Yesterday was my second day of a hellish migraine attack. Today better but rather battered and bruised from the experience. Also decided to look for a particular photo of Paul. It appears so sharply in my mind and yet I cannot find it amongst all the photos I have and I am sad. So I start with getting rid of photos that have long gone past their sell by date. And find this photo of mock orange and Ladies Mantle, which is one of my favourite flowers for vases.
So what was the photo of? 2008 at Coat's Water near Swindon, someone mentioned Richard Jeffries the other day, and I had read three of his books, one of which was written around Coate Water.
That meeting led to many walks in the area. I was in the middle of a divorce, perhaps nearing the end and Paul and I both shared a love of Avebury and our meetings became more often. Moss came with us, slightly distrustful of course, it was normally just me and him and Moss didn't like strangers. He was a companion dog, very useful on long walks, he always just knew the way back to the car and knew how to keep himself safe from electric fencing and mad cows.
In all my reading of this time I was probably searching for a truth of whether nature is really alive. People get lost in books, I remember Nan Shepherd's book - The Living Mountain, I gave it to someone and I don't think they ever thanked me for it! MacFarlane had read it as well and he glowed over it but somehow my mind said that MacFarlane was just following in steps that had gone before
To find yourself as part of nature is not a public thing, though we write of it as such. The love we have for the things around is inborn, perhaps a spiritual part of us that responds, though sometimes I will argue it is that 21% of oxygen we breath that gives us that feeling of joy and well being, but then that is a practical person talking.
Below is Coate Water, not quite the vast exapanse that Jeffries remembered in his books of Bevis and Wild London but enough to write stories around and that is after all what we humans do as a necessity.
I am still in pyjamas but feeling better. Lunch was the risotto I I made yesterday for the others, and it was pretty good with a medley of vegetables and asparagus in it. We have a rota of cooks, Andrew 2, me 2, Karen 2, and you may wonder what happens on the seventh day, it is a free day to cook for yourself.
Glad to hear that the migraine is going away. I'm impressed you were able to cook a yummy risotto while you weren't feeling well. I hope you find that photo of Paul but at least it is saved in your memory.
ReplyDeleteActually the headaches went into a third day and I am still feeling miserable Ellen. My daughter had some vascular pills but I was a bit scared of taking them.
DeleteI'm sorry you've been feeling rough and hope the worst is over now. I love your pretty posy
ReplyDeleteJust about Janice although it has affected my eyesight, hopefully it will be short lived. I love the white and yellow in the flower arrangement
ReplyDeleteSo sorry about the migraine. I hope you're continuing to get steadily better. I can sympathize with being unable to find a photo -- that happens to me occasionally and it makes me nuts. I never thought to use ladies' mantle in a vase of flowers, but it does look good in your arrangement.
ReplyDeleteThe trouble is Steve I have two external hard drives of photos, the oldest I am scared of putting on this newish computer. I love Ladies Mantle because it is a fresh colour in the garden and the leaves when they catch the dew also have a magic. Many gardeners curse it for it's ability to come up all over the place.
ReplyDeleteWhenever migraine is mentioned I remember the miserable decade in which I was regularly laid low with them. So different than a mere 'headache!'
ReplyDeleteI tend to have several days of cooking and baking and then announce that we are going to pick through left overs and assemble what we fancy.
I have so many photos, both vintage and of our own generation. I tell myself I need to sort and label in case future generations actually look at anything printed on paper.
I have had five days in a row over them Sharon, but hopefully today they have vanished. Anyway I am keeping off the computer for awhile. Yes we accumulate so many photographs that end up in a mess. Photo albums spew loose photos and everything ends up in cluttered boxes.
ReplyDelete