Some time ago I found this poem, “First Day of War” by Ludmila Khersonsky, that was published in The New Yorker, and it has come back into my head as we prepare to welcome some young Ukrainians into our home. They are part of a theatre group who will be performing in Redruth at the end of next week. They are from Kyiv and need some rest and recuperation before they get into rehearsals and performances so we are going to show them some of the beauty of Cornwall and of our everyday lives. 
Category Archives: Peace
A Poem
International Day of Peace and Peggy Seeger
September 21st is the United Nations Day of Peace. You can read more about its origins and this year’s theme here.
End racism
One of Peggy Seeger’s songs that I love is, “How I long for Peace.” I sing it loudly in the car and feel every word deeply.
I wish for peace for all of you and those you love, my Dear Readers.
Eggs, Post Box Topper and A Wish
Yesterday, friends at choir said they had eggs if we would like them. Fresh eggs? Of course! I had no idea they were so beautiful until I opened the box to put them on the egg rack. The paler ones are the loveliest pale blue that isn’t showing too well..
Regular readers will know how I love the knitted post box toppers that turn up on Facebook from time to time. This time, one turned up on our road! It has been made by Jessica and is an absolute delight – Cup Cake Tea.
For Star Wars fans, “May the 4th be with you.”
Pendennis Castle, Fritillaria and Street Art
Yesterday we met dear friends for breakfast at the Gylly Cafe and going back to the car, caught this view of the castle through the park.
The gorgeous chequerboard Fritillaria Meleagris are coming into bloom.
Still the news is full of the bravery and resistance of the Ukrainians. 
Rhododendron, Carrots and A Burger
This creamy rhododendron is enormous!
Sinogrande bloom
Huge leaves
Buying the veg today at our wonderful greengrocer’s in town, theses lovely little carrots caught my eye.
I made Tom Kerrdge’s Mexican Spicy Bean Burgers tonight – delicious but very messy to eat!
Thinking about Ukrainians
Patterns, Swans and Singing for Ukraine
While we waited for the broker who is going to sell our boat for us, I enjoyed looking at the patterns made by the reflections of masts in the water at the quayside.
Wriggly masts in reflection
No cygnets today, just the parents who mate for life.
I haven’t been going to my choir, Suitcase Singers, in Penryn for a number of reasons. Yesterday they recorded this traditional Ukrainian folk song, Zelenje zhyto, zelene transcribed by Natalie Nowyytzki, directed by Claire Ingleheart At times like this, it is so hard to know what to do but we can always sing and use our voices in solidarity.
Spring Flowers, Lentil Ragu and Courage
Not usually a fan of pink, I really like these pink tulips with the blue of the muscari.
A couple of days ago when I posted about the delicious lemon cake, JR commented about another of Rachel Roddy’s recipes and I looked it up, Tagliatelle with lentil and mushroom ragu. It also sounded delicious and came with the recommendation from a friend so I made it for this evening – truly scrumptious.
Spring, Success and A Poem
It’s officially Spring and all over Cornwall there are swathes of shades of yellow, both primroses and gorse in the hedgerows and hundreds of daffodils lining the sides of the roads. It is glorious and our route to Truro today was a pleasure.
Primroses, my favourite flowers
Celandine
Narcissi
Yellow gorse and blue sky for Ukraine
The lovely Mr S saw his surgeon today, seven weeks after his knee replacement surgery. All declared a success. The hard work on exercises is paying off.
It is World Poetry Day today so I give you today’s poem from my book, A Poet For Every Day Of The Year. I was a big fan of flower fairies as a child.
Singing, Spring and Sunflowers, A Poem
We learned a new piece at choir yesterday and it was so joyful, I thought you might like to hear it. The music is by Mozart.
Our Spring border lifts the spirits.
Mike Harding published this poem on Facebook yesterday and I asked if I could share it here to which he replied, “Yes, of course.” So, here it is, not really feeling like a rough draft to me. I posted a story about Ukraine and sunflowers a couple of weeks ago,Click this link to read it.
“The first, very rough draft of a new poem
Sunflowers
A shaky phone-cam filmed it all and soThe whole world sees a peasant woman findingStrangers in her land do what peasants always doFor strangers as she ignores the guns and standsFour square and strong and offers them a gift,Those soldiers with their guns and bandoliers,Grenades and wire cutters, their killing knives.Their helmets and their gibbering headsets.She holds out to them her gift: handfulsFistfuls of sunflower seeds, little pods of graceAnd welcome. It is the way with peasant peopleEverywhere, even in this day of days,For those who have the least will always give the most.But the seeds came wrapped in words,These words,“Keep them in your pockets boys so, when we buryYou in Ukraine’s soil, sunflowers will climb fromYour graves toward the blue sky of the truth:Here take them, they are good, I harvested them last year.Take them so that the flowers will be a monument toThe murdered children and the familiesYou bombed out of their homes; the flowersWill stretch their golden faces to the skyAnd in the night the flowers will whisperSoftly to the wind, ‘Here lie the murderersThat came out of the East, unwelcome and unwanted,Destroyers of beauty, carriers of madness,Cursed for all eternity.’The fields of flowers will drop their seedsEach year so that those to come will understandTheir stories, stronger than granite,More beautiful than marble,These sunflowers will tell the worldHow your young lives were wasted hereOn our rich soil made richer by your bonesAnd flesh, and your own mothers will comeThroughout the empty yearsTo water with their salty tearsThe endless fields of flower heads,Golden, turning in the sun.”
Knitting, Narcissi and A Poem
Our niece had a baby recently so I’ve made some Sally-boots for our Grand niece, her big brother having had some a couple of years ago.
Yesterday’s wild wind blew some of our front garden narcissi off their stalks.
The poet laureate, Simon Armitage has written about the Ukraine invasion. The link is an article in The Guardian about him.
Resistance
It’s war again: a family
carries its family out of a pranged house
under a burning thatch.The next scene smacks
of archive newsreel: platforms and trains
(never again, never again),toddlers passed
over heads and shoulders, lifetimes stowed
in luggage racks.It’s war again: unmistakable smoke
on the near horizon mistaken
for thick fog. Fingers crossed.An old blue tractor
tows an armoured tank
into no-man’s land.It’s the ceasefire hour: godspeed the columns
of winter coats and fur-lined hoods,
the high-wire walkover buckled bridges
managing cases and bags,
balancing west and east – godspeed.It’s war again: the woman in black
gives sunflower seeds to the soldier, insists
his marrow will nourishthe national flower. In dreams
let bullets be birds, let cluster bombs
burst into flocks.False news is news
with the pity
edited out. It’s war again:an air-raid siren can’t fully mute
the cathedral bells –
let’s call that hope.Simon Armitage
