winter poem

 Poem: A Winter Night Poem: A Dreaming Night

A dreaming night inside our warmed home.
Outside are all vestiges of storm and bleaking bleating bleakness
and the wind is wild as wild, then wilder than, til wilderness.

Winter is here, in its spades of sharpened warped clinking darkness. A karaoke of ice and menace.

A world away from here there are ribbons of warm light on the circumference
of a tropical and coconut harbour somewhere with nothing to pay
and palm trees, or so they say,
but not here.

They there will have to find their own dreams tonight.

Perhaps they will dream of us,
here in the determined parabolic warm breathing snug.
They are all respiring out, or sigh, whilst we inspire within or die.

Poem 2024. Still Gratitude

Still Gratitude

a poem by John Fitzpatrick in 2024

...

With a soul that did not grow

A mind that moved so slow 

and no grace at all to show.

Still gratitude.

For time that's out and in
For the ancients and for sin
With nothing false and nothing thin
Still gratitude.

For the love within the core
For myself and nothing more
For the wine about to pour
Still gratitude.

For the journey meant to end
The golden boy
On the river's bend
For the damaged joy
that Israel cannot end
Still gratitude.

Israel's War on the Poor continues. Must be almost 200 days now of massive bombing from land and sea and air.

 Stop it. It's mad.

All we have, and all we have ever had, is the notion of human reason, and it's kept the world going along...but this behaviour isn't within that notion at all. 

This is very, very bad.

Goodness in a simple bowl: Tonight's Pasta

Simple pasta recipe for midnight tonight, when Dear Wife returns from work.

Sip some nice wine. For this meal, it can be red or white, but fairly mild, like a merlot.

We are having some basic chardonnay tonight.

Get some paparadelle or fettuccine pasta, and put it in a big pot of boiling water with a bit of salt. Cook it violently for about 8 minutes, + about 5 minutes longer than the instructions say to cook it. It's best a bit beyond 'al dente'...and the packets lie.

Strain it through a colander, and then put it back in the same big still-hot pot. Then turn off the gas/electricity. Its done.

Add good triple virgin olive oil, a fair whack, and chopped up basil and chopped up fresh garlic to the pot. Add some fresh crashed pepper, stir it up, and just let it be.

Basically, that's it. The cooking is done. Sip some more of the wine.

To cook, well, it takes 15 minutes all up, and then it's all done.

I'm adding some thin cut mushrooms to it at this stage, but you don't have to. You could add chilli, if you like, but it's not necessary. Maybe a tiny bit. Chilli is a personal thing.

Then sip some more of the nice wine you have been sipping on.

Then, get bowls and put a good amount into each. On top, drop some freshly shaved or otherwise mutilated good parmesan, some more olive oil, a tad more pepper, and just let it be. Some folk drop a half-boiled egg on top, and that is interesting but there is no need.

On the side can be some garlic bread, for sure, but importantly, a small and interesting salad, with onions in it. A lively salad.

That's all you have to do. One big bowl + bread and you won't need to eat for about 12 hours. Its good. Simple. Goodness in a simple bowl.

Daughter in Chengdu

 Well, Tianshu has settled into new job in Chengdu, as manager of IT/AI Marketing.

Going on some business trip at the moment.

She is a Force of Nature.

I wish her well.

I wish them all well.

I was digging in the raised garden bed here in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia and I found something that I'm pretty sure is an Hamas tunnel. So I thought I best kill all the children in the suburb.

The Courtyard at the Start of the Winter, West of Melbourne:

Well, our small courtyard garden has entered its 'Winter's Lock' now, and all is quiet and deeply asleep as the winds get colder, and the Great Sun dims. If one had to have a God, based upon realistic experiences, well, for me, personally, much like the Egyptians and the Mayans, it is the Sun God.

One remaining plant, in a pot, still producing 'fruit' is the Carolina Reaper Chilli, which, although it took a long time to grow and start, doesn't seem to know when to stop.

We've harvested about 18 chillies from it, & most went to friend Ayo's chilli oil bottle, and there are at least 18 more on the way.

We've firmly ordered the Lorikeets to stay away from the courtyard garden itself, and so now they are in the tree down the side yard where they can't do so much 'vicious destruction'. They took off one of the palings in the fence last week. And then, of cause, there is all the shiXXing everywhere.

I'm glad the Lorikeets are still hanging around in the ornamental and tall peach trees just over the fence, and on the side fence, as they are the most beautiful of creatures. Soon, all the leaves will go, and so will the birds, but they will know where to come back to in the Spring.

Our gardening growing plans for next Spring are quite simple. About 5 tomato bushes, 4 mini toms, and one Roma; and 5 chilli bushes, mostly jalapeño or Birds Eye Thai -semi hot ones, rather than the screaming heat of the Reapers. We may plant one Carolina Reaper plant for Ayo's next super chilli oil bottle, if she pays us a fortune in gold.

We will wait until the tomatoes and the chillies are available as small seedlings, rather than try seeds, and we won't plant them too early.

Anything else? Well, no. That's all we need. Perhaps one or two bean plants at the back. It is only a limited raised vegetable garden anyway, and we've tried, but too much planted just doesn't work.

We could have a few chickens down the side yard in a nice coop...but the chook-feed brings mice and rats, and the mice and rats bring snakes. Quite unlike Northern Queensland, where it's very tropical, it's kind of nice here to wander around the yard without the likelihood of stepping on creatures that can kill you, will kill you, and are happy to kill you; &, after all the years in Cairns and steamy Thailand etc, we like the cold. It's refreshing to have Seasons. Our house and its rooms are small and very easy to keep warm.

Not many spiders or cockroaches here at all either. We do get field mice sometimes, but if you don't make everything a perfect nest-full blessed home for them, then they move on.

So, just now, the perennial plants are doing fine, the deciduous plants are being deciduous, and everything is slowing down for Winter... except that Carolina Reaper.

I could plant some tulips now, for early Spring, and may do so. They are spectacular short blooming wonders of grace and form. Like us all. Well, like me, and my brothers (Thanks Mum!), more so than like you, of course. Not judging, just noticing.