Regular readers will know that I like to watch dogs playing on our beaches. You may not know that I am very nervous if a dog gets close having been bitten twice as a child. About ten years ago I met a beautiful, gentle natured dog, Kaja, who won my affections and helped me overcome my fear.
Very sadly, she fell ill and died a couple of weeks ago. She is sorely missed. Here are some of the photos that I have taken over the years of the lovely Kaja who became a friend.
Tag Archives: love
Kaja, Stone Circle and New Woodland
A Poem, A Feather and A Performance
It’s National Poetry Day and the theme is the environment. However, given all the news around at the moment, I wanted to share this song of hope with you all.
“I’ve Learned to Sing a Song of Hope” by Georgia Douglas Johnson
A feather landed on my purple and white petunias that with their green leaves make the colours of the Suffragettes. The raindrops made it even more special.
Tonight we went to see the performance of Bunker Cabaret, written and performed by our young Ukrainian friends, Hooligan Art Community. It was wonderful, so very moving, a kaleidoscope of dance, drama and song that touched every member of the audience. What a brilliant team they are! If you live in Southhampton, they are coming your way next week; if in Edinburgh, in a couple of weeks. If you get the chance, do see them.
The poem above is for Mirra. I had chosen it before the show and then tonight realised the serendipity in that choice. For you, Mirra, with love.
Daffodils, A Poem and A Beautiful Film
Our lovely neighbour has brought us a big bunch of Cornish daffodils, just as she did on the day we arrived in 2008 and has done on the anniversary ever since. Thank you so much, S.
I have shared this poem before but as it was in 2014 when I had far fewer followers, I thought it worth sharing again. It really speaks to me and , I hope, to you.
The following very sweet film came my way today and I thought my Dear Readers would appreciate it too. Just click on the red link.
L R Knost, Sewing and Gifts
A friend shared these words today and they strike me as very pertinent. They are the words of award-winning author, feminist, and social justice activist, L.R. Knost who is the founder and director of the children’s rights advocacy and family consulting group, Little Hearts/Gentle Parenting.
“Do not be dismayed by the brokenness of the world. All things break. And all things can be mended. Not with time, as they say, but with intention. So go. Love intentionally, extravagantly, unconditionally. The broken world waits in darkness for the light that is you.”
Be that light.
I have been sewing hard for a week, making two little fabric books for a friend’s one year old son. We’ll deliver them to their doorstep tomorrow.
A dear friend called by today with some shopping and we sat in the garden for an hour or so, catching up and being together (in a socially distanced way!) Lovely J brought with her some scones she had made this morning with a pot of Cornish Clotted Cream and a beautiful posy of Suffragette colours. What a gem, what a very thoughtful and much needed gesture of solidarity and friendship.
My Wish For You
For all my Dear Readers, words from Maya Angelou, My Wish for You
CONTINUE – By Maya Angelou
My wish for you
Is that you continue
Continue
To be who and how you are
To astonish a mean world
With your acts of kindnessContinue
To allow humor to lighten the burden
Of your tender heartContinue
In a society dark with cruelty
To let the people hear the grandeur
Of God in the peals of your laughterContinue
To let your eloquence
Elevate the people to heights
They had only imaginedContinue
To remind the people that
Each is as good as the other
And that no one is beneath
Nor above youContinue
To remember your own young years
And look with favor upon the lost
And the least and the lonelyContinue
To put the mantel of your protection
Around the bodies of
The young and defenselessContinue
To take the hand of the despised
And diseased and walk proudly with them
In the high street
Some might see you and
Be encouraged to do likewiseContinue
To plant a public kiss of concern
On the cheek of the sick
And the aged and infirm
And count that as a
Natural action to be expectedContinue
To let gratitude be the pillow
Upon which you kneel to
Say your nightly prayer
And let faith be the bridge
You build to overcome evil
And welcome goodContinue
To ignore no vision
Which comes to enlarge your range
And increase your spiritContinue
To dare to love deeply
And risk everything
For the good thingContinue
To float
Happily in the sea of infinite substance
Which set aside riches for you
Before you had a nameContinue
And by doing so
You and your work
Will be able to continue
Eternally
Wonderful thoughts.
