tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-65004258100280779542024-03-05T21:03:59.682+00:00Wishbone Soup Cures EverythingAdventures of me, Lisa Southard: writer, gardener, forager, care worker, Tae Kwon-Do Instructor, Granma, and co-owner of 5 acres of pasture. Dreams take work! Lisa Southardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09711376747848601409noreply@blogger.comBlogger1143125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6500425810028077954.post-48832180335355984742023-12-31T16:58:00.002+00:002023-12-31T16:58:46.417+00:00Dear World<p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><u></u></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; text-align: center;"><u><br /></u></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; text-align: center;"><u><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhIllHV37wBk8T4EWdmP7-OOm_v2xFzhFHjlkUzQaQ-R885LsahCT0rhJ-UJmpMxBPWBR3Top4kip1OKoY8DNIb6Zaf7gf6gw_SN7Tq8wrgmtgWA2Rkj27T32nrj1zX_vNYeAjwfrixJ5hGOJMdWhcR1mlE90UzQzq-1LSYYk5wVuA-iSfFmPjgcdzulePl/s3088/IMG_20231216_171301_091.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Orange warm sunset in a cloudy winter sky" border="0" data-original-height="3088" data-original-width="3088" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhIllHV37wBk8T4EWdmP7-OOm_v2xFzhFHjlkUzQaQ-R885LsahCT0rhJ-UJmpMxBPWBR3Top4kip1OKoY8DNIb6Zaf7gf6gw_SN7Tq8wrgmtgWA2Rkj27T32nrj1zX_vNYeAjwfrixJ5hGOJMdWhcR1mlE90UzQzq-1LSYYk5wVuA-iSfFmPjgcdzulePl/w320-h320/IMG_20231216_171301_091.jpg" title="Winter sunset" width="320" /></a></u></div><u><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;"><br />
</span><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">31/12/23 Sunday</span></u><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Last day of the week, last day of the year.</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">A time to assess, to question.</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Are we where we want to be? How far off? How does this happen, and why? </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Is this end of year or end of all days? And what on earth do we do about it? </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Much as I adore the glitz of festive days, a glimpse at current events brings heavy awareness. So, now what?</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Four quotes (all by old white guys, but useful nevertheless) sift into view as I flinch from the destruction of people and planet.</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">‘Know all the theories, master all the techniques, but as you touch a human soul, just be another human soul.’ CG Jung</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">People can be hard to bear at times, but if you find a connecting point this is a powerful force, something beyond knowledge. Understanding and change can flow from it. A unity of souls.</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">‘Whoever fights monsters should see to it that in the process he does not become a monster.’ Nietzsche</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">One of the common things done to justify terrible actions is to create ‘them and us’ narratives. A disunity of souls. Disrupt this!</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">‘Between stimulus and response, there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom.’ Victor Frankl</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Easier to read and think about than it is to do. Practice helps. We learn to keep our own calm, we learn to recognise when something or someone is trying to manipulate us. </span></span><p></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">‘The secret of change is to focus all of your energy not on fighting the old, but on building the new.’ Socrates (probably)</span></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: georgia; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-size: medium;">It is good to fight sometimes, I am not entirely a pacifist. I’d rather not be bullied. Equally, it is good to turn your back on what is distracting and energy-draining and get on with creating, with putting your marvellous creative energy into motion, into something. </span></span></p><p><span id="docs-internal-guid-70918539-7fff-a9d5-dced-1e376312a05e"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">My something is writing, which seeks to bring comfort and connection without sacrificing truth; is the work we do on our piece of land, making a place for comfort and connection; is me being an active member of my family; is me teaching Tae Kwon-Do as a healthy empowering way of life. </span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Is me standing up and holding safe space for hope, for acceptance, for improvement.</span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">This year ahead may your journey be enlightening, encouraging, helpful, kind, and strong.</span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Dear world, cease your fire; light a flame for hope.</span></span></span></p><div class="blogger-post-footer"><g:plus href="https://plus.google.com/102412774245303060744" size="smallbadge"></g:plus>
</div>Lisa Southardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09711376747848601409noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6500425810028077954.post-24917865049103181862023-10-03T14:03:00.000+01:002023-10-03T14:03:10.056+01:00The Everyday Portrait Habit<p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><span></span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6XLTNy4f6gyxZ6CndF8VKWpS46ysCenkD5VMNGLvtaFDkhqcu0rWQOAmjncJ9rnbbCaSzrEvmzkyXzsbdYl7V4IuThmh2hTYUSfXZ5e4mzHQCmhxGYwqDl5u6hXErugc13AsfRcufdxGzxQa10uoimrGtbemQwDX2Cg8NjHkMPfufqZnH-A4WYdSFHJyC/s2448/20230920_155629.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Beautiful me looking up inside a yew tree, the branches are silhouettes" border="0" data-original-height="2448" data-original-width="2448" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6XLTNy4f6gyxZ6CndF8VKWpS46ysCenkD5VMNGLvtaFDkhqcu0rWQOAmjncJ9rnbbCaSzrEvmzkyXzsbdYl7V4IuThmh2hTYUSfXZ5e4mzHQCmhxGYwqDl5u6hXErugc13AsfRcufdxGzxQa10uoimrGtbemQwDX2Cg8NjHkMPfufqZnH-A4WYdSFHJyC/w320-h320/20230920_155629.jpg" title="Portrait Under The Yew" width="320" /></a></span></div><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><br /><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span><p></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><span id="docs-internal-guid-da1b65e2-7fff-9547-4a57-9b75628ac545"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Outside the clouds tremble with fine rain. It drops from them sparsely, clearly mocking my decision to hang the washing indoors. I have the windows open. I don’t mind.
