White Pebbles, Autumn Meeting 2019

 White Pebbles, Autumn Meeting 2019

The poet of ‘season of mists and mellow fruitfulness’, John Keats, would be proud of our group of Haikuists taking an autumnal walk around the Gosford /Edogawa Gardens on the Central Coast this past Saturday 9th March 2019.  We were aware of the concept of ichi-go ichi-e, the Japanese idiom ‘treasuring the unrepeatable nature of the moment.’

Our happy band meets four times a year for our ginko; with Beverley George our leader and present were Kent Robinson, Verna Rieschild, Marilyn  Humbert, Maire Glacken. Samantha Hyde, Colleen Keating with an apology from Gail Hennessy

Beverley commented how lovely to see our group growing and developing over the past year.

white pebbles march 2019
L to R: Marilyn Humbert, Kent Robinson, Maire Glacken, Beverley George, Verna Rieschild, Colleen Keating, Samantha Hyde

We began our morning with a welcome coffee and catch-up on the café patio sharing some newly published work and thoughts from our ‘homework,’  – a handout that Beverley emailed earlier to help us prepare.

We spent about forty minutes contemplatively moving around the garden, walking, sitting, pondering, jotting down thoughts and ideas for haiku writing; some of us lucky enough to have a haiku readily unfold to us.

beverley in park

A quiet moment, Beverley George

Lovely to sit in the open tea room overlooking the white pebble beach, the koi and ducks performing in the pond as usual. Cheeky peewees and plovers and a solitary whip bird added to the delight of our morning.

We are privileged each visit to enjoy a quiet working space in the Art Gallery precinct and we gathered at a great round table to share our writing. We marvelled at the rich and varied takings from our observations.  I feel sure we all feel encouraged and affirmed from our sharings.

We left inspired in our haiku writing and look forward to our next winter meeting.

Some stayed to enjoy the choices from the delicious lunch menu in the café.

Report by Colleen Keating