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Monthly Archives: April 2017

Iris, Seeds and John Keats

We spotted this beautiful Iris in a border today. I love the planting of the violet Iris with the orange Wallflowers behind.

It will be our Golden Wedding later this Summer and I am planting lots of pale gold flowers in the hope of having gold all over the garden. These Nasturtiums are the first to go in – to the monkey planter and somewhere else.

The following poem is well known and lovely. In this world which is having some dark moments, it is worth remembering that ‘in spite of all’ beauty and love will transcend the bad and the ugly. Hold onto that thought. With love to all my readers.

from Endymion

A Poetic Romance

(excerpt)

BOOK I

A thing of beauty is a joy for ever:

Its loveliness increases; it will never

Pass into nothingness; but still will keep

A bower quiet for us, and a sleep

Full of sweet dreams, and health, and quiet breathing.

Therefore, on every morrow, are we wreathing

A flowery band to bind us to the earth,

Spite of despondence, of the inhuman dearth

Of noble natures, of the gloomy days,

Of all the unhealthy and o’er-darkened ways

Made for our searching: yes, in spite of all,

Some shape of beauty moves away the pall

From our dark spirits.

1 Comment

Posted by mybeautfulthings on April 10, 2017 in Beauty, environment, flowers, nature, Photography, poetry, postaday2017, Uncategorized

Tags: A thing of beauty is a joy forever, from Endymion, nasturtium

Another Bus, Easter Eggs and Edward Thomas

09 Apr

A bus passed us today and I just managed to get a photo as it sped past. I am loving these buses with Cornish dialect on them! The buses are emblazoned with the phrase “flam-new girt lickers” which means “brand new large objects”

I have decorated our Easter tree today, on my own this year as no Grandbabies are visiting until next half term.

Edward Thomas died on this day in 1917. He enlisted in the Artists’ Rifles in 1915 and was killed by an unexploding shell on Easter Monday 1917, the first day of the Battle of Arras. His body showed no sign of external injury but his watch stopped and his pocket diary buckled by the force of the blast. Here is one of his poems for you. I love his work.

Lights Out

I have come to the borders of sleep,

The unfathomable deep

Forest where all must lose

Their way, however straight,

Or winding, soon or late;

They cannot choose.

Many a road and track

That, since the dawn’s first crack,

Up to the forest brink,

Deceived the travellers,

Suddenly now blurs,

And in they sink.

Here love ends,

Despair, ambition ends;

All pleasure and all trouble,

Although most sweet or bitter,

Here ends in sleep that is sweeter

Than tasks most noble.

There is not any book

Or face of dearest look

That I would not turn from now

To go into the unknown

I must enter, and leave, alone,

I know not how.

The tall forest towers;

Its cloudy foliage lowers

Ahead, shelf above shelf;

Its silence I hear and obey

That I may lose my way

And myself.

5 Comments

Posted by mybeautfulthings on April 9, 2017 in Beauty, Cornwall, Photography, Uncategorized

Tags: Cornish dialect, Easter tree, flam-new girt lickers, Lights Out by Edward Thomas

Window, Tulips and A Glass of Wine

08 Apr

I noticed a very pretty stained glass window in our lovely town for the first time today.

Our Tulip border is looking gorgeous, just one rogue red one among the pale pink and white ones. The purple ones are only just starting to bloom and the blue Muscari are finishing off. I do love Spring flowers.

It has been a glorious day today and the first where we could sit out quite late with a glass of wine and watch the sun go down. It is beginning to feel like the beginning of Summer! Our friend, Shelagh, tell us it is snowing again in Vermont!

4 Comments

Posted by mybeautfulthings on April 8, 2017 in art, Beauty, flowers, garden, glass, nature, Photography, postaday2017, Uncategorized

Tags: Redruth, Spring Flowers

Violet, Dustbin and A Card

07 Apr

Look carefully and you will see a little Violet in the branches of the tree, at least 8′ above the ground

Friday is dustbin day and one of our neighbours has decorated their bin so that it doesn’t get mixed up!

I called in at my favourite shop for presents and cards, Cornish Bird In The Sticks, today to find a card for nearly Littlest LIveWire who will be 4 years old next week!

2 Comments

Posted by mybeautfulthings on April 7, 2017 in art, Beauty, nature, painting, Photography, postaday2017, Uncategorized

Tags: Cornish Bird in the Sticks, decorated dustbin

Rhododendrons, Daffodils and May Swenson

06 Apr

After singing again today, I went for a solo walk in Burncoose Nursery Gardens. I love the feeling of personal peace I get in there with nothing but the beauty and the scent of the flowers, varieties of bird song and the chance to think. The magnolias have just about finished but the Rhododendrons are now in flower and gorgeous.

Most of the Daffodils have gone over too as the Bluebells start to bloom but these few caught my eye and reminded me of line in a poem, ‘the yolk coloured mouthpieces’ – just what these blooms have. Below is the whole poem by May Swenson.

Daffodils – May Swenson

Yellow telephones
in a row in the garden
are ringing,
shrill with light.

Old-fashioned spring
brings earliest models out
each April the same,
naïve and classical.

