Wistaria Welter

Tags

Cotswolds, Open Gardens, Southrop, wistaria, wisteria

Photo by Candia Dixon-Stuart

Buscot Wistaria

Tags

Buscot Park, Cotswolds, fountain, Oxfordshire, wistaria

Photos by Candia Dixon-Stuart

Adlestrop, Easter 2017.

Tags

Adlestrop, chicory, Edward Thomas, Evenlode, Gloucestershire, Jane Austen, Napoleonic Wars, Syrian refugees, wistaria

Adlestrop Church

Photo by Candia Dixon-Stuart

 

The Post Office is closed; a flyer pokes

out of a letter-box; thin rivulet

trickles down a bridleway, aiming for

the Evenlode.  A profusion of blue

chicory shivers in the breeze.  The church,

sanctified by its topiary cross –

reminiscent of Jane Austen’s necklet

which she wore as she left the rectory

on merciful missions to village poor –

stood firm during Napoleonic Wars.

Its roof vault is as azure as that sky

the poet contemplated on his brief halt,

when his depression lifted on hearing

birdsong, which trilled above the hiss of steam.

 

From trenches, could he see that cloudless square?

When someone failed to set the station clock,

did Time itself revolt at what would come?

 

 

Could we also be on the brink of war?

Yet pale Wisteria seems to conquer

fear and heraldic tulips blazon hope.

 

A yellow poster in the bus shelter

promises that all money raised

from a talk on Edward Thomas will fund

Syrian refugees – will help those ‘wontedly,‘

or wantonly, driven out of their homes.

Who will attend?  Some wealthy weekenders?

 

Thomas never actually made it here,

although his spirit is ubiquitous.

Pervasive silence invites us to pause,

in the name of Poetry and Beauty,

before all clocks are permanently stopped

and there are no more birds in Gloucestershire.

 

 

 

 

 

Tyntesfield

Tags

National Trust, Tyntesfield, wistaria

 

Tyntesfield – the wistaria scent was so fragrant

Wormwood

Tags

bindweed, choka, Genji, Murasaki Shikibu, stoicism, wistaria, wormwood

Back to The Tale of Genji and another choka:

 

 

The wormwood unpruned

and the bullrushes thickened;

bindweed chokes the gate;

brambles deter thieves, while dust

settles in the hall.

Outside tree spirits,

now emboldened, break cover.

Though neglected, she keeps faith.

The Prince passes by;

detects familiar scent:

the wistaria!

Her stoicism

lends her added dignity;

her defects seem diminished.

Waiting for the Wistaria

Tags

Cana, Priors Gate, Winchester Cathedral, wistaria

A re-blog, as every year I get a kick out of

seeing the magnificent wistaria at the entrance

to The Cathedral Close in Winchester:

WAITING FOR THE WISTARIA

Waiting weeks for wistaria’s welter

of tendrils, to titivate Prior’s Gate;

to flourish its purple helter-skelter

ear-rings.  For Winchester, it seems quite late;

elsewhere trailers blossomed against bright brick

facades, yet soon their petals will be spent.

But this one saves its special party trick

till last-like choice Cana wine, heaven scent.

Waiting for the Wistaria

Tags

Cana, Priors Gate, Winchester, wistaria

Hi!  It’s Candia again.  No, I’ve not been in hibernation, but could

have been excused for refusing to emerge from the duvet, with all

the recent rotten weather.

Went down to Wintonchester today, to soak up some sun and I came

across my old friend: the wistaria growing over the entrance to The

Cathedral Close.  It reminded me of the poem that I wrote nearly

twenty years ago, when I first moved into the area.  I had seen an

engraving of Prior’s Gate in an old book in a charity shop more than

three hundred miles away from the city and the ancient shrub was

featured .  I immediately bought the book and determined that I

would live in the vicinity of such an impressive portal.

That first winter I waited for the gnarled creeper to blossom.  When it

did, I felt that I had come home.

WAITING FOR THE WISTARIA

Waiting weeks for wistaria’s welter

of tendrils, titivating Prior’s Gate,

to flourish its purple helter-skelter

ear-rings.  For Winchester, it seems quite late;

elsewhere trailers blossomed against bright brick

facades, yet soon their petals will be spent.

But this one saves its special party trick

till last-like choice Cana wine, heaven scent.