Footloose and 17

"I'll be your lover too" Van Morrison sparks alive distant memory: 1978, Waiheke Island, the house on the road between Ostend and Palm Beach, walking up the driveway at night, alone, enveloped by a sweet scent of Wild Ginger, senses heightened by illicit substances, the wonderfully heady rush of freedom that comes with youth.

I don't give a fig!

I don't give a fig!

Meaning: Complete lack of concern about an event

Origin: This phrase comes from the Spanish fico (fig) which gave its name to a traditional gesture of contempt made by placing the thumb between the first and second fingers. The gesture was common in Shakespeare's time and was known as The Fig of Spain. The modern-day equivalent is the "V" sign.

Photograph/Paul Mortensen

Oh Lucky Souls

This weather is utterly, utterly perfect. No words to describe adequately. Autumn has a lot going for it. Sweetcorn ready for the pot. Petunias, viscaria, dahlias and lobelia fit to burst with colour. Figs swollen and sweet and luscious. White cosmos towering above the fence line. Liquid Amber beginning it's initially subtle, yearly transformation. A steady stream of sun bathed walkers down the road. Oh lucky souls.

Artist/Henri Matisse

My Boy Jack

"HAVE you news of my boy Jack? "
Not this tide.
"When d'you think that he'll come back?"
Not with this wind blowing, and this tide.

"Has any one else had word of him?"
Not this tide. For what is sunk will hardly swim,
Not with this wind blowing, and this tide.

"Oh, dear, what comfort can I find?"
None this tide,
Nor any tide,
Except he did not shame his kind
Not even with that wind blowing, and that tide.

Then hold your head up all the more,
This tide,
And every tide;
Because he was the son you bore,
And gave to that wind blowing and that tide.

Rudyard Kipling