1st May

I should become more methodical, list the days as they pass.  Less news, less drama for me on the television, I watched the Sewing Bee, and my eyes shudder at all the bright materials, as they struggle to make  a passable garment.  I have never understood the 'spirit of competition', we are raised on it, we fight wars in football matches, knot our brains on quiz shows, why? Also been watching Kirsty and her craft making, more for children of course, and then there was Grayson Perry in a rather lovely relationship with his wife painting her on a plate.  They have all been hauled out to entertain us, get back to creativity is what they are saying.

The structure of our known world is breaking down around us, so many planes may never fly again, people who were already deserting the city malls and are now ordering online, might never come back to the shops.  Native Cornish people are demanding that second homers do not come and 'holiday' and bring the plague with them.  We are becoming unsutured from normality, ripping the seams apart would perhaps be a better analogy. The daily drain of news on the radio, can they not talk of anything else I wonder.

Yesterday it rained for awhile I went out into the garden in the evening, that soft peachy light and the dark look/smell of the green as the leaves soak up the rain.  There are already buds on the rose bushes. promising flowers and I hope I shall be able to see them.  Everything has boundless energy in the natural world, reaching to the sky, the birds busy renewing themselves.  Mistle thrushes silently scour the lawn, and yes the swallows have returned to Salton Lane but not to the church.  I blame the little birds who have taken over their nests, but even in the bird world it is 'dog eat dog'.

Try 'Arte', it should even be on Free Play on your television if you want some travel documentaries, a French company, I watched 'Ouessant where the wind blows' last night.  An island off the coast of Finistere, bleak and the weather is not for softies.  But the strange rock formations and the sea constantly worrying the coast line is hypnotising.  The sea is something I miss, the sound of water in its many forms.

1st May, it used to be a Holiday day, until it got tarnished by thoughts of the Red Army and communism.  But before that it was maypole dancing and welcoming the coming of warmer weather. And now?  Everyone (well almost everyone) is on holiday because of a wretched virus, makes you think.

Christen Kobke - Danish 19th Century painter

“All of these paintings are gestures of keeping up one’s spirit, accepting one’s lots and doing the best with it but there were a lot of complicated things going on.

Topical words;  Frida Kahlo when confined to her bed   article in the Guardian