuss!).

Over the next few weeks bags of nuts will accumulate in golden brown piles... the best walnuts in the world... of course.

Paul.

Haiku V

The river water

And a long dead tree immersed

In ceaseless discourse.



Raphael replied:



The river water,

On a long dead tree, green shoots:

Unexpected renewal.

Timeless Eternity

If you wish to draw near to

The timelessly eternal God,

Do not wear a watch.


The God of the Judeo-Christian tradition is normally regarded as being timelessly eternal. This is one aspect of his transcendance. Is this an un-navigable barrier for us creatures?

Haiku VI

Tomomi has gone

Eastward with the Autumn leaves

Toward Mount Fuji.






Tomomi visited Le Port in the Autumn of 2005 to climb on the cliffs of the Ceou valley with Raphael. They also helped with the walnut harvest.

The Scream

The re-discovery of Edvard Munch's The Scream ends an extended period of loss of a major icon of Western culture which is also an important asset. Can we now expect an end to the long peirod of silence and torpidity of our elected representatives in response to profoundly disturbing situations such as the state of the Middle East and the Sudan? Or will the rest of us have to scream first?

We could be in for a noisy few months.

Paul Munton