Sunday 23rd July

There was a flutter of excitement about the arrival of a pretty little bird in a Midland quarry on the news yesterday, the bee-eater seems to want to come to live in this country due to climate change.

European bee eater - @ Wiki

Sometimes with all the negativity about how much we have lost in our natural world it is heartening to see that an evolution of the wild creatures in our lives does take place.  Whenever we travel in the car I am always pleased to see swallows everywhere, swooping and diving, they remind me that these visitors to our island have two homes and are quite capable of travelling great distances.  I watched a gold finch perched on a gravestone this morning, think they are nesting in the yews, sometimes difficult to distinguish from the myriad of sparrows that fly around in the distance but welcome with their colourful plumage.

Gold finch @ Wiki

Sitting on the garden bench yesterday evening, looking at the  array of flowers in the large bed, luckily I got everything planted before the accident, it was pleasing to see the butterflies and bees busy at work.  Irene is going to come and do some weeding for me which will be most welcome, though the flowers are so tightly together there should not be  many.

I took the above European bee-eater from Wikipedia, but according to Giles Coren in The Times it's information is all completely wrong, which has put me off reading anything by him ever again.  This is a completely false accusation by him, a light brushing off of the work done in Wikipedia, and though I cannot justify every word written I do have complete confidence to fund its work with a tenner each year, as it is non-profit making.  Wonder if people still have those heavy encyclopedia books that always needed updating, mostly by the salesmen who sold them!

The sparrows inhabit the long run of ivies and virginia creepers that cover the fence between us and the pub next door, here the song thrush, or is it the mistle thrush rears her young every year, coming back from whatever exotic winter holiday she takes.  The swallows on arrival at their nests under the church eaves have not nested this year, this I think down to the sparrows who have taken over their nests.

Thursday 20th July

Rain, rain go away, come again another day!

Well once again the waters draining off the moors in Cornwall has wreaked disaster in Coverack, and we are reminded that the forces of nature can be powerful.  Here it has rained all morning, the farm traffic still going past with loads of straw, some plastic wrapped but another load with no plastic.  There is a campaign to stop the dumping of tons of plastic in the sea and rubbish dumps.  Our plastic, fruit in solid plastic boxes from the supermarket, it is impossible to buy them loose, and of course meat etc, how is it possible to not have plastic wrapped round parts of your shopping?  the answer is of course recyclable material, I remember years ago a brown paper made out of potatoes.

The sad saga of Grenfell unfolds on the television, the residents are fighting back, basically they want people prosecuted for allowing the block of flats to be so dangerous and unprotected against fire.  To get justice in this country requires public enquiries which can go on for many years, the whole point becomes lost in the tedium of waiting. Which is of course the whole point, as in the Hillsborough Football disaster, only now are the guilty thirty odd years later facing trial and prison.
The truth of the matter is there are some very articulate residents of these flats, definitely not ready to be sidelined, and the council's very reluctant action to sort their problems will begin to have consequences.  Not forgetting our government goes into recess or summer holidays soon!
I still sit here every day, making my way upstairs every evening with my faithful companion Lucy accompanying me and Paul patiently following with the walker, there is a tricky moment at the top of the stairs when I have to stand up but we are using one of those 'step' things you use in the kitchen.
People come for eggs still, Judy came yesterday, and told of a couple of days in Lancashire when they got well and truly sunburnt.  Typical English weather, rain two days, sun two days, but it makes everything grow, and you can see the result with many courgette recipes finding their way on to the internet.
I miss taking photographs, there were butterflies on the buddleias, several red admirals, a meadow brown, and whites of course but they are hiding from the rain today.

Monday 17th July

The tv silently flickers it pictures through the lunch news, a couple of sleek middle aged men shake hands, politicians of course - Brexit in Brussels, how falsely they smile for the camera.  A lynx suddenly appears, they are being re-introduced, probably in Kielder forest in Northumbria and I am glad, need a few lions and tigers as well, well perhaps not, the beavers are doing well in Devon though!

