Our project, Until the day Break, stories from the graveyard, moves on apace. On Sunday we had the most amazing afternoon with people who came to find out more and to volunteer as actors, makers, helpers and more and goodness, there was some talent in the room. It was wonderful to hear our stories being brought to life. This morning Sue and I stomped around St Euny Graveyard with a journalist, Kirstie, from the magazine Cornwall Today. We told her about the project and about our excitement that it is coming together. She is going to write an article about it all for the May edition.
One of our Perthi Kov crew just happened to be riding by and came up the lane to meet us all.
After that windblown adventure, I went for lunch with some lovely friends. I just had to stop on one of the lanes to take this photo to show you the daffodils. There was no traffic about!
In lovely Sue-next-door’s garden there are some very pretty white Primroses.
I’m coming to the end of a brilliant book, ‘Signs for Lost Children’ by Sarah Moss. It is one of those books – I’m sure you’ve met them – where you both want it to go on for ever and you also want to know the outcomes. This book is so beautifully written, poetic and surprising in its descriptions. It tells two parallel all-engrossing stories, one set in Cornwall, around Falmouth and Flushing and the other in Japan. I can see the Cornish scenes from having been there and the scenes in Japan have become so real , I want to visit! I cannot recommend it enough!
I saw this delightful slogan on a t-shirt yesterday.
I baked a loaf today for lunch with friends tomorrow. I mixed, put it to rise and cooked it in my Lékué bread thingy.
Happily, I just managed to catch a photo of this painted van as it left the supermarket car park.
On BBC Radio 4 this morning, I heard about Living Eulogy Boxes and was very taken with the idea. As the author of the blog says, “The concept of a Living Eulogy Box is to encourage you to formally thank and praise those you love and admire in their living years – to write down your thoughts so that your words can be treasured by those who receive them and they can live their lives knowing that they have made a valued difference.” I understood what she meant immediately.
When my Mum died, a wonderful individual who taught deaf children to speak, her eulogy was lovely – but she didn’t hear it! When my Dad was given a terminal diagnosis, I wrote to everyone in his address book to tell them and he received countless letters from people whose lives he had touched, as a teacher, a Head teacher, a colleague, an author. It was wonderful to read these to him so that he knew how loved he was, not just by us but by all those for whom his life had made a difference to theirs.
I have a drawer marked “Afterwards”. Among other things including Thomas Hardy’s poem, ‘Afterwards’ , it contains a printout of something wonderful an ex-student wrote to me when she happened upon my blog. You can read it in the comments here if you wish. You will need to scroll down to the comment headed, Still wondering what the ‘H’ stands for... I have letters of thanks and love in there from Pastor Peter whom we met when we volunteered in Mapoch, South Africa. I have the references written for us by our beautiful friend Kath for that same project and in whose memory this blog is written.
A friend passed on a link to a delicious supper, Cauliflower Grilled Cheese. Click on the red link to fine the recipe. I didn’t find it quite as easy as the video suggests – ‘flipping’ the patties was a bit hit and miss! However, I will try it again as they were scrumptious, especially served with Garlicky Crispy Kale.
The little Tete a Tete are blooming brightly in the window box on the shed.
I love how Crocuses die so beautifully, here looking like crushed silk.
One of our Perthi Kov crew has been on Radio Cornwall this afternoon explaining about our project, ‘Until the Day Break’. You might like to listen – she was brilliant! Thanks TS. You need to move on to just over an hour into the broadcast.
We had a Butternut Squash, a couple of Peppers and some Mozzarella in the fridge and BBC Good Food came up with Roasted Squash with Mozzarella and Pesto – delicious!
I found this poem this afternoon and it touched something in me. The questions in the first stanza appealed and the answer speaks for me.
Is My Soul Asleep?
Is my soul asleep? Have those beehives that work in the night stopped? And the water- wheel of thought, is it going around now, cups empty, carrying only shadows?
No, my soul is not asleep. It is awake, wide awake. It neither sleeps nor dreams, but watches, its eyes wide open far-off things, and listens at the shores of the great silence.
Antonio Machado
I only discovered this poet today. It is the anniversary of his death in 1939. He was a refugee and was among thousands of others including his mother, his brother and his brother’s family fleeing Spain on foot across the Pyrenees in the last days of January 1939. He died a month later in the French village of Collioure.
Camellias are in flower all over the neighbourhood and are very cheery on these dull days of mizzle.
I loved seeing this pram at a secondhand dealer on the way into town, not quite a Silver Cross but a reminder of what prams used to be like!
Walking home along Lovers’ Lane I spotted a beautiful little bow that someone must have lost on her way to school. If you look closely you can see strands of fine child’s hair still attached. I put it on the Lovers’ Lane road sign in the hope that she will spot it on her way home.
What a glorious patch of purple crocuses in a neighbour’s garden!
It has been a murky, mizzly day and I have spent much of it reading about life in Pachuca, Mexico in the late 1800s for our project, ‘Until the Day Break.’ This was my beautiful view through the window.
Last night we Skyped with our family in Spain and I took photos of the screen of Next-to-littlest -LiveWire and his baby sister, five weeks old. They aren’t good photos but aren’t the little ones just so very lovely?
If you are in Cornwall and you read my blog, you might be interested in joining the project. The following is from our poster:
We are a local community group creating magical theatre walks in St Euny Churchyard, Redruth in May 2017, telling stories of people buried there…
Would you like to be involved? We need performers, researchers, artists, costume makers, stage managers, stewards, musicians.
We are holding an initial workshop –
2.00 – 6.00pm, Sunday Feb 26th in the Crypt, St Andrew’s Church, Clinton Road, Redruth TR15 2QB
