1 The Lily-of-the -Valley that I planted last week in Kath’s memory are putting up shoots already. If you look really closely top right of the photo, you can even see tiny flower buds.
2 I love this small copper sculpture, ‘The Lost Ball’, made by the very talented artist Jeremy Beswick. It is one of several of his that we have and I love them all.
3 I went next door with some Nutella meringues (they were so light, the wind nearly blew them off the plate!) and in exchange had ‘The Giant’ signed by the sculptors who just happen to be our lovely neighbours.
1 On the lane we take to walk into town, I saw the season’s first bluebells – such a rich colour, ‘like a piece of sky’ as the inspiration for my blog, http://threebeautifulthings.blogspot.co.uk/ once said. We also saw some beautifully veined leaves but I have yet to find out what they are.
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2 We went into town to find small presents to take to Senegal for Ndeye Marie, the 3 year old daughter of our son’s fiancee – so our soon-to-be Granddaughter! We found some bright and chunky coloured pencils and some paper for her and lots of biros for the other children. We know from our Voluntouring in South Africa that such pens are much treasured by the local children.
3 I’ve visited a delightful family in St Erth this evening to talk about their son’s Baby Naming Ceremony. It’s already sounding charming and we’ve hardly started.
1 Another beautiful day so singing with The Suitcases in the Zed Shed was particularly lovely with the view of the Penryn river as a backdrop. It was our last session with Claire for seven weeks as she goes off to London to be MD on the Wildworks production, Babel in Caledonia Park. I hope to go up to London to see the show in May.
View from The Zed Shed
2 Went into Truro after singing to meet the lovely Mr S to do some final shopping for our trip to Senegal and also met Phillipa and Dan with their tiny baby daughter for whom I knitted the Sally-boots. They are too big for her just yet.
3 I made some Nutella meringues! Truly scrumptious but one to share was enough and the rest will be frozen. This was to use up all the egg whites I had left from making Jewel Cookies. Choc Chip Uru at Go Bake Yourself was my inspiration for these. Thank you! http://gobakeyourself.wordpress.com/
1 I finished the Sally-boots for Dan’s new daughter just as he finished our fence. We all feel pleased.
Sally-boots
2 Lucy has been working in the Lost Gardens of Heligan helping to restore The Heligan Giant with the sculptors, Sue Hill and her brother, Pete.
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3 Went to the Swish at Krowji with Lucy this evening and we both found things we can wear in Senegal. A Swish, for those who don’t know is a clothes swap.
1 Just had to share this delightful experience: “Cows belong in fields. We have known it for a long time. And the cows agree!” Click on the link for a guaranteed smile!
1 As I came into the kitchen this morning I heard, on BBC Radio 4, one of my favourite lines of poetry – ” Tread softly because you tread on my dreams.” The whole beautiful poem follows:
“Had I the heavens’ embroidered cloths,
Enwrought with golden and silver light,
The blue and the dim and the dark cloths
Of night and light and the half-light,
I would spread the cloths under your feet:
But I, being poor, have only my dreams;
I have spread my dreams under your feet;
Tread softly because you tread on my dreams.” W. B. Yeats
2 A fabulous singing session this evening with Claire Ingleheart, the last before she goes off to London to work with Wildworks as M.D. on their new production, ‘Babel’. We ended with ‘You are my sunshine’ which seemed kind of appropriate.
The Ingleheart Singers.
3 It was delightful to drive home from singing in daylight, with lots of glimpses of the sea, for the first time for months as we are now back on British Summer Time.
1 Such a beautiful warm day today, we had our lunch (home-made Guacamole and Melba toasts) on the bench in the sun for the first time this year. Did some vertical gardening putting primroses into the Cornish wall near the new sun terrace.
2 Had a happy half hour with Daniel on Skype learning more about the quite complicated etiquette of a Senegalese Wedding.
3 I love this egg storage unit which to me is a piece of kitchen art. I think it is a Welsh spoon holder but it keeps our eggs perfectly!
1 This morning I woke up feeling well! It has been a horrid few days feeling the effects of all the vaccines we’ve had for our trip to Senegal, so M.Eish – no energy, cotton-wool brain, muscle pains and general malaise -so quite scary. I’ve had my share of that so it was wonderful to wake up feeling good!
2 I’ve baked some Jewel Cookies. I found the recipe on a delightful blog by Go Bake Yourself which sent me back to http://www.ilovemilkandcookies.blogspot.co.uk/ for the original recipe called Lemon and Polenta Cookies. They’ve gone down very well with Mr S and Lucy.
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3 I’ve planted some Lily-of-the-valley for my beautiful friend Kath who died last year. It is a tradition in France to offer a sprig of lily-of-the-valley (“muguet” in French) to loved ones on the 1st of May which is a Public Holiday in France, officially known as La Fête du Travail (National Labour Day) but also called La Fête du Muguet (Lily of the Valley Day).
Kath and Charlie loved France, had a home in Meyssac in the South and not a year went by when she either gave me a card depicting the flowers or a homegrown bunch, on one occasion bringing them all the way on the train from Yorkshire when we met up in London for a few precious hours. Now Kath has her own special place in my garden as well as, always, in my heart.
1 Found the “‘Twins” Insurance Certificate today, taken out on March 22nd 1977 when, at 8 weeks pregnant, I was absolutely certain that I was pregnant with twins but my GP thought I was stupid!
My lovely Mum and Dad bought us this policy as we couldn’t afford it and when our twins were born in September, the money bought us bunk beds for the two older children (one 4 and the other 20 months) and a tumble drier to dry all those nappies! For those much younger than I am, there were no scans then so no-one could be sure (except me!) You can see a photo of my twins at nearly 2 on Feb 28th.
2 We went to Trelissick today to find, by chance, the Cornish Daffodil Exhibition. My regular readers will know how much I love daffodils. Here there were more than I have ever seen before.
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3 The Quaker Meeting House at Come-to-Good, near Feock, is a beautiful, peaceful place. The only sound was that of bird song coming through the open door. It’s hard to say what the place does for us but we both love it.
1 I found a lovely old photograph of my little sister and her daughter today (more sorting!)
2 Delicious Roasted Vegetables with grilled Hallomi for supper tonight.
3 Went to see ‘Tin’ by Miracle Theatre, English Touring Opera, and local community choirs, tonight in the new theatre in Heartlands. It was thoroughly entertaining with lots of humour and some lovely music.
