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Tag Archives: Miss Bateman

Goodbyes, July Flowers and A Poem

1    We saw our Best Beloveds off on the train this morning. As my lovely wise friend, Nicky, said, “Goodbyes aren’t always easy;  the gift for me is knowing that the feelings of sadness are a mirror to the love I feel.” That is exactly it.

2   Our garden continues to bloom.

3   This poem was on a blog I read recently and it encapsulates my philosophy of finding the beautiful in the everyday where “the world offers itself to your imagination.”   Thank you, Kath. The poet, Mary Oliver is new to me and I shall look for more of her work.

You do not have to be good.
You do not have to walk on your knees
for a hundred miles through the desert, repenting.
You only have to let the soft animal of your body
love what it loves.
Tell me about despair, yours, and I will tell you mine.
Meanwhile the world goes on.
Meanwhile the sun and the clear pebbles of the rain
are moving across the landscapes,
over the prairies and the deep trees,
the mountains and the rivers.
Meanwhile the wild geese, high in the clean blue air,
are heading home again.
Whoever you are, no matter how lonely,
the world offers itself to your imagination,
calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting –
over and over announcing your place
in the family of things.
― Mary Oliver

 

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Happiness, Clematis and New Garden Sculpture

We have a perpetual calendar and these are today’s words which I like.

“Thousands of candles can be lighted from a single candle, and the life of the candle will not be shortened.
Happiness never decreases by being shared”  Budda

Be kind, be happy.

2   We bought a new Clematis yesterday, Miss Bateman, and it is very lovely. It is named after Catharine Bateman, the daughter of orchid specialist James Bateman and was warded RHS First Class Certificate in 1869.  It seems that earwigs eat the flowers so we will have to keep an eye on her.

Miss Bateman

Miss Bateman

3   You may have seen my photo of a rather quirky  kinetic sculpture of two little Woodpeckers a couple of days ago.   When we went back to the Nursery yesterday, I bought it, so now, here it is in our garden!  Do you ever do that? Fall for something but don’t buy it and then go back, on tenterhooks, in case someone else has got there before you?

Two little Woodpeckers

Two little Woodpeckers

 

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