Karen
 Francis

Valentine’s Day Catechism: How do you know you are loved?

How do you know you are loved? That pre-warmed spot as I slip between sheets and just a quiet sigh as my freezing feet thaw on him How do you know you are loved? Tea served in bed so I can ease into the morning watching the early light sneaking up on the garden How do...

Gratitude for the gift of snowdrops

As mean-spirited January blusters out in a final slam-door swirl of wind, this year’s second hammering bout of flu finally abates. Triple-wrapped; I venture to garden, hopeful – and there they are, my White ladies, my Fair maids of February, a small gossip of nodding...

through a window of Winterness

beyond the glass- the day begins pigeon-grey and featherless-still, skeletal branches flail in stiff breeze, finger painting onto a drab canvas, as lead-filled clouds hover ominously, observing these wild gesticulations, yet unmoved. And the window seems to cry as the...

6.30am Year’s Day

All through the night howling winds tore at the house, scoured every surface, violent manifestation of the simultaneous dying throes as one year slipped away and birthing agonies of another struggling to arrive. But this morning in this moment not a single breath...