It’s still possible to pick enough flowers for a friend’s birthday.
The view as we walked through the gardens of the Meudon hotel is fabulous.
At the bottom of the gardens is Bream Cove with a view across to Falmouth.
Category Archives: friendship
Birthday Bouquet and Two Views
Mobile, Poem and A Calendar
Our nephew’s wife, our niece-in-law, is an artist with words, otherwise know as a poet, whose work thrills me. She has given me permission to share this one here. In honour of her poem, Pisces Public Apology, here is a photo of a mobile that my Dad brought me from Mevagissey when I was five years old. I have treasured them for many, many years.
Pisces in pottery
Pisces Public Apology
I’m not a rock, I’m water.
I will never be still, try to understand that.
There will always be a ripple beneath the surface of my clouds
There will always be a reaper in my waves.
I am the child they called Powder Puff,
crying eyes caricature
doggy paddling the riptide
squinting for a dwelling place
in the oasis of my own peace but at the moment,
that pebble
is somewhere downstream.Try to swallow the fact that I
ingest my surroundings and
spit them out in distillate form and
that could be a shower or
hold on to your hats cos
it could just as well be a storm.I know that you want me to stop dissecting the particles in search of a source babe,
but isn’t that the definition of
precipitate?Can you relate to the water cycle,
from pool to vapor to ice and then bled
out by gravity over and over and over again-
Have you ever danced in the rain?
Have you ever tasted water from a glacial stream?This is a public apology.
Don’t get too close to me.
When you see the water rising,
get to shore or I’ll pull you down.Try to understand that I am not
an empty threat,
you will get wet.Your nostrils will burn with the flush of salt.
The sun setting in coral tones behind me
says that the only way to make it is to float.The moon never says anything,
a conductor in silhouette.It’s just the way of the sea,
the rage is under the surface
and rises up like Neptune –
Is my tongue a wave or is it a blade?The sun has seen me sleep serene
beneath his rising,
like a mirror in the dark.He knows I will show you
the red and aubergine vessels,
I will pull on the pumps in
your own heart and you will drown
in love for the rawest remnant of yourself.I am a teal tyrant to be sure
and yet,
in the summer months all of the earth’s children delight in my mischief.They say you haven’t lived
if you haven’t at least dipped your feet or
turned your grinning face skyward in the rain.I am not a rock but I’m a home for
beings too small to even see,
predatory beasts with bloody teeth,
creatures too foreign to even believe.I’m not a rock, but
anyone will tell you,
I am the blue blanket on this
big round boulder,
the source of life for every form and
the finest refinery of every stone.
A Dear Friend from choir who knows my Suffragette history has given me a Suffragette calendar. The following are July’s picture and caption.
Boat Trip, Singing and Sunset
The Ingleheart Singers have been on their annual boat trip tonight and it was brilliant. We all take food to share on the trip out from Falmouth to St Mawes, then we entertain the punters in the local hostelry and then board the boat for the trip back home. We sing all the way back, entertaining those on the quay side, those in their boats and onshore in Falmouth.
Claire conducting
St Mawes Hotel where the punters enjoyed our singing
St Anthony Lighthouse
In Falmouth harbour
Bouquet, Berries and Buzzard
Our friends who came to dinner a couple of nights ago brought a beautiful bunch of flowers.
We have been picking a few raspberries each day for the last week or so and today there was a whole handful!
On the shed at the far end of the back field where the sheep live, the lovely Mr S spotted a Buzzard preening itself. I took the photo on a very long zoom.
Rose, Fountain and Agapanthus
Two years ago, Dear Friends gave us a beautiful golden rose to celebrate our Golden Wedding and this year it is giving us scented roses galore.
Crown Princess Margareta, a fragrant English Rose
I love the sound of water in the garden. We discovered that adding pebbles to each layer increased the burbling sound.
Fountain in full flow
Blue and white agapanthus are flowering in the same pot, much to our delight.
Agapanthus
Gift, Lily and Dessert
I met friends as I drove into the car park for singing this morning and I was presented with a stunning little bunch of purple Sweet Peas. To keep them safe in the heat of the morning, I parked in the shade and put them in the little vase that all Beetles have (and where I usually keep a silk daisy) and here they are. 
Our Lilies are opening and they are fabulous!
We were given some Rhubarb the other day, by the same lovely friends, and today I made Different Every Time Pudding and added some blueberries. It was scrumptious, of course!
Take a Side, Pride and A Poem
We live in very uncertain times and many of us feel worried. At choir we are learning several songs of strength and resistance written by our leader and I always leave choir feeling stronger and more determined. One of our songs (and I will share them after their debut concert in July) is about standing up in the face of injustice and defending those less able to do so for themselves. I was reminded of these words of Desmond Tutu:
“If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor. If an elephant has its foot on the tail of a mouse and you say that you are neutral, the mouse will not appreciate your neutrality.”
On Sunday, in Saltash, we waited for the Cornwall Pride Bus and the parade. It was brilliant and very well supported. One of our songs is about being who you want to be and loving who you want to love and I will share that one later too. 
I have a friend who is a poet and he has recently had an event where he gave away A Poem on a Paper Bag – a delightful idea. He visited Cornwall last week but we have family here so couldn’t meet up. However, he has sent me my very own Poem on a Paper Bag and here it is, in his very own handwriting. Thank you so much, Kim. I love it – Jackdaws caught to perfection!
Kak-Kak by Kim Ridgeon