Why the video, liked the tune, found it on a fracking site, yes it is all going ahead, recalling the battles of the Newbury bypass, the A4 Solsbury Hill protest. There is a gearing up for protest against an extraordinary stupid decision to bring fracking into this country. Now the fracking companies employ private security, bully boys who are up for a bit of violence, this is  Conservative England loud and clear - battle begins.

To return to quieter things our neighbours have gone off to Whitby for a week's holiday,  there is nothing like bustling Whitby to put me off going but it does have bags of charm.

Whitby

14th July

 

A rather beautiful vintage photo of a velvet gowned lady smelling a lily.  Well lilies are also making a show in the garden, two pots of lemon coloured, another pink, and a less than pleasing orange. They are not allowed in the house because of their staining pollen so sit on the steps of the french doors.  Which reminds me that it is Bastille Day, and that Trump is honouring the French show, he looks awkward amongst the civilising influence of the French culture.

Yesterday Peter called in, he must be getting on for 80 years and is a gentle soul, much given to talking but very welcome.  He bought a little pot plant and we discussed how he had coped after his recent bout of pneumonia.  He immediately got rid of his car, and looked round for transport elsewhere.  He uses the buses that are run by the council three days a week.  The only trouble though, after a beautiful drive through all the villages, is that you have three hours to kill in Kirkbymoorside, and there is  not much to do in the town.  He also stops off at the Ryedale Museum where he works in an old chemist shop, sometimes talking to the schoolchildren that arrive on a daily basis.  You can also get a volunteer driver to take you to the hospital, dentist or opticians for the price of the petrol needed.

He was also happy with us new incomers to the village, our new stone built houses blending in with the rest of the village, our presence in the community had enlivened the social happenings. 

The village seen from the south with Margaret's house next to the church

Two of the houses were built on Margaret Woods garden and cottage, the old cottage having started to fall into disrepair and Margaret living in a caravan in a very overgrown garden until she died a few years back.  But the new houses are always remembered by the link to 'Margaret Woods Cottage' around the district. Whilst she was still alive she had sold off land for the two bungalows and J and R', and Peter has one of the bungalows.

I have a feeling that she must have been quite a character, for she lives in the memory of many people.

Some notes on Margaret Wood by Bernie Franks:

Nostalgia

Just made it upstairs, have'nt been up here for four weeks.  Change of scenery;)  Paul had already put another tv in the bedroom, but daytime tv is terrible!  Well I shall at least sleep in our bed tonight so no wooden slate poking in my spine.

My daughter and Lillie came over the weekend, their last visit before the whole family go off to Switzerland for a holiday with Karen's aunts.  

Switzerland is expensive, the flat they are renting is not cheap, but the family go back there every year.  Marc, Karen's cousin owns a sushi firm, they trade with the big supermarkets like Migros.  I have only eaten sushi once, not my kind of food, we were taken by a client of Paul's to a restaurant but it does not appeal. 

A young photo of Tom devouring a chocolate bun, probably in Vevey.  Their great grandfather Con was a church warden in Territet in his retirement and if you can find the video on Wikipedia you will see what a beautiful place the lake was with the mountains tumbling down to the water.  One could watch a thunderstorm approaching over the French mountains and whip up the lake to a frenzy of waves.  Chateau Chillon is situated on the lake, Byron once wrote a famous poem about it, The Prisoner of Chillon, but Con also wrote one to, not as good I have to admit!

The Tourist's Lament by C.J.Opper

A rainy evening in Vevey,

Fills me with intense dismay,

The faded splendours of Montreux

Leave me feeling rather blue;

And if we must stick to verity,

I don't go overboard on Territet.

And, I must say,

Whoever got hooked on La Tour de Peilz?

For Corsier, Blonay, Chebres and Corseaux,

I'm unequally unmoved or even more so;

If there's a place I'd rather not be on

Its the top of the tower of the Chateau de Chillon.

In Southend they would'nt have the cheek to serve,

That cupper tea we got at Villeneuve

We got fish and chips just beside the church

But you have to ask for fillet de perche.

So..... you just ask your mother why we're here,

When we might have been on Wigan Pier.

I bought back a copy of his unpublished book from my trip to Todmorden, which is of course biographical and about his life working for the Colonial service and then Unesco but have yet to read all of it.

friday - 7th July

I am often awake around five in the morning, today it was misty but the sun was starting to shine through the trees.  Yesterday coming back from the hospital in York we hit the biggest storm of rain I have ever seen.

