
9 pm Shropshire


One dear husband is enough
Oh,steam iron how I love your heat
And how you make my clothes so neat.
A flat iron is no use to me
No open fire is here,you see.
And thought I liked the flickering coals
I feared those faces that looked droll.
They were in the flames and peered
At anyone who ventured near.
I wonder how the people past
Kept their trousers neat and pressed.
Now I’ve bought a hand steamer
To keep the germs off my femurs
I didn’t like to say,my crotch
In case the devil is on watch.
I never ever used to think
My body perfume was distinct.
And yet it may appeal to men
I don’t want to try again.
One dear husband is enough
Though he did enjoy a cough
He had asthma and bad eyes
Looking out with wild surmise.
He saw my golden hair float by
As by his window it did fly
All at once he fell for me
And we sat by an apple tree.
His clothes were wrinkled so I thought
I would iron them for a start.
He could darn and polish floors
Cook lamb chops and apple cores.
So my steam iron sees much use
I wonder if it’s self abuse
For as a woman feminist
I’m not meant to iron vest
I’m not meant to boil men;s socks
Nor their pants of interlock
I’m not meant to make them tea.
What a naughty person,me!
I must confess these wicked sins
Then I’shall polish my cake tins
Satan wants me down in hell
Don’t say he needs my iron as well
As he was an angel proud
I’ll save him into One Drive Cloud.
I have heard grass singing in the wind.
I have walked through poppy fields in sun
I have known how dark gried can descend
I have watched trees’ shadows in deep ponds
I have felt the arctic wastes of pain
I have heard grass weeping in the wind.
Another soul is writing with my hand
Yet I have wept while loaning them my pen
I am mangled when sharp rain descends
I have known the edges of the mind
I ‘ve sensed the silence un-contained
. I have heard grass singing in the wind.
I am here for people who’re confined
I record the old deals of cruel men
I have suffered when dark rain descends
I have caught the storm by camera lens.
I have felt the solar system bend.
I have heard grass singing in the wind.
I have seen the pitch black rain descend
I
No longer am I rooted like a tree
I’m like a statue standing in a bog
Of all secure connections I am free
My only soulmate is a silent frog
The wind may blow me over then you’ll see.
I’ll sink into the earth like some old log.
I’m well acquainted with adversity.
Lost in this wet earth, my grave is dug
Eaten up by worms and myriad bugs
But not tossed out and eaten by the dogs
I dwell inside this heart still ruled by love
Abandoned by my friends and family
An unencripted gravestone floats to sea.
The grass around the Abbey is short green
Nearby the cross of Eleanor is seen
Ancient Royal people, Harald slain
Buried near the Cross of Aquitaine
How sweet the river bank in grassy fields
Unperturbed by Cromwell and his men
Again it’s full of peace,no monk nor nun
Naught remains but one nave broken, healed.
God is not the cold condemning Judge
He is a Golden Light,he loves us much
We meet him in our agonised despair
When doubts have killed us like the lack of air.
He will warm us; we can live again.
Despite the suffering and the intense pain.
He will come to us in tongues of flame.
Mysterious fire,oh love without a name

Tenderly I held him took him in
As though we touched each other skin to skin
Dying is what everyone must do
Even when it splits the Me from You
What we took for granted every day
Had its end like any mortal’s play
The length of life is just enough to lie
It’s not here forever, don’t you cry
We are on no plateau but a slope
Slight at first, so we don’t see and note
Gently we are led to where it ends
Beautiful and foolish like ourselves
How can we be split when we are one?
In deep darkness dies the winter sun
Copyright © Katherine Braithwaite |