<br /></span></span><span id="docs-internal-guid-da1b65e2-7fff-9547-4a57-9b75628ac545"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">It occurs to me that I take each day as raw materials from which to construct a portrait of myself, and I like this idea. It shows me the magic of everyday things. It isn’t too grand, it allows for unassuming - it allows for all the variables.
<br /></span></span><span id="docs-internal-guid-da1b65e2-7fff-9547-4a57-9b75628ac545"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Some days are daubed in turbulence and now they are not bad days but in fact part of a series of studies; my moody phase, my this-is-overtired phase, my shadow sketches; some are gleefully oversaturated, glitter-spattered, sequinned-and-celestial.<br /></span></span></span><span id="docs-internal-guid-da1b65e2-7fff-9547-4a57-9b75628ac545"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">Each day is subconsciously coloured in uncountable shades, textured with everything I see, touch, hear, taste, or smell; has one or many points of interest, it is as sparse or as crowded as I choose.
Today I am a kitchen maniac, cooking up coq au vin, pate, stock, lentil curry, chocolate sauce, cheese sauce, roasted and steamed vegetables; a mosaic of blur and focus; and I am the slightly dishevelled woman looking out of an upstairs window, amused by the fickle weather.</span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">
</span><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">(Apologies for the spareness of my output here- between the land and writing the current novel time is happily but also unfortunately squished. I hope you are well, I wish this for you.)</span></span></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span></p><div class="blogger-post-footer"><g:plus href="https://plus.google.com/102412774245303060744" size="smallbadge"></g:plus>
</div>Lisa Southardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09711376747848601409noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6500425810028077954.post-46262955749841841602023-06-09T19:26:00.002+01:002023-06-09T19:26:15.582+01:00Bloom And Laugh<div style="text-align: left;"><span><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXeZQIOnkYtzzemhJykO8dlPsJauCzHANJ9tmxdnRj_rCHb9vK5Zu0NKHcHk_t7c9bidwTLGzxVv2A05kVAPnvJMhJ5xyPaJJYRJfku3kNMzlTApEAeI_hd_KYLXmnvftgMuuqmQd-DAw-8dl2TKVC-urxxe-hUkdMbWkmUUISBDrMrNmhIst772U9Hg/s3088/20230609_142546.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3088" data-original-width="3088" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXeZQIOnkYtzzemhJykO8dlPsJauCzHANJ9tmxdnRj_rCHb9vK5Zu0NKHcHk_t7c9bidwTLGzxVv2A05kVAPnvJMhJ5xyPaJJYRJfku3kNMzlTApEAeI_hd_KYLXmnvftgMuuqmQd-DAw-8dl2TKVC-urxxe-hUkdMbWkmUUISBDrMrNmhIst772U9Hg/s320/20230609_142546.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td></tr></tbody></table><br /></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><span id="docs-internal-guid-19fb1e90-7fff-65fd-502c-a5f1dec6c356"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Frosty mornings hung on through the month of May.
Spring was wintry, we couldn’t shake the grip of cold; the switch into heat has been sudden, and equally stubborn.
<br /></span></span></span><span id="docs-internal-guid-19fb1e90-7fff-65fd-502c-a5f1dec6c356"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">At Paddock Garden the grass has been cut and all the stubble is biscuity-beige. If you look closely there is green underneath- the earth here is rich, though clay-thick in places, and not everything is nourished.
<br /></span></span></span><span id="docs-internal-guid-19fb1e90-7fff-65fd-502c-a5f1dec6c356"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">We study the leafless plum and cherry saplings wondering what we did wrong, whether the allelopathic ash trees have told them ‘you can't grow here’ or a pest or a disease or drought overcame them? Will they resurge? We won’t know for sure till winter returns. It feels at first like a condemnation but of course it is only part of our educational gambling.
<br /></span></span></span><span id="docs-internal-guid-19fb1e90-7fff-65fd-502c-a5f1dec6c356"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">All the other trees are thriving, even the ones near swallowed by brambles in the bottom hedge. There are cherries, plums, pears, and apples in miniature, swelling out of slender wood.
Where the tractor couldn’t reach the grasses are eye height, tipped with pink-gold seeds; they swoosh in the wind, we love the sound of it. <br /></span></span></span><span id="docs-internal-guid-19fb1e90-7fff-65fd-502c-a5f1dec6c356"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">A scarlet rose winds around the iron fence, poking out bold blossoms; a yellow rosebud nestles under a blackthorn thicket; magenta rosa rugosas blare their colours from tangles of sedge, rye, and false oat. <br /></span></span></span><span id="docs-internal-guid-19fb1e90-7fff-65fd-502c-a5f1dec6c356"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Shiny black-wrapped bales sit like fat beetles, waiting to be trailered away.
<br /></span></span></span><span id="docs-internal-guid-19fb1e90-7fff-65fd-502c-a5f1dec6c356"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">We have a potato patch, they are close to harvest time. Leaves stick up and spill out like plumage. Even some of the fragile flower seeds we sowed around the edges are reaching up in green frills.
<br /></span></span></span><span id="docs-internal-guid-19fb1e90-7fff-65fd-502c-a5f1dec6c356"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">We have built a compost bay for the compost toilet waste, there is a path strimmed from the shed; these are now known as the crapstack, the crapshack, and the craptrack. <br /></span></span></span><span id="docs-internal-guid-19fb1e90-7fff-65fd-502c-a5f1dec6c356"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">(Grandchild 7 almost provided the first poop - but the loud fart that actually exited his nether parts did yield great merriment. Laughter is our most successful crop.)
