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Category Archives: Words

Dandelion, Clematis and Wallflower

I love dandelion clocks, especially this one among the bluebells. You might like to look at an earlier post about the dandelion, quite a special ‘weed.’

This is the first flower on our Clematis Montana. There are hundreds of buds waiting for some sunshine.

I’m delighted with the wallflowers. They were lovely last Spring and I didn’t ever get around to pulling them out. I didn’t expect them to flower again so this is a real treat.

Coffee time after singing this morning was a time when we especially missed our Dear Friend John, remembering and sharing how missed he is.
“And in the sweetness of friendship let there be laughter, and sharing of pleasures.
For in the dew of little things the heart finds its morning and is refreshed.”

2 Comments

Posted by mybeautfulthings on April 16, 2026 in environment, garden, nature, Postaday 2026, quotations

Tags: Kahlil Gibran

Sunshine, Armandii and A Poem

22 Feb

Today we woke to rain but in no time the sun had come out and it was warm so we were able to get into the garden.

Steps up tp the garden lined with Tête à Tête

The Armandii, planted last year, is flowering well..

I love the programme The Verb on BBC radio 4 on Sunday afternoons. Today Ian McMillan was talking to Katie Clarke, Director of Literature at The Reader organisation, about reading poetry with people who have dementia and the magic that can happen just as it does when my choir sings in care homes. One of the poems she described as touching a patient was a poem I had never heard before. I hope you enjoy it as I did.

Happiness by Raymond Carver,

So early it’s still almost dark out.
I’m near the window with coffee,
and the usual early morning stuff
that passes for thought.

When I see the boy and his friend
walking up the road
to deliver the newspaper.

They wear caps and sweaters,
and one boy has a bag over his shoulder.
They are so happy
they aren’t saying anything, these boys.

I think if they could, they would take
each other’s arm.
It’s early in the morning,
and they are doing this thing together.

They come on, slowly.
The sky is taking on light,
though the moon still hangs pale over the water.

Such beauty that for a minute
death and ambition, even love,
doesn’t enter into this.

Happiness. It comes on
unexpectedly. And goes beyond, really,
any early morning talk about it.

https://allpoetry.com/poem/8520185-Happiness-by-Raymond-Carver

Do go to BBC Sounds and listen to the programme. It was really moving.

Primroses, Amaryllis and A Beautiful Book

09 Feb

Primroses in the garden and our five week old Amaryllis, first potted on January 12th.

I have been given the most beautiful book by a very dear friend who knows of my love of words of all kinds. It’s called “Ninety-Nine Words for Rain” and is by Manchán Magan with gorgeous illustrations by Megan Luddy. Expect to see lots of lovely Irish words over the next few months. As regular readers will know, Cornwall has had enormous amounts of rain and some vicious storms over the last couple of months and there are words here for every kind of rain. Here today, gleidearnach, which beautifully describes some of our recent rain.

3 Comments

Posted by mybeautfulthings on February 9, 2026 in art, friendship, nature, Postaday 2026, Words

Tags: Irish vocabulary, Manchán Magan, Megan Luddy

Carnations, Seeds and Snollygoster

24 Jan

There are just a couple of white roses and two beautiful carnations left from the bouquet the family gave me on my birthday over three weeks ago. .

Our gardening magazine arrived with a free packet of seeds. They suggest we plant them along with Cosmos which I love so we’ll try that. Watch this space in the summer!

Regular readers will know that I love words and here’s one I found today in a wonderful book, The Horologicon by Mark Forsyth, snollygoster. The O.E.D. defines snollygoster as ‘A shrewd, unprincipled person, esp a politician.’ It was defined in the 1890s by an American journalist thus:

I just love the phrase ‘Monumental talknophical assumnacy!” A number of people come to mind!

I was just checking which words I have used before from Mark Forsyth’s book and came across a post from 2012 which has lots of photos of my knitting of that year! I was amazed to see everything I’d created in those 12 months! https://mybeautfulthings.com/2013/01/04/weekly-photo-challenge-my-2012-in-pictures-a-year-of-knitting/

7 Comments

Posted by mybeautfulthings on January 24, 2026 in books, knitting, nature, Postaday 2026, Uncategorized, Words

Good Read, Amaryllis and A Tote Bag

13 Jan

I finished the latest book from the ShelterBox Book Club just in time to see the wonderful Q&A with the author Melissa Lucashenko. What a novel that was – two timelines set in Australia, in 1854 and in 2024, that meet each other towards the end of the novel. The whole story is beautifully crafted and draws the reader in despite much Aboriginal language the meaning of which one just picks up from the context. I can’t recommend this book highly enough.

