What are you passionate about?
All nature has a feeling: woods, fields, brooks
Are life eternal: and in silence they
Speak happiness beyond the reach of books;
There’s nothing mortal in them all; their decay
Is the green life of change;to pass away
And come again in blooms revivified.
It’s birthday was heaven, eternal it its stay,
And with the sun and moon shall still abide
Beneath their day and night and heaven wide.
John Clare ( 1793-1864)
What is your favorite season of year? Why?
I love Spring, but I also like those days in January when things begin to kick off. No human needed for the New Year to get up and running.
How my heart lifts at the sighting of the first snowdrop. I can barely contain my excitement.
A sprinkling of crocus here, a spread of aconites there…and then there are ……Yikes! What are they called? Their name escapes me… Catkin, yes, catkins. Phew!
Then cut to Spring itself. The natural world is energised with new life. The sun has some warmth in it. The evenings are becoming lighter. The birds are louder and more vocal as they seek a mate. The grass begins growing and the trees, as ever late to the game, radiate what’s to come. The bursts of colour on display are a joy to behold.
It’s the energy I find exciting. So much to observe and appreciate.
Do you remember your favorite book from childhood?
A favourite series of books of mine were The Famous Five by English writer Enid Blyton ( 1897-1968) Her books were best sellers around the world since the 1930’s.
Leisure
What is this life if, full of care
We have no time to stand and stare.
No time to stand beneath the boughs,
And stare as long as sheep or cows.
No time to see, when woods we pass,
Where squirrels hide their nuts in grass.
No time to see, in broad daylight,
Streams full of stars, like skies at night.
No time to turn at Beauty’s glance,
And watch her feet, how they can dance.
No time to wait till her mouth can,
Enrich that smile her eyes began.
A poor life this, if, full of care,
We have no time to stand and stare.
By W.H. Davies, pub 1911.
‘ Time keeps on slipping into the future’ is taken from the album Fly Like an Eagle by the Steve Miller Band. Released in 1976.
What fears have you overcome and how?
Many many moons ago I visited Bhaktivedanta Manor, the Hare Krishna temple in Watford. On one wall was a black and white drawing of a person out in the natural world accompanied by various animals..creatures. At the heart of each inclusion in the picture was a small white light. I got it. I understood.
‘ Spiders – so needed and yet so misunderstood ‘~Donna Lynn Hope
Describe one simple thing you do that brings joy to your life.
Walking my dog on the beach. Seeing him in his element brings great joy to my life.
                      Black Cherries
Late in May as the light lengthens
towards summer the young goldfinches
flutter down through the day for the first time
to find themselves among fallen petals
cradling their day’s colours in the day’s shadows
of the garden beside the old house
after a cold spring with no rain
not a sound comes from the empty village
as I stand eating the black cherries
from the loaded branches above me
saying to myself Remember this
W. S Merwin 1927~2019
Do you practice religion?
Love and tolerance seems to me to be two of the strong foundations for any religion and yet differences manage to spark unease.
My parents were agnostic ( on the fence 😂 just -in-case kind of people) So that left me plenty of wriggle room.
In a former life I was a hippie which pretty much screams pacifist from the off. ‘ Give peace a chance’. Who could possibly disagree with that?
Jehovah Witnesses constantly get a bad press, but to give them their due they flatly refuse to join the armed forces. Staying neutral in world conflicts.
Today I embrace Paganism ( with a slice of the promoted compassion of Buddhism, thrown in for good measure)
No, I don’t practice witchy things or have an altar in my home, but out in the wild I fully recognise the power of nature. I appreciate and respect the strength of the elements and believe every creature has the right to live here safely. If we can assist them in any way the better the world would be for them. Coexistence is a wonderful thing.
Gratitude and respect for planet Earth is surely non-negotiable?
And tell me…..If you don’t believe in anything, where do your thanks go?
How do you feel about cold weather?
Good morning WordPress… A simple question you are asking us today. So why am I struggling to gather my thoughts, put them into some sort of order and onto the page?
I’m British, we are masters at chatting about the weather. Being islanders we can have four seasons in one day, so there’s always something to say. And yet here I am….with nada!
Is it because there are so many angles to come from that it makes it not so simple, not so straightforward?
I do have a memory about the cold I could share though….Many moons ago I was in an indoor market. An elderly stopped me and asked if I knew where she could ‘ get one of those scrapers, to take the ice off the inside of my bedroom window?’…. That made quite an impression on several levels and has stayed with me ever since….
There is a quote by an American visual artist Andrew Wyeth ( 1917-2009)
‘ I prefer winter and fall, when you can feel the bone structure in the landscape – the loneliness of it- the dead feeling of winter. Something waits beneath it- the whole story doesn’t show. ‘
What’s a job you would like to do for just one day?
I would like to join Dian Fossey, in the late sixties, as she began her intensive research into the lives and well being of gorillas, in Rwanda..
What makes you nervous?
Nervousness is triggered by our body’s response to stress. The threats can be real or imagined and shows just how powerful the nervous system is. We want and need it to work, but just sometimes we become overwhelmed and that’s when fight or flight kick-in.
What makes me nervous is being out in the car when it’s really very windy. I vividly imagine a tree falling on my car, at any moment, which doesn’t usually end well. In the UK 5-6 people per year die this way. However, the HSE, Health and Safety Executive categorise this risk as ‘ broadly acceptable’. 😳 I kid you not.
Personally all adverse weather conditions tend to freak me out, somewhat. It rapidly reminds me how insignificant we are, up against the elements. They are the forces to be reckoned with as the Earth fights back and shows us exactly who is boss.
In England we are relatively sheltered from the worst of it. Snow falling for a few days and the whole country comes to a standstill. Laughable to those from more eastern zones.
But there is no humour to be found in Tsunami’s, volcanic eruptions, wildfires, landslides, avalanches, whirlwinds, tornadoes, flooding and droughts, causing destruction and famine.
Extreme weather conditions make me very nervous indeed!
Jot down the first thing that comes to your mind.
https://onbeing.org/poetry/the-peace-of-wil nod-things/
IN THE BOOMER PIGEON HOLE? 