Like most of the people in the village, we cut off from the busy A64 across country lanes through the Castle Howard estate.  It was when we hit the long carriage roads that lead up to that ugly obelisk. Narrow, with single car arches they stretch for a couple of miles. And to digress, can you not imagine trotting along there in your carriage and horses, rather bored out of your mind with the length of the journey, a true 'Sense and Sensibility' experience.  The rain plus hail started.  Soon it was sheeting down, the lanes had streams of water running down the sides of the road and as the water cascaded down the windscreen rendering the road almost invisible it was scary.  Great waves seem to fall over the car when we hit the main road and lorries went by.  

We got back to our village and the storm had yet to strike, so Paul rushed off to collect Lucy who had been looked after by a friend. She is a good dog revelling in the fact that she no longer has to walk great distances and demanding that she be spoilt and pampered like me ;).  If she had been trained young she would have made a good service dog , but she helps in her own way!

I don't have to go back to the hospital for four weeks, but need not put any weight on my ankle for that period, the surgeon discussed the possibility of another operation (which I refused), we again had problems with x-rays but luckily my plaster stayed on this time.
Today is a home day waiting for the Strider to come, not the one in 'Lord of the Ring' I notice that Philip Pullman is releasing a new book on the 19th October - The Book of Dust.  I have ordered books today but they are for my son and grandchildren, sensible book do it yourself books!

4th July Happy Independence Day

Confined as I am, that makes me giggle, still have not got my wheel chair or the Strider I am going to rent.  We came home with the wrong wheel chair yesterday, so Paul is going to change it this morning.  I watch my birds from the window, jackdaws have fledged, gold finches preen themselves on the wire.  Butterflies have appeared as well, the small buddleia is in flower but not the large..  Roses cascade from vases, so life is colourful.  Tomorrow we go along the dreaded A64 to York hospital, I have decided not to have a second operation, so hopefully there will not be too more many visits.

One thing that came out of the visit to Bath by my daughter, was, hopefully, a strengthening bond between my two children.  She 'advised' him on the redecoration of his house and said she would keep in touch.  Not that they were ever at odds but she hated her stepfather, slowly as our worlds begin to fold creating stable relationships becomes important.  Think it is called karma (we are the heirs of our own actions) though Paul says I am building up a lot for when he becomes ill!

Something taken from Gnat Bottomed Towers blog, sure she won't mind.

I just love Morris dancing, it is old England translated into modern interpretation, bawdy, happy and lots of stick hitting to the rhythm of the music.  It is local, regional and makes for happy festivals on sunny days.

The Ryedale Dragon

Sunday

Early Sunday morning the swallows wheel around the church wall, Lucy snores gently on the sofa.  Yesterday was a day of visitors, J and I called in for a chat on their way for a walk round the fields. C had called in to discuss the barbecue which is happening next week. Then J came in the evening she is great fun, I learnt that she had three blind sheep, all the sheep round us in the fields are 'pets' or perhaps grass guzzling lawnmowers. 'Pin back your lugholes and listen'  do you remember whose catchphrase that would be?* J's husband is a town crier and was playing round with opening words.  J will chat for hours, meet her in town or in a shop and her husband will get so exasperated with her that he threatens to drive off without her, but eventually she went back to her supper of oxheart.
Another American artist catches my eye....................Fidelia Bridges

Calla Lily

These irises by the river are my favourite

Too sentimental

* Cyril Fletcher

wednesday 28th June

Today there is persistent rain it falls in the greyness of the churchyard unrelenting in its soft fall to the earth.  The little robin sits on the wire outside the window, drenched probably wondering why I sit in this chair all day and do not provide tidbits anymore.

So what do we make of it all, well lets quote Winston Churchill,

"Now this is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning."

