Uneven

A thin ankle falters, high heel caught in the uneven pavement - for a moment it looks like a pile-up, then she rights herself and the surge of walkers moves on.

Rosy

She has rosy cheeks. Can black cheeks be rosy? Perhaps it's a reflection of the pink tint in her cap of shiny, straightened hair.

Tense

The darkness deepens
and grows tense - everything sweats
as we wait for rain.

Dissonant

4 am: the dissonant croaking of an unfamiliar bird cuts through the thick damp air that heat will soon burn away.

Sudden

In this sudden heat,
slow-moving shadow puppets
on the raw, bright ground.

Skimpy

Pale girls in skimpy dresses tramp the grimy streets, on their determined way to somewhere.

Vague

On the side of the street in deep shadow floats a vague, slight figure in a long, dark dress. Blink and she's gone.

Scruffy

Outside the junk shop, five broken, battered kitchen chairs with blue seats are lined up expectantly like very scruffy baby birds.

Shiny

The heaving rain has stopped as quickly as it started. Dazzling sunshine sweeps the shiny street; steam rises from the puddles.

(Rather a lot of weather here lately - it's been quite hard to see around it)

Today's is here.

Trapped

A pair of light aircraft buzz and bumble fretfully, trapped by the lid of low clouds.

Black

The church spire bursts
a ballooning black cloud,
unleashing torrents.

Red

After the storm,
sunshine licks
the fallen red petals.

(Fiona and Kaspa's wedding day - 
send them a 'small stone'.)

Lurid

The pounding, sloshing rain, the chill, the lurid orange lights, the siren howling and the howling child, face downwards in a puddle.

Glistening

Water bounces on the glistening, slippery path. Everyone walks carefully. Soft footfalls, noisy rain.

Phantom

Always beautiful, now half the size she was, she still lumbers, hauling a phantom weight.

Unknown

The sunshine strokes and dazzles, prods and hovers, lingers, rippling, insistent on something as yet unknown.

Vibrating

A runner threads her way through the surge of shuffling commuters, lifts a foot and searches, vibrating with quiet energy, for a place to put it down.

Aching

Das Lied von der Erde: I listen lying down, feel my stomach muscles unclench, my hair want to leave my head and float away.

Mellow

At six the bells are pealing from St Clement's pale tower. Their mellow resonance outplays the frantic roaring of the traffic.

Gathered

Nine of them, gathered around an outside cafe table. One, at the head, is speaking, waves his arms - conductor of some group project for the day.

Wood-panelled

The old, wood-panelled walls seem to foster a slower, deeper, more relaxed conversation - or at least the illusion of this.

Unadorned

Outside the Travelodge, a flat, unadorned building with masked windows, a woman stands smoking, her watery green jacket almost bright against the pallid wall.

Monochrome

Under the long line of trees, a rippling, monochrome shadow-world distinct from the rest of the clashing, chaotic street scene.

Mashed

The mashed purple flesh of fallen petals is an impasto painting, increasingly abstract, dissolving already as the rain continues.

Dirty

The rain is dirty, sticky, simultaneously cold and warm - surely this cannot be mainly water?

Wilder

The wind that purrs and rattles in the tall beeches fringing the park tells of warmer, wilder places.

Wheeled

Lurid teeshirt, tight trousers and very high-heeled bright pink shoes: tenderly manoeuvring a harp in a wheeled case, she defies every stereotype of the lady harpist.

Jagged

The fierce contrast of sunshine and shadow makes the jagged metal outline of the railway bridge's underside so sharp it could slice you.

Brown

The brown, barely moving river has a suddenly eerie look - the whole city starting to congeal.