Essence from Paris with Pearl Pins on Lace and Mirror Gold Card

Collage of Vintage France on Card with Hessian, Lace, Ribbon and handmade Embellishments.

Lilas Blanc de France, Card with Feathers and Flowers on Lace.

Pink flower detail on lace with white heart and baby blue feather details

Belle Jardin Femme en Rose Birthday Greeting

Belle Jardin en Rose

Again a verse inside with Birthday wishes but I leave most cards blank for the sender to fill in.

Closeup of my handmade Rose and Ribbons 

French style shabby chic

Lavender Blue Birthday Greetings

Simple Happy Birthday with Ribbons, Lace and Vintage Blue

Pearls and Lace, Girl in Silver Frame

Closeup

Pictorial Review Vintage Cards

I make all flowers, ribbons and embellishments for cards myself and plan to teach this craft to others in the future.

Bluebird Vintage Ribbons and Lace

Interior is quality pale blue insert left blank for the Sender

Vintage Cards, my new passion - Lady in Pink

Magnolia White

Magnolia petals

beneath a March sky,

clouds ribboned with sunlight.

I sit on the balcony in Trier,

five floors high

above foreign trees

bursting with spring.

Rooftops, slate grey

undulate the city scape.

Distant hills breathing,
still winter brown

along the Moselle river.

It is early for boat trips

to lazy lunch in Saarburg.

Surrounded by apartments,

so many lives hidden
Behind concrete walls.

There is only the hum of trafic,

no birdsong here,
but the Cherry trees
are in full bloom.

Frail, Bald and Alone

The cold face of poverty

It was a wet November day
on the motorway to Cork.
Waiting at traffic lights
a tiny man shuffled towards me,
frail, bald and alone.

His piercing eyes beseeching,
palms outstretched, imploring.
His face ravaged with fear
his shame stirred shame in me
as I turned my face away,
I saw others do the same.

I felt awkward discomfort,
it changed rapidly
to a sickening fear
as the cold face of recession
the demise of my country
the pain of my people
stood before me
in this little man,
an ache so immense
I had buried it deep.
The bubble burst a year ago
but he had just burst mine.

Faced now with utter revulsion
abject anger towards our government
our bankers and developers
those sneaky golden circles
as my eyes met his
I saw my reflection.

For in his tiny frame,
I saw our fragile nation
a country on its knees
begging for a bail out.

In his isolation
I felt my vulnerability
huge impending loss
as my children face emigration.

In his baldness
I saw the naked masses
poverty and pain
still crushing us, the people

For this little man
is me.