Not quite the day before Xmas

Inversion over Bath

Outside I have just heard the Canadian geese fly overhead to patrol the canal, there is also the sound of the refuse collectors clearing the rubbish.  These are the unsung people who make our lives go round, we sing the praises of nurses and doctors but there is a whole tranche of people who need to be thanked for the service they do for the community.

Wild garlic scenting the air

The house slowly fills up, today it will be Tom, tomorrow Ben, the Omicron hovers like a dragon in the sky waiting to strike, as friends of both of them trigger the virus or don't.  But I listen to 'positive' news, will make my New Resolutions too write of what people are doing to offset the doom and gloom we are experiencing.  Blame some of it on the weather of course as we breeze past the darkest day.

Yorkshire beck

Rebecca Solnit seems to be taken to the heart of the Guardian, and is doing podcasts of what we can do rather than sit on our backsides and moan.  I note from the BBC there is a lot of falling out amongst families as the news and then their values impact on relationships between older parents and the younger generation.  All I will say is stop contemplating your navel buttons!  There is far more terrible stuff happening outside in the real world.

Ruined building

Virginia Woolf - a Room of Ones Own - is what I am listening to at the moment.  Love the way she potters around in her mind, mulling over the thoughts that filter through, whilst at the same time walking and being aware of her surroundings.  I find the same habit of  seeing people and wanting to follow them and see how their lives unfold, but that of course is impossible.  A few words spoke to me yesterday, it is from Christina Rossetti poem, The Birthday - the metaphor for me is how we grow old, heavy with memories, though in actual fact she is waiting for her love.

My heart is like an apple tree,  

The boughs bent heavy,

thickset with fruit

A Rowan tree.  Plant them for the winter birds who visit.

And lastly, music, the tribute to 'Lost Words'. Blessing.

 Blessings on all those that walk the Earth. 

Ancient mass migration transformed Briton's DNA

A rare gold wrapped jar may reveal the early splendour of Medieval England.