<br /></span></span></span></span><span id="docs-internal-guid-19fb1e90-7fff-65fd-502c-a5f1dec6c356"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">There’s much to do, there’s more than a lifetime’s worth of learning, and, as usual, we are reminding ourselves to jump in, to blunder, to marvel: to bloom and laugh.</span><span style="font-family: arial;">
</span></span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1iclpLIHC_avyIkWuf02Vgd3tNCIiOWmzFjZKTtR7j146lRT2TjWK2z4y8AQu7kKmHT9M7Msz_yS4xeai7LcVHV-3dTgClZr2IFc6JdjJYAvAJNAvN_e8KyZeAxPYt1OS8u3o_oobLPcZtscgBNr5yc6cuTdZm8MArkR3Xd0r0s1DLhdNJlJmLCoWYw/s3088/20230601_121542.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3088" data-original-width="3088" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1iclpLIHC_avyIkWuf02Vgd3tNCIiOWmzFjZKTtR7j146lRT2TjWK2z4y8AQu7kKmHT9M7Msz_yS4xeai7LcVHV-3dTgClZr2IFc6JdjJYAvAJNAvN_e8KyZeAxPYt1OS8u3o_oobLPcZtscgBNr5yc6cuTdZm8MArkR3Xd0r0s1DLhdNJlJmLCoWYw/s320/20230601_121542.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Crapstack under construction with assistance from <br />Grandchild 4. The top picture is one of our rosa rugosas.</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span></span></div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><g:plus href="https://plus.google.com/102412774245303060744" size="smallbadge"></g:plus>
</div>Lisa Southardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09711376747848601409noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6500425810028077954.post-53126260394393918542023-03-05T15:27:00.001+00:002023-03-05T15:27:14.839+00:00Buds<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqa2o9H5ABN8QBQ1KuPoNLxykXh2TTj6lF9EJVz-AQxieXfil6-gXCYvkd5MXpB71c_SYJurVnWt89rXfWPjqGX_ff5ReNewV7KhpGB4rmOHp5LsEU_90sd6v_COVqjErmdBgiYhSMrOzHLQZqX2lXMtdtHLQknjsCe17ofNuWkR-Sdz4v08_Krw2tNg/s900/IMG-20230304-WA0000-01.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Against a background of tangled long brownish grass, two fat daffodil bulbs are ready to bloom... any moment now... probably" border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="713" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqa2o9H5ABN8QBQ1KuPoNLxykXh2TTj6lF9EJVz-AQxieXfil6-gXCYvkd5MXpB71c_SYJurVnWt89rXfWPjqGX_ff5ReNewV7KhpGB4rmOHp5LsEU_90sd6v_COVqjErmdBgiYhSMrOzHLQZqX2lXMtdtHLQknjsCe17ofNuWkR-Sdz4v08_Krw2tNg/w254-h320/IMG-20230304-WA0000-01.jpeg" title="Daffodil buds" width="254" /></a><br /><br /></div><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span id="docs-internal-guid-b6150fbe-7fff-9fa6-29ff-fb5b13a77e85"><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"></p><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">Dear Readers, <br /></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline;">Here we are! Not lost, just busy, just tired, just taking a moment to sit with our shared flask of ginger tea, wiping our snotty noses, watching winter and spring swing around in their season-switching dance.</span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline;"><br />
</span>Hard frost crackles, soft petals bloom.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br />We had been busy with the old art of hedge laying, busy sorting and tidying the felled trunks, branches, and twigs. There are heaps and stacks and bundles - these boundaries have been untouched for decades - but birds are beginning to gather materials for nests, heralding the end of our hedgework for a while.<br />Our thoughts have turned to The Planting Plan, so we pace around measuring canopy distances before going home to pour over the map, again, again.<br /> <br />Two plum trees wait in pots, they have their spots marked.<br />Everything else is a maybe.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br />Down along the iron fence are lines and lines of daffodils, all in bud. Only one has opened, a miniature narcissus staring bravely up at the big world. We are inspired of course, though we, like the full-sized daffs, remain bundled in ideas, in the cosy fullness of promise.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br />Thank you for your patience, dear readers, dear followers of this adventure.<br />Please be assured that we would rather risk getting it wrong than not doing it, so soon we’ll be blithely skipping hither and thither through our margin for error; mess or success, it will be beautiful in fruition, for how can art, love, and nature combine in any other way?<br /><br />See you on the green side,<br />Me, Mr, and the many little helpers x </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><p></p></span></div><p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQBGJB9QmfmQXVVjHFPxyMRV8L52w7Cuvr5CX9OVwAlvWdK6WSqVX-gJA90YiieWKVuvQgfPYR7OJko9tSdPRXr2jSZXUHs0Du5y7KspTjOrNvvk9PPG5vbIxHqmH1tXTefBft-o_YPHnuDZXBnwkptKlpN5AA9UCd1h5Cha0jwX5gv2XnHKDq_9OiMQ/s3088/20230217_123844.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><img alt="Grandad is dragging a large bit of tree out of the hedge, there's a grandson behind him, sorting out other bits of felled wood." border="0" data-original-height="3088" data-original-width="3088" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQBGJB9QmfmQXVVjHFPxyMRV8L52w7Cuvr5CX9OVwAlvWdK6WSqVX-gJA90YiieWKVuvQgfPYR7OJko9tSdPRXr2jSZXUHs0Du5y7KspTjOrNvvk9PPG5vbIxHqmH1tXTefBft-o_YPHnuDZXBnwkptKlpN5AA9UCd1h5Cha0jwX5gv2XnHKDq_9OiMQ/w320-h320/20230217_123844.jpg" title="Hedge laying team" width="320" /></span></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Grandchild 4 learning how to lay hedges and tidy up</span></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><br /> </p><div class="blogger-post-footer"><g:plus href="https://plus.google.com/102412774245303060744" size="smallbadge"></g:plus>
