Which beginning of time [the Creation] according to our Chronologie, fell upon the entrance of the night preceding the twenty third day of October in the year of the Julian Calendar, 710 [i.e. B.C. 4004]. The Annals of the World (1658), p.1 Archbishop James Usher 1581-1656 Yes, anything, even time itself must start somewhere, somewhen – a beginning at a point in time is not an easy calculation when nothing was and something is, with so much yet to come. All of which we now know well – us who had our own beginnings. Time began on the night before the twenty third day of October four thousand and four years BC. Do not ask what may have occurred in those earlier blackberry days. October's a month of beginnings and ends. The swallows have flown. The fieldfares are here. My sums are done. Now to make a new start. I spent some time – time again! – searching for an appropriate picture to precede this poem...