In your Easter Bonnet...

Early spring in one of the most exciting cities in the world, 

sees a street parade like no other...

It starts at Fifth Avenue and 47th Street... 

Near St Patrick's Cathedral

 and heads up to 57th...

The parade

Better known as New York's Easter Parade 

Has been an annual tradition since the 1880s

Not far from the Rockefeller Centre

The parade dares you to wear your finest and funniest

Inviting butterflies and flowers that bloom in the spring

To fly high...

Lifting you Up...

Up...

And 

Up... 

some more!

It's where birds of a feather 

most certainly flock together...

 ...and where beautiful girls in picture hats

Walk cheek by jowl with Dapper Dans and

 Pooches dressed in diamantes and pearls!

But for some, the best part of the day is collecting treasures from the street

Whilst for others, it all proves too much!

Wishing you sweetness and light

and a Hoppy Easter!

Francesca xx 

© 2013 Francesca Muir

Stairway to paradise

Stairs...

A step to somewhere

Leading me to another space

Another place

They beckon me to follow

Up, up and up some more

To a greater place

A hollowed space

Some stairs lead nowhere

But I climb them nonetheless

For they promise a journey

Perhaps to paradise?

Some stairs lead down

And down and down some more

To a seat, to a door

To another view

And some stairs just are what they are

A step to rest upon

To while away the hours

As I watch the world go by.

Glipmses into Ubud markets

Three times we went back to the market 

and every time I saw something new

The friendly fruit-seller had a sweet face and even sweeter fruit

I fell in love with the scales - but alas they were too heavy to carry home...
and they were not for sale!

The corridors were so narrow single file was the only way through
 

My passion for baskets was well and truly satiated!

Lunch was taken on the run...
 

And the car park attendant was very busy attending some 500 motorbikes!

By mid-afternoon, for some boredom had set in

 

As pale blue umbrellas provided scant shade from the relentless heat 

and tropical showers 

To say it was steamy would be an understatement!

But the colours, the smells and the noise were intoxicating!

 

Love the madness and mayhem of a local market.

The Music in Me

Round, like a circle in a spiral

Like a wheel within a wheel

The music in my mind plays on 

Painting pictures that only I can see.

It's the drumming of my fingers.

The rhythm in my ears.

The movement in my head

And the beat at the door to my soul

My feet don't stop.

 Can't stop.

Moving to syncopated times. 

Tap tap tapping the tune.

The music in me soars and dives 

Whispering sweet tones

Of a pastorale life

Always sharing her melodic journey

It's the voice at its purest.

Lilting, crooning, raising the roof.

Caressing my being.

Tearing my heart

It's the tickling of ivory.

A plectrum striking a chord.

The breath of a flute in the wind.

A segue to unbearable sadness that is the cello

Music.

A collection of notes on page.

Like a charm of magpies

Perched unevenly on parallel bars

Innocuous, until playing together.

For only then it begins.

An arpeggio, cadenza, sonata, concerto...

A prelude...

Echoes within the sounds of silence.