</div>Lisa Southardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09711376747848601409noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6500425810028077954.post-2043292009195275192022-12-31T17:12:00.003+00:002022-12-31T17:12:55.033+00:00Ghost Dog And The Wobbles Of Progress<p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;"><br /></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhvzJwsr-IsOUqNz8hpNTbT-Jgrl1if7lMP1onnnxP5rKY0pJ4t8i6S3-qVRvN1qyqduIiKsI_HJ6gthnVMG-hq5eNYZKlzLucO3LdrjlDkTCBNPexzIAhDBwnd98MvruxOUWZ49CQfA30obBYmB_9tRYO3BsUYL1WoMxGP9kz2nYORfbQLNNBDFsw7jw/s1920/20221230_163904-01.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Under a darkening cloudy sky, a simple wooden Xmas tree is lit up with dots of white light" border="0" data-original-height="1920" data-original-width="1920" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhvzJwsr-IsOUqNz8hpNTbT-Jgrl1if7lMP1onnnxP5rKY0pJ4t8i6S3-qVRvN1qyqduIiKsI_HJ6gthnVMG-hq5eNYZKlzLucO3LdrjlDkTCBNPexzIAhDBwnd98MvruxOUWZ49CQfA30obBYmB_9tRYO3BsUYL1WoMxGP9kz2nYORfbQLNNBDFsw7jw/w320-h320/20221230_163904-01.jpeg" title="Xmas tree 2022" width="320" /></a></div><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;"><br /></span><div style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: left;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: arial;">‘1/1/22 Saturday<br /></span></span><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Last night just before midnight, we strolled down the dark lane, wine glasses in hand; spotted constellations, watched distant fireworks. <br /></span></span><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">This morning Dog had done several splats of foulness on the living room carpet.<br /></span></span><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">HNY!<br /></span></span><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Also this morning:<br /></span></span><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">In bed, chinking coffee cups, we say- what will this year bring? We hope it’s a track and a toilet shed.’</span></span></div><div style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><i><br /></i></span></span><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Well, we have a track on our land, all the way from top to bottom gate. It’s not as finely finished as we’d hoped, but it is here. We have a toilet shed, and it’s not the quality lumber we had hoped for, but it is built, and it will suffice. <br /></span></span><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Everything is layering up, however slow or wonky: up!<br /></span></span><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> <br /></span></span><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">There were, too, events that we did not foresee or hope for. <br /></span></span><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The van engine blew up. We can’t fix it. No one wishes to buy it, at least not yet. It will be utilised as a winter shelter on our land until a better idea/miracle arrives. A painful chunk of land fund went to buy a replacement vehicle, which is much cheaper to run so there is an offset to that loss. <br /></span></span><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Our companion of 14 hilarious years, our Midi Dog, passed away. The floors and aromas of our home are much fresher since but we would gladly resume clean up duties if we could have her back. You know it’s love when you miss their poops. (But when I dream of her she is never sad; she is our Ghost Dog, our tail whirling emblem of joy in simple moments.) <br /></span></span><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">There was the robbery, which held up work and knocked our faith in our plans.<br /></span></span><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">In a category of its own, there is the acceptable slowing down of work due to Mr’s much needed knee surgery (a total knee replacement, which he will talk you through with bone saws and lump hammers, so don’t ask if you’re squeamish), from which he is currently convalescing.</span></span><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">It has not been easy. It has been worth it.</span></span></div><div style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Would I rather we had not bought the land? Not risked failure? Sat safe in the realm of Talking About It and never known the fear of watching our dreams sink or swim? Ha!</span></span></div><div style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">But what do we dare hope for this year to bring? </span></span><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I wish to finish writing my current novel (I have been working on this for 100 years I think), and start the next (oh, so much promise in the notes, I long to live up to this); there are two children’s books (SO MUCH FUN!) I have mostly written, it would be satisfying to send them to print too. (I want to see the faces pulled at the ridiculousness I have spawned!)<br /></span></span><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">It would be marvellous of course, as well, to see more happpen on our land: to plant more trees, to grow grass on the levelled areas, ready for further adventures, for shared adventures, for all the ideas that tumble out of us- the tree houses and swimming ponds and willow tunnels and grottos and bowers and, why not, let’s build a wine cave!