Страници

понеделник, 17 март 2014 г.

Women's Day & Mother's Day



They sounded like fairytales,
stories that Mum told
of lost fortunes, drunk men
and moonlight flits –
resourcefulness demanded
in those interwar years.
Before then too:
great-grandmother Rose,
jobbing actress, sneaking
babies in baskets
into dressing rooms –
or her mother, Ann,
standing on the dock
in Liverpool, newly arrived
from famine-wasted Ireland
not knowing how
they’d ever make ends meet.
And on the stairs now, pictures –
mother, grandmother, daughter –
here and in the ascendant.
 

8 March is both International Women's Day and Mother's Day in Bulgaria.

Images: Marina Shiderova; text: Tom Phillips

събота, 1 март 2014 г.

Baba Marta


https://www.facebook.com/MyColourfulSoul?ref=hl

For the first of March, you say. Чеctиtа Баба Марtа! 
Among bolts of bright fabric, embroidered shirts, painted bowls, carved spoons, in the shop at the Ethnographic Institute in Sofia, you’re telling me about martenitsi – these woven red and white bands. Warding off winter, heralding spring, these twists of thread keep Baba Marta happy. Grandma March likes red.  

Season of snowdrops and crocus, birdsong and breezes, unexpected frosts and click-clacking branches like stripped umbrellas – March is capricious. Wants trust. Demands to be placated.


Images: Marina Shiderova; text: Tom Phillips