Month: May 2023
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Subtle grace . . .
The Korean dogwood tree, at the bottom (or top, if you consider the gentle rise from the house back up towards the field) of our new-to-us garden, is in full bloom. But you’d never know it, until you get very close indeed. The flowers, a paler shade of green than the bountiful leaves, are an…
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Off the hook . . .
There are so many meanings, phrases and idioms associated with the word hook. This morning I’m exulting, just a little, in being off that hook, which is another way of saying that one particular task, or exercise, is no longer immediately necessary. I’ve had my head down, this past month, working towards a reasonable number…
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A prosaic sort of joy . . .
From the midst of challenge, joy is often just there, just within reach. We had quite a challenging adventure, the other day, in Harry Hymer, our ancient motorhome, but we got home safe and sound in the end. My joy today is the thought of how I shall replace the faulty bathroom sink tap that…
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A cup of lovely tea
It’s been a busy week. Productive, on the whole, but busy, and scarce time to look out for joy. But with rather more jobs accomplished yesterday than I’d thought likely, it was time at just around 4:30 in the afternoon to sit back and relax a little. I confess I don’t drink much tea, but…
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Oh, these garden blossoms
How blessed are we, we exclaim, to enjoy the spring flowers as they erupt around us? The wilds of the North Pennine moors did not lend themselves well to bounteous, delicate blooms. Copious blackthorn and hawthorn blossom there are so much appreciated, when they cover isolated trees and hedgerows alike, but these flowers are very…
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Getting ready for the road
It seems scarcely feasible that only two months ago Harry Hymer was stuffed to the gunwales with endless ranks of chattel, clothes, and everything that hadn’t made it into the big truck for storage. And yet, bit by bit, the stuff has been shifted out, and now Harry is clear for the next journey. That…
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When you do something you hadn’t thought you could possibly . . .
Moving into a new place brings all kinds of joy, as well as disappointments. The posty finally delivered the correct phono connectors to plug the ageing cassette deck into the big beast of a receiver, so I inserted a cassette, powered up and hit the Play button. Nothing happened. The photo-compare image shows first (or…
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A single flower . . .
Sometimes the beauty of a single, solitary bloom is enough to take your breath away. This lonely tulip in our new-to-us garden was one such. I’m reminded of the William Blake poem, Auguries of Innocence, of which I suspect most of us are aware only of the first quatrain: To see the world in a…
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We have a ‘slow worm’ resident in our compost
This limbless lizard certainly lives up to its name! When I lifted the old carpet section laid out on our compost box, I revealed this fellow. I ambled back to the house, retrieved my phone and ambled back. He was still there, looking around with his little eyes. I don’t actually know our slow worm’s…
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The gathering moss . . .
So the corollary to the aphorism about the rolling stone must be that the sedentary one does gather moss. Our gardens, front and back, have accumulated a rich, thick, mossy carpet. Apparently this ground covering is an ideal environment for an ecosystem of invertebrates, and as such should be a brilliant place to retrieve, with…
Roads to Joy 