<br /></span></span><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">But above all, Dear New Year, just bring us patience. <br /></span></span><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Bring enough good news, enough achievements. <br /></span></span><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Bring resilience.<br /></span></span><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Let us go day by day, doing the next thing, doing the best we can with what we’ve got, and feel free to let wonderful luck find us- we are always open to that, amidst these wondrous wobbles of progress.</span></span></div><div style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span></div><div style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIAnmaZZay_GwTHtJQkd1hjjvhEvs50d_n9sWDSthkxon8fcjCj_QMwRl1vyXA3qXM9CXI_cA19RG_G9OAXU9rTYiRr95P0BDdGavA3_w8_76bGeejCp-U2dAgmP4yPbL1DoHnCKq2JOrICqKbimz5E13EaBBd9WLFHE7c4xAr1A8FzRPh7O-MoxlI8g/s3088/20221111_133809.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="A slender branch has been broken, where it pulls away from the trunk it reveals a heart shape in the raw wood" border="0" data-original-height="3088" data-original-width="3088" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIAnmaZZay_GwTHtJQkd1hjjvhEvs50d_n9sWDSthkxon8fcjCj_QMwRl1vyXA3qXM9CXI_cA19RG_G9OAXU9rTYiRr95P0BDdGavA3_w8_76bGeejCp-U2dAgmP4yPbL1DoHnCKq2JOrICqKbimz5E13EaBBd9WLFHE7c4xAr1A8FzRPh7O-MoxlI8g/w320-h320/20221111_133809.jpg" title="Tree heart" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Happy New Year</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span></div><p></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span id="docs-internal-guid-b542f51a-7fff-d234-313f-e95a45080e8c"><br /></span></p><div class="blogger-post-footer"><g:plus href="https://plus.google.com/102412774245303060744" size="smallbadge"></g:plus>
</div>Lisa Southardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09711376747848601409noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6500425810028077954.post-57944155936381990952022-12-12T17:58:00.004+00:002022-12-12T17:58:50.222+00:00Winterlove<p><span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjA0ihdJN_z4eSH0vyZtQKLiu9ea7lxgcPwjun85y1uo6uTlKjvHMkCz_LFAUoRFtyIljFj23nxeFtvx4weP_uuS71mibW-Gff-Y_NZ_ZUdwuHBSGSSkU5DLIsWGWFPbxAPqbAFKUvRBtqjdsFQmrp5iSplPopxr2QM_b7zRwZnIq0-R4KtlR_tHr1K1g/s3088/20221212_103041.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Two half domes of ice sandwich a smaller slice of ice, looks like a burger in a bun, but see through, also could be a mushroom, or a spaceship." border="0" data-original-height="3088" data-original-width="3088" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjA0ihdJN_z4eSH0vyZtQKLiu9ea7lxgcPwjun85y1uo6uTlKjvHMkCz_LFAUoRFtyIljFj23nxeFtvx4weP_uuS71mibW-Gff-Y_NZ_ZUdwuHBSGSSkU5DLIsWGWFPbxAPqbAFKUvRBtqjdsFQmrp5iSplPopxr2QM_b7zRwZnIq0-R4KtlR_tHr1K1g/w320-h320/20221212_103041.jpg" title="Ice scuplture" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p></p><div style="text-align: left;"><span id="docs-internal-guid-8ed7fab3-7fff-7b46-3621-d6bff569b27d"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">On this bitter cold morning we wake, expecting the heavy frost yet no less delighted, no less surprised. <br /></span></span></span><span id="docs-internal-guid-8ed7fab3-7fff-7b46-3621-d6bff569b27d"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Coffee and coats and boots are employed for warmth. <br /></span></span></span><span id="docs-internal-guid-8ed7fab3-7fff-7b46-3621-d6bff569b27d"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">We venture outside, we pour up and down the garden, exclaiming each treasure found- <br /></span></span></span><span id="docs-internal-guid-8ed7fab3-7fff-7b46-3621-d6bff569b27d"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Spider webs are made of barbed crystals!
<br /></span></span></span><span id="docs-internal-guid-8ed7fab3-7fff-7b46-3621-d6bff569b27d"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The sky above is cornflower blue, the greenery bold as summer but ice edged, bejewelled. The horizon lost in mist. Only here exists.<br /></span></span></span><span id="docs-internal-guid-8ed7fab3-7fff-7b46-3621-d6bff569b27d"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Mr and me, like two oversized children, our fingers stabbed with cold, are easing ice shapes out of containers; we are stacking the shapes into ice sculptures, making oosh noises of hurt, and ahh noises of joy: it’s beautiful! It’s alien! My poor fingers!
</span></span></span><span id="docs-internal-guid-8ed7fab3-7fff-7b46-3621-d6bff569b27d"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span></span><span id="docs-internal-guid-8ed7fab3-7fff-7b46-3621-d6bff569b27d"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Because ice melts, we seize the moment.<br /></span></span></span><span id="docs-internal-guid-8ed7fab3-7fff-7b46-3621-d6bff569b27d"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">See how impermanence is pain and wonder? See how it drives us into discovery?<br /></span></span></span><span id="docs-internal-guid-8ed7fab3-7fff-7b46-3621-d6bff569b27d"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">See how impermanence is the extraordinary in the ordinary?
<br /></span></span></span><span id="docs-internal-guid-8ed7fab3-7fff-7b46-3621-d6bff569b27d"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Every day there is something that you will never see again - it’s that, or never hold it in your sight at all. <br /></span></span></span><span id="docs-internal-guid-8ed7fab3-7fff-7b46-3621-d6bff569b27d"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Every day there is something that you will never see again - but if you have opened your heart to it, it never leaves you.
