Walk that road blazing

That summer in the west I walked sunrise
to dusk, narrow twisted highways without shoulders,
low stone walls on both sides. Hedgerows
of fuchsia hemmed me in, the tropical plant
now wild, centuries after nobles imported it
for their gardens. And I was unafraid,
did not cross to the outsides of curves, did not
look behind me for what might be coming.
For weeks in counties Kerry and Cork, I walked
through the red blooms the Irish call
the Tears of God, blazing from the brush
like lanterns. Who would have thought
a warm current touching the shore
of that stone-cold country could make
lemon trees, bananas, and palms not just take,
but thrive? Wild as the jungles they came from,
where boas flexed around their trunks—
like my other close brushes with miracles,
the men who love you back, how they come
to you, gorgeous and invasive, improbable,
hemming you in. And you walk that road
blazing, some days not even afraid to die.
–Katrina Vandenberg


A rather nice day weatherwise and still catching up with myself. I went for a swim this morning which was lovely while Himself went off to try and sort his tooth out - it 's been causing trouble since the end of June and is now very uncomfortable He had to seek emergency antibiotics when we were in France.  Looks like he might be off to the Kingdom dentist in Killarney.  He also seems to have picked up a French cold.

I have a very scary day ahead tomorrow and went for a quick recce - I shall reveal all if I survive to tell the tale.  I was gobsmacked by the hedgerows - a riot of colours : orange montbretia, red fuchsia, white yarrow and wild carrot, purple loosestrife and knapweed and some sort of mustard in there too, and a blue vetch. 
 I also came across these rather stately geese all gazing at something I couldn't see.