1 The little story-teller figure is a Pueblo Indian character and is honour of my Dad whose novels are behind the little figure in the photo.
Pueblo story-teller and novels by David Wiseman
2 The ‘Christmas’ cactus in beautifully in flower already.
‘Christmas’ cactus
3 We’ve been to the Hall for Cornwall this evening to see the marvellous Moscow City Ballet performing Romeo and Juliet. It was brilliant!
Moscow City Ballet, Romeo and Juliet
1 A beautiful thing when I opened up the computer this morning – a rainbow for me from a good friend. Thank you, John.
Rainbow from John R
2 A message from another friend, Shelagh, in Vermont alerted me to a brilliant piece of work by The Graffiti Grannys – a Union Jack decorated with knitted and crocheted poppies put up on a fence outside the Parish Church in Camborne, 10 minutes away from us. We set off to find it but at 12.15 it had already been taken down even though the Remembrance Day parade was only just finishing. These photos then, sadly, are not mine. Thank you to the photographer.
Graffiti Grannys’ flag
3 This is a very beautiful poem from WW1 which I hope you will like too. It’s by Margaret Postgate Cole, a pacifist, a feminist, an atheist and a socialist (so a fair amount in common with me then! I wish I also had her facility with words.)
Sea, sky and sunshine on St Ives across the bay
1 A brilliant singing session where we had to work really hard with some tricky notes and syncopation and then a lovely coffee session with friends in the cafe downstairs.
2 Spent a happy hour with L, Choir-baby T’s Mum, planning his Humanist Baby Naming. He slept throughout and woke just as we finished.
Choir-baby T
3 The following poem by John Siddique, a particular favourite of mine which I give to parents of new babies, is probably going to be included.
MAKING IT UP
Fold yourself the mind you want.
Make a paper hat
and wear it on your head. Hold it tight
when the wind blows.
Paint yourself the heart you desire. Pin it
on your jumper, be proud of your colours.
Pin it fast and don’t mind the rain.
Write yourself the love you love. Hold that
paper tight in your hand. Unfold it often,
read your plan aloud in sun and in snow.
Walk yourself the world you want. Each step
is breath. It’s your life. Stamp big-footed.
Walk soft. Dance your way in all the weathers.
John Siddique
NB I posted this yesterday, 27th September, and had some likes and comments but it has since disappeared and shows now only as a draft with no tags/ categories so I’m publishing it again. Just found that it has already been published twice on my Facebook page – all very odd!
1 We spent a pleasing hour or two choosing beautiful plants for my Suffragette Garden, a small plot in the front which we have just finished clearing. Everything growing in this space will be purple, white or green to honour my Great Granny who was a Suffragette. She was imprisoned in Holloway for her ‘misdeeds’ while fighting for the right for women to vote and we are very proud of her. I have had a Suffragette Garden wherever I have lived.
2 Driving home, we saw a Mobile Library van, stuffed with books and with such a pleasing slogan on the back, “The universe at your fingertips!”
The Mobile Library van travelling around Cornwall
3 The following poem by Thomas Hardy was read this morning at a Humanist Funeral we went to. It was a beautiful and very moving ceremony to celebrate the life, and to mark the untimely death, of the son of friends of ours. The same poem was chosen by my parents for their funerals so it has a particular place in my heart.
Afterwards by Thomas Hardy
When the Present has latched its postern behind my tremulous stay,
And the May month flaps its glad green leaves like wings,
Delicate-filmed as new-spun silk, will the neighbours say,
‘He was a man who used to notice such things’?
If it be in the dusk when, like an eyelid’s soundless blink,
The dewfall-hawk comes crossing the shades to alight
Upon the wind-warped upland thorn, a gazer may think,
‘To him this must have been a familiar sight.’
If I pass during some nocturnal blackness, mothy and warm,
When the hedgehog travels furtively over the lawn,
One may say, ‘He strove that such innocent creatures should come to no harm,
But he could do little for them; and now he is gone.’
If, when hearing that I have been stilled at last, they stand at the door,
Watching the full-starred heavens that winter sees
Will this thought rise on those who will meet my face no more,
‘He was one who had an eye for such mysteries’?
And will any say when my bell of quittance is heard in the gloom
And a crossing breeze cuts a pause in its outrollings,
Till they rise again, as they were a new bell’s boom,
‘He hears it not now, but used to notice such things’
After a beautiful train journey (with no photos!) we had three delightful days in London with KJ and family. Lucy was there too for some of the time which was lovely.
