We saw it approaching and though we might beat it home…
…hummm! Alas it caught us up… drenched. Haven’t had as much fun since I was 10!
Here’s a selection of images from our ten days in the sun…
http://www.flickr.com/photos/58480027@N02/sets/72157634815058566/
A siesta: a short sleep taken in the early afternoon, usually because the climate is hot – it’s taken as a break or time-out from the heat of the day. It also relates to a break after a heavy intake of food at a midday main meal.
If you’re like me then your days might often include heavy intakes and the heat of daily doings.
Yes, a change is as good as a rest, but occasionally a true break from our ongoing daily deliberations cannot be bettered!
Thanks to my wife, we were recently lucky enough to make the most of a break away in the sun.

Post-siesta observations:
While away for 10 days ‘time-out’ in our sunny suspension, among many other things, I appreciated the below:
No digital distractions – twitter, farcebook, email, etc
No drip-fed music – bbc, or any other more vibrant popcorn, etc
A remove from habitual routines: imbibing socialmeja frippery, tracking cycle-rides, surfing the net, watching tripe on the box etc
Refocusing and adjusting perspectives on habitual activities, worldview/s, mindset, social sphere etc.
Yes, all of the above has it’s place, just as popcorn and sherbet might have it’s occasional place on a saturday night. But, for the foreseeable future:
I aim to prune down who I ‘follow’ on twitter
I aim to considerably ignore, to the point of not using, the demigod ‘farcebook’
I aim to not “wake up to” the BBC or other piped stupefery
I aim to not compulsively track routine cycle rides, and not wear ‘cycle clothing’
I aim to be more selective of what’s being fed to me via ‘the box’ and boxlike tablets
I aim to review personal ‘community’
I aim to remember the sights, sounds, and smells of our 10 day siesta
Busy, tomorrow, yesterday, must,
Ambition, solution, target, trust,
Importance, whether, should be, later,
rules, expectations, compromise, sin…
Siesta, siesta, siesta, siest…
Sun, scorched sand,
Sea, breezed land,
Cyprus, siesta,
and a perfect simple caesar salad, with relish,
and an ice
cold
beer.
This month’s “Wordle” – voila…
Half of the choir {Global Harmony} had a delightful evening overlooking Rutland Water on Friday night.
We sang a dozen songs in a splendid garden in Manton, at then culmination of a safari supper.
Here’s just a snippet: 3 Songs from Africa – (it’s a poor recording on a mobile-phone but better than nowt)
Senzenina (starts 1min 22secs in) is a favourite of mine – (with me on the call and the choir doing an elevating job of swelling the melody ) – I love this song.
It featured in the mediocre film ‘The Power of One’, as part of an excellent sound track. The film is an adaption of IMHO a great 1989 novel of the same name by Bryce Courtenay . This book is on my personal top ten of influential novels.
Interestingly the lyrics of this version of Senzenina translate to: What have we done? Our sin is… What have we done?
My sentiments exactly.

and another…
I have been asked to produced three visuals to accompany the reading of three poems at the forthcoming Methodist Conference – July 2013.
Considering that listening, watching and doing, are all ways in which we can realise new things, these visuals hopefully provide another dynamic to the text of the poems.
The images will be displayed on large screens and will also be supplied as a handy bookmark for reference and contemplation.
You can see the pics here:
“Love” by George Herbert.
LOVE bade me welcome; yet my soul drew back,
Guilty of dust and sin.
But quick-eyed Love, observing me grow slack
From my first entrance in,
Drew nearer to me…
It’s a long way off but inside it
There are quite different things going on:
Festivals at which the poor man
Is king…
“How everything adores being alive” by Mary Oliver.
What if you were a beetle, and a soft wind
and a certain allowance of time had summoned you out of your wrappings,
and there you were…
click titles for poems

After two years of riding, slowly realising new perspectives, and challenging my own preconceptions and assumptions, I have made another change to the routine standard.
They’ve been good, but I occasionally fancied a more relaxed position and over time I’ve considered changing the bars.
My riding style over the last two years, has changed from:
i. Trying to co-exist with traffic, riding a bike with a similar driverly attitude and outlook.
to,
ii. Aiming to being more aware of place and adopting a more contented, mindful way…
There are a lot of alternative styles of handlebars on the market – I wanted something more comfortable that allows me to sit up more. Seeing the 45° sweep of the Jones H Loop Bar on a friend’s bike, I admired the unique classic design, but shivered at the unique classic price tag.
I was looking for something with a similar sweep.
I came across a few makes that had a similar spec, but the basic simple set below at £12.50 (delivered) stood out like an option too cheap not to try!
The XLC City + Trekking handlebar is made of “6061 aluminium”, they state that they have an “cranking of 59°” and a width of 610 mm. Not sure what a cranking means? I guess it could translate to a sweep of 31°.
Whatever… they are great!
They enable a more upright sitting position.
The new position seems to enable a grip and pull on the bars that helps exert more pressure on the pedals, when you need that extra surge.
With new Ergon grips I am really chuffed with the new set up.
Just what I was after.


What do you do four days into man-flu and not able to sleep in the middle of the night?
Stick your phone outside the window and press record.
Dawn Chorus: recorded from 3.45am June 1st 2013
Can you identify any of the birdsong?
My Sound Cloud account has lapsed but here it is on my Google Drive here:
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1mLJI4mEZyHtVJgKx3u4SW1kuHAlxZ74L
A friend has be considering this poem recently and asked if i had any images that might go with it… (thanks R.)
“How everything adores being alive” by Mary Oliver

What
if you were
a beetle,
and a soft wind
and a certain allowance of time
had summoned you
out of your wrappings,
and there you were,
so many legs
hardening,
maybe even
more than one pair of eyes
and the whole world
in front of you?
And what if you had wings
and flew
into the garden,
then fell
into the up-tipped
face
of a white flower,
and what if you had
a sort of mouth,
a lip
to place close
to the skim
of honey
that kept offering itself –
what would you think then
of the world
as, night and day,
you were kept there –
oh happy prisoner –
sighing, humming,
roaming
that deep cup?
Poem featured in:
“Why I Wake Early” Beacon Press.