Simon Zonenblick - Writing and more

Like much of the world, I spent a large part of yesterday reflecting on the 20th anniversary of the September 11th terror attacks in the USA, and how the world was never, and never can be, the same again following that tragedy. The following poem was written some years after, and although it has appeared on various online platforms over the years, I have subsequently edited the poem, and this is its first appearance in its definitive form. It describes my walk home from work that afternoon, oblivious to what was going on and wrapped up in my own thoughts. News travelled more slowly in those days. SEPTEMBER 11th, 2001  After an early shift  I pass the hairdressers,  the paper shop,  semi’s, Vauxhalls,  hanging-basket-driveways.  To save time, I cut along the Ring Road  down an avenue of bungalows  and bounteous gardens  bright with fuchsias, roses and chrysanthemums.  Its quiet, but then again, its Tuesday afternoon.  Sunlight is c...

Owing to the imminence of a forthcoming poetry publication on the theme, invertebrates have been on my mind. On a canalside walk with friends, we noted that this year there seemed to have been more insects than ever around these parts. Perhaps it’s a combination of thriving trees and plants planted in recent years, and the recent hot weather – which increases insect mating - but I have noticed a boon of little creatures on the leaves and branches flanking the canal, weaving in and out of riverside flowers, and turning up unexpectedly on roadsides, in fields and woods. Naturally, there is no shortage of seasonal regulars – wasps seem to outnumber bees, though the hollyhocks on my road are a favourite haunt of honeybees, which gorge on pollen and emerge smothered in white, like dusted jellybabies. Roadisde roses and thistles by the Calder throng with bees, wasps and ants. White and peacock butterflies bob about the flowers at Copley reserve, where I watched a cinnamon moth caterpilla...

What would have been my mother's 80th birthday seems a good time to acknowledge the degree to which my own interest in wildlife and nature writing is owed directly to her influence. Not only was my mum someone who encouraged a respect for the natural world in daily life, she was also able to do so through her work in nurseries and with younger school children, not least through the production of some factual descriptions of British wildlife for child readers. It is no mawkish exagerration to say that I learned more from these lovingly crafted educational provisions than from many "official" nature books. One of my childhood memories is of my mother supporting a "Save the Whales" campaign in the 1980's, and it was therefore a somewhat bittersweet irony that I was reading a book about whales at the time of her death. The work of Sally Carrighar and other naturalists such as JA Baker, Rachel Carson, Nan Shephard, Valmik Thapar and Ann Zwinger, has directly ...

I am pleased to announce a new series of nature articles  - Wildlife Watch - in the Halifax Courier newspaper.  The piece below is a longer version of the first of these articles, published in the Courier on 15th April, and is also taken from a forthcoming collection of my Calder Valley nature writings. These last few weeks, many must have felt a quiet joy in witnessing, at the close of a difficult winter, the early signs of spring.   Even those of us who like winter can't fail to appreciate the lighter nights, the unfurling buds and colour slowly rolling across the Calder Valley landscape. Outside my window in Sowerby Bridge, the canal towpath is glistening with dandelions, daffodils, anemones, primroses.   At the wharf, and in front of the church, blossom trees are budding, igniting brightening air in soft pink kisses, like confetti at an unexpected wedding. By the waterside, white geese doze in snowy folds of feathers, or clamber from the Calder to the sandy banks...

Today I'm remembering my trip to County Down in Northern Ireland, where I traveled in 2019 for research on my illustrated talks project Bronte Beginnings. I stayed in the small town of Rathfriland, but the trip took in days in Belfast, Newry, Downpatrick and more. During my trip, I visited a variety of historical places, including churches and cultural sites, the childhood home of football legend George Best, and the surrounding countryside of Rathfriland, which includes the dramatic Mourne mountain range. It seems like a different age now, a year or more into the era of covid, but my visit to Co. Down is a journey I very much intend to take again in better times.  The experience prompted a number of videos, such as this one which features a slideshow of the places visited, and includes a selection of shots from the Downpatrick St Patrick's Day parade.   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pRSmpSK65L4   I have added below this post a full list of all videos taken on the ...

Last year I read   Maarja Pärtna's superb poetry pamphlet Vivarium (The Emma Press 2019)  reprinted in an English translation by Jayde Will, and wrote the following review, which I was very pleased to see published on Sabotage Reviews a few days ago: http://sabotagereviews.com/2021/03/01/vivarium-by-maarja-partna-translated-by-jayde-will/

I have not felt up to much creativity of late, having lost my mother earlier this year. I have, though, found the completion of various pre-existing projects quite therapeutic, such as this video which I began making late last year and finished today. It is a celebration of five years' worth of flowers, photographed around the Calder Valley and elsewhere in the North of England, and I have dedicated it to my mum, who was a life-long lover of plants and nature, and played a big role in encouraging my own love of gardening and flowers.   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T-rjv-B91Ng