Gorgeous pictures

A friend in America - Glorious' other half - just sent a beautiful collection of some photos he took in Virginia. I am amazed at the colours! Will be browsing them in earnest over the weekend, but in the meantime if you're into nature or photography or Virginia or all three, have a look!

Animal story

I don't mind lizards. I mean, I'd rather they stayed out of my place, since for all that they resemble miniature dragons their smelly little droppings are not my idea of home decor. But I would never intentionally harm one. The last time I sent one to the Great Lizzy Heaven, it was because it got stuck to some scotch tape I had used to pack my mini stairmaster. So you can imagine how horrified I was this evening when a little one got sucked into the vacuum cleaner. I moved the coffeetable out of the way and it sprang out from underneath and direct into the machine's powerful suction. Oh, its horrific struggle to get free! For a couple of micro seconds I was frozen to the spot - I was sure it was going to get whooshed into the dust bag and from there to oblivion. But Nature is wise - the little beastie shed part of its anatomy (the upper right limb), and even before I could cut the power it had wriggled its way free, minus one limb. What survival instincts!

I hope its lost limb grows back!

Icarus thoughts

Icarus
by Rebecca Baggett

The story is so simple
really. Imagine
yourself gifted with wings,
every child's sleeping
and waking dream, imagine
that you could defy
that force dragging us all
to heel, imagine every sweet safe
green harbor below, laid out
for your choosing
like candies in their box.
Then imagine that one
gold coin, that fierce and pulsing
point around which worlds dance,
imagine the gentleness below
and that wildness above, imagine
that something in you echoed
to the leaping of its flames,
imagine how its one question
beat in your veins, how you saw
with perfect clarity that moment
in which each of us chooses,
forever. Imagine that voice
far below crying: Come
back Come back