Friday, June 8, 2012

Glimpses of Green Among the Grey, Collins St.

It's getting near to winter here.
Clothes feel threadbare or damp.
You shiver. You sneeze.
You step in a puddle.
All you want to do is get home.
The grey overtakes.
You look around, and nothing is malevolent.
You know conditions always fluctuate.
Steady steps and a steady heart...
What is winter, but a chance to find warmth?
The chill is on the outside.

The light and the fire are within.

16 comments:

  1. Hello Faisal:
    This perfectly illustrated post could so easily be an 'Ode to Winter'. The merest hint of flower and leaf on the otherwise bare branches is so evocative of the tenacious hold on life that growing things have until they finally succumb to winter's grip. But, as you say, the light and fire lie within, to be released from the human soul and Mother Nature once Spring and Summer reappear!!!

    This is such a wonderfully atmospheric post and even though we are sweltering here in temperatures of 30C we are with you in mind if not body on those chilly, grey streets. Of course, a warming hot chocolate enlivened further by your spirited conversation would not go amiss....!!!

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  2. Winter...ah me, missed us this year. Winter is my time to slow down, return to the hearth, hibernate and renew. Stay warm! Bonnie

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    1. Yes, Bonnie, though there's too much to do and the hearth's a little cool. Our seasons are not so distinct, and so we work year round. Australians, huh!

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  3. Darling Jane and Lance,
    30C is nothing. Try 40. Try more than 40.
    One half of me is jubilant to have come into some cold. The other half sure as hell misses the ( burning ) heat.
    Winter's the barest of times. In some ways I'm only too glad to escape from the garden and get inside, letting nature do its stuff. Yet I have to get out there, I have to involve myself, or try to. It's lovely to feel the cold now. I guess it's nothing like a European cold. Our cold is very mild, yet it's so odd, cold, in a land of sunshine.
    It might take more than chocolate to dispel it.
    Hope your spring is bloody marvellous.

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    1. Darling Faisal!
      Try -20C....now that is what we in Hungary call cold. At that point we need more than a cup of hot chocolate too!!!

      Keep the flame burning in your heart.....have a lovely weekend!

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    2. OUCH, Jane and Lance, that's getting i bit arctic! We DO get snow here, in the mountains outside Melbourne, for instance, and we even get 'minus' temperatures...but nothing like your teeth-chattering refrigeration.
      My heart is warmer for your words. You too have a lovely weekend!

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  4. This is a very optimistic way to welcome winter dear Faisal
    "What is winter, but a chance to find warmth?" I'll remember that when our turn to welcome winter comes again.

    Enjoy a lovely weekend, with fire within

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    1. Demie, you're gorgeous. It's easy for me to say that, knowing only a mild winter. I am sure your own winter is devastating. What do you do? You've got to let it all happen, haven't you?

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    2. oh! one becomes Norwegian and says : there's not bad weather only bad clothing ; )
      It is a dark cold long winter indeed but still very very beautiful : )

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    3. Yes, Demie, to me, Norway looks like one of the most beautiful countries in the world - so there's some compensation. And the snow would be fun to play in. You must miss the sun of Greece, though. Have a lovely, sunny weekend!

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  5. Cold. Wet. Winter. But we'll have a fire this evening. Feeling like a teddy-bear packed in three layers.

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    1. Yeah, I need a teddy-bear, Diana. How do you get one that can survive the cold blasts and the searing heat?

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  6. Shivering, sneezing, puddles, grey skies, now what does that remind me of: Oh yes, England in June.

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    1. Friko, you get it much worse in winter than we do. Even your June doesn't sound too exciting! Yesterday, the air was the coldest and foggiest it's been this year; we only reached 11 degrees Celsius.

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  7. I love the City so much, hardly seem to get there, so extra enjoy this and your other City posts.

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  8. It's very robust, very busy in the city now. I'm not sure I'd visit much if I didn't have to! The greenery makes it easier.

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