We met at the Blue Bar for a long and lazy brunch, spent the next three hours playing on the beach, had MooMaid ice creams for lunch, came home and played in the garden, had dinner outside, visited the allotment and waved goodbye. What a lovely, lovely day and a wonderful start to Joyful June!!
here is this month’s happiness calendar.
I enjoyed this that turned up this morning:
“In readiness for the Easter holidays and an influx of visitors, St Michael’s Mount has implemented radical new social distancing measures.Creating a one way system for those visiting the attraction, the ‘Coming Back Causeway’ has been built to ease congestion, and opens to the public today, Thursday April 1st.
Speaking at the opening ceremony this morning, Marizion parish councillor Mike Mount praised Cormac, saying: “The Coming Back Causeway, which looks almost identical to the original causeway, has been built with such efficiency that hardly anyone saw it happening.” Mr Mount added: “A one-way system on the original causeway was trialed last summer, but was later abandoned after it emerged that visitors could not return from the island.”
Photo by Photojournalist Greg Martin
I like to pass on the Action for Happiness calendar each month. You can find more details here.
A kind friend dropped in some poems for me this afternoon. Here is one of them, new to me but by one of my favourite poets, Billy Collins, an American poet we once saw live in South Yorkshire. It is just one sentence and I love it. I hope you do too. Thank you very much, M.
Today
If ever there were a spring day so perfect,so uplifted by a warm intermittent breezethat it made you want to throwopen all the windows in the houseand unlatch the door to the canary’s cage,indeed, rip the little door from its jamb,a day when the cool brick pathsand the garden bursting with peoniesseemed so etched in sunlightthat you felt like takinga hammer to the glass paperweighton the living room end table,releasing the inhabitantsfrom their snow-covered cottageso they could walk out,holding hands and squintinginto this larger dome of blue and white,well, today is just that kind of day.
It’s March and here is this month’s planner from Action for Happiness.
Our walk was brief today in the returned bitter Easterly wind but we did spot a beautiful Camellia bloom on the path, a delicate pale pink among the russety brown of the decaying blooms.
and Heligan Pineapple Cake! Here’s the link to the very easy recipe for this delicious, fruity and moist loaf.
Another bitterly cold day with snow flurries as the Beast from the East continues to blow across us all. Our walk was very quick and well muffled up. It was far too cold for me to bare my fingers to take photographs! Reading has been a joy today.
Looking for my sister yesterday, the comment was made, about the right person, that she looked the happiest of all those present. Her happiness shines out of her face and she does always look lovely. 
Great Dream came from the Action for Happiness people. I like it. 
Here is this month’s Action for Happiness calendar. Have a friendly month. Just want to put out a call of friendship to Ute, a Blogger friend who has Covid. Happily she is recovering, just, please, keep her in your thoughts. 
We have left up our garden and indoor fairy lights until Candlemas as I heard on the radio that that is the moment when the days being longer have lengthened enough to notice so we don’t need the other lights anymore. I heard yesterday that this time of year is also the pagan festival of Imbolc which is about celebrating spring, the beginning of the lambing season and new life. It is one of the four key festivals in the Celtic calendar – the others being Beltane, Lughnasadh and Samhain – and traditionally falls when winter stores of food were beginning to get low mid-winter and halfway between the shortest day and the spring equinox. It begins on February 1st and ends on February 2nd.
Some people decorate the mantlepiece with items such as a vase of snowdrops, swan feather and/or green candles.
Today’s walk along the Great Flat Lode (which really was nearly flat to walk on) was also close to home with beautiful views on a gloriously bright and very cold day. We met more people on this walk that on the up and down one nearer to home and exchanged cheery greetings with them all, apparently waking some of them up! We were helping to brighten people’s days as per today’s calendar. See below.
Through a window
Here is this month’s Happiness Calendar for you. 
A November lockdown in the UK isn’t going to be easy for anyone and much harder for some. Action for Happiness have made their calendar for November to help give some focus and to help keep our spirits up. Feel free to share it far and wide. Here is the link for you to have a bigger version. I love their motto – Keep Calm, Stay Wise and Be Kind. Stay safe, dear Readers.
It’s very windy still and our resident pigeons have been trying to keep warm by fluffing up their feathers. We tried to get a photo of the pair but there was always one out of focus.
It was a baking afternoon, Pear and Chocolate Cake to eat warm with ice-cream – scrumptious, of course!
Very timely advice came in today from Action for Happiness:
We are completely redoing our walled border outside the kitchen and while clearing away the the thuggish Clematis, Bill Mackenzie, found this furry caterpillar scuttling around on stems near the ground. We think it may be a Buff Ermine but it’s not easy to identify.
A fellow blogger kindly helped to identify the rather attractive Artichoke Gall on our beautiful and nearby Oak Tree a few days ago. This one, somewhat uglier, has been identified as a Knapper Gall by our Son-out-law who visited last Friday. 
Here they are together.
I was going to post this tomorrow but have had a little accident today so am taking the easy route. While making more masks for the family, I stitched through the middle finger on my right hand. How? I just don’t know ! I am an experienced sewing machine user….. The people at our local Minor Injuries Unit were brilliant, kind and efficient but now I can’t sew for a few days. I shall have to read all day!
To see a bigger version click this link
May 1st is La Fete de Muguet in France when people give their loved ones little bunches of Muguet, Lily of the Valley. Our Dear Friend Kath, to whom I dedicate my blog and who died far too soon nearly eight years ago, loved France and we holidayed with her and Charlie in Meysaac a couple of times. Every May 1st she would give me a little bouquet of muguet when we were close enough or send a card if we weren’t. As soon as we moved here, I planted some Lily of the Valley in a shady spot and have picked a couple of flowers each year in Kath’s memory. This year there have been many blooms and I have brought them inside to share with you all in a spirit of love and friendship and in memory of my beautiful, much missed friend.
For Kath, Lily of the Valley and Rosemary
My poet friend, Kim Ridgeon wrote the perfect poem for today and with his permission, I share it with you here.
Here is this month’s Action for Happiness calendar, helping us all to manage ourselves in these very strange times. Stay safe everyone. 
If you would like a clearer copy to print off please use this link https://www.actionforhappiness.org/media/875756/may_2020.pdf
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