February 10th, 2020Local Lines : Daylesford in Summer

Hamlet:

“…for there is nothing either good

or bad, but thinking makes it so.”

Despite the summer heat the Anne Boleyns, Audrey Hepburns, Barbra Streisands, Benjamin Brittens and Botticellis are still blooming in the garden.

And the dark green foliage of the Chanticleers and Laurels are maintaining the garden as A Little Chaos.

And the short drive from Glenlyon to the pretty little French village of churches and trees on the hill is taking me past Monet’s Haystacks on one side of the road, and Van Gogh’s Haystacks of Provence and Pissarro’s The Harvest and Market on the other.

The smoke from recent fires is filling the sky like Turner’s Rain, Steam and Speed, and soon Millet’s Gleaners will be picking over the potatoes on Gooch’s hill.

In Vincent Street girls on school holidays wander with their families and answer to the writers’ names Collette, Harper, Virginia, and Charlotte, or the mythological characters Persephone, Artemis, Penelope and Cassandra.

Cars pass by named Apollo, Electra, Titan, Odyssey, Taurus, and even a vintage Mercury.

Tourists seem to come in all seasons up here, in the season of mists and mellow fruitfulness, when summer’s lease hath all too short a date, in the time of blow, blow, thou winter wind, and in just spring, when wee and bettyanddisbel come dancing from hopscotch and jump rope…

But I am not a tourist.

I live here, but stand outside, observing,

like the Flaneur, part of and not part of the landscape.

I am at the centre of the order of things of my own making.

The sovereign in control of a world of my own definition,

defining the beauty of things for myself

and not allowing them to be defined for me.

I can move anywhere and be unseen behind my mask.

– Tom Perfect

Tom Perfect lives in Glenlyon and loves the very active local community, and the General Store, Adsum Farm, and The Local magazine, which all contribute to the wonderful place that Glenlyon is.

Poems for Local Lines come predominantly from a group of poets. However, other locals who would like a poem considered for publication can contact Bill Wootton – cottlesbreedge@gmail.com