A Stitch In Time

Saves nine.

But, of course, you need a needle and thread and you may feel a real prick. I haven't got time for a stitch in time. I have holy socks. Amen. Threadbare jeans and jumpers and I've lost the thread. I might need to speak to Ariadne.

 Ariadne was the daughter of King Minos of Crete. Minos had Daedalus build a Labyrinth, a house of winding passages, to house the bull-man, the Minotaur, the beast that his wife Pasiphae bore after having intercourse with a bull. (Minos had refused to sacrifice a bull to Poseidon, as the king promised, so the god took revenge by causing his wife to desire the bull--but that's another story.) Minos required tribute from Athens in the form of young men and women to be sacrificed to the Minotaur.

Theseus, an Athenian, volunteered to accompany one of these groups of victims to deliver his country from the tribute to Minos. Ariadne fell in love with Theseus and gave him a thread which he let unwind through the Labyrinth so that he was able to kill the Minotaur and find his way back out again.

I digress.

Asturias. Resting from Canoeing

Went to Asturias a couple of weeks ago. Asturias is in the North of Spain and is very green and beautiful. It's a kind of tradition  to go down the river any-old-how, stopping frequently to drink local cider.

Group of Very Nice Friends

We were only there for a couple of days. A four hour drive to get there which was quite a bind, but well worth it.

Local Sites

There you go. A brief soupçon of life; whatever that means.

Here is today's poem:

The End

After the blast of lightning from the east,

The flourish of loud clouds, the Chariot Throne;

After the drums of time have rolled and ceased,

And by the bronze west long retreat is blown,

Shall Life renew these bodies? Of a truth

All death will he annul, all tears assuage?-

Or fill these void veins full again with youth,

And wash, with an immortal water, Age?

When I do ask white Age he saith not so:

'My head hangs weighed with snow.'

And when I hearken to the Earth, she saith:

'My fiery heart shrinks, aching. It is death.

Mine ancient scars shall not be glorified,

Nor my titanic tears, the seas, be dried.'