Category: Community
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A slight act of selflessness . . .
I wondered why the marjoram label was regularly covered with compost. We noticed it buried again as we went out for a short walking interval between rainy spells. I moved to clear it off, but my hand froze mid-air. The cat droppings were a good clue. We made our progression around a new-to-us circuit, on…
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Social joy of a community garden . . .
We decided to take a little drive over to the community garden, being developed from an ageing walled garden on the Garroch Hall Estate, to see how the extensive volunteer effort, coordinated and funded by Local Initiatives in New Galloway (LING) was doing. It took a bit of finding but we got there in the…
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Delights of the bluebell woods
We walked up out of the little burgh, past the Golf Club and on into the woods. The trails in these woods are, as I discovered in one of my Googling researches, maintained by the Local Initiative New Galloway group, LING for short. Anyway, we were on a mission to check out the bluebells, which…
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Morning memories
So many memories poured out yesterday, as the village turned up in force to honour and remember Nigel Geoffrey Baynes. He seemed to have touched everyone, in one way or another, and it felt like a sacred duty to be there, in one way or another ourselves, to say goodbye, to say thanks for brightening…
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Woodworking joys . . .
Actually, I’m not interested in selling anything I might make. As our dear friend opines about his amazing bird houses, which decorate several walls around our smallholding in Sparty Lea, ‘if I had to sell them, it would take all the fun out of the activity.’ Same for me. No, what I want is to…
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The comfort of an enlightening book
Over the last couple of years, I’ve found deep comfort in some wonderful books. Inevitably followed on the strength of a heartfelt review in The Guardian, or passed on by family, these books have been a joy. In particular today, I want to mention Rachel Clarke’s Dear Life. A palliative care doctor who relates her…
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New horizons: trepidation before possible joy
There are always new horizons, I guess, and new experiences as we age. My good friend Henry reminds me that the ageing process can affect us differently, but as my erstwhile Writers Group colleague and friend Marjorie Anderson noted, the end result is the same. Not to be gloomy or fatalistic, I’m also remembering that…
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The joy of quiet service
During this contemplative time, when it feels wrong to try to be cheerful, perhaps there’s some joy to be had in quiet service. There will be rather a lot of such devoted serving, by many kind and careful souls, over the next weeks, as two community funerals, and later a memorial gathering, take place. Not…
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No joy is possible today
Let the sun rise, then let it set The king of Allendale is gone. Hearts breaking for the simple debt We owe the prince who shone. Tears streaming down our cheeks There are no words to say. The shock against the future bleak Emotions can’t convey. Diminished, we are all. No respite from the grief,…
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Sharing joy –> further joy
I could have used any number of icons to illustrate the concept of sharing, of course, but this one struck my fancy. In so many senses, we’re all part of a team, aren’t we? So if I share my joy, and that joy gets shared around with others, well well well, more joy accrues! And…
Roads to Joy 