Remembering a ‘Parish Outing’
The idea came from Dorothy Welsford who
said she missed Kew but it was hard for her to get there. Diana Raymond
and Nina Mitchell said they would like to go as well. So on a lovely
sunny September day with Sarah Knight, Audrey Stocker and Peter we all went to
Kew and afterwards Diana Raymond wrote me a beautiful poem which I came
across in ‘lockdown sorting’
September
13th, 2005
Leave the
shadows behind
Shadows are
for a dull day.
Go with the
sun on a September morning
Go with the
friends who will take you there.
Take you
where? Why, to Kew, of course
Wide lakes of
grass and the scent of old summers,
This summer
dying now, but still alive with colour
Sunflower and
cyclamen and the fading splendour of old rose.
Travel by
chair – with a close friend behind
The chair
rides smoothly as if it had wings
But of course
it has no wings, only the faithful friend
Who give you
time to ‘stand and stare’
To see the
long green distances,
Avenues that
ride between the tall trees into the mists of the sun.
Into the Palm
House where the air is darkened by leaves,
Where the
tropic warmth and the moist air
Touch you with
a different wonder,
And in the
shadow of the jungle trees you find strange constructions
Glass
imaginings like a wizard’s twisted dream,
Shapes of
every colour, strident as the playground of a child.
The day glides
on – already it is afternoon
The fountain
has turned silver and the water sleek with shadow
Not long before
evening when the great spaces will lie empty,
Lotus and
water lily bloom unseen,
And the gates
will close.
I am not –
alas! Andrew Marvell, but will borrow from his Garden:
“Meanwhile the
mind from pleasure less,
Withdraws into
its happiness…
Annihilating
all that’s made
To a green
thought in a green shade.”
Diana Raymond