This is is the month of weeds: From The Hurst writer-in-residence

Working at The Hurst, Halloween 2012

She floats up in the light of the torch,
her moss green thighs with the scrape and scab grey flake
of lichen, that damp and flourish there,
darkening the night around her,
deeper black it is now,
her weeping angel, blank-eyed,
she catches my coat as I pass,
on her teeth, between her legs it snags,
the beam bolding the rain path to night,
path to even whiter ghosts
that wait and scratch.

If there are ghosts
then I shall see one tonight
and yes, the flicker of the screen,
tap of keyboard and its own loose teeth
in a mouth that sucks and hums
and you tell me, late night confiding,
(god I am so tired)
how you love her.

This is the month of weeds

This is the month of weeds
Kex, charlock, thistle
among the shorn bristle
of stubble-drop seeds.
This is the month of weeds.

This is time of seeds.
Memory, poppy, need,
among the thorn and sheaths
and bubble-burst dreams.
This is the time of seeds.

This is a week of leaves.
Autumn, paper, tea,
among the torn and creased,
the trouble-cast seams.
This is a week of leaves.

First stanza from The Land  by Vita Sackville West

You should not rely on this listing as an accurate description of the building

A pleasing minor gentleman’s residence
circa 1813 for the Morris family
grafted on to an earlier core
coursed and squared limestone
slate roof with stone ridge stacks
two storeys and attic, cellars
sashes in chamfered surrounds under flat arches
four pane to first floor and long fifteen-pane sashes
a central link parapet
gables with coped verges

capped by coarse fleur-de-lys
flanking tall diagonal buttresses
with set-offs and cross-gabled finials
a central porch with wide Tudor arch
flanking diagonal buttresses
parapet string
with crest depicting spread eagle
(the Morris crest)

top-lit stair
hall

the porch and buttresses appear to be an afterthought (see straight
joints)

a pleasing minor gentleman’s residence

Words from Listed Building text, source: English Heritage