Then say whatever you find appropiate, we find ourselves in the middle of problems we have reached a 'crisis' in our government, (been there before) and a terrible catastrophe for hundreds of people at Grenfell.  Slowly the scale of all this has unfolded, people made homeless and already being shunted from pillar to post.  There are no long term plans sitting in the council offices it is just fudge and make do.  Perhaps it has to be that way.  I could be pessimistic say that the long term systems that run the world are buckling under the strain.  For instance our utilities and services are being sold out to other nations.  The fire resistant boxes that protect the gas piping are only one third done at Grenfell - the firm got sold in March along the way to investors.  
Some people think that Corbyn is the messiah, much as I would like him to be, he is not, just another change along the way.  No Utopia will suddenly appear, many of the problems are difficult to extricate from the muddle of bad bureaucracy.  We must have faith in the people of this country for individual humanity.
Lucy has been very mischievous with my enforced sitting in the chair, she trails the papers around, along with books. She brings my slippers when I'm walking, she is also helpful, though getting things off her is difficult!
The funeral went as well as can be expected, and my son is looking into auctioning off all that 'old brown furniture' though finding that some have a good price on them ;) I have refused any of it my state of 'not owning much' as far as belongings are concerned stays fixed.
If I would moan, it is perhaps that I cannot see the garden, though of course this rain will bedraggle everything anyway.

26th June

This is a photograph taken by my daughter yesterday, her first remark under a photo of the Abbey was 'I had forgotten how beautiful Bath is'.  This kaledeiscope of colourful umbrellas adds to the sunshine today.

Bath is a remarkable city, luckily the traffic manages to keep to the outer edges and its Georgian interior remains a graceful legacy to the past, though not in the photo above of course, this photo must be taken at the bottom end of town which was heavily bombed.

I used to love to walk down to town from Weston Lane where we lived, through Victoria Park, where Moss's ashes are scattered. Meandering past the Royal Crescent, beloved of so many Jane Austen films and then turning left into Gay Street, and eventually Milsom Street,

Milsom Street

the shops would be opening by 10 am and the tourists yet to leave their hotels.

Aerial view of the Royal Crescent

I have written of its Roman history, but not the fact that my daughter went to the dentist on The Circus, or that my young grandson went to school not too far away.

The Circus with its central group of trees, see this blog as to design by John Wood

We all loved Bath, the stream of language students through the household, bringing the spice of foreign stories to us, creating myriads of problems.  Sad Japanese girls who wanted to stay, Turkish Mohammed who practiced on my spinning wheel and bought me Turkish coffee cups and a darling sister who always started her telephone conversation with 'good bye'.  About 250 passed through my hands, some almost reducing me to a breakdown, I will never forget you Davor!

Nostalgia is not good but it was part of my life at the time.

Saturday

This is my diary notes for now,  you don't have to read............

Yesterday was a busy day on the phone, organising but I am now booked into the York hospital for the first of many appointments I suppose, my heart sank when told I was 9th in the queue on the automated line, but then they came through and gave me a time and date.   Never go to the doctors, so introduction there to be negotiated.  Vodaphone worried about how much credit I was spending made me a better offer, so the world of automation has a heart too ;)

Which all goes to show that I have now taken my mobile phone use in hand and can circumnavigate it - great relief.  What with sitting with my laptop, and talking to people there I can rule the world from the confines of my armchair.

Paul has been marvellous, escorting me through Lucy's 'assault course' carpet strewn toys and shoes, though of course he clears it. And even Lucy has been excellent and is settling into the routine. She is a good funny companion, every time visitors appear, after the initial bark, she dashes into the sitting room and grabs a chair for herself, luckily she has a fan base.

Meals are going to be simple, ready made pastas and yesterday fish and chips yesterday from the pub next door, always full on a friday as the locals come in.  It is 'pie day' tuesday and 'three roast day sunday' at the pub, wholesome food but enormous plates of it! We share one portion.

Lovely card yesterday from a friend that wound itself down from the Huddersfield hospital, marked by her with my name and the orthorpaedic dept, it found me....

Of course the projected visit tomorrow to the funeral of my ex-husband is off for me, so I had to arrange the paid for room in my daughter's name.   I had foregone insurance on cancellation unfortunately so that had to be dealt with, reminder to myself insurance is necessary!

And lots of reading material,  The Times, we have swopped papers temporarily from the Guardian, to get a different view. Resurgence this morning, and Newstatesman yesterday, that should shut me up.

