For Barb

THESE are Tumbelina petunias, Barb. Ignore the scaffolding pole. The fascia boards were being replaced. This photo is from 2 years ago. Last year I was somewhat distracted, and the garden was mainly roses, and shrubs.

Time to relax

Spring. Hmmm. Yes. Yesterday was a stunningly warm and beautiful day and today was back to winter woolies. The wind was absolutely icy. However...... it is the weekend, and who cares. It can do what it wants. I am free to do what I want!

Yesterday morning, I took Mum to Podington for tea. The garden centre is my favourite and the best I have ever been to and the coffee shop is great. We looked at the bedding plants, and I resisted the temptation to buy loads, and just got a couple of tumbelina petunias. For now. I am not putting in masses this year, as we will be away for some of the time, and everything will expire. I will do the baskets, though. I love cascading flowers and colour. The other thing I did get was fleece for the allotment, just in case we have a few hard frosts. They had lovely little plastic dome thingies too, which you put over your plants. I refrained from buying them, but I did have this image of cake tray domes all over the allotment that made me smile.

It is bookclub here on Monday night, so I had to get some books. We do not all read the same book. Whoever is hosting buys about 5 books which go into the bookclub. Predictably, I can never find books I want desperately when it is my turn. Next week there will be dozens I covet. However, I have some that I think will make interesting reading.

House of Orphans, by Helen Dunmore, set in Finland
Be near me by Andrew O'Hagan, about an English priest who takes over a small Scottish parish
One thousand white women by Jim Fergus, about the Brides for Indians scheme in the US in 1875
Don't tell Mum I work on the rigs by Paul Carter, a biography of an oil rig worker who travels the world

They will have to do. I still have to clean the house, and buy the drinks and nibbles. Tomorrow.

Today I have been to church and also went to water the allotment. And the carpets. I am not certifiable. I decided that while the carpets will kill the weeds, I need the earth to be softened, so I watered the carpets so it can seep through and when we get round to the next dig, the ground will be manageable. I did get some very strange looks. The onions are shooting little green shoots, which is very exciting, and our bird scarer thing with dangling CDs has disintegrated in the wind, so I will have to get stronger fishing line. The type you can use to haul in very large sharks should do the trick. Not that there are any sharks in middle England, you will be pleased to hear.

So it has been a quiet weekend, with time to fall asleep on my bed, reading. There was a time when I could read a book a day. Sigh. Those days are long gone.

The dark and light sides of my Fridays.

Fridays are my nemesis. I rose reluctantly in the morning, but all change by 3.10pm. Now I wonder why?????!

1. Mum to dentist early
2. Buy milk for staffroom.
3. Year 8s. I will say nothing.
4. Fix aging machines.
5. Break: lecture on scissor safety delivered by enraged me.
6. Fix aging machines.
7. Year 9s. I will say less than nothing.
8. Fix aging machines.
9. Year 10s. Give me strength.
10. Fix aging machines.
11. Break: supervise Year 11s on aging machines.
12. Discover MILK FINISHED. Restrain self from throwing self on floor.
13. Give up fixing aging machines.
14. Year 10s. I survived.
15. Lecture on the "importance" of doing each others hair during textile lessons.
16. Tidy department.
17. Do road runner impression heading to car. (Cartwheels optional.)

The weekend is here. YES!!!!! And I didn't have to cook, as we were out to dinner.

I hope you all have a lovely relaxing time.

Trivia on a Thursday

Thanks so much for all your lovely comments. I have not had the time to visit you all yet, but fully intend to this weekend. I topple into bed every night with a growing list of all the things I meant to do and never got round to doing. Groan.

There are lots of posts about at the moment on being "busy". I absolutely agree with them all. We spend too much time doing and too little being. I am the supreme example of this at the moment. I was wide awake last night when my mother and my son went to bed, and 2 minutes later, I dozed off in the chair and woke near midnight. I never did do all that paperwork I intended doing.

I have just deleted a paragraph of moans. I have been thinking about Heather all day. It sort of puts things into perspective. So what if the Inland Revenue NEVER answer their phones, and just tell you to try later? So what if school politics are still volatile? So what if you constantly feel guilty for not taking your mother out more often?

