The flowering currant has burst into flower with attendant bees. It was one of the first plants I became aware of as a child, the sharp pungent smell always invoking the large back garden of childhood.
Yesterday an Easter card through the post jolted me into realisation that life was slowly returning to normal. The monthly treats on offer, was the garden at Helmsley Castle, The irises at Lastingham and the Arboretum at Castle Howard. A whole group of people that had been lost in the time of the pandemic.
Talked to my daughter on the phone for about an hour as we discussed the future, two grandchildren at Uni in London, one at school in Todmorden and one furloughed in Manchester, and my daughter of course also furloughed in Tod as well, all this to change on the 12th April when people can enjoy more freedom.
The first thing I notice from blogs and elsewhere is that people have become frightened of going out, we have become settled in our homes, finding entertainment where we can, insecurity has set in.
People are winding their lives around the 12th April. When offering some craft books to our local library I was told to wait after the date and suddenly I can just see hordes of people taking to the streets, charity shops piled high with the stuff we have sorted out over this long period.
Plastics are in short supply, I think we should be grateful for that, less in the sea. So also shipping containers for transporting stuff and just lets hope that there will be stricter rules for shipping live animals by sea it is a disgrace that they die onboard for lack of food and water. Life is beginning to unfold in a different manner.
A friend whilst travelling back from Whitby spied a white tailed sea eagle over the moors, she was so excited about it. It seems that these great birds are moving further down our coast, there are supposed to be two over the moors. That is one treat the pandemic has brought us, the realisation that the creatures of air and land are important in the general life of us all.
Regarding animals. I have an old book from my childhood with a picture of 'the tree of life' in the front - bacteria at the bottom, humankind at the very top, everything else in between. I think in my lifetime our perceptions have begun to change: more and more, people see themselves not at the top but as just another branch on the tree.
ReplyDeleteA measurement by H.G.Wells I read a long time ago. If you were to take Cleopatra's Needle on the Westminster embankment. Well our human record would take the thickness of a sixpence measured against it, the rest of the obelisk would be the time no human was on the Earth. So given we might pollute ourselves out of existence, other forms of life will succeed and there will be a different time. There again a passing asteroid might finish it off!
DeleteWas that in A Short History of the World? I'd forgotten about that. I feel moved to read some of it. It might be online.
DeleteYes, I loved the illustrations. He was a bit of a seer into the future. I remember I noted something he said about how our egos would unite into one ego. Is the internet the answer?
DeleteAnother cheerful post for me to read Thelma. Yes I do think we shall all of us come out of this viewing life in a different way - but let's hope that vieew lasts rather than fading away with time.
ReplyDeleteThe sea eagle was a real treat.
Well like goats in Llandudno, the animals and birds have been inspecting our world, apparently there are a lot of starving seagulls in Whitby without the usual crowd of tourists eating fish and chips.
DeleteI think that even when life returns to normal, each one of us will be a little bit different, and perhaps that is a good thing.
ReplyDeleteTrue Debby, hopefully the change will be for the good, and of course not only people but the way we do business as well.
DeleteI believe all the reduced traffic can only have helped wildlife. Reduced noise and pollution. I understand more wildlife is coming into back yards these days.
ReplyDeleteYes as I went to the Co-op early this morning, there were birds all over the road, it is a rather wonderful experience to realise animals are moving in on us.
DeleteI am going out more now but I still have a lot of hesitation and only go when I know there will be no crowds.
ReplyDeleteI hope Easter is sunny and bright for you, Thelma. We need to get outside and get some Vitamin D.
Well sadly Arleen the weather is going to go cold over the Easter weekend but that is English weather for you. Anyway enjoy the Easter break and let us all keep our fingers crossed that meeting at this time of the year won't encourage the virus.
DeleteCharity shops had to limit donations to a ration after the last lockdown was lifted.
ReplyDeleteYes they only have one room upstairs if the shop below is small, and people just chuck out everything, so most of the clothes have to go to the ragman.
ReplyDeleteInteresting reflections. You are so right to suggest that it may be harder than many people think to get back to something resembling the normality we knew before.
ReplyDeleteIt seems to be under discussion. As the big shops of yesteryear close their doors, we are already asking how will the centres of cities be renewed. Some of us might have become very lazy with home deliveries from the supermarkets, and internet ordering. Mind you they need to tackle the fraud that comes with it.
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