You ask me what I'm doing, now I'm free -
Books, music and our garden occupy me.
All these pursuits I share (with whom you know)
For Eden always was a place for two.
But nothing is more boring than to hear
Of someone's paradise when you're not there.
Let me assure you, robbers, rain and rot
Are of a trinity that haunt this spot
So far from town, so close to naked nature,
Both vegetable and the human creature.
Having said that, now let me give a sample
Of how we make short northern days more ample.
We rise at dawn, breakfast, then walk a mile,
Greeting the early poachers with a smile
(For what is poetry itself but poaching -
Lying in wait to see what game will spring?)
...