And now for something very different... I am watching a TV programme called "The Human Footprint" and it is all about the lifetime of an average person and the stats involved. Apparently the average marriage lasts 11 and a half years now. That is appalling. They showed the average number of clothes you will buy in a life time. It covered an entire ancient church. We have seen a pile of food that the average person will eat in a life time, and also the sewage generated. I could have done without that part. It is fascinating. The average age we will reach is 78.5 I think. We will get through 15 computers each. The environmental cost of producing a small laptop is the same as a car. We will send 40 tons of waste to landfill sights in our lifetime. Each. (See why it is fascinating?) We will each own on average of 8 cars each. We walk over 15 000 miles in a life time and drive average 452 652 miles. Which means 136, 900 litres of petrol. 59 foreign holidays. TV is watched average of 2 944 days in our lives. 8 years. 40% of people do NOT read at all. This is all British, I add. 2455 newspapers. 24 trees will be used for each of us to read those papers. We will vote in about 50 elections. Drink 74 802 cups of tea. (Not me!) 314 visits to the doctor. 30 000 tablets prescribed. 61 and a half litres of tears. We will have had 104 390 dreams. Our memories and dreams are the most enduring things we possess. Each of us will know on average 1700 people.

So, it is time for sleep again. Tomorrow is Friday, and another week has flown by. I need to slow down.

Woman to Woman

Morning Glory is hosting Woman to Woman again today, and this time the topic is about coping with enduring health problems in our families.

Those who know me, will know that the past year has been dominated by the collapse, illness and sudden death of Geoff. A man who never went near the doctor, except for his marine medicals every year. I could write a lot about that, but I am not going to this time.

Instead, I am going to tell you about my father, and his battle with Diffuse Lewey Body Disease. This is a very rapid form of Alzheimers, and I had never heard of it before Dad was diagnosed. He and Mum used to visit us annually from South Africa, and the week before they were due to come in November 1997, he was diagnosed. He was absolutely determined to come and "see his girls" and so the consultant told him he could go, but that it would be the last trip he would be able to make. Personally, I think he was determined to get Mum to me, so he could be certain that she was looked after. He never did get to go to see my sister in Switzerland, but she came over regularly to see him. We all supported each other.

The saddest thing about the disease, is that he had moments of complete normality and then in a second could be hallucinating. He was convinced that Mum was an imposter, and not the girl he had married. I think at one stage, he was sure that he had been married 4 times. (Memories of different stages of their life together). They had just been here a few weeks when the doctors here told us that he would never be able to fly again, as he was too much of a risk. Mum had spent the entire 12 hour flight wide awake and on the aisle seat in case Dad decided to go for a walk. At 35000ft. She was a wreck when they arrived, and Dad informed us that the plane had crashed into the terminal in the snow and everything was on fire. No no and no. My son looked at me and said...what did you say this disease was?

I deal with all medical dramas by trying to learn as much as I can about the disease, and so I had contacted the Alzheimers society and had spoken to people who knew, and read the leaflets and just about anything published. Before they arrived. I needed to be prepared. Our GP told me I knew more than he did, and would I please do a summary for him. We learned together.

In his moments of lucidity, Dad asked me what the prognosis was, and whether he had hurt anyone. I was reluctant to tell him, but in the end, I did tell him, and gave him the leaflet from the Alzheimers society. He kept it in his pocket for the rest of his life. He had made notes in the margins. I told him he had never hurt anyone, and he asked if he could. I said yes he possibly could, but that I would make sure that never happened. He told me to promise to do whatever I had to do to make sure.

One of the most important decisions we made was to tell everyone. Friends, of course, and especially neighbours. They all helped so much. I used to put notes in his pockets with my name and phone numbers on, and medical instructions, so that he could still go for walks, which he loved. I would track him by phoning friends and asking if he was going left or right as he passed them, and then go and pick him up after a while. I told all the local shops who he was and gave them my number in case he needed me. He ran away at times, and that was difficult. The hallucinations are a huge part of LBD, and I never knew what he was really seeing. He tried to pour water over the tv one night, because he saw the red light and thought it was on fire. Sometimes he did not sleep at all, and so neither could we.