Today the sun will set at 21.22 pm .
Don’t eat it all at once or it may not rise tomorrow l
They said I owed £7000
I couldn’t believe it
It’s about £2000.I found FB they best way to get a call response
Now my BP is too high
What a surprise
7 hours to sort out
I know that’s how death will come,
Suddenly flying into another orbit
when I am photographing flowers.
It’s not a gentle transition.
No-one will know where I’ve gone.
One step wrong and I’m
off the high wire
And plunging into the no safety net.
Flying for a while;
Jumping into hyperspace,spinning electrons
Startle my grey eyes.
Transiting the new black sun
I’m on a double gold helix,
Spider on your web,
Knitting furiously
Into the future heaven on gossamer wings.
Butterfly goodbye,I’m off to see the stars.
And the black holes.No one will come with me.
I’m shaking off,evaporating into mist.
I’m a flying saucer on a circus mission.
I can’t say no to a new invitation.
Make it fast and break with tradition.
Time is passing smoothly till that break
In the music,I’ve been transmuted into a different key
someone else will play me on their violin
I’m a tune,
I’m a thought,
I’m a whisper in your vision.
Goodbye,darling.I’m under orders
Ready to leave for my performance
On the electric carpet.
Death dancing to a tune on a violoncello,
Arpeggionne sonata
I’m playing your words upside down
In a new foreign translation,
Accompanied by solo artists,ice cracking
I’m going in.It’s too sudden.
I’m flying.
Spinning faster to amuse the clowns,
too many ups and no downs.
I’m going right out of orbit
I’ve broken the pull of gravity,
And fly with pure equanimity
Into my future life,
I’m off at some moment.
An instant ,a crack,a loud smack.
That was me passing.


We see advice about budgeting for food but what about disposable paper m
Kitchen paper.
Tissues . .
Toilet paper
Dusters
Some of these are expensive.
We could use washable kitchen cloths or towels.
We could use cloth hankies.
But probably not cloths for wiping our
bottoms.
If we stop buying so much paper we could save £5 or more a week.
That’s £260 a year.
If we have coffee out every day that’s about £21 a week .
Have it once a week
Save £18 a week
B
Nearly £1000 a year
So £1260 saved unless you take to drink instead.
r

Eat your own words.
Drink your own blood
Sell your own soul
Ditch your own conscience. My
Bathe in Jesus blood.
Get rid of your own sins by Paranoid Delusions
Assert your own glory by grandiosity and narcissism.
Learn mathematics by self torture and obsession.
Sell your own clothes
Sell your own blood (not all)
Drink your own water to cut your own bill

Some days are sad and blue
And then we feel lonely too;
Or we cause rifts.
Some days are doldrum days.
Some days are like bad plays.
Not such a gift.
Most days have joyful parts.
Most days we lift our hearts.
They pass all too swift.
Some days love speaks to me.
Some days I feel so free.
I love my craft.
Life is a patterned weave.
Love helps us when we grieve.
Love is a raft.
See how the sun comes back.
See how light fills the gaps..
Some days we laugh.
Weep now and I’ll weep with you.
I have known sorrow too.
Yet sorrow will pass.
Joy is not far away.
Joy will return one day….
Life’s art and craft.

