Monday 17th October

“A Robin Redbreast in a Cage

Puts all Heaven in a Rage.

A dove house fill’d with doves and pigeons

Shudders Hell thro’ all its regions.

A Dog starv’d at his Master’s Gate

Predicts the ruin of the State.

A Horse misus’d upon the Road

Calls to Heaven for Human blood.

Each outcry of the hunted Hare

A fiber from the Brain does tear.”

A quote from one of William Blake's poem, I caught on TV news last night the rather meagre sentence given to two men for horrifically abusing a dog, it has haunted my thoughts ever since. Amongst all the terrible acts of war we watch in other countries sometimes the cruelty to animals in this country seems small fry but it is well to remember that cruelty happens everywhere and needs to be spoken about.

A fallen branch by the crab apple tree

the willows turning yellow by the river

This is how it often looks in the morning

flood defences: no this earth is not too protect the road, it is the great staack of soil that has been taken from the river bank to terrace it.

and then there is of course Keat's Ode to Autumn

SEASON of mists and mellow fruitfulness,
Close bosom-friend of the maturing sun;
Conspiring with him how to load and bless
With fruit the vines that round the thatch-eaves run;
To bend with apples the moss'd cottage-trees,	5
And fill all fruit with ripeness to the core;
To swell the gourd, and plump the hazel shells
With a sweet kernel; to set budding more,
And still more, later flowers for the bees,
Until they think warm days will never cease;	10
For Summer has o'erbrimm'd their clammy cells

the crab apple harvest on the ground

We went for a meal with our friends on Friday to the Plough Inn at Wombleton (yes there is another place called Wombleton) and they have a couple of Wombles in their bar.  No one was very adventurous in their food, I had fish and chips with mushy peas, though I think squidging up green peas as opposed to marrowfat peas is not on.  Lucy always comes, Ben the manager normally gives her a biscuit or two, well behaved dogs* nowadays are allowed in the bar area but not restaurants, which is a good compromise.

Saturday we went out to Helmsley and whilst LS did some shopping at the Co-Op Lucy and I walked along the back street, next to the moat, where I noted the narrow stream which runs through it is paved and I watched a couple of jackdaws having a thorough wash in the water.  No photos but such pretty terraced cottages, a small calm backwater against the busyness of the main square with its tourists, Helmsley would not be such a bad place to live.

* Lucy is always well behaved if she can go out in the car which she loves, only at home does she let her hair down!