I was "the authority" in his life. Mum was his wife. I could not just be a daughter. I had to be someone he could trust to be in charge. He was used to being an "authority", so when he demanded to see someone important, that was who I became. I learned very fast that there was no point in trying to correct him, or saying that he was imagining things. People with dementia live in a unique world. If he saw wild animals in the road, I didn't say no, Dad, that is just your imagination. Instead I thanked him for telling me, and suggested phoning the zoo. That worked. If I said I would go out and show him no-one was there, he would have flipped out, worrying that I would be attacked. So I had to go into his world instead. Not always easy. Change is the biggest difficulty for dementia patients. Christmas trees were really not a good idea. We found out.

At the same time as we were learning to cope with this horrible illness, I was flying back and forth to South Africa to sell their home, and wind up their affairs, and also making plans to add on to our home to accommodate us all. It was a complicated time. Luckily, my sister could be in Cape Town at the same time as me when the house was sold, and we packed it up together. We decided to put Dad into respite care for 2 weeks, in the April of 1998, and he had only been there a few days when we were told he would never be able to come home, as there was too much risk of him becoming violent.

My Dad was a gentle strong man, who was a chartered civil engineer, and who had a masters degree in town planning. He was a world class athlete in his day and very well respected, and to think that he could harm any of us was dreadful. But I remembered what I had promised him, and so he stayed in the care home until we found him a lovely nursing home a year later. I still remember what he said when we took him in for the first time. He said quietly.... this is a strange place for an engineer to end up. It nearly broke our hearts.

Mum and I visited him daily, and he died a couple of months after their golden wedding anniversary in 2000. Both Mum and I were with him. By then, he didn't know who we were, and yet he was content in his own little world. By the time he died, he was so thin and frail, and nothing like the big strong man I had known to be my father. I am amazed at his strength and determination to make sure Mum was safe and I am sure he made a conscious decision to come to us.

He was an amazing man. My Dad. Today would have been his 84th birthday.

Definition of an allotment

PS added!

In the UK, gardens are small in general. Very small. There are, after all, 50 million people on this small island! Allotments have been around for about 200 years, but really evolved in the 19th Century, when the growth of industrial development led to so many people moving into high density housing in the cities, with no gardens, to work in factories, and the resulting poverty was what spurred on the growth of allotments. In urban areas, you will find allotment areas set aside, and people can rent one for a very small amount of money annually, to grow things. Most use them for vegetable gardening, and it is a social as well as horticultural enterprise. Most are owned by local councils, who rent them out, and waiting lists are very long. Ours is a private allotment association, which is great, as the council ones seem to be increasingly sold off for housing development. This is a real pity.

Geoff had grown up helping his father on their allotment. The 2 World Wars saw a huge growth in the need for people to produce food, and "Dig for Victory" was a slogan at the time. He always wanted one, and while recuperating from his heart op last year, I heard from a friend, who runs one of the two local allotment areas, that there was one vacant. Geoff leapt at the chance to start, and I thought it was excellent therapy and exercise for him, and so that was how it began.If you click on the allotment tag at the end of the post, you will see what it looked like when he started last year!

In a sense it is like a community garden. You all have your own area, and most have some sheds on them too to keep equipment. We have keys to the allotment gates, and it is not open to the public to wander in. Ours is a full size allotment and absolutely huge. I can't remember the measurements, but I quaked when I first saw it and the weeds. I think about 20ft x 160ft. But I could be wildly inaccurate. BIG.

David used to go and help, and when his Dad died, he asked if we could keep the allotment on. So it is still called Geoff's allotment, and all our friends came to help to dig and get it going. They are amazing. Because it is so big, some of them are also growing things on it, and that means that we will share our produce, and also that there will always be someone about to water. It is 5 mins drive from our house.

Some people make theirs into an orchard, some grow flowers, some have chickens. There is always someone around to ask for advice, and there is space for the babes to play too. We will get a bench and have it in the shade one day. We may have BBQs. But we WILL have plenty of vegetables!

Just in case you thought I didn't HAVE a garden at home, I do! But it is full of flowers and shrubs, and raised beds and patios. Not big, but I absolutely love it cascading all over the place, and there is just no more room to grow stuff like vegetables, and as I am in my frugal phase, the allotment is great. I have a zillion photos of my garden at home. I might post a few from last year. Hanging baskets and tubs and all.

Allotment dig.

I have just noticed that my last post (Spring) was my 300th. 300. Good grief. Who would have thought. All those words spouting forth in a random fashion. I have surprised myself!