Thursday - accidents do happen

Well unexpected things happen, and I will never rush down railway steps again for a train.  Leaving Todmorden took me to a whole new adventure, firstly a lot of pain, there are several fractures on my ankle, three months of hobbling around.  Lots of things to do with doctor, hospitals (I was transferred) and I have decided to get a wheelchair so that I can help downstairs with cooking.

The NHS is a wonderful service, don't let this government sell it off to Virgin or the highest bidder, they will just mess it up for us and make a profit for the investors.  The incredible kindness and efficiency of the doctors and nurses has to be experienced and also watched to understand.  It is obvious that I am an observer, and so gathered the tales of all the other occupants of the beds in the ward.

One story comes to mind, the Asian doctor examining the wound, said simply 'I was born in this hospital, and now I am working in it'. We are a mixed baggage of nationalities, and this is nowhere more obvious than a hospital, we have to learn to trust one another, the bastard terrorists are more often than not singular, young men/or women not given to humanity or tolerance.

Politically our country is changing, Grenfell though not political showed us an ugly story of ineptness and perhaps more importantly the great division between rich and poor and people sat up and noticed; that is a note for optimism.  The young have to take a role, as they did in the voting, of taking an interest in what is happening in this country.  The Torys are on the backfoot,  Theresa May got a shock, and to put it crudely is a 'dead man walking'.  

My visit to Todmorden to see the family went off well, Lillie baked her own chocolate malteser cake for her birthday, which got dropped on the floor and into her mother's bag, but got scrapped back together again ;).  I do have photos but it will some time before I can attach them to my computer.

And some strong words from Kensington, don't watch if you don't like swearing....

This link gives the experience of a fireman who was at Grenfell.

Hawkweed

Our front lawn was once a meadow, and so through the year we find wild flowers struggling to survive, this slightly blurry photo is of the hawkweed, or fox and cubs.  We have native bluebells in the lawn at spring, I have seen woodland strawberries by the old wall, sadly taken by the strimmer.  But the hawkweed is a striking flower, if only for its colour.  It can be found in church yards, where the land still lies undisturbed and I have seen it at Lastingham church, and probably other churches to, church yards also yield the different species of wild violets to be found still existing.
Anyway, the hawkweed has no folklore or healing properties according to my herb book, but it is distinctive for its 'furry leaves'.
Apparently banned in New Zealand for its invasive habit and the species is considered a noxious weed in some states in America and also Australia.

Sunday - 11th June

nepeta tumbles with a perennial geranium, plenty of bees for these two plants.

All is quiet for the time being, a walk down the lane yesterday amongst the flowering grasses,  do grasses flower I wonder they seed anyway? a soft haze of gentle creams, browns and buff.  The hedgerow sporting the delicate wild roses and seemingly hundreds of chattering sparrows.  Icing on the cake was the barn owl floating back and forward on the 'wild' strip of land that edges the field.  Barn owls can't hunt in rain, it soaks their feathers, so that is why you see them hunting in daylight.  She hovered, swooped, landed in the grass succesful in her hunting.

The people who own the farm and fields cherish the barn owls, for which we should be eternally grateful, the farmer has even seen otter in the river.  Unfortunately no camera, though the eye captures the moment.

A poem by Duffy, not sure if she is still poet laureate, she captures the moment of  the defeat of TM by the young vote which rallied the thinking of these times.  As Giles Coren said, the winner has lost and the loser has won in this campaign - who would have thought it ;)

Campaign a poem by Carol Ann Duffy

In which her body was a question-mark

querying her lies; her mouth a ballot-box that bit the hand that fed. Her eyes? They swivelled for a jackpot win. Her heart was a stolen purse;

her rhetoric an empty vicarage, the windows smashed.

Then her feet grew sharp stilettos, awkward.

Then she had balls, believe it.

When she woke,

her nose was bloody, difficult.

The furious young

ran towards her through the fields of wheat.

Saturday - Helmsley photos

A visit to Helmsley for a cup of coffee and a wander, sadly the coffee machine was not working.  Helmsley is pretty, a small tourist town, you shop at delicatessens rather than large food stores. Its' history is still to be found within the town, ruined castle, old market square, and the lovely walled garden of the castle to be found here.