Mary sat brooding in her armchair, while Emile slumbered by the redhot fire
How can I be sure to waken up tomorrow in time for my Podiatry visit? she pondered
I am used to waking early, but you never know,she told herself
When she went to bed, carryin a flask of English Breakfast Tea she picked up her alarm
clock but the battery was missing yet again
Never mind, she thought.I shall use my phone instead as she put on her long nightdress and
a wool jumper full of holes
How fortunate that I can wear old clothes in bed rather than seductive satin lingerie, she thought
They are usually polyester and that’s not warm.Though no doubt if it is very seductive you will soon get hot unless your mate works nights down a coal mine.Then, why would a woman wear it?
Does it mean she has a lover living near by, perhaps next door?
We can only wonder why women must suffer not only this but stiletto heels and blow dries
She put the flask of tea down and got into her cosy bed.
Alas, Mary was still anxious about the alarm
I’ll go downstairs and get the kitchen clock, she decided.She struggled out of bed and fetched the blue clock upstairs where it was agreeable to being used
I really do need Stan to come back so he could resume waking me when he brought me some tea at 8 am each morning
Shall I put an advert online<
Very thoughtful, anxious kind & gentle lady mathematician, good at cooking and boiling hankies needs a kind well read man as a partner.Must get up early to make tea and filter the News
Preferably a man from Tyneside or similar area
Please phone 0207 ccctheo or email iamme78@ymail,com
She set her spare phone and the clock then fell asleep.
She dreamed she was in a rowing boat on Lake Windermere with her first boyfriend who looked as attractive as ever
Come and give me a kiss, he ordered her
But surely it is dangerous to make love in a rowing boat, she remarked wonderingly
Yes, we might fall out but I can swim
But I can’t, she said.Are you hoping I will drown?
Don’t be so anxious.The Mountain Rescue Team will come and help
We’re not on a mountain, she retorded.Anyway I don’t love you anymore
Why not, he asked angrily?
I went off you because you never read a book and always chose the films we saw.
Did that matter?
There you are,you didn’t even ask me if I liked James Bond.You must be an egoist
His eyes glared angrily.Why did you not tell me, he asked
Should a man need to be told to please a potential girl friend?
I suppose not, he answered,Please forgive me.He leaned over to kiss her
but just then all the alarms went off,It was morning,,
How nice to have a cup of tea while trying to remember one’s name and date of birth
And to forget the worst boyfriend ever
At least he never hit me, she exclaimed
And so say all of us
Postmodern poetry has no formal shape
No sonnet,villanelle or rondeau there
Nor is it true or false that we are apes
A sentence made from curses aggravates
Makes even slight hurts something we can’t bear
Postmodern poetry has no formal shape
This very poem’s ironic , it emotes
Glares with total rage at you who care
If it’s true or false that we are apes
This poem,alas, will offer no escape
If it has no rhymes then I have flair
Postmodern poetry has no formal shape
The forms are hung until we get to break
We shatter and we crack the poet’s lair
I think it’s true and false that we are apes
For a metre I will hang in here
Waiting with no patience for a jeer
Postmodern poetry has no formal shape
Nor is it true that thoughts annihilate

I feel sorry to know that in this country there is real poverty and frantic people trying to survive.These ideas may be insufficient
Wash clothes less often
Don’t change the sheets to frequently
Wash before bed . That helps.
Air beds daily
Don’t put greasy products on your hair.Save money too.
Can you afford a dog?
Re-home them.

I didn’t know what a cafe was until I was 10
I went to the technical college to sit the 11 plus
My friend saw money on the ground 17/6
After the exam she took me into a cafe for refreshments
I have liked them ever since.
So to do give up coffee is hard because it’s a place we meet people too
During Lockdown I saved money & lost 10 in in Weight.
But unless you have no choice don’t deprive yourself of important little treats.
Remember there will always be better toilet paper or tougher kitchen towel
Stop looking for them.zMake Do and mend or manage

If you start using cotton hankies and you have a family you are looking at doing a very hot wash unless you boil them in a pan This plus soap powder is an expensed
And in this pandemic it’s better to use tissues that you dispose of
https://sallysbakingaddiction.com/cake-pan-sizes/