Here are those photos of the allotment did in progress this morning. And yes, the babes worked too. We dug up great clods of earth and they smacked them apart with their little spades and forks. It worked really well.

The beginning. The brown earth parts are where the carpets were.

The middle..... more people and more digging!

The gang hard at work!

All those twigs and branches are from the left side of the first photos. There will be a bonfire one evening. Bill, an allotment veteran of 20 years, (I met him today) informed me that " You don't worry now, me duck, I will set the fire in the evening and get rid of it for you". How nice. "Me duck" is a local saying. Like "my dear", "love", "sweetie" etc. Me duck. Phonetically = mi dook. I am rambling again. It is the after-effect of hard labour in the sun.

Go to the next post down for the finished product!

Spring....or an early summer!

Our village is surrounded by farmland. At the moment, the oilseed-rape is in bloom, so the countryside is yellow. This also marks the start of the hayfever season, of course, and I get it, and so do my children, so we will soon be walking around with toilet rolls stuffed under our arms and slitty red eyes. Not to mention noses. Medication??? Of course. But does it work? Not really. It just looks really lovely though.

I walked to the edge of the village, which is 3 mins away, (around the corner) and took these photos, and on the way, I walked past this tree covered in blossom. It is huge, and so magnificent, isn't it!

It has been really hot today. In fact, I can't remember when last we had any rain. The doors and windows are open, and people are out in their gardens enjoying the sun.

This is a photo which combines the blossom and the oilseed-rape, and now you can see what our corner of the world looks like. Pink and white blossom on the trees, lambs in the fields along the road. All the other trees are in leaf now, and the clematis is flowering too. My lilac has also started to flower.

I have no idea why these photos are all on the side. I distinctly remember selecting "centre" when I uploaded them. Oh well. It really does not matter!

14 of us had the BIG ALLOTMENT dig this morning, and for 3 and a half hours, we dug. And raked, and lopped, and planted and watered and constructed the wigwam thingys for the beans. Geoff's allotment has sprung to life again, and I have some photos on the other computer, so will post them later.

You know what I mean when I say we were dripping???? Absolutely drenched in sweat. No "glow" here. We were reduced to wiping our faces with the Tshirts we were actually wearing. Leaving soil marks on faces, and shirts. Elegant? I don't think so. But we were working. And laughing, and having a great time. Potatoes, onions, courgettes, beetroot, butternut, lettuce, and more. All in. I am feeling saintly. I can also hardly move. I was seen at one stage, treating the spade as a pogo stick. It was not a pretty sight. The ground was unbelievably hard, but the areas we covered with carpetting last autumn were wonderful when we uncovered them. Damp soil, and no weeds. We have covered the other half of the allotment with the carpets now, and hopefully in a couple of weeks, the weeds will have died down, and it might have rained, so we can dig up that section too. I have great plans. Free food. Sounds good to me.

Here are the photos of the finished dig. Please note a great use for unwanted free CDs. They make a perfect bird-scarer-away-thingy. A new word I have just invented.
Note the carpets in the background. All we need now is a couch or two.

Marking fun

Today I started marking exam papers for the very first time. Oh my sainted aunt. There has to be something that disconnects the brain from reality when confronted with an exam paper. If only they used common sense. And just THOUGHT!!! Sigh. The powers that be decided that I didn't know the kids well enough to say who should do higher tier and who should not, and altered my lists. I was right. They were wrong. In a very evident way. But I am really proud of them all, because they know a great deal more than I thought they did.

One question required an answer and a reason for the answer, and the wonderful (wrong) reason was "because my teacher told me it was done this way". Yes. Well. Hmmmmm. Not that I recall. Nice try, though!

Remember

Today is Boomama's rallying call to help Heather. Reading the comments fills me with hope and warmth, and a wonderful sense of being part of something good and worthwhile. The number of people from all round the world who are praying for this young Mum with enormous faith is amazing. You want to know about hope and faith? Here it is.

And let me just say once again, that Boomama is one exceptional young woman. She should run for president. Now. She makes things happen.