The little beck from the town joining the River Rye

Just love the way this old hotel has snuggled down into the land beside the church

market day on friday

Friday - the aftermath

It is over, the mighty have taken a tumble through foolishness, we are almost back to where we were before the election.  Now of course comes the analysis.  What makes me giggle though is the thought of us all burying our heads in the sand and not voting, we would have still arrived at the same point in time.  Theresa May has been humiliated, and though I hate cruelty she actually did it herself, lacking in charisma the message she hammered home was arrogant, I feel sorry for her!

So I concentrate on the things around me, bread has just gone in the oven, watching the sparrows.  We have probably about a couple of dozen, they live in the virginia creepers and ivys that bestride the fence.  Dance around on the stones and forever bickering over the seed feeder, a new one which I bought yesterday in the vain attempt to stop the squirrel dashing the old feeder to the floor, can be filled to the top - expensive creatures the wild birds.

Making plans to go to Todmorden next week to see my daughter and grandchildren, Lillie's birthday party is on Tuesday, always a home affair with presumably a chocolate cake.

Something I came across yesterday in the book I am reading, it is about the establishment of the Cistercian order.  A good 'green' philosophy.  It should be well known that a lot of the Cistercians abbeys started up in Yorkshire, they needed a 'desert' wild unruly places to start up in, so the following was the goal;

Does salvation rest rather in soft raiment and high living than in frugal fare and moderate clothing? If warm and comfortable furs, if fine and precious cloth, if long sleeves and ample hoods, if dainty coverlets and soft woollen shirts make a saint why do I delay and not follow you at once?  But these things are but comfort for the weak, not the arms of fighting men.... Wine and white bread, honey-wine and pittances, benefit the body not the soul.  The soul is not fattened out of  frying pans!  Many monks in Egypt served God without  fish, pepper, ginger, cumin, sage and all the other thousand spices may please the palate, but they inflame lust....

Taken from Letters of St.Bernard of Clairvaux

Never worn a hair shirt, but normally try to eat sensibly ;) I just love the image of the frying pan exulting me to lust ;) going to make an omelette for lunch with greens out of the garden...

Wednesday 7th June

Look who has flown into the garden, well not quite, the boddhisattva came in a van yesterday.  Remember the  story of the Buddhist who sacrificed himself to feed the tiger and her cubs, well here he/she will reign here,  at the end of Paul's Japanese shady side strip in the garden.

There is one more thing we need and that is water.  We have been looking at  half wine barrels and the largest might do.  I miss the dragonflies and damselflies that hovered round the ponds in Bath, my son and I had dug out two ponds.  The first quite deep and I remember putting the pond lining in half folded one evening, and next morning when we came to lay it out there was a couple of newts already in waiting!  Watching the larvae of the damselfly mutate into beautiful winged creatures was a great joy.  The other pond was shallower and larger, goldfish multiplied in its mirky depths, till one day the dog chased a cat across it, and then the water disappeared, to be turned into a bog garden after that.  I surrounded the ponds with reeds that already grew in that part of the garden, because at one point in its history there had been a stream running through the valley and a bridge in our part of the Victorian garden..  Also a medieval mill at the lower end of the valley, and when a great pipe was dug along the valley, they uncovered the walls of of the leat and dam.

Wiki entry;

"In Buddhism bodhisattva is the Sanskrit term for anyone who, motivated by great compassion, has generated bodhicitta, which is a spontaneous wish and a compassionate mind to attain buddahood for the benefit of all sentient beings. Bodhisattvas are a popular subject in Buddhist art."

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Something slightly different, another woman artist. Jessica Hallyata. Again decorative and pretty but have you ever seen her work?  maybe the paintings of flowers are too domestic ;)

Here is her dad, from whom she got her talent along with her sisters - polite cough here as to the first reference I found for her was male ;)

Elizabeth Hallyar

Sunday 4th June - Another bad day for London

Once more we record another IS attack, this time in London, not going into detail it was horrendous.  But just to state that my grandchild Matilda has Muslim friends and will support them to the hilt.  It is only this generational time lapse that will bring peace eventually, and education of course.

