Janet Fogg's Blog, page 35

Snowy Bridge

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Photo by Richard Fogg

When men were all asleep the snow came flying,

In large white flakes falling on the city brown,

Stealthily and perpetually settling and loosely lying,

Hushing the latest traffic of the drowsy town;

Deadening, muffling, stifling its murmurs failing;

Lazily and incessantly floating down and down:

Silently sifting and veiling road, roof and railing;

Hiding difference, making unevenness even,

Into angles and crevices softly drifting and sailing.

All night it fell, and when full inches seven

It lay in the depth of its uncompacted lightness,

The clouds blew off from a high and frosty heaven;

And all woke earlier for the unaccustomed brightness

Of the winter dawning, the strange unheavenly glare:

The eye marvelled—marvelled at the dazzling whiteness;

The ear hearkened to the stillness of the solemn air;

No sound of wheel rumbling nor of foot falling.

~ Robert Bridges.

 

Editorial Review: Tales from the 359th Fighter Group

[image error]A fascinating insight into life as a fighter pilot during World War Two. Highly recommended.

This superb book looks at the ups and downs – pardon the pun – of life in the 359th Fighter Group during World War Two. Put together from wartime records, journals and reports from the time, it is a glimpse into a different world, a world at war where a young pilot never knew if this day would be his last.

There’s a lot going for this tiny bit of military history. For a start, it’s not just from the POV (point of view), of the author, but the POV of lots of ‘authors’; the authors being the men who battled in the sky over England, France and Germany. It’s not overly technical, and often the narrative is overly simple. But, of course, this reflects the men’s different writing ability.

I very much enjoyed the diversity of the book. The pilots were all very different with a different story to tell. Personally, I enjoyed the story of the pilot who escaped capture by sleeping under an apple tree. I also chuckled when I read a Major’s thoughts on East Anglia: When God created England He must have had a bad day when it came to East Anglia…a more desolate, barren, cold and damp, flat and uninviting terrain could never be devised.

All in all, this is a captivating read. It’s always fun to go back in time and to try to understand what it was like to live back then. A book of this nature helps you to do this. Sentimental, yes. Sad in parts, yes. As I’m guessing 99% of the authors of this book have now left us. I would thoroughly recommend this book to anybody interested in military history, in particular World War Two and the role of the fighter pilot.

~ A ‘Wishing Shelf’ Book Review

 

Red-winged

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Photo by Richard Fogg

almost evening

sun-horizon-brilliance

matched with the spread

of bird-wings that fold

their dark to voice

~ Grant D. Savage.

A Lyric of the Dawn

Hark—
   That rapture in the leafy dark!
Who is it shouts upon the bough aswing,
Waking the upland and the valley under?
What carols, like the blazon of a king,
   Fill all the dawn with wonder?

~ Excerpt from A Lyric of the Dawn
by Edwin Markham


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Photo by Richard Fogg

Little Finch

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Photo by Richard Fogg

little finch

escorts us on walk

morning lyrics

~ PJO haiku no ku

To a Butterfly

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Photo by Richard Fogg

I’ve watched you now a full half-hour;

Self-poised upon that yellow flower

And, little Butterfly! Indeed

I know not if you sleep or feed.

How motionless! – not frozen seas

More motionless! and then

What joy awaits you, when the breeze

Hath found you out among the trees,

And calls you forth again!

~William Wordsworth

 

 

Leap of Faith

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Photo by Richard Fogg

There are many talented people who haven’t fulfilled their dreams because they over thought it, or they were too cautious, and were unwilling to make the leap of faith. ~ James Cameron

Infinite Beauty

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Photo by Richard Fogg

Day after day


Pictures of infinite beauty


If only we have eyes to see them.


– John Ruskin.


 

Misfortune Annie is on sale on Amazon!

Misfortune Annie and the Locomotive Reaper is on sale on Amazon in both ebook and paperback!  Yeehaw!

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Thou winged blossom

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Photo by Richard Fogg

Thou winged blossom, liberated thing,

What secret tie binds thee to other flowers,

Still held within the garden’s fostering?

Will they too soar with the completed hours,

Take flight, and be like thee

Irrevocably free,

Hovering at will o’er their parental bowers?

~ Thomas Wentworth Higginson