FREYA`S THOUGHTS

Blow, blow, thou winter wind, thou art not so unkind, as man's ingratitude; Thy tooth is not so keen, because thou art not seen, although thy breath be rude. Freeze, freeze thou bitter sky, That does not bite so nigh, As benefits forgot: Though thou the waters warp, Thy sting is not so sharp, As a friend remembered not. -------- William Shakespeare. .

~ Winter is the time for comfort, for good food and warmth, for the touch of a friendly hand and for a talk beside the fire: it is the time for home. -------- Edith Sitwell ~ Winter is on my head, but eternal spring is in my heart. --------Victor Hugo When the bold branches Bid farewell to rainbow leaves - Welcome wool sweaters. ------- B. Cybrill ~ Never are voices so beautiful as on a winter's evening, when dusk almost hides the body, and they seem to issue from nothingness with a note of intimacy seldom heard by day. -------- Virginia wolff Every winter, When the great sun has turned his face away, The earth goes down into a vale of grief, And fasts, and weeps, and shrouds herself in sables, Leaving her wedding-garlands to decay - Then leaps in spring to his returning kisses. ------- Charles Kingsley Summer fading, winter comes-- Frosty mornings, tingling thumbs, Window robins, winter rooks, And the picture story-books. Water now is turned to stone Nurse and I can walk upon; Still we find the flowing brooks In the picture story-books. -------- Robert Louis Stevenson The English winter - ending in July, / To recommence in August.------- Lord Byron The color of springtime is in the flowers, the color of winter is in the imagination. --------Terri Guillemets Of winter's lifeless world each tree Now seems a perfect part; Yet each one holds summer's secret Deep down within its heart. ------- Charles G. Stater Clouded with snow The cold winds blow, And shrill on leafless bough The robin with its burning breast Alone sings now. The rayless sun, Day's journey done, Sheds its last ebbing light On fields in leagues of beauty spread Unearthly white. Thick draws the dark, And spark by spark, The frost-fires kindle, and soon Over that sea of frozen foam Floats the white moon. ------ Walter de la Mare

It is one year since I joined Opera

Autumn has come and it will soon be Winter. Already the trees are shedding their leaves helped by chilled winds. The yellows, oranges, reds and purples of the leaves now litter the ground. Why do they change colour and fall?



The Science Bit. They fall because a cork-like layer cuts off the supply of water to the leaf and so the green chlorophyll fades away exposing the colours underneath. The yellows/oranges come from carotenoids,and the reds/purples from anthocyanins in the leaf.


The Poetic Bit. Autumn has inspired many people to write about it:


Gerard Manley Hopkins. "Wonderful downpour of leaf. When the morning sun began to melt the first frost,they fell at one touch and in a few minutes a whole tree was flung of them; they lay masking and papering the ground at the foot. Then the tree seems to be looking down on its cast self as blue sky on snow after a long fall,its losing, its doing."



Andrew Young. "The scarlet hips hang on the briar, like coffins on the dead dog-rose, all were bright as though for earth, death were a gayer thing than birth."


George Crabbe. "On the right side the youth a wood survey`d, with all its dark intensity of shade ,when the rough wind alone was heard to move, and near the bean-sheaf stood ,the harvest done, and slowly blacken`d in the sickly sun."


Tennyson. "Sweetened with with summer light, the full-juiced apple waxing over-mellow, drops in a silent autumn night."

John Donne " No Spring, nor Summer Beauty hath such grace, as I have seen in one Autumnal face."