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6SLi_LwsHjdo320JiI7tlCqpmAu2GurgPa4SyVPb8-yt5CBFZrL5r_pLGfokbUq23_y8Xeaf4KdKmUp0VW2d5ApenqgaFmRV3NpoUanuAOK4fqaPeD5RkRbWQ1KTwW7_I59La-xa8qEiNw-HPRHAkUpA38uj4Oiq626JyWsPdSHSEaXcKp3HXDqThNA/s1684/20221212_101409.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Spider web lagged with ice, looks like white barbed wire" border="0" data-original-height="1684" data-original-width="1684" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6SLi_LwsHjdo320JiI7tlCqpmAu2GurgPa4SyVPb8-yt5CBFZrL5r_pLGfokbUq23_y8Xeaf4KdKmUp0VW2d5ApenqgaFmRV3NpoUanuAOK4fqaPeD5RkRbWQ1KTwW7_I59La-xa8qEiNw-HPRHAkUpA38uj4Oiq626JyWsPdSHSEaXcKp3HXDqThNA/w320-h320/20221212_101409.jpg" title="Ice web" width="320" /></a></div><br /> </span></span></span></div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><g:plus href="https://plus.google.com/102412774245303060744" size="smallbadge"></g:plus>
</div>Lisa Southardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09711376747848601409noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6500425810028077954.post-30665861908514442602022-10-31T11:52:00.000+00:002022-10-31T11:52:48.362+00:00Beginnings, Halloween 2022<div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhpFzDsxZyUMrYdsS2fQHIoqlOgTtQhonS3mjaklZbAqB1GKZe4mlbDEDwGTvBbBEzkzJiJeI9nv5UnBAFJbw_VmafU3fTG9k5ZYkiAmZRAdmQUyVX9-rEmxcFVHhr20d5UIgmhydSEHM87oIj0dOxvmc-UCqOSTq98wLPwScS-Oj7RC4s7-TLMsa52g/s3088/20221026_142535-01.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Pumpkins, one small, one large, uncarved" border="0" data-original-height="3088" data-original-width="3088" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhpFzDsxZyUMrYdsS2fQHIoqlOgTtQhonS3mjaklZbAqB1GKZe4mlbDEDwGTvBbBEzkzJiJeI9nv5UnBAFJbw_VmafU3fTG9k5ZYkiAmZRAdmQUyVX9-rEmxcFVHhr20d5UIgmhydSEHM87oIj0dOxvmc-UCqOSTq98wLPwScS-Oj7RC4s7-TLMsa52g/w320-h320/20221026_142535-01.jpeg" title="Uncarved Pumpkins" width="320" /></a></div><br /><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Today I was stuck, briefly, in traffic. Gulls were keening, a sound that goes into my soul in a good way. <br /></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: arial;">When did I last sit to listen to the gulls? </span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></span></span><span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: arial;">I've been busy with good things but oh my! I am tired. <br /></span></span></span><span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: arial;">I knew that I was tired this time, I have been taking more breaks, resting up, allowing myself to miss our Dog, and clearly, I had better keep doing this. I always think a quick respite will do; sometimes one needs a stretch of rest. <br /></span></span></span><span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: arial;">I keep writing. Writing can be done in gentle accruals and then becomes an activity that can feed me back.</span></span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: arial;"> <br /></span></span></span><span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: arial;">I did not write a Halloween story though, not even a comforting one, instead, I am keeping the tradition of sharing some writing with you, Dear Readers.</span></span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: arial;">
</span></span></span><span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Below are two extracts from the peripherals of the novel I am slowly completing; the first is a prequel that I wrote for my own guidance so probably will not be included in the final edit, the second is an attempt at describing the story, which will probably be rewritten over and over until there's no ink left in the universe.</span></span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: arial;"> </span></span></span><span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: arial;">
</span></span></span><span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Beginnings are hopeful things, all fresh, charged with energy, like gull-clatter, like sea breezes.<br /></span></span></span><span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: arial;">I will rest, recharge, begin again, again, and again.</span></span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">
</span></span><span id="docs-internal-guid-81970115-7fff-7cfc-1d52-6dc3e6b995de"><span style="font-family: Georgia; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Prequel:</span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span id="docs-internal-guid-81970115-7fff-7cfc-1d52-6dc3e6b995de"><span style="font-family: Georgia; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">
</span></span><span id="docs-internal-guid-81970115-7fff-7cfc-1d52-6dc3e6b995de"><span style="font-family: Georgia; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">In the beginning, if that can be said, for this was before time was born, there were no realms, no worlds; all matter was fluid. <br /></span></span><span id="docs-internal-guid-81970115-7fff-7cfc-1d52-6dc3e6b995de"><span style="font-family: Georgia; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The Whale Mother swam in a metaphysical pool, from the dark side to the lit where the stars, the moons, and the suns all were buoyant forms but not yet transient. </span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span><span style="font-family: Georgia; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span><span id="docs-internal-guid-81970115-7fff-7cfc-1d52-6dc3e6b995de"><span style="font-family: Georgia; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Ankow too was a celestial light, more dream than reality. <br /></span></span><span id="docs-internal-guid-81970115-7fff-7cfc-1d52-6dc3e6b995de"><span style="font-family: Georgia; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Everything hummed with boundless life. </span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span id="docs-internal-guid-81970115-7fff-7cfc-1d52-6dc3e6b995de"><span style="font-family: Georgia; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span><span id="docs-internal-guid-81970115-7fff-7cfc-1d52-6dc3e6b995de"><span style="font-family: Georgia; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Change sidled in, in tiny increments; a slight alteration of a star’s position, a shadow moving, a breath stealing through the flux. It began to turn water to water, air to air, fire to fire, earth to earth; it began to separate existence into Worlds And Realms.<br /></span></span><span id="docs-internal-guid-81970115-7fff-7cfc-1d52-6dc3e6b995de"><span style="font-family: Georgia; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> <br /></span></span><span id="docs-internal-guid-81970115-7fff-7cfc-1d52-6dc3e6b995de"><span style="font-family: Georgia; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The Whale Mother could still swim between these places. She blew magic into each - the solid creation of the Physical, the swirling absurdity of the Imaginary, the plasticity of the Clay.</span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span id="docs-internal-guid-81970115-7fff-7cfc-1d52-6dc3e6b995de"><span style="font-family: Georgia; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span><span id="docs-internal-guid-81970115-7fff-7cfc-1d52-6dc3e6b995de"><span style="font-family: Georgia; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">‘Ankow,’ she whispered, ‘time is creeping towards us, you must wake up.’<br /></span></span><span id="docs-internal-guid-81970115-7fff-7cfc-1d52-6dc3e6b995de"><span style="font-family: Georgia; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Ankow opened her eyes. A tear traced down her cheek for she recognised her waking as a loss.