                                          -------------------------

And so to lesser things

notice the wagging tail

Before and after photos of Lucy;  Alison clipped her yesterday and though she looks smart, somehow I prefer her scruffy!  But it has given her a new lease of life.

heavy heads

a blackberry put in last year has plenty of flowers this year.

rather pretty irises

Catching up on Saturday

Well beautiful as Yorkshire is, there is another side to it of course.  I picked this up on F/B this morning, a Channel 4 news clip in Teeside.  The young reporter is a friend of my eldest grandson Tom, and highlights in his first report the fact that there is not enough work for the young in the North.  And that really we don't spend enough money in keeping our young out of trouble.  Amongst all the angst of the coming election it is well to remember that actually nothing much happens in the lives of ordinary people.

It rained probably all last night and the ground has had a good soaking, brilliant sunshine as I took Lucy down the lane with the swallows wheeling overhead.

A mixed week, my ex-husband died a few days ago, and my son is having to arrange the funeral and all the myriad of things that needs doing.  He was a good son, visiting his father in hospital, and my daughter Karen and I will go down for the scattering of the ashes.

Thursday 1st June

We are living through interesting times.  Theresa May started out with much confidence that she was going to win a strong conservative election but has seen the gap between the labour party represented by Corbyn and herself slump to 3%.  Corbyn has powered away in the popularity votes, at least on the ground, where will we be in another 10 days? Another hung parliament, not what May was aiming for. Still Yougov figures may be inaccurate.

Almost lost Lucy down a foxhole yesterday we would have had to have half of Yorkshire's farming community to get her portly figure out!.  I sat on the ground hanging on to her back legs, till I managed to grab her collar and hauled her out.  She as always was remarkably unflustered by it all.  

The roses are making their appearance and I am so happy that I chose the warm church wall for them to cling to.  The swallows are starting to make tentative nests against the walls of the church and the house opposite we seem to have quite a few this summer, not all doom and gloom in the natural world.  

The song thrush darts about feeding her young, there seems plenty of them, and there has been a welcome upsurge of bees round the flowers.  I watched the swallows gathering mud (not much of that around in this dry weather) from a large muddy pool that always graces the corner of Salton Lane.

Went for a pub lunch yesterday at Hutton-le-Hole, very hot weather, Paul had whitebait, those little fishes that look into your eyes as you eat them, even though they are encrusted with batter;).

Everyone was enjoying the weather, walking about mostly with their dogs.

We have a vast expanse of stones for our drive, but these little  darlings always pop up here and there in them.

Mondayish

Wish I knew the painter, bamboos give a clue

We had a couple of storms yesterday Saturday but hardly any rain. All day the great tractors with trailers rushed through trying to get the silage in.  Piled high there was a sense of hurry in the air.  A wedding at the church went quietly, no flowers or bridesmaids but I am sure they were happy.  A Scottish piper played them into the church and out again, uniformed soldier bridegroom, and another one came rushing into the pub to dump his clothes.  Most people seemed to be from Manchester, so I am not quite sure of the connection with our village.

We should get some storms tonight, though our storms are never quite as strong as you would find in America, but we desperately need the rain. Edit; Well it is Monday and all we have had is a gently drizzle, I am busy wiring up the ramblers and the blackberry.

Elizabeth Sorel - Cow Parsley

There was a time when I fell out with the Pre-raphaelites and also Art Nouveau but it is a very 'pretty' picture of cow parsley though overly romanticized, but right for Sunday!

Looking at it now and it reminds me of those pictures in our prayer books when I was a child, a sort of sacrificial female, a bit like Jesus which brings another  story.  Which is here. and the tale tells of 

"an episode from the Golden light sutra of a bodhisattva removing his upper garments and hanging them on a tree before casting himself from a cliff to feed a hungry tigress and her cubs." 

A truly noble gesture for he gives himself to an animal, it is not something our Christian religion has any time for, seeing the rest of the living world as equal. Our contempt for creatures is leading to their extinction, whether it is the great elephant or the small bee, the outcome will of course be our demise as well, but it is sad that the one thing we had going for us - intelligence - is overcome by our greed.