I would just like to thank all my followers, many of whom have become much more than just people who follow my blog, they have become friends, and I am touched by your words, and what goes on in your lives, and for that I am thankful and happy.
It is good to connect with others.
I will probably be absent from blogging as I will go travelling tomorrow for the week. Gathering more photos, experiences and ideas to share. Looking forward to reconnect and read much of what I have missed.
Blessings
A golden sun was setting soon after four thirty this evening, it had been a dark day but, as often happens, around sunset the sun came out and like a wizard transformed everything with a golden glow. The roses which are still flowering abundantly took on a magical luminosity, that’s the only way I can describe what I saw, it was magical, I was so happy that I happen to glance out through the window and saw what was going on. This made my evening and banished for a while the sad thoughts going through my head with what is happening in the larger world right now, how whole families and little children are now looking at these same skies scared of what is to come, scared of, not a beautiful sunset, but of what destruction and death may be coming their way. I’m learning to find peace deep inside me so that I can be strong in sharing out peaceful thoughts in the hope that it will help bring about peace on a larger scale. Is this possible? I am not sure, but ‘peace’ does start with each one of us, in our immediate circle, in ourselves.
Let there be only peace!
It’s amazing what can be of interest or beauty in the garden even in December while all the tree branches are bare and stark against the winter sky. For a while I have been watching the barks of our five trees, and the knots one can see in them, I actually never knew the connection between a knot in the bark and a branch, and that a knot is a branch that got enclosed in the wood of the trunk during years of growth. I see these knots all the time in the wood panelling inside the house. Today I took note of them outside in the garden. My Hawthorn tree has many knots, the douglas fir, chestnut, oak and birch less so. While observing the fir tree bark I found a variety of colours, some quite red, the bark is also covered in white in certain areas, not sure if it is lichen, fungus, or even bird droppings, there are quite a few birds that like to use this tree, this morning a lot of twittering came from it, there was only one starling sitting on it’s branches though. On the fir I came across a tiny little snail, and on the hawthorn bark around the knot there was a slug to be seen, so I guess bark is quite important for wildlife. Once I was thinking that I would have to cut down the fir, but during last summer I observed so many of our garden birds using this tree, I decided to keep it despite having to sacrifice a little bit of vegetables due to less light, as birds are after all so precious, and some of them are declining, sad to say.
At this moment another big storm has been forecasted for Ireland, we have had more stormy days than quiet ones the last week or two, but today was a perfect day, wind still and 10C.
As Barbara Winkler once said:
“Every gardener knows that under the cloak of winter lies a miracle. . .
a seed waiting to sprout, a bulb opening to the light, a bud straining
to unfurl. And the anticipation nurtures our dream.”
For many years some of the crow family have felt very much at home in our garden and on top of the roof, eating from the bird table and nesting in an old empty chimney. When seen in detail they are all very beautiful birds. The rooks have a bluish shine on their very finely preened feathers, they shine. The hooded crows have both black and grey feathers and they only venture on to the patio from time to time, they mostly feed on carrion somewhere else. The jackdaws, also belonging to the crow family feed side to side with the rooks, they are not afraid of these black birds with huge beaks. One of the rooks, we call him Charlie, is very noisy and demonstrates his superior voice quality whenever there is something happening that he does not like around the place. Rooks are very sociable and we see them in groups of about a dozen, intermixed with jackdaws. They are said to hide food into a hole but I have never seen them do that around here. I have seen them play catch in the skies above the garden here, while being very vocal they fly after each other creating great manoeuvres. At times when I go into the garden, one of them, sitting on the roof will give out being very vocal and goodness knows what he is communicating to the others, they know I feed them every day in winter (mainly seeds and peanuts, sometimes table leftovers).
It is a pleasure to have them around, though in a way I might be fonder of the little birds with highly coloured feathers. The crow family are very welcome in our garden, and quite interesting to observe.
What a most beautiful day it has been, full sun and quite warm for the time of year. This evening I happen to be in the garden getting in the washing and noticed what beautiful light surrounded me, and how the evening sun was bringing out all the colours of vegetables and herbs alike. Magnificent especially as not long after that the moon came up, large and beautiful.
I feel so blessed with all the beauty that surrounds me. Really good to counter balance all the sadness and strife that is going on in our earth.
Feeling grateful.
“Be empty of worrying. Think of who created thought! Why do you stay in prison when the door is so wide open? Move outside the tangle of fear-thinking. Live in silence. Flow down and down in always widening rings of being.”
Rumi, The Essential Rumi
I have just come off the phone from my sister Josefine in Belgium, and what we do not hear about in the news here I will tell.
The fact that in Mechelen, a town in Belgium, there has been a large gathering the other day of people of the Muslim, Jewish, and Christian faiths, all together in brotherly love, praying for peace.
If you just look at the news there is a lot of scare mongering going on, but it is not the way it is. The feeling is not that we should be scared of our neighbours, but that we should show them extra consideration and kindness, and in this way evil is not winning, but goodness is.
Just thought I would share this.
While it has been windy for the past week, today was wilder still. It has been drying out the garden which is good as the heavy rains have made it so sodden that doing any work in there is just impossible. This wild weather has brought with it some amazing views of a watery sun this evening. Birds have had their feathers ruffled big time, and they must have been very seasick from sitting on the swinging branches of the trees! So far we still have electricity but a lot of the country are without it, I would not mind as I love candle light and we always have candles handy during winter time just to be prepared. Right now the stove is roaring as the draft is strong, a lovely cosy evening with my partner, after a day making the kitchen ‘mouse’ proof, something that has to be done at the beginning of every winter, there should be nothing in paper or plastic, everything should be in strong glass containers, and now it is 🙂 it feels good to have done this, something I had on my list and can scratch out.
“Outside, there was that predawn kind of clarity, where the momentum of living has not quite captured the day. The air was not filled with conversation or thought bubbles or laughter or sidelong glances. Everyone was sleeping, all of their ideas and hopes and hidden agendas entangled in the dream world, leaving this world clear and crisp and cold as a bottle of milk in the fridge. ”
Reif Larsen, from The Selected Works of T.S.Spivet
“Do you ever get the feeling like you already know the entire contents of the universe somewhere inside of your head, as if you were born with a complete map of this world already grafted onto the folds of your cerebellum and you are just spending your entire life figuring out how to access this map?”
Reif Larsen, The Selected Works of T.S.Spivet
agoyvaerts 