I want to say something that is sort of relevant at the moment. I have never set much store in worrying obsessively about the future. (Just as well, really.) Today is what counts. Right now. Living life to the full today....loving without fear, laughing, smiling, counting my enormous blessings, making the most of what is there at the moment... these are the things that are important. I do not advocate stupidity, let me add! This does not mean irresponsibility or being foolish with finances. It just means that I am free from worry about what could, or might happen one day. Tomorrow. A year away. 10 years away. Of course I have dreams. Everyone needs dreams. I like to think about what I might do, or could do one day. Places I would love to visit, people I want to meet. Maybe. This is good. I still battle to separate the "want" from the "need", but I am getting there. There are no guarantees, and life can change in a second.

You know, whatever may happen, we will learn to manage. We make plans. We adapt. In South Africa before majority rule, there was a slogan "adapt or die" (it was also a satirical play which was wonderful). Adapting is how we all survive. Challenges come when we least expect them, and how we respond to them is how we grow. Change can be good, and we don't know the master plan, so we don't always see how until much later. We just have to trust.

So many of my blogging friends are facing huge challenges at the moment. One day at a time. Their grace and faith and honesty is amazing. Dreadful things happen. Tragedy happens. But so much good comes from the bad things too. Today is an example of that. How much we are learning from each other daily, and how thankful I am that I took the leap into the unknown and became a part of it all.

Cough and splutter

It is lunch time and I am home. I didn't have many lessons today and as I am coughing and spluttering and still deaf, and generally giving the impression of contagion in a highly attractive fashion, I got permission to come home and flop and fix myself as fast as possible. I have mentioned that I do NOT do "sick" or not well. But I am rather weak and feeble at the moment, and my eyes keep closing and I fall asleep. In fact, I nodded off at a staff meeting yesterday after school too. The head speaks softly and could have been speaking Swahili for all I knew. I could not hear a thing. So I am going to move the rocker to the window in the sun and doze off. I want to be back tomorrow.

School has been ok so far, but that could be because I can't hear the kids. There are some positives here!

UPDATE: later

You are all so sweet. I think being pathetic weak and feeble is to be recommended. I slept for 2 hours this afternoon. You may be able to tell I am used to being invincible. Admitting I am not is a new thing for me.
However, normal service will resume tomorrow. One day is enough. And I look like the hunchback of Notre Dame when I lever myself out of the rocker, so sitting here for much longer is not a good idea. I may never straighten up again. Creaking is not desirable.

Virginia

I am sitting here just watching blanket coverage on the news channel from Virginia. Please tell me none of you have children there. My heart just breaks for all those families. What a senseless waste of life.

End of the holidays

Tomorrow we go back to school. I could do with another few weeks holiday, but I am sure mothers out there are very happy their little cherubs will be back to school. I remember those days well. I have no idea how this term will pan out, as we have a new department head starting tomorrow and I will have to wait and see what is planned. I do know that we have exams and work experience and all the associated upheavals to look forward to, and course-work to start as well.

Last half-term holiday, I worked straight through, but this time, I have listened to advice, and to myself too, in the end, and have done no work. I needed the break, and it was good. I could have done without the virus or the (continuing) deafness. Tomorrow will tell if this was wise or not!

Today has been the most beautiful of days, and we went to church and then to the babes for lunch. It was wonderful to sit out in the garden, in the sun, and watch them play. A lovely way to end the holidays. They are growing up so quickly. I cannot believe the twins will be starting "proper" school in September. It seems just yesterday that they were born.

So here we go back into the fray. I am reminding myself every day of the thoughts I have every time I go and walk in my mountains. I need to remember balance, and to aim for that. So why do I already have a headache?

This started out as trivia, but grew into something really important

1. Deaf? WHAT WAS THAT??? Hmm. Oh yes. Still deaf. I have the tv on so loud you can hear the noise 2 roads away, and get this, I have a headache. From the noise. Which I can't hear.


2. Chocolate? Nearly history. It is sitting ever so comfortably around my waistband. Which is garrotting my stomach.


3. Friends? Met up with some for coffee, and they are fine, but have to shout as I have yet to acquire an ear horn. Which precludes female chatter. Conversation has to be fit for general consumption. Within a mile radius.


4. Fun? I am the one providing the amusement for all and sundry in my afflicted state.


5. Cleaning? I don't think so.


6. Washing? Done. We did need something to wear after all.


7. Ironing? You have to be joking. The sun is shining.

If you were hoping for pearls of wisdom, move swiftly on. None of those here today.

