The way through the pub. View of The Grove through a front entrance and the read entrance of The Compasses.

"Pour me a drink and I'll tell you some lies," says Danny as he joins us outside the pub. The words are those of the singer Neil Diamond. It makes me wish I had a better memory for songs; or perhaps that I paid more attention to them when they are in vogue. "That's me," says Danny, who weaves tall stories into the conversation with such elegance and sense of fun that you almost believe him; and sometimes do, because you can't be sure when he is joking.

All the leaves are out, and the horse chestnut candles are in full bloom. As I stand under the big oak on the corner of The Grove, I hear an unfamiliar sound. It is the wind in the leaves. At my feet the shadows of the leaves move on the brick path.

A few weeks ago Lucy Kempton replied  wittily, succinctly and honestly to my last question in our Compasses  shared blog (see link in side column), with a poem of six  rhyming stanzas in which the same rhyming pattern is repeated six times. Inspired by her example I have replied in like manner. I found, not altogether to my surprise, that the need to search  harder than usual for rhymes helped rather than hindered my pursuit of appropriate images. I am glad to say that my attempt has met with her approval because I am far too close to it at the moment to judge for myself.