listening for rain

Spent a lot of the day wandering around Leeds with my mother. She agreed that the architecture of the library is fantastic in the best possible way. (She also walks more slowly than I do.)

Met up with my father in the evening (he came in on a later train, having been up in Edinburgh at a conference) and we all had supper at Little Tokyo, which is still magnificent.

We have been having random April Showers throughout the day, often at inconvenient moments. Spring is definitely coming in like a lion over here. The river Aire (near where I live) is big and frothy.

---

The Hag

The hag is astride
This night for to ride,
The devil and she together;
Through thick and through thin,
Now out and then in,
Though ne'er so foul be the weather.

A thorn or a burr
She takes for a spur,
With a lash of a bramble she rides now;
Through brakes and through briars,
O'er ditches and mires,
She follows the spirit that guides now.

No beast for his food
Dare now range the wood,
But hush'd in his lair he lies lurking;
While mischiefs, by these,
On land and on seas,
At noon of night are a-working.

The storm will arise
And trouble the skies;
This night, and more for the wonder,
The ghost from the tomb
Affrighted shall come,
Call'd out by the clap of the thunder.

-- Robert Herrick