In this list, you’ll find common baking pan measurements and the volume of batter they hold. ***The amount listed is the total amount of batter each pan holds, but you usually only fill cake pans halfway (unless otherwise noted in the recipe you are using). Most measurements were taken at my home kitchen. Cross referenced with the always trusted Joy of Baking, as well.
Round Pans:
6×2 inches (15 x 5cm) = 4 cups (960ml)
8×2 inches (20 x 5cm) = 6 cups (1.4 liters)
9×2 inches (23 x 5cm) = 8 cups (1.9 liters)
Square Pans:
8×2 inch square (20 x 5 cm) = 8 cups (1.9 liters)
9×2 inch square (23 x 5 cm) = 10 cups (2.4 liters)
10×2 inch square = (25 x 5 cm) = 12 cups (2.8 liters)
Rectangular Pans – 2 inch (5 cm) tall
11×7 inches (28 x 18 cm) = 10 cups (2.4 liters)
13×9 inches (33 x 23 cm) = 14 cups (3.3 liters)
Springform Pans:
9x 2.5 inches (23 x 6 cm) = 10 cups (2.4 liters)
10x 2.5 inches (25 x 6 cm) = 12 cups (2.8 liters)
Bundt Pan – volume varies because of various designs
10×3 inch (25 x 8 cm) = 10-12 cups (2.8 liters)
Tube Pan:
9×3 inches (23 x 8 cm) = 12 cups (2.8 liters)
Jelly Roll Pans – 1 inch (2.5 cm) tall
10×15 inches (27 x 39 cm) = 10 cups (2.4 liters)
12×17 inches (32 x 44 cm) = 12 cups (2.8 liters)
Loaf Pans – about 3 inches (8 cm) tall
8×4 inch (20 x 10 cm) = 4 cups (960 ml)
9×5 inch (23 x 13 cm) = 8 cups (1.9 liters)
If you want to calculate a pan’s volume yourself, it’s so easy! Simply fill your pan with 1 cup of water at a time and count until it’s full. That’s what I do!
Here’s a helpful list of the most common baking pans and the volume of batter they hold, as well as which pans hold the same amount of batter. ***Keep in mind that the volumes listed mean you are filling the pan all the way to the top with batter, which isn’t ideal for baked goods. Unless otherwise noted, filling pans around 2/3 full is the best practice. This leaves room for rising.
Use the following section to determine which baking pans can be substituted for others based on their full volume.