NOW for something really important.

Boomama has leapt into action once again, to organise help for Heather and her family, in her own inimitable fashion. If you do not know Boomama, you have no idea of what an amazing young woman she is, and how she is swiftly becoming a catalyst for so much GOOD in our blogging community. She is the one who makes things happen in a way I can only applaud. Go now and visit both those links.

Links. Here comes that pearl of wisdom after all. We link to each other, and form a web. Forget the internet-speak and see it more as spider-speak. We are all individual people linking together to cocoon a friend in our own small way. Individually, we are insignificant. Scattered around the world. Together? There is no limit to the difference we can make. Cocooning one of our own in prayers too, is unbelevably powerful. I am honoured to be able to link up with so many amazing women and to share the laughter and tears, to be a part of that invisible web.

I have just been reading Heather's latest update. Go now and read. I nearly deleted the first half of this post. How trivial and unimportant somethings are. This is who we are, isn't it? Woman who deal with the trivial and banal, and the overwhelming and life-threatening. The sorrow and fear , anguish, love, joy, and happiness. I am thankful for so much in this moment.

Home again

Apparently the weather here has been great, but today is grey. No mountains in sight. We are home. The trip back was predictably exhausting with trains and busses and planes and more busses involved. Once I retrieved the car from the far distant carpark at the airport, I thought it was a simple run home. To bed. Hah! The complete idiots powers that be running the roadworks closed off the on ramp to the motorway, so off we went on a midnight "let's wander through the moonlit countryside" trip. Hunched over the steering wheel with gritted teeth. Muttering. We finally got home 1 and a half hours later than we should have. BUT wonderful friends had left milk and bread and collected the post, so we could have some coffee and then topple into bed. Bear in mind that it was 2.30am European time by then.

I should not moan. I had 4 stunning days in the most beautiful place on earth, so I should be thankful. I love travelling. But actually propelling mother and assorted heavy bags through the process, ably assisted by my son, is not a complete joy.

My post today is mundane to the extreme. I have a lot of reading to do to catch up with everyone. I have taken mother shopping for food, and done battle with the power companies to retrieve overpayments. I have caught up with friends who have also had this horrible virus. And I am completely deaf from the pilot's decision to plant his plane on the runway after a nosedive. Well, it just actually seemed as though we descended rather rapidly, and my ears are still stuck at 38 000 ft. Inconveniently. I am now in need of an ear horn. Note to any pilot fortunate enough to be flying me anywhere....I need gentle descents. Slowly gliding downwards. Drifting like a leaf in the wind. None of this " Whoah...there is the runway.... let's land. Now. " nonsense.
I suppose the fact that I only paid £3.99 (+ tax) to fly there means there could be drawbacks. (Flying back was more, so don't get too excited.)

I have suddenly realised that I have turned into my grandmother. My Mum is quiet and gentle. Granny was a trifle more intimidating. She might have stopped to have a word with "the young man driving the plane" on her way in to her seat. And listed her requirements. Heaven help anyone if it had been a woman pilot. I am rambling. Enough. I am deaf. Did I mention that LOUDLY enough?????

I have 2 more days of holiday to:

1. Clean this house
2. Scrub the floors
3. Do the washing
4. And ironing
5. Write lesson plans
6. Sort the garden
7. Read a zillion blogs
8. Work out how I managed to kill my camera completely
9. Go and look at the allotment
10. Persuade my son to do some work
11. Sort out my sewing room
12. Springclean the entire house (as opposed to just cleaning)
13. Visit friends
14. Have fun
15. Do some reading (book club is here at my place in a couple of weeks. I must buy the books too)

Personally, I think I could concentrate on the last 3 and forget the rest. And make some more coffee. Did I mention the small fact that I brought home Swiss chocolate?

Forest walk

Today I went to the forest I love so much. Mum and Marge and I went to light some candles in the grotto, and then they came home, while I stayed on for a while. I walked back into the forest, and sat in my favourite spot, and did some thinking. No matter how long I come for, it is never long enough.

Today the trees are at the in-between stage. No leaves yet, and no snow either. Just tall stick like things with a stark beauty all of their own. No leaves to crunch under foot, and no slippery mush on the paths. They are getting ready to burst into colour again, and soon the mountain sides will be a host of different greens, but not just yet.

