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Category Archives: charity

ShelterBox, Swans and Alan Brownjohn

A representative from ShelterBox came to choir today to collect the money we raised from our gigs over 2023. It is always moving to be brought up to date with their activities. They are working with MAP to get help into Gaza. Thanks to Mandy for the photo.

The tide was in this morning as we were rehearsing and the swans are back. I loved the contrast of the white swan and the colourful reflections in the water.

The poet, novelist and humanist, Alan Brownjohn, died last week so I thought I would share one of his poems,
The Director, with you. The format of the poem is four line stanzas but for some, irritating, reason, WordPress chooses to squash them all together. I hope this doesn’t spoil your enjoyment of this poem.

We get bored, we get restless. We feel there is more

Than merely existing – eating and drinking and dying,

The daily, the trivial round. We feel we must matter,

That somehow or other our presence in the world must count.

And then there are those with this urgent need for self-

Expression, the wish to put something out into the world,

To put down, for the record, what it was like to be them,

To be this self and no other and alive at this time.

Some find a medium, a skill with words, paint or stone,

(Though often enough they seem to mistake their need

To make for a gift to make something) while others remain

Frustrated, and find destructive ways of expression.

These are the difficult ones, the ones who can’t see

A possible pattern to things, order in all the disorder,

The sense of a journey, with somewhere, perhaps, to arrive,

The end, or the goal, which might justify it all.

So what can be done? It is tempting to preach and advise,

And point to the ways that others have found and followed,

The patterns which worked for them, the things which helped them through,

But that, of course, is exactly what they want to avoid.

So there really is nothing for it but kindness and patience.

Hoping, as always, that time will work its wonders,

That growing older may bring a kind of peace,

A slow-dawning recognition that things happen and pass.

He will be sorely missed. But we will always have his poetry.

And an extra one for you today, February 29th, a new word, courtesy of my SIL Bissextile

A Poem for Community Roots and A Video

04 Feb

It was Volunteer Sunday today but we couldn’t go. We read this poem, The Glory of the Garden by Rudyard Kipling, with Ti on our last visit and so many lines seemed to fit the aims and philosophy of Community Roots. Here are the middle two verses.

And there you’ll see the gardeners, the men and ‘prentice boys

Told off to do as they are bid and do it without noise ;

For, except when seeds are planted and we shout to scare the birds,

The Glory of the Garden it abideth not in words.

And some can pot begonias and some can bud a rose,

And some are hardly fit to trust with anything that grows ;

But they can roll and trim the lawns and sift the sand and loam,

For the Glory of the Garden occupieth all who come.

Our England is a garden, and such gardens are not made

By singing:—” Oh, how beautiful,” and sitting in the shade

While better men than we go out and start their working lives

At grubbing weeds from gravel—paths with broken dinner—knives.

There’s not a pair of legs so thin, there’s not a head so thick,

There’s not a hand so weak and white, nor yet a heart so sick

But it can find some needful job that’s crying to be done,

For the Glory of the Garden glorifieth every one.

And the Glory of the Garden it shall never pass away!

I hope you can follow the link to see the youngest volunteers at Roots.

https://fb.watch/p-E7FKx9Oa/

Bunting, Donation and Pie

29 Jan

I met a friend for coffee at the lovely cafe at Krowji Creative Hub today and spotted this unusual bunting in the corridor as we left.

Last week I told you about my choir’s donation to ShelterBox. This week we gave a cheque for £1,000 to our local food bank, CPR Foodbank. Each gig we do, we have out our collection buckets and over the last 12 months, our wonderful audiences have been very generous.

I made a Turkey and Leek pie for tonight, Christmas leftovers that went in the freezer and leeks pulled today from the allotment.

6 Comments

Posted by mybeautfulthings on January 29, 2024 in allotment, art, baking, community, Cornwall, CPR Foodbank, Postaday 2024, ShelterBox

Rainbow, £1000 and Cake

22 Jan

Sunshine, showers and rainbows this morning. I caught one of them.

At the end of our Inglehearts rehearsal this afternoon, a representative from ShelterBox came to collect the £1,000 we have raised over the last twelve months from all our gigs.

I fancied some cake this evening and remembered the Chocolate Torte in the freezer left over from our New Year and Birthday celebrations. Yum!

4 Comments

Posted by mybeautfulthings on January 22, 2024 in charity, community, Cornwall, environment, nature, Postaday 2024, ShelterBox, Uncategorized

Roasted Rainbow and Another Good Read

20 Jan

One of our favourite meals tonight, a rainbow of roasted vegetables with halloumi cheese – scrumptious!

Red Pepper, Sweet potato, Carrots, Yellow pepper, Broccoli, Red onion

My lovely book buddy, H, brought me up another good read yesterday and I have just spent two days reading! I thought I would just read a page or two and then get back to the various things waiting for me but I haven’t been able to put it down!

If you haven’t read this, then I suggest you do. The story is quite remarkable, very moving and is just chock-full of human kindness.