Art by Katherine [ from photo of my leg with a bleeding insect bite]
Jim Brown was in his new conservatory admiring the windows he had just
polished.His 82nd birthday was coming up in a few days
Marie,his stunningly attractive yet irritable,nasty and over educated
wife,a leading authority on Wittgenstein and most likely suffering from
Asperger’s syndrome into the bargain,….oh a cliche prone author too—!
had made a huge whole orange cake and planned a large gathering of friends to
celebrate his survival for so long whilst married to her,not easy sheknows.
He heard a sharp tapping on the door.
There lay Lucy their next door neighbour spying through the keyhole.
“Are you on your own?” she queried tersely yet rudely.
“No, yet I’m suffering from chronic existential anxiety” Bill lied politely.
“Well,I just saw Martina on her second hand Raleigh bike going to the
market or the Charity Shop or possibly leaving home for ever….”
“Well,I still have the cat here”,he whispered loudly as if he were free
associating in a dream
“Let me in and make me some coffee” she asked courteously,
“She’s an odd one” the cat Emile thought naughtily.
“Where’s my Carnation cat milk?”
“Real or instant?” Simon answered suavely yet naturally.
“Won’t it wash off your brand new coral lipstick from Chanel of Paris?…
not to mention your factor 60 sunblock.”
“God’s whiskers” she murmured quaintly to herself.
“How does he know it’s Chanel?
Is he a spy or what?
Is he in M.I.5?”
John got some instant coffee and debated whether to put in a little LSD to
add some visions to their morning!
No,a short breathing exercise would do he concluded after 9 minutes of obsessive
anxiety.
He sat down in his favorite old wooden Habitat chair having poured the
coffee into some old plastic mugs.
“Did you know Habitat is going b..b bankrupt?” she brightly stuttered
turning pink with happiness and the menopause which so far had lasted over 30 years.
Suddenly Lucy sat down on Bert’s lap and began to kiss his right eyelid
“Careful, my darling!” he muttered insensibly.
He was savouring the annoyingly uncommon pleasure when the chair fell to pieces as it
frequently did at such times, throwing the elderly but
versatile and experienced couple down onto the new Mary Quant patterned pure New
Zealand lambswool carpet.Suddenly they heard the peal of Mary’sbicycle bell.Shortly she
walked into the room carrying 78 bags of groceries for the birthday party.
“What’s going on here ?” she murmured seductively in a piercing shriek.
“I’m so sorry, Jenny, please accept my apologies, he has this thing about
chairs.It’s a fetish ,I believe, according to Sinald Floyd.””
“Have you got your mobile?” shrieked Tom agonisedly in a loud whisper.
”I can’t get up.” he screamed softly.”Am I dead?”
“What cannot stand up must forever remain lying down”
As my old philosophy tutor at Cambridge used to say, muttered Marty.
“Why, that’s bit extreme,” said Jane uneasily yet gallantly.
.”MY tutor said “Who cannot speak must forever remain silent.”
“Oh,who was your tutor?”
“Elizabeth Ansconbe!” Amy admitted furtively.”She knew Wittgetensin well.”
“Mine was Iris Murdoch!” called out Alf.
Later they heard a silent siren.It was the emergency ambulance.
Dick, the paramedic bounded into the room.
“It’s this chair” said Marie urbanely.
“Can you mend it for me? My husband can’t manage without it!”
“Anything else, madam?” Rick queried anxiously.
“Any coal to fetch in,tins to open, blocked toilets?”
“Later maybe.”
Danny looked at Joan.
“Your eyes look like two deep pools in the Caspian sea.” he whispered into her left ear.
“Are you on another creative writing course?”she quipped .urbanely
“Yes, we’re on eyes at the moment; what colour is that eyeshadow you have on.”
“This is called winter teal” She admitted uneasily yet seductively.
“Did you know I’m a transvestite?” he admitted happily.
“Yes”,she replied dishonestly
.Kitty liked to give an impression of omniscience owing to her ontological insecurity and
her ignorance of theology and also her narrowly trained mathematical mind.
Unfortunately, that frequently gave men the wrong impression.
Mamie cried out to Al,
“Get on with it,my sweetie!” So he took out a big tube of glue from his
jeans’ pocket and set to work reconstructing the chair.
“Oh,dear, Stewart looks a bit odd”
“No,he looks quite prime to me.”
“Is he an integer?!”
“No, he’s a transcendental real number”
“He’s a number all right.”
“Never mind, we’ve just got new wheelie bins so I’ll put him out with the
rubbish,”
Marty joked on hearing Amy’s remarks to Zach.
But Simon was not yet dead.He merely had fallen asleep.
He dreamed of his days at Oxgridge University studying illogic and unreason with
Rudolphina Catnap, the famous female philosopher.Oh, happy, happy days!
Danny made the ladies some Ceylon tea in the fabulous oak kitchen with its pure linen
curtains in raspberry beige. and its black enamel sink with
matching double oven and microwave.”Why no halogen?”Iris Murdoch might have
asked.
“What is a human life,”he pondered.He was studying logic as well as writing.
He began to tremble like a leaf in the wind to use a freshly recycled old
cliche.
“Help” he called,”I’m having a panic attack.Hurry I’m dying,I believe.I
need a priest“
“You can’t have a panic attack,” shouted Marianne
“Paramedics heal themselves.”
“Does God heal those who heal themselves, he wondered as he lay under a pile of
broken china?”
“Where’s the tea?” called the ladies.
Ah ,if only Wittgenstein were here,he would know,thought Emile.
But I disagree.Only God would know that and He won’t say usually as he
speaks another language known only to the few.Though sometimes one may hear it on
the wind deep in a thick forest.
That’s what I believe.
Here endeth the first lesson… no more today
It’s already going darker and your dinner’s in the pot
Where are you now, my sweetheart? I remember,I forget
I know you liked those kippers smoked in Whitby in a shed
Your breath was something else again, when we went to bed
Then there was the big pie shop, above the mile of beach
We have no pork butcher but we can still buy meat
Men like a steamed pudding hot with home made jam
They like custard, gravy, HP Sauce and ham
We walked out on the causeway and the wind was very wild
We saw the fleet of fishing boats. tossing on the tide
You were so romantic, you went out overnight
But you got sea sickness and your merry face was white
We went up to the Abbey and we saw the cliffs so high
Nature is so beautiful, it makes me want to die
In that stunning moment, when the legs give way
That itself is quite enough,I’ve nothing more to say