There is nothing I can add to the picture. It is just as it looks, only better in 3 dimensional real life. I never ever get tired of it. Never.
Here is where the forest ends, and the pathway widens. I sat on the far bench for a long while. You know, the only sound I could hear were the birds, and the water tumbling down the mountain side in a stream close by. Other than nature, it was so silent, and I was aware of just how noisy my life normally is. There is always a rumble of life in progress in the background, and I never notice it anymore, unless it is not there. Even through the nights in England, you can still hear that rumble. I am not sure I want to hear it any more. The quiet is so much more immense. I know what I mean. I hope you do too.
Coming over the hill back to the village, and the Kloster again. The monastery, but from the other side. That forest on the other side of the valley is where David and I walked down a few days ago.
This is so Swiss, isn't it?

Sitting in the forest, I let the peace seep into my soul slowly. I can't speed up that process. It takes time. And time is something I never have enough of. It is not like going to fill your car up with petrol. It doesn't click off when it is full, and I don't know if it ever can be really full. But sitting there, and letting nature work....using all my senses to absorb the beauty all around me and heal is something unbelievably precious.

I ask questions up there. I don't always get answers, but I know just why Jesus and many since him, have gone to the mountains in time of need. I just have such a strong conviction every time I am up there, that I am meant to take note of the pace of life, priorities, serenity and values I see so clearly while I am in the mountains. Which I lose sight of as soon as I get back to my normal life. I had a text message from a friend while I was standing looking down over the valley, saying that stillness was something they were appreciating on their holiday, and the slower pace of the community they were visiting. Sounds just like what I was experiencing myself. The need for silence and stillness and serenity.

Now, granted this is a village and not an urban sprawl. I am sure there are many stats and much data which would say differently, but here, I notice that everyone smiles. Everyone greets everyone else. They make eye contact. And let me tell you, it works. You cannot walk around here, and everyone walks all over the place, without smiling, and it changes everything about your day, and your attitude.

Tomorrow, we go home. I don't want to go.

Back from a stroll around the village

Here is the Benedictine monastery, around which the village grew up. It has a school attached to it as well.
Looking back toward the village centre, and I just loved the 3 little white haired ladies sitting together on the bench. The village is nestled in an amphitheatre of mountain peaks. You can turn 360 degrees and see mountains in front of you all the time.
This mountain "bowl" is called the End of the World. Up there is the chapel where my son's wedding was blessed. In Switzerland, it is the civil marriage that is first then the blessing in a church comes afterwards. I will tell you all about that magical summer soon. I will. And up there is the forest I love to walk in. I will go tomorrow. There is a grotto up there too, where I always light a couple of candles, and sit.
This is the mountain I sit and look at while I am on the computer in my sister's study. I walked along the river to take this photo. Now I have a mega headache, so am going to flop on the couch and snooze. I surrender. Too much in one day. Groan.

Sunrise

My camera cannot cope with sunrises like this, but here you are anyway. It is a very old little camera. And it did try.

We have been down the mountain today to Luzern to do some shopping. And it is another beautiful day.

What I neglected to tell you is that I arrived here as sick as a parrot. I picked up a flu type virus that has been doing the rounds, and all I could do once we walked in the door, was collapse on the couch and sleep. We had to get up on Sunday at 3 to set off for the airport, park the car etc, and get the plane to Basel, then 2 trains here. I did tell my son he had to stay awake or we could make an unscheduled visit to Milan, which was where the train was heading. He stayed awake. We got here. And I refuse to waste any time being sick, so we are walking and getting out, but not as quickly or as frequently as I would normally be doing, I confess. I am shattered after a couple of hours. Sigh. Another by-product of age....taking longer to bounce back. I don't do "sick". And I refuse to miss a minute when I could be out on the mountains.

Ok then....little old camera and I will toddle off to see what else I can show you. Don't go far. I will be back.

Sunset

I thought you may like to see the sunset from behind the mountain this evening. Have I mentioned how much I love this place???????

Yodel-Ay-Heeee-Hoooooooooooo!!!