I was given an Amaryllis bulb in a beautiful pot for my birthday and it has grown several inches already. I’m looking forward to seeing its glorious bloom.

Thank you, Sue

Post arrived from family in Atlanta today, a delightful little tote bag with the name of the bookshop, Books Are Magic, and the best answer to a question. I absolutely love it.

The tote comes from an independent bookstore in Brooklyn called Books are Magic, owned by the author Emma Straub.

I find poetry can ofter be of assistance, hence so many on my blog. 🙂

Remembering my lovely Dad today too, on his birthday. If you’d like to know more about him, put ‘David Wiseman’ in my search bar.

1 Comment

Posted by mybeautfulthings on January 13, 2026 in books, friendship, nature, poetry, Postaday 2026, Words

Tags: ShelterBox book club

Card, Chocolate and A New Word

09 Jan

One of my birthday cards is a cut-out greenhouse, just delightful!

Inside the colourful crackers made by LiveWire no 4 were some delicious and very beautiful hand-painted chocolates. They were not quite as big as the photo suggests!

I love this new word celebrating the joy of listening to bird song.

The winds have settled for us and we have been remarkably lucky. All around us, friends in local villages have suffered power outages that are expected to last until Sunday. Many trees have come down and blocked roads but we have been able to stay safely indoors.

8 Comments

Posted by mybeautfulthings on January 9, 2026 in art, craft, nature, painting, paper, Postaday 2026, Uncategorized, Words

Hyacinths, Woodpecker and A Word

22 Nov

I put the hyacinth bulbs in water in our Victorian bulb glasses today. They are very late and are now in a dark cupboard but I don’t know if they will work, certainly not in time for Christmas but maybe in time for my birthday.

A Great Spotted Woodpecker visited us today.

I love words as regular readers will know. This one, from the Middle Ages, is the past participle of forswinke which means “exhausted from physical exertion.” That’s been me for the last couple of weeks!

4 Comments

Posted by mybeautfulthings on November 22, 2025 in birds, nature, Postaday2025, Uncategorized, Words

Tags: Forgotten English Knowledge Cards, Great Spotted Woodpecker

Note books, Marina Lewycka and A Poem

14 Nov

In 2008 my lovely SIL gave me a beautiful box of twelve little note books. I was known for always carrying a notebook and they had become known as SallyBooks. I am coming to the end of the set having just started no 11.

I was looking at the first book today and the first notes I was taking were at a book event, Readers’ Day at Falmouth University, where Marina Lewycka was talking about her first novel, “A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian,” recently serialised on BBC Radio 4. I was reminded by my detailed notes, of her warmth and easy discussion style while talking with Mac Dunlop, and was sorry to hear that she had died yesterday. I also made notes of some of her comments – “Humour is the gift that lifts you out of the sh!t. It enables us to keep our humanity.” We need to remember that in these difficult times.

I’ve shared poems by the American poet, Billy Collins before and here’s another for you, taken from his collection, Questions About Angels.. I just love the ‘glass bottomed boats.’

6 Comments

Posted by mybeautfulthings on November 14, 2025 in Postaday2025, quotations, Uncategorized

Tags: Mac Dunlop, Marina Lewycka

Quiet Day, A Poem and Almanac Entry

10 Nov

A sore throat kept me away from singing this afternoon, not wishing to share any germs, but I did make a lemon cake for tomorrow’s volunteers.

John Dryden has the right idea here, live each day for itself. It’s a skill I am trying hard to master.

I like checking Sandi Toskvig’s Almanac from time to time. Here is today’s entry and a link to the music Sandi suggests. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_1OJvqKNGg4

5 Comments

Posted by mybeautfulthings on November 10, 2025 in baking, poetry, Postaday2025, Uncategorized, Words

Tags: Harry Belafonte, John Dryden, Miriam Makeba

Old Books, Cuttings and A Film

06 Oct

I’ve been sorting through books we inherited from my parents, some real beauties there, many picked up at auctions in Truro many years ago. I was charmed to find some personal notes in the margins and cuttings from the Manchester Guardian of 1887.