Poetry readings, mummies and hellebores

1. A wonderful reading last night at the K&S Poetry Society - three local poets, all excellent. Graham Mummery described a beach on Skyros where you can see both sunrise and sunset, and a temple dedicated to Apollo where he poured a libation of red wine down between the stones. Clare Best spoke about vegetables and masectomies - very brave and very moving. Caroline Price wrote about her husband taking her to see the Chagall windows at Tudeley soon after they fell in love, and her father's garden after his death.

2. I jot down some comments from the new series on the radio, the history of the world through objects - 'the mummy is his own document'; and 'all objects contain the memory of a forgotten person'. I think this is what poets do - they explore places and things, and move through them to find themselves.

3. A white bud on the white hellebore and a pink bud on the pink hellebore. I was given the pink plant by the gardener at Corpus Christi College; the white was a present to myself. They are both themselves and myself.