before dinner

and here they are, just sitting around waiting to be eaten.
they look kinda suprised...i guess if i woke up and found that i looked like that, i'd be surprised too.
i wonder if they were about to play a game of....
ha ha
ha
ha ha

ha ha ha!!!
(leap frog)

Prudence

John Ralston Saul:

"Beyond politics, many would assume that prudent behaviour meant in a sense conservative behaviour. But that would be to misunderstand the meaning of common sense. The very essence of good military strategy - which often means radical behaviour - has always been built around prudence. Two and a half millennia ago Sun Tzu set out the basic rules. His incisive summary was further summarized by Mao Tse-tung into a sixteen character jingle which provided the general instructions for defeating Chiang Kai-shek:

1. When the enemy advances, we retreat!
2. When the enemy halts, we harass!
3. When the enemy seeks to avoid battle, we attack!
4. When the enemy retreats, we pursue!

The Viet Minh and Viet Cong in turn took this perfect evocation of common sense as their method for defeating two of the most rationally organised armies in history - firts the French and then the American."

p46 On Equilibrium, 2001.

tigersnake eating a frog

This is a photo from the early weeks at the new house in Elleker. I nearly stepped on this snake an hour earlier, then when I was inside I heard the last of the frogs in the bathtub squealing...

Déjeuner du matin

Il a mis le café
Dans la tasse
Il a mis le lait
Dans la tasse de café
Il a mis le sucre
Dans le café au lait
Avec la petite cuiller
Il a tourné
Il a bu le café au lait
Et il a reposé la tasse
Sans me parler

Il a allumé
Une cigarette
Il a fait des ronds
Avec la fumée
Il a mis les cendres
Dans le cendrier
Sans me parler
Sans me regarder

Il s'est levé
Il a mis
Son chapeau sur sa tête
Il a mis
Son manteau de pluie
Parce qu'il pleuvait
Et il est parti
Sous la pluie
Sans une parole
Sans me regarder
Et moi j'ai pris
Ma tête dans ma main
Et j'ai pleuré.

Jacques Prévert

A couple of my favourite poems from high school. The first I love for its simplicity, the second for its sentiment and beautiful sounds. Verlaine, watching his youth drift away as he lies in prison, due to his arrest after a drunken rage at Rimbaud, if I remember right.


Le ciel est par dessus....

Le ciel est, par-dessus le toit,
Si bleu, si calme!
Un arbre, par-dessus le toit,
Berce sa palme.

La cloche, dans le ciel qu'on voit,
Doucement tinte,
Un oiseau sur l'arbre qu'on voit,
Chante sa plainte.

Mon Dieu, mon Dieu, la vie est là,
Simple et tranquille.
Cette paisible rumeur-là
Vient de la ville.

-Qu'as-tu fait, ô toi que voilà
Pleurant sans cesse,
Dis, qu'as-tu fait, toi que voilà,
De ta jeunesse?

Paul Verlaine (Sagesse)