<br /></span></span><span id="docs-internal-guid-81970115-7fff-7cfc-1d52-6dc3e6b995de"><span style="font-family: Georgia; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">‘Why, Great Mother? Why is this happening?’<br /></span></span><span id="docs-internal-guid-81970115-7fff-7cfc-1d52-6dc3e6b995de"><span style="font-family: Georgia; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">‘At some point,’ the Whale Mother sighed, ‘the Infinite wishes to know itself. It is all things, including reckless.’</span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span><span style="font-family: Georgia; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span><span id="docs-internal-guid-81970115-7fff-7cfc-1d52-6dc3e6b995de"><span style="font-family: Georgia; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">After this, the change came all at once. It came like branched lightning, like earthquakes; it was the first storm. It cracked existence further apart. <br /></span></span><span id="docs-internal-guid-81970115-7fff-7cfc-1d52-6dc3e6b995de"><span style="font-family: Georgia; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">It made the Summerlands, and the Low Realm, and what was left of their perfect infinity became the Otherworld. <br /></span></span><span id="docs-internal-guid-81970115-7fff-7cfc-1d52-6dc3e6b995de"><span style="font-family: Georgia; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">There were further dreamers in the Otherworld with her, shaded entities that settled back to sleep. <br /></span></span><span id="docs-internal-guid-81970115-7fff-7cfc-1d52-6dc3e6b995de"><span style="font-family: Georgia; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">In each world there were slivers of light, and these became seeds.<br /></span></span><span id="docs-internal-guid-81970115-7fff-7cfc-1d52-6dc3e6b995de"><span style="font-family: Georgia; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> <br /></span></span><span id="docs-internal-guid-81970115-7fff-7cfc-1d52-6dc3e6b995de"><span style="font-family: Georgia; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">‘You must watch them. You will be Ankow the Reaper, the Sower and the Gatherer, Queen of the Balance twixt Life and Death, Goddess from Before Time; and you will be busy.’<br /></span></span><span id="docs-internal-guid-81970115-7fff-7cfc-1d52-6dc3e6b995de"><span style="font-family: Georgia; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">‘As you command, Great Mother.’<br /></span></span><span id="docs-internal-guid-81970115-7fff-7cfc-1d52-6dc3e6b995de"><span style="font-family: Georgia; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">‘Oh, and you will need a spider.’<br /></span></span><span id="docs-internal-guid-81970115-7fff-7cfc-1d52-6dc3e6b995de"><span style="font-family: Georgia; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">‘Where will I-’<br /></span></span><span id="docs-internal-guid-81970115-7fff-7cfc-1d52-6dc3e6b995de"><span style="font-family: Georgia; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">‘The Physical World. I will teach you what you need as we journey.’</span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span><span style="font-family: Georgia; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span><span style="font-family: Georgia; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span><span><span style="font-family: Georgia; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Blurby Bit:</span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span><span style="font-family: Georgia; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span><span style="font-family: Georgia; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">A spider, no bigger than a small hill, lives in a stone cell in between worlds.
Skylen Faven, the Great Weaver, can see into all six worlds; the balance of existence depends on her quiet curation of stories.</span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: large; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">To keep safe, to fulfill her role, she must stay hidden even from her beloved Reaper - but the Demonry is determined, she aches from her heart to her toes, and all the stories, including the vital prophesies, keep twisting.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: large; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">This is a tale of love; a tale of ice cream, butterflies, kindness, cocoa, life and death; and it begins with a battle.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: large; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: large; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEicB0eob_-npD5REqiTcGIb4u4osFQYheypFXDUA046IE8GQet2o-0RWaBHz_6qBkk9gX2uBfFSrrmss0S3isA79gGKLDnxSmdjQFMbGVskfHhNla8mlmySeJd7TBufj3ws_q8p7nmsDVy1pFQWVUoe2ZYLJ0WAjJyxNWyaI9VKmEEb7xSgzK-hpYfaYg/s3088/IMG_20221016_201554_181.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Spider outline on an orange lantern, looks cute and spooky" border="0" data-original-height="3088" data-original-width="3088" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEicB0eob_-npD5REqiTcGIb4u4osFQYheypFXDUA046IE8GQet2o-0RWaBHz_6qBkk9gX2uBfFSrrmss0S3isA79gGKLDnxSmdjQFMbGVskfHhNla8mlmySeJd7TBufj3ws_q8p7nmsDVy1pFQWVUoe2ZYLJ0WAjJyxNWyaI9VKmEEb7xSgzK-hpYfaYg/w320-h320/IMG_20221016_201554_181.jpg" title="Spider lantern" width="320" /></a></div><br /><span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: large; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><br /></div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><g:plus href="https://plus.google.com/102412774245303060744" size="smallbadge"></g:plus>
</div>Lisa Southardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09711376747848601409noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6500425810028077954.post-30822192087223473652022-10-14T14:28:00.000+01:002022-10-14T14:28:24.495+01:00Eulogy For Dog<p style="text-align: left;"><span id="docs-internal-guid-694db4ce-7fff-b0ed-568f-9dc0271a7636"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgiNNyJ31B_zL1d-36Oln6wL-7lsvJeJUMR70dC_ej5VDhvpohLbkP4K1pEwNKhS0DZSekRzaI4Rcaeau7UxdGI7tzQmLHAmMo4HS-TyGgFn_evKI9Ubo4l6fyjuD75WwbeT4YQm9sDaK6HTE3Lgcoq3-honXm65Mp5GjdGD44Gr9uXtHxoJ2bI2IeMig/s1920/InShot_20221009_202610978.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Super cute wet spaniel sits coyly in a car seat" border="0" data-original-height="1920" data-original-width="1920" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgiNNyJ31B_zL1d-36Oln6wL-7lsvJeJUMR70dC_ej5VDhvpohLbkP4K1pEwNKhS0DZSekRzaI4Rcaeau7UxdGI7tzQmLHAmMo4HS-TyGgFn_evKI9Ubo4l6fyjuD75WwbeT4YQm9sDaK6HTE3Lgcoq3-honXm65Mp5GjdGD44Gr9uXtHxoJ2bI2IeMig/w320-h320/InShot_20221009_202610978.jpg" title="Midi Dog after a beach run" width="320" /></a></div><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><div><span><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">We had wanted a puppy and while at 10 months old she was not quite that, we saw her in the rescue home and we knew she was right for us. </span></span></span><span><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span></span><span><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">She was a liver and white Springer Spaniel, real name Midi (not too big, not too small) with a slender, tentative form. <br /></span></span></span><span><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I respected her privacy so online she was known as Dog- many of you, Dear Readers, have watched her grow up with us, and will be sorry to learn that her adventures have ended now: please read on, come with us, it will be okay.