Well, here we are in Switzerland. This is where my sister lives, and this is what I see in the morning when I open my eyes. Mountains all around. Stunning, stunning scenery, and a quiet like you cannot believe.
David and I went on one of our "walks" this morning. Well, we always set out to do the simple thing, and then get sidetracked by wondering what is "up there", or "on the other side", or "what the view is like from up at the top" etc etc etc. This usually involves precarious descents sliding leaves, or ankles deep in snow. Today was no different. But we made it down intact and it was breathtakingly beautiful. This is my favourite place on earth, I have to say. Repeatedly, for those who know me. I fell in love with Switzerland when I was 12 and nothing has changed about that. (I am using a European keyboard, and all the letters are in the wrong place).

This is the view of the village from the side of the mountain.

I took 48 photos this morning. This is normal for me. I must have more photos of Switzerland than anyone on earth. But just LOOK at the beauty!

The sun shining through the trees in the forest on the side of the mountain. Sigh. Now I have shown you a little bit, I will be back later with more walks and more photos.

David and snow= snowballs and wet hair, and lots of laughter. I asked him to make footprints in the snow and he sank down a foot. Oops. He was wearing trainers, not snowboots. Oh well, he is tough! And he dried out quickly enough.

Gardens

We are having the most glorious weather here, and it has reached 20 degrees C in the past few days. If you walk into the garden, (the newly hacked back one), you will hear voices from all the surrounding gardens, and lawn mowers, and strimmers. There is the smell of newly mown grass, and of BBQs being hauled out and lit. Spring really starts now I think, and we come out to discover that our neighbours are a little older and greyer, but still there, after the long winter hibernation!

Soon it will be time to go and buy some bedding plants for all the pots, but traditionally, that happens at the end of May, once danger of frosts is gone. My lavender needs cutting back too. I forgot that yesterday. I love scented plants, and the lilac is indeed in bud.

I should be washing my car. It looks tired and grubby after the winter. This is not something I feel moved to do often. I am just enjoying the sun for a change!

Holidays - Part 1

Well, I am home, and behind me as I speak, are my 2 sons and my daughter-in-law. Talking about blogs. My last post was actually WRITTEN IN AN INTERNET CAFE. Be impressed. I went into one for the very first time, and then the officious little man tapped me on the shoulder and said...3 minutes left, and I got into a flap and hit the publish button and then had to ask how to delete the history stuff etc etc etc. Oh well.... something new I have learnt. How to use a computer in an internet cafe. In Skegness. Where the wind is VERY VERY cold.

Spring Harvest is an annual Christian event, and there are 3 weeks available in 2 places in the UK, and we go to the Word Alive week, which has the student stream. There are seminars, talks, workshops, and main events, Christian rock bands, huge worship meetings with the most amazing music, and speakers. This year, Charles Price from Toronto did the main talks in the morning, and Jeff Lucas, who is based in Colorado, did some of the evening ones. He is one of the organisers. I met him and had a chat on the last night. 7 000 people all there to listen, learn and take part. And the bookshop. Sigh. I could have done with a lotto win, and a lorry, but had to make do with one or 2 great new books.

David turned 18 on Tuesday, and had to suffer the humiliation (to an 18 year old boy) of having the entire diningroom singing to him. He loves going to SH, and was with his friends, and having such a wonderful time. (My baby is 18. How did that happen???)

I spent a lot of time walking on the beach. I went to some things, but not to others. It was a strange time, in a way, as it was the first time I have stopped and done nothing since last summer, and of course, predictably, the waves rolled in, but I had some space to think.

Now we have a few days at home, before we go to Switzerland, and my boys are both home. The washing machine is on, and the house is a tip, but it doesn't matter. If I had stayed home, I would have worked. It is good to get away completely. And to be with my family.. And to walk on the beach a while.

Spring Harvest

I said it was windy. I said it would be cold. I did not say it would be perishingly cold or that I would have neglected to bring any Arctic gear with me. As in no thick coat or hat or scarf or gloves. The duvet is the closest to warm gear, and I am not up to wearing it around the site. I have, however, discovered where the main heating blowers thingys in the Big Top are, and so help me, I am first in the doors to appropriate a seat where I will not turn into a popsicle.

I have walked on the beach. I have collected stones. I have paddled in the water, and yes, I still have 10 toes. I checked. David turned 18 yesterday,and had a great day. I hardly saw him. He was off doing things with his friends.