Escaped Lambs, Graemsey Island

 

Every day we pass the escaped lambs.

They block the road, they leap the ditches.

And every time the children are utterly delighted to see such bad behaviour.

In the Reptile House, Menagerie Jardin Des Plantes, 5eme

Shell and body cut in two. 

Beautiful Animals, Carousel, Jardin des Plantes 5eme.

Passing the Highlands

The Glory.

The Kirk, Remote Island Orkneys

The church is only a barn now but the tiny cemetery goes on, its close sea wall unusually low for this sheltering land, permits the view across the insane waters of Scapa Flow and beyond the Hoy Hills rising up.

My mother proudly shows me her grave that she has bought for Fifty pounds.

Killers, Boulevard Voltaire 11eme

Elephant, Valbonne, Cote d'Azure

 

The elephants really do sway, more disney than disney.

Wonder, Menagerie de Jardin des Plantes

tent, cote d azure

Harlequin and Kitty, Antibes, South of France

 

Loup is my son, sometimes I look at him and his so perfect beauty scares me.

High Voltage, Avenue ledru-Rollin

mirror, Rue de Charenton, 12eme

Advanced Craft, Rue De Charenton, 12eme

Paris is cold now strange august. 

Streets of course empty only brightly coloured visitors with maps.

Chez Rolande,11eme

We found dear Rolande the painter dead today. She lived just beneath my studio a mysterious recluse, when i first came to this place i only ever heard her,   then she appeared one day,just  like in a a fairytale.  She had the head of a cat and was permanently shrouded in cigarette smoke. She came to tell me my footfalls were almost silent and she much appreciated i didn't wear shoes, then disappeared. The second time I saw her i enticed her with vodka , she liked vodka and  told me my brand  was  wholly acceptable but not the best.  She declared  she was  "sauvage" and then disappeared and we were friends.

Much later the strangest of things her friendship with my 5 year old daughter. I would sometime watch them from the window as they talked together. 80 years of life between them.  Brune earnestly explaining birthday cakes and butterfly masks and Rolande discussing cats and sauvagery and the liberty of beasts. 

The last time i saw her she told me of her boat. Henri was her dead husband they had  had a magnificent sailing boat , together they voyaged all over spain and greece. She told me once of a great storm that had come in fast and how they were afraid but had survived. She told me that they had planned to sail to egypt but there was some reason i didn't understand and they had never got there.

Xavier bravely climbed through the upper window and peered down through the trapdoor, he saw her body that had been there for many days, and then the forces of order descended and asked us all such ordinary questions,  and the dream was over.

Chez Rolande, 11eme