When La Belle Madeleine, resplendent among pillows of marshmallow pink satin and frills and furbelows of duty-free lace, received her post the next morning, she little anticipated news of Roisin. First, she singled out the accounts, as was her custom, screwed them up and aimed them in the general direction of the hearth. Having disposed of this chore, she ...

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         In a secular age, an authentic miracle must purport to be a hoax, in order to gain credit in the world. Angela Carter By believing passionately in something that still does not exist, we create it. The nonexistent is whatever we have not sufficiently desired. Franz Kafka There are two ways to live. You can live as if nothing is a ...

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           Who walks with me along my ways Of bruisèd reeds and smoking flax, Amid the feather rye that sways And hides the parched earth's cracks? Who walks with me past guelder rose With brambles scrambling to conceal The hazel boughs and blackthorn sloes, The bindweed's healing peal? Who strolls among the buttercups, A ...

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That night I dreamt of a great forest, firs and larches together, under a glistening weight of snow. You couldn’t tell which was which unless the white burden slithered away and a bough sprang up light and free. I was drifting above it. The air was thin with the scent of resin and keen as a weapon. This untrodden wilderness was boundless, pricked with spectral tones. The eye sought in vain ...

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         She had a pretty gift for quotation, which is a serviceable substitute for wit . The Bard.   Where your talents meet the needs of the world, there lies your vocation Aristotle  Look for your own. Do not do what someone else could do as well as you. Do not say, do not write what someone else could say, could write as ...

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Last Thursday, I visited Arundel Cathedral for the festival of Corpus Christi where a stunning ninety-foot carpet of flowers had been laid. It took eight women six and a half hours to create andwas on display for two days before it was trampled underfoot during Mass which preceded the procession through the town. Each individual bloom had been placed on a drawn template of the design which, ...

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