<p><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:WordDocument> <w:View>Normal</w:View> <w:Zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:Compatibility> <w:BreakWrappedTables /> <w:SnapToGridInCell /> <w:WrapTextWithPunct /> <w:UseAsianBreakRules /> </w:Compatibility> <w:BrowserLevel>MicrosoftInternetExplorer4</w:BrowserLevel> </w:WordDocument> </xml><![endif]--> <!--[if gte mso 10]> <style> /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0cm; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman";} </style> <![endif]--></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: small;">I didn&rsquo;t think there were any positives to having a cold, but since the stinker I&rsquo;m suffering from has more or less wiped out my weekend, I&rsquo;ve had no excuse but to get to grip with setting up my Lulu store!</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: small;">I&rsquo;ve used <a href="http://www.lulu.com/">www.lulu.com</a> to publish several books during the past few years, mainly just a few copies for myself, friends and family so haven&rsquo;t bothered with the shop side of things, until now!</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: small;">My latest book is a collaboration with a friend.<span>&nbsp; </span>It&rsquo;s a specially written anthology of poems and photographs featuring the National Forest and formed part of the 2008 Ashby Arts Festival.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: small;">Originally we printed 20 copies and forced them on our families as Christmas presents whether they were into poetry or not!<span>&nbsp; </span>Feed back was sparse so I suspect the later in most cases!</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: small;">Anyway, BF1 is a bit more savvy about promoting the book than I am.<span>&nbsp; </span>I forget I&rsquo;ve got it and take my typed sheets to read, she takes the book and reads from its glossy folds!</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: small;">The upshot is, we&rsquo;ve had several enquiries from Joe Public asking where they can buy a copy, hence my wrestling match with Lulu&rsquo;s unfamiliar store creation software!</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: small;">Now I consider myself to be fairly able when it comes to technology, but try as I might I could not get the wretched Lulu store up and running.<span>&nbsp; </span>Half a century of screaming, hair tearing years later the penny finally dropped that my account was so old that it had been superseded by a newer version of Lulu.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: small;">My old projects somehow or other didn&rsquo;t &ldquo;talk&rdquo; properly with Lulu&rsquo;s updates.<span>&nbsp; </span>I got there in the end though and realised just how much they have advanced since my last visits.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: small;">The lulu store can now be made into a complete mini website for your books once you get your head around the technicalities.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: small;">When I realised this, I registered a domain name for Sleet, Shoots and Leaves and pointed it to my lulu store.<span>&nbsp; </span>This could be done for all the books I add to it which will save on web design and hosting.<span>&nbsp; </span>Take a look here:</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: small;"><a href="http://www.sleetshootsandleaves.co.uk/" title="Sleet Shoots and Leaves">http://www.sleetshootsandleaves.co.uk</a></span></p> <p><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></p>

<p style="text-align: center;">&nbsp;</p> <p style="text-align: center;">Sing sweetly O my Lady,<br />My lovely, lovely lady.<br />Summer flowers are waking,<br />Wayside, stream and meadow blooming,<br />Days eye bright and night shade brooding,<br />Heaven's scents a streaming,<br />Poppy heads a reeling,<br />Vervain flesh concealing,<br />John's Wart gently healing,<br />Lavendar appealing ...</p> <p style="text-align: center;">&nbsp;</p> <p style="text-align: center;">But rain comes softly <br />O my sad eyed lady.<br />All the flowers fastly fading,<br />Speed-you-well now false Hare Bell,<br />coarsely grow the Thistle spears,<br />watered by your falling tears,<br />far away from Hastings' tower<br />dark the day, bereft of flowers<br />comes the cold and bloody hour.</p> <p style="text-align: center;">&nbsp;</p> <p style="text-align: center;">O my lady, my lovely, lovely lady,<br />cruelly wrenched from all you know,<br />but still the lovely flowers grow,<br />Blessing that forsaken spot<br />With a coverlet of Forget-me-not.</p> <p style="text-align: center;">&nbsp;</p>

<p><span style="font-size: small;">Well I didn't either until I happened to stumble across it while surfing the ether.&nbsp; In defence I've been off-line for the past couple of days and not seen much TV or radio either.&nbsp; Fortunately my week long pilgrimage walking the Cotswold Way proved very a huge source of inspiration as I wrote not one but FIVE poems!</span></p> <p><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></p> <p><span style="font-size: small;">Not quite the one a day which was the target I'd set, but not too bad considering most were composed on the hoof with the aid of a pencil stub and a minicle note book!&nbsp; Here's one of the better ones and a bit of video to go with it which I made from some not very remarkable photographs.</span></p> <p><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></p> <p><span style="font-size: small;">Wonder how many poems we can get on the blogs by the end of the day?</span></p> <p> <object classid="clsid:d27cdb6e-ae6d-11cf-96b8-444553540000" width="425" height="350" codebase="http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=6,0,40,0"> <param name="src" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/qbyCnw6nzEE" /><embed type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="425" height="350" src="http://www.youtube.com/v/qbyCnw6nzEE"></embed> </object> </p> <p><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:WordDocument> <w:View>Normal</w:View> <w:Zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:Compatibility> <w:BreakWrappedTables /> <w:SnapToGridInCell /> <w:WrapTextWithPunct /> <w:UseAsianBreakRules /> </w:Compatibility> <w:BrowserLevel>MicrosoftInternetExplorer4</w:BrowserLevel> </w:WordDocument> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 10]> <style> /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0cm; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman";} </style> <![endif]--></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: small;">Belas Knap</span></p> <p><span style="font-size: small;"> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: small;">&nbsp;</span></p> <p><span style="font-size: small;"> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: small;">Be still!</span></p> <p><span style="font-size: small;"> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: small;">Let silence speak</span></p> <p><span style="font-size: small;"> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: small;">and tell of ancient feet</span></p> <p><span style="font-size: small;"> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: small;">which took the long and winding way</span></p> <p><span style="font-size: small;"> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: small;">to this place, hallowed blessed</span></p> <p><span style="font-size: small;"> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: small;">where long dead warriors rest.</span></p> <p><span style="font-size: small;"> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: small;">&nbsp;</span></p> <p><span style="font-size: small;"> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: small;">Listen!</span></p> <p><span style="font-size: small;"> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: small;">Their names are whispered in the breeze</span></p> <p><span style="font-size: small;"> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: small;">which hints of long past deeds</span></p> <p><span style="font-size: small;"> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: small;">that raised them from the common kind</span></p> <p><span style="font-size: small;"> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: small;">to lay forever in stone enshrined.</span></p> <p><span style="font-size: small;"> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: small;">&nbsp;</span></p> <p><span style="font-size: small;"> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: small;">Pause!</span></p> <p><span style="font-size: small;"> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: small;">And if you&rsquo;ve the mind,</span></p> <p><span style="font-size: small;"> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: small;">gather flowers of the sweetest kind</span></p> <p><span style="font-size: small;"> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: small;">and lay them gently on the stone</span></p> <p><span style="font-size: small;"> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: small;">so they shall know they&rsquo;re not alone.</span></p> <p>&nbsp;</p>