Incidentally at the mall” – Counting Sales
“Anarchy in the Class War.” -Police Bristols
“Along Comes Trouble.” by W.Grout
“Captain Slacker” -Billy Joe
“Capello of Limes” -Dixie Jupp
“China Cup” -Market shop
“Dearest biscuit A Cook.
At the end of rhymes.Beyond Shelley. Frieda VerseBooks
A day of sudden changes.Clouds
cross the sky
like whales swimming North in rows.
The sun was bright,dazzled my eyes
with gold and silver.
Wind cut across my face
like a slap from an angry father..
Those who love can also seem to hate us too..
The lure of that small childish body
tempts them to divert their anger towards it.
When the ones who hurt you
are also the ones you love,
it’s hard to know which direction to run in;
but it usually turns into a circle.
Retreating turns into a new arrival.
Straight lines might be better. though
On a spherical earth
difficult to find.
Even parallel lines meet
In their Riemannian geometry.
So we can never get away
Sometimes the best we manage
Is to increase the circle’s radius.
Though how is hard to know.
Do you love me or hate me?
Do you want me to stay or go?
What do I want?Do I have a me?
The memory of warmth draws me back
Like a cold lonely beast leaving the jungle
To lie down with a what appears to be a lamb,
Surprising the farmer up early to milk his animals
Finding a strange new one
Looking with tender,puzzled eyes
into His Human Face.
Oh,John Joe was a farmer’s son
They lived up in the hills.
When he went to tend his sheep
He gazed down on cotton mills.
The rivers ran with water pure
And so provided power
Yet over these dark ruined towns
The heathered hills did tower.
Mary was a local girl
She walked out on the moors
She wore a dress of silky cloth
Decorated with wild flowers.
John Joe saw Mary dear
When he was dipping sheep
She peered over a dry stone wall
And saw the new lambs leap.
Her hair was long.Her hair was gold
Her eyes singularly blue.
In John Joe’s eyes she was so fair,
What was a man to do?
He watched her walking all alone
Was she sad or sick?
He showed her how his dog behaved
He showed her shepherds’ tricks.
Then one day,he held her hand
As they walked to the Pike.
They stood up there and gazed all round
So John thought he would strike.
He bent down on his right knee
And spoke to Mary then.
I’ve loved you ,Mary, since we met
I hoped we’d meet again
Mary smiled with her blue eyes;
Her lips were pink and bright.
I love you too and love the hills
And. love the summer light.
The next year they were married
Mary wore white lace.
She looked so happy then
To know she’d her own place.
The church bells rang,the people sang
John and Mary wed!
And naturally, when evening came,
At last they went to bed.
When Mary lay in John Joe’s arms
She knew this was her home.
And so for many. many years
On those loved hills they roamed.
They cared for sheep and hens and goats
They cared for children three.
They never had a falling out
But talked beneath a tree.
From youth to age the years went by
But John still loved his bride.
And Mary too was happy
With John Joe by her side.
Their faces,lined, were full of cheer
Their hair as white as snow
And everywhere that JJ went
Mary too did go.
Until the day came for his death,
He lay down in the grass.
Mary ran and held him close
And thus dear John did pass.
The muffled bells rang from the tower
John Joe was carried in.
The parson prayed and hymns were sung.
The sheep dog made a din.
In the dark earth John was laid
While Mary wept and cried.
What will I do , my my lover John ,
without you by my side?
Mary grieved and wept and sighed
And thus she spent some years…
The loss was great and bent her back
with the weight of care.
When we open up our hearts
We feel both joy and woe.
This is the pattern of our love,
Which like a river flow
Manure
Schwartz, an elderly man, is resting peacefully on the porch of his small hotel outside Boca when he sees a cloud of dust up the road. He walks out to see who could be approaching: It is a Southern farmer with a wagon.
“Good afternoon,” says Schwartz.
“Afternoon,” says the farmer.
“Where you headed?” asks Schwartz.
“Town.”
“What do you have in the wagon?”
“Manure.”
“Manure, eh? What do you do with it?”
“I spread it over the fruit.”
“Well,” says Bernstein, “you should come over here for lunch someday. We use sour cream.”