12 Comments

Posted by mybeautfulthings on January 20, 2024 in books, charity, environment, Food, Kindness, nature, philosophy, Postaday 2024, Uncategorized

Tags: Christian Lewis, Finding Hildasay

Daffodils, Cakes and AGM

17 Jan

When we arrived in Redruth in 2008, our lovely neighbour turned up with a jam jar full of local daffodils and joined us on the floor (furniture arriving the next day) to share our Chinese takeaway. Every year since, on the anniversary of our arrival, she has come round with daffodils. Just the best neighbour!

The cherries didn’t sink in the cake and the Victoria sponge was a huge success. As well as being my favourite, it is clearly loved by many.

English Cherry Cake – the cherries didn’t all fall to the bottom!

Victoria Sponge

It was the AGM of Community Roots this evening, a fascinating account of what is being achieved and what hopes and plans there are for the future of the project. I share three of the slides here with you, apologies for the slight fuzziness.

Our Values

Colourful contents of veggie bags over the year

Word cloud, collected this evening from all the people present

6 Comments

Posted by mybeautfulthings on January 17, 2024 in Celebration, community, Cornwall, friendship, Happiness, Kindness, Postaday 2024, Uncategorized, volunteering

A Poem, An Angel and Peace

20 Dec

What Would You Take? by Serhiy Zhadan

Read by Olha Lemesheva in Truro Cathedral 19 December 2023

People, like snails, wait for the evening
Sleeping so soundly, so deeply in stations
Women who left clean bedsheets back home
Children who cling to their mother’s hand.

What will you take, little snail, from your burning home?
First of all, faith that you will return.
Remember the way the furniture stood;
Hide the keys in your pocket like a dried flower.

This is your road – walked by the voiceless.
Overnight stays between silence and rain.
Be brave, snails, know your worth on this journey.
You’re denied a home – never a heart.

The work of ShelterBox was highlighted throughout the concert and a comment made that we had all experienced, for a short time, how things can change in a moment. Yes, we went out into the cold – but we could return to the Cathedral after the fire alarm and then to our own homes.

I’ve been sent a photo of one of my recently sold Angels. It’s always good to see them in their new homes.

The need for peace is in all our hearts.

2 Comments

Posted by mybeautfulthings on December 20, 2023 in art, community, Cornwall, glass, poetry, Postaday 2023, quotations, ShelterBox

Tags: John Lennon

Concert, Firemen and Street Lights

19 Dec

Well, that was quite an evening! We were just into Hark the Herald Angels’ when the fire alarm went off and we all, 100s of us, had to leave the Cathedral and move into the cobbled square in front. But – we had a great time in the cold outside! Claire, our choir leader, took the crowd in her hands and we sang for them and with them while the firemen went in and did their thing! We loved that bit better than the whole!

The blue lights are the fire engine while we were singing with the crowd

Tree in the Cathedral

Walking home through a very quiet Truro.

Lights in Boscawen Street, Truro

More tomorrow, it’s very late. 🙂

7 Comments

Posted by mybeautfulthings on December 19, 2023 in Christmas decorations, community, Cornwall, Postaday 2023, ShelterBox, Truro

Tags: excitement, ShelterBox, Truro Cathedral

Christmas – A Concert, A Poem and Our Tree

18 Dec

Tomorrow evening, both my choirs are singing in the ShelterBox Christmas concert and although, Dear Readers, you are all over the world, you can still join the festivities from the comfort of your own home by watching live at shelterbox.org/ChristmasConcert. I hope you’ll be able to join us. If you do, please add a like or a comment tomorrow evening. We’d love to know where in the world the concert was watched.

The lovely poet, Brian Bilston, has very kindly said I can share another of his poems with you all. For me, it sums things up very well indeed – if only we still had a cat. We have tickets for his gig in Falmouth next May!Our tree is covered in angels. They have been bought over many years and all around the world where we have visited. (Still need to go to Vietnam, Cambodia and Australia!) There are angels from Warsaw, Volcano in Hawaii, Phoenix, Santa Fe, Denver and Seattle, from Munich, Salzburg, Sheffield and Truro, from Mapoch in South Africa, Nepal and more! The fluffy ones were my Mum’s.

4 Comments

Posted by mybeautfulthings on December 18, 2023 in America, Celebration, Cornwall, music, poetry, Postaday 2023, ShelterBox, travel, Truro

Christmas Carols and Glass Angels

04 Dec

Yesterday my choir, The Ingleheart Singers, sang Christmas Carols to entertain the visitors to the Eco Park Christmas Market. We thoroughly enjoyed the afternoon despite the rain and today, our leader sent us the following photo and some wonderful comments that have pleased us all.

I was there but I’m behind our esteemed leader!

Eco Park: “Thank you so much for the wonderful singing. I’ve come here from Germany to stay with my daughter for Christmas. Your choir just opened my heart”

“As I walked towards the market, it looked so atmospheric and beautiful with the lights and everything, then I heard this incredible singing and saw you all in your reds stood there, it really was the cherry on the cake! It was the best Christmas singing I’ve ever heard in my life!”

Chef from the cafe: “You must be very pleased with yourselves, I’ve just had some people come in and say they were moved to tears by the singing.”

I’m working hard to get my last few angels finished. I’m incorporating more of the sea glass I have been given. Here are the last few in various stages of being done.