Look into the yolk-
colored mouthpieces
alert with echoes.
Say hello to time.

Another Bus, Stairs and A Cat in a Case

05 Apr

If you are regular reader, you may know that I am trying to photograph all our new buses with their very special words on the back. I caught this one speeding up the hill this morning and I love it!

Ute, one of my blogging friends has been painting her staircase and it has earned a place in beautifulthings as it is so delightful and it made me smile. I wish we could do that here.

I’ve been next door this afternoon helping to finish off the Memory boxes which we have been making with the young Mums’ group. All cats like to hide in boxes and Zorro made himself comfortable in the suitcase of plastic flowers!

9 Comments

Posted by mybeautfulthings on April 5, 2017 in art, Beauty, Cornwall, Humour, painting, Photography, postaday2017

Tags: Cornish buses

Pudding, Peace and Ted Hughes

04 Apr

The lovely Mr S has been working on the interior of the boat for the past month, out from 9-6 each day so when he came home early today, we went out for a treat. Here is the Lemon Meringue Pie that was my choice of dessert.

I bought these letters today as the Es were back in stock. I have put them on the window sill in the sun room, overlooking the back garden.

This poem, April Birthday by Ted Hughes, is for a young friend whose birthday is today. Happy days, N. I love the idea of Spring, being ‘like a whole circus tumbling through a hoop.’ I love the ‘blossoms bombing’. I love the trees staggering under their new load of young leaves. I love the poem as you may have gathered! Hope you do too, Natalie.

April Birthday – Ted Hughes

When your birthday brings the world under your window
And the song-thrush sings wet-throated in the dew
And aconite and primrose are unsticking the wrappers
Of the package that has come today for you

Lambs bounce out and stand astonished
Puss willow pushes among bare branches
Sooty hawthorns shiver into emerald

And a new air
Nuzzles the sugary
Buds of the chestnut. A groundswell and a stir
Billows the silvered
Violet silks
Of the south – a tenderness
Lifting through all the
Gently-breasted
Counties of England.

When the swallow snips the string that holds the world in
And the ring-dove claps and nearly loops the loop
You just can’t count everything that follows in a tumble
Like a whole circus tumbling through a hoop

Grass in a mesh of all flowers floundering
Sizzling leaves and blossoms bombing
Nestlings hissing and groggy-legged insects

And the trees
Stagger, they stronger
Brace their boles and biceps under
The load of gift. And the hills float
Light as bubble glass
On the smoke-blue evening

And rabbits are bobbing everywhere, and a thrush
Rings cooly in a far corner. A shiver of green
Strokes the darkening slope as the land
Begins her labour.

4 Comments

Posted by mybeautfulthings on April 4, 2017 in Beauty, Food, friendship, Peace, Photography, postaday2017

Tags: April Birthday, birthday present, lemon meringue pie, Ted Hughes

Tea Cup and Saucer, Spring Colour and A Fern

03 Apr

There was a whole tea-set of this delightful Kingfisher design in one of our antique shops in town. How I wish I needed more china! The shop was closed today – I may just have to go in to find out the price……..

The lane is full of yellows and blues, Dandelions and celandines; Bluebells and Forget-me-nots (I think.)

The Ferns are unfurling!

4 Comments

Posted by mybeautfulthings on April 3, 2017 in antiques, Beauty, environment, nature, Photography, postaday2017

Tags: kingfisher china

St Euny Graveyard and ‘Until the Day Break’

02 Apr

What a brilliant day! Warm sun shone on us as we began to rehearse ‘Until the Day Break’ in St Euny Churchyard with both choirs, The Ingleheart Singers and The Red River Singers, with the professional actors and all the volunteers. It was truly wonderful seeing our ideas all come together. In the gallery you will see the warm up in the Church, some of the rehearsals at the gravestones, our tea break and more rehearsals and, if you click on the video, even hear a bit of one of the songs we have just learned.

Warm up

Singing and dancing a Russian song

Discussion about a scene just played

Singing between the two graveyards

Tea break

Two actors who will play Mary Angove Gill awaiting their turn with the director

Rehearsing at the grave of Suffragette sisters

1 Comment

Posted by mybeautfulthings on April 2, 2017 in Beauty, Cornwall, Happiness, Perthi Kov, Photography, postaday2017, singing, theatre

Tags: St Euny the Miners' Church, Until the Day Break

A Walk, A Raindrop and Lemon Surprise pudding

01 Apr

A lovely friend and I went for a walk today along the sands at Godrevy. It was windy and cold but sunny and glorious and it did me the power of good. Thank you N.

We stopped off for lunch at the cafe and I was delighted by the little table marker.

Coming home, there had been a heavy shower in our absence and an enormous raindrop had collected on one of the tulip leaves. Enlarge it to see amazing detail in the leaf.

This afternoon I baked another pudding, Lemon Surprise, where the surprise is that, after pouring the loose batter into the dish to bake, it magically turns into a sponge with a delicious lemony sauce underneath. I made it for our lovely neighbours and we swapped it for some bio-char to put on the garden to help things grow!