All You Need is Love
Love, love, love
Love, love, love
Love, love, loveThere’s nothing you can do that can’t be done
Nothing you can sing that can’t be sung
Nothing you can say, but you can learn how to play the game
It’s easy
Nothing you can make that can’t be made
No one you can save that can’t be saved
Nothing you can do, but you can learn how to be you in time
It’s easyAll you need is love
All you need is love
All you need is love, love
Love is all you needAll you need is love
All you need is love
All you need is love, love
Love is all you needThere’s nothing you can know that isn’t known
Nothing you can see that isn’t shown
There’s nowhere you can be that isn’t where you’re meant to be
It’s easyAll you need is love
All you need is love
All you need is love, love
Love is all you needAll you need is love (all together now)
All you need is love (everybody)
All you need is love, love
Love is all you needLove is all you need
(Love is all you need)
Love is all you need
(Love is all you need)
Love is all you need
(Love is all you need)
Love is all you need
(Love is all you need)
Love is all you need
(Love is all you need)
Love is all you need
(Love is all you need)
Love is all you need
(Love is all you need)
Love is all you need
(Love is all you need)
Love is all you need
(Love is all you need)
Love is all you need
(Love is all you need)
Love is all you need
(Love is all you need)
(Love is all you need)
(Love is all you need)
(Love is all you need)
Yesterday
(Love is all you need)
Oh
Love is all you need
Love is all you need
Oh yeah
Love is all you need
(She love you, yeah, yeah, yeah)
(She love you, yeah, yeah, yeah)
(Love is all you need)
(Love is all you need)
Glass, Reading and Love
I put out a call at my choirs for bits of jewellery that were no longer wanted and last week one of my Suitcase friends brought me in some earrings. I’ve been working on a piece that would suit them and finished it yesterday in time to take it to show W at singing this morning. Thank you W for your beautiful contribution to my work.
I loved this when I found it. Reading is such an adventure for us all!
It was Valentine’s Day a week ago but these words are timeless.
Mum, Imagine and A Memory
It’s twenty five years since my lovely Mum died. I love this photo of her with her little brother. She must have been about six or seven and he about two or three. I wish I knew.
A very good friend, folk singer John the Fish, sang ‘Imagine’ at Mum’s Humanist funeral.
Imagine there’s no heaven
It’s easy if you try
No hell below us
Above us only sky
Imagine all the people living for todayImagine there’s no countries
It isn’t hard to do
Nothing to kill or die for
And no religion too
Imagine all the people living life in peaceYou may say I’m a dreamer
But I’m not the only one
I hope someday you’ll join us
And the world will be as oneImagine no possessions
I wonder if you can
No need for greed or hunger
A brotherhood of man
Imagine all the people sharing all the worldYou may say I’m a dreamer
But I’m not the only one
I hope someday you’ll join us
And the world will live as one.
The following photo was taken in Carn Brea Castle, just nearby, on the occasion of Mum and Dad’s Golden Wedding in 1989. They were married on September 2nd 1939, the day before war was declared and had their honeymoon in Blackpool rather than Paris which had been the chosen destination.
Last Goodbyes, Loud Music and Family Tree
The last family have left today and so we are filling the unwelcome silence with music that our kids organised for our Golden Wedding. They sent an email to people they could find on our Mac and received back lots of wonderful messages from family and friends from our 50 years together including a song from each to make two cds and a third in the making as we contact some who were missed for some reason. The lovely messages have all been printed in a booklet.
Our beautiful ‘children’ made us wonderful gifts – the cds, a family portrait up-dated to include the new Grandbabies also used as the cd picture disc, a hand printed Family tree and there was a poem from GrandsonJ. We are overwhelmed by the love in these presents.