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Category Archives: charity

Book Club and A Poem

Another hoolie, another day to read! I started ‘Black Butterflies’ by Priscilla Morris, yesterday and was unable to put it down until I finished it this afternoon. My, what a talent this young woman has. This is her first novel and it is stunning. It is set in Sarajevo in 1992 and is deeply moving. It’s a love letter to humanity, to the power of art, to family, to a Sarajevo under siege and to love itself.  And, it is beautifully written.

A friend sent me this poem, knowing how I appreciate the small things, the “lovely things” that are all around us if we can take the time to stop and to notice. .

by Lucy Maud Montgomery

 

 
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Posted by on February 23, 2025 in community, Postaday2025, ShelterBox

 

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Camellia, Good Words and A Special Invitation

There being no choir today as it is half term, a good friend from the tenors came round for coffee and we spent a happy couple of hours ‘putting the world to rights’ – if only we could! P brought me some beautiful Camellia blooms from her garden.

The following quotation is one to be treasured and acted upon.

Our choir leader, Claire Ingleheart, has spent the afternoon at Buckingham Palace!  Since both her choirs started raising money for Shelter Box in 2015, even despite the ‘covid years’, between the two choirs, we have raised £7,800 and as recognition of this, Claire was invited as one of the ShelterBox contingent to a reception being held by the King and Queen at the Palace for four Humanitarian charities. What an honour! We are looking forward to hearing all about it next week.

 

 

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Tête à Tête, Poly Tunnels and Rainbow Chard

There was just one little Tête à Tête in flower near the shed, braving the bitter wind.

A very efficient team of three, today we planted all sorts of seeds for summer harvesting, such a positive and hopeful job. Seeds included lettuce, chillies, peppers, aubergines and tomatoes, several varieties of each.  Not much photo opportunity there so I went for a walk around the poly tunnels to see how everything is coming on. Brilliantly is the answer. Many more braver Community Roots volunteers were out in the field, clearing ground and preparing for planting out later. I forgot to take a photo of the gluten free Lemon Cake I made which went down very well at coffee break..

Two very happy volunteers, D and G

All sorts of salad leaves

Rainbow Chard

 

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Cards, Cake and Singing in the Stable

Not much sowing or planting going on at Community Roots at the moment so we finished off the Christmas cards that will go out with every veggie bag this week.

Today’s cake was a Christmas tree shaped Lemon Drizzle.

This evening we, The Suitcase Singers, have been singing at Cusgarne Manor. Because it was raining the event was moved into the stables which turned out to have wonderful acoustics. Another splendid evening with a wonderful enthusiastic and very generous audience. Tonight we were collecting for ShelterBox and Georgia’s Voice.

 

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Baubles, Primroses and A Gig

We’ve put lots of shiny baubles on our growing Christmas tree in the garden and  love the effect. I popped one of my glass angels at the top.

Primroses are my favourite flowers and finding them in the garden this morning was a delight. This photo is for Nancy.

Hope you will be very happy in your new home. 🙂

After choir this afternoon, we went to a local pub for our annual carol sing. It was brilliant, the crowds loved it especially our rendition of Fairytale of New York. We collect for our charities at all our gigs.

 

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Tree, Lights and A Charity Telethon

Our silver birch tree is up and decorated . Each of the decorations comes with a memory –  angels bought in Kennebunkport, St George, Santa Fe, Hawaii and Estes Park among others, angels that were my Mum’s and coppered leaf skeletons from the Grand Canyon.

In the dining room we have a twig with red baubles and starburst lights.

Yesterday, I had a delightful telephone conversation with Hannah Moore of The Guardian. We had rung up to make a contribution to the Guardian charity telethon which is raising money this Christmas for three charities, Médicins Sans Frontières and War Child both of which which we knew about and another, Parallel Histories, which was new to us. This one in particular prompted us to contribute. ‘Established by a history teacher, the charity is developing materials to help schools teach about sensitive and contested conflicts from Northern Ireland to Israel-Palestine.’
Hannah liked my email address and asked why ‘goldenboots’ so I explained and we went on to talk about our mutual love of Doc Marten Boots, that we both enjoy singing in community choirs, about singing sea shanties and I explained about the ones that our fabulous choir leader, Claire Ingleheart, has written about Cornish women.
It was really pleasing  that the call wasn’t just get the money details and ring off but a real conversation with a real lovely human being.

Very happy that my blogging friend Ute still loves her glass  angel.

 

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Sunset Sky and A Christmas Tree

We have come up to Derriford Hospital in Plymouth again for my lovely Mr S’s check-up after his spine op nine weeks ago. It’s an early appointment so we are staying at the wonderful Hearts Together hospital hotel overnight. There’s a lovely half moon high in the sky.

Sunset through a double glazed window

In the communal dining room

 

Community Roots, Kohl Rabi and Candle

Being winter, there is less sowing and planting so today I re-painted the sign boards and will do the lettering next week. The last of the carrots were harvested. Over coffee we always go over the jobs board and decide what next to get on with.

This is our Kohl Rabi. We’ve not eaten one before so will try it out soon.

Our Advent candle, photo taken yesterday

 

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Concert Success, Raspberries and Dessert

Last night’s concert was a success in so many ways. As I wrote last night, the audience loved us but perhaps even better was the generosity of everyone there. We were collecting for our two charities, ShelterBox and our local food bank, CPR.  We collected £800 though tickets and raffles!  We also asked everyone to bring a contribution for the food bank and when taken to the centre there were over two trollies full!

Thanks to Richard for the photo.

I collected 250g of Autumn fruiting raspberries from our allotment on Sunday on the same day that Nigel Slater published a delicious sounding recipe, Raspberry and Apple Crisp. It was delicious!

 

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Deer, Windows and Sculpture

This morning there were deer in the grounds of the Hearts Together hospital hotel, such a delight to see.

I have walked miles around the huge complex that is Derriford Hospital. Some of the corridors seem longer than two football pitches! I easily hit my step target of 5000 steps and more. The longest corridor has prettily painted windows.

At the entrance to the Maternity Wards was this beautiful sculpture.We are home after an extra day in the hospital. It was a very tiring day so no blog last night, sorry. My lovely Mr S is doing okay, op went well and he’s not too uncomfortable. Thank you for all the good wishes and healing vibes sent through the ether. They worked!