First, Saturday, the long tube ride to Waterloo Station, then the walk to the South Bank along which we found a wall full of poems! I so loved them, found them very moving and have chosen just a few to share with you. Then there was the Building of the Ark, the Rainbow Park, and the Festival Hall and lunch from the amazing multi-cultural food market. Sunday afternoon in the park was yet another delight.
Click on any photo for an enlargement.
1 It was a beautiful sunny day in Falmouth where we met P&V who came over from St Mawes on the ferry.
2 We had a lovely time playing with the remote controlled sailing boats in the Maritime Museum.
3 Try to imagine sitting on the cliffs as the sun sets into the sea and hearing the waves lapping on the shore. Gradually, lights appear on the island and all the while you are listening to a soundscape of beautiful love poems…….. That was us, this evening, taking part in the Peace Camp 2012, part of the Cultural Olympiad. If you are reading this and are near one of the other installations around the British coast, do try to join in. It is a truly beautiful experience.Wherever you live, you could still download the soundtrack,http://www.peacecamp2012.com/locations/godrevy-head.aspx enlarge one of my photos, listen and imagine!
1 Seeing the children’s clothes on the line this beautiful sunny morning gave me such a lovely feeling! (I know the wall isn’t beautiful right now but it will be when we’ve finished!)
Baby washing
2 Tipping out an old flower pot this morning, we discovered this beautiful pattern of roots.
Curly roots
3 It rained this afternoon (more petrichor!) so we stayed in and played. Tabitha spent the afternoon unloading one section of the bookcase and piling them up beside me on the carpet and then putting them back. She obviously takes after her Mum and me in her appreciation of Thomas Hardy!
Thomas Hardy novels
1 My lovely neighbour told me about the Cornwall Asparagus Festival which was being held just down the road in the Penventon Park Hotel. It was a delight! I watched Arty Williams Chef at The Cove, Maenporth, a local award-winning restaurant, http://www.thecovemaenporth.co.uk/ demonstrating a beautiful dish of Asparagus, Goat Cheese with a Red Wine and Caper Dressing. It looked, smelled and tasted wonderful – a real treat for the taste buds!
Arty Williams at the Asparagus Festival
2 I arrived home to find Richard Burton on BBC Radio Four reading the opening of ‘Under Milk Wood’ by Dylan Thomas which hundreds of my former pupils will be able to tell you is my favourite piece of literature of all time! Another wonderful treat!
3 There were Duck eggs, from The Cornish Duck Company, on sale at the festival as well as asparagus from the largest growers in Cornwall, John and Jenny Keeler from Tregassow Farm so for supper tonight we’ve had Delia Smith’s Sauteed Asparagus with Duck Egg and Parmesan. Beautiful! The recipe is up on my Recipe page.
Sauteed Asparagus with Duck Egg and Parmesan
Another day stomping around London, riding the underground and being glad we are just visitors and don’t have to travel like this every day!
1 At low tide there are occasional beaches on the Thames! We spotted this Frenchman creating a sand sculpture which would be gone in a few hours as the tide came back in.
Sand sculpture
2 I love The Globe! The matinee this afternoon, part of Globe to Globe: 37 Plays in 37 Languages at Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre, was ‘Two Gentlemen of Verona’ in Shona! The production was amazing, so funny and so clever! Just two remarkable actors played all eleven characters including the dog. We laughed so much our faces ached! Incredibly, it’s still only a fiver to be a Groundling as it was when it opened in 1997. We met two beautiful Zimbabwean women who were enjoying hearing a play they knew well in English in their mother tongue.
Skakespeare’s Globe
Waiting in the rain for the second half
3 We walked to the tube via Southwark Cathedral with Guy’s Hospital in the background. Very mixed memories from 30+ years ago when Daniel was in Guy’s for two of his three heart operations – one at 13 days in Leeds followed by two at Guy’s, one at 6 months and one at 30 months. The beautiful thing about this is that he survived against all the odds and is the beautiful young man who just got married in Senegal.
Southwark Cathedral and Guy’s Hospital
Today has been on of those days when finding the beautiful has been harder than usual. I’ve been laid up with Yellow Fever vaccination reaction, feeling completely worn out and achey, as we were warned could well happen a week after the event. So…..
1 “The words! I collected them in all shapes and sizes and hung them like bangles in my mind.” Hortense Calisher. I, too, am an avid collector of words.
2 Another piece of bathroom art that I love. We brought this beautiful sculpture home from Swaziland.
Sculpture from Swaziland
3 I finished knitting Tabitha’s new shrug – now to sew it all up.
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