</span></span></span><span><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span></span><span><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The hesitancy young Midi Spaniel held towards her new home was reserved for indoors. <br /></span></span></span><span><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Outdoors she was absurdly reckless, usually clumsy. She pelted over barbed wire, through thorns, jumped five bar gates; she threw herself into the sea, the river, the lake, the muddy puddles, rolled merrily in dung- she hated the bath. <br /></span></span></span><span><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">She did not much care for the company of other dogs, though with persistence she learned tolerance, and once fell in reciprocal love. <br /></span></span></span><span><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">She adored children. <br /></span></span></span><span><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Children could be trained to play fetch for hours, they dropped or outright divvied up their food, they shared her delight in mud, sand, and wild water.
</span></span></span><span><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span></span><span><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">She had a particular relationship with each person, so we all have Dog stories-<br /></span></span></span><span><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">She stole and ate a large delicious pasty (posthumously forgiven).<br /></span></span></span><span><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">She rolled in dead whale blubber. <br /></span></span></span><span><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">She caught a squirrel under her paw but wouldn’t drop her ball to bite it. <br /></span></span></span><span><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">She fell off everything. <br /></span></span></span><span><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">She was a smiler. <br /></span></span></span><span><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">She would pat us with her paw for attention, often in the face. <br /></span></span></span><span><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">She once saved a life, alerting me to a choking care client. She had special care for the vulnerable- was even caught consoling her nemesis Cat during a stressful journey.
</span></span></span><span><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span></span><span><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Midi-Dog was part of our lives, our adventures, our family. We knew her likes and dislikes, we knew her smell, her bark, the way her tail went around in circles when she ran. <br /></span></span></span><span><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The quirky energy of her is imprinted on us.
</span></span></span><span><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span></span><span><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">As she aged, she slowed. <br /></span></span></span><span><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Her limbs twisted with arthritis, she was clumsier than ever, always under our feet. <br /></span></span></span><span><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">She was venerable. <br /></span></span></span><span><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The younger dogs of the family deferred to her, no matter how frail she was. The younger rumbustious children stroked her head with unexpected gentleness. Her toilet habits were not intended to be impolite, so we cleaned up after her, never cross. <br /></span></span></span><span><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">She had grown into us so much that we couldn't imagine ourselves without her.
</span></span></span><span><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span></span><span><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Then comes a day when we know she is dying, and we do not let her down.<br /></span></span></span><span><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">We do the best palliative care. She has home visits from family, we read her all the messages that are sent. She is bed-bathed, fed water from a pipette, kept warm and comfortable, and unstressed. She trusts us entirely. <br /></span></span></span><span><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">She has had such a fun life!
<br /></span></span></span><span><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">On the sofa, with me and Mr at her side, her breaths become gaping, her heart slows. <br /></span></span></span><span><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Only when she is gone do we break the quiet with our tears.<br /></span></span></span><span><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> <br /></span></span></span><span><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">When we break the news, many more tears follow.
</span></span></span><span><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span></span><span><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">We said goodbye to her physical presence, sadness balanced with love and stories.<br /></span></span></span><span><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> <br /></span></span></span><span><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">With children and grandchildren, that evening, we sat out on our land and watched the moon rise, and shared our remembrances.
</span></span></span><span><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span></span><span><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">We each (you as well, Dear Readers) have our own ghost of a Dog to trot at our heels till we also are gone. <br /></span></span></span><span><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Let us keep the fun running, no matter how clumsy. <br /></span></span></span><span><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Let us too leave love and stories.</span></span></span></div><div><span><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjGm6ffcPVyp6bfsL_-A4FHT9GiQoQOhie4J1LhPbfDVdJL7yQcFqLhnJqRjYFQ76Colw8OVWEtxmzsKTSvxHMdbbjmBiUWSYVSi9cRU8yGNOatSWyi3liaBe7MbAfBvbChlyluHHDIulp7l_mnyxC9epW_TmIk6w8uQKT86ncal_17kwHTe3Yv9AlqeA/s1920/InShot_20221009_201251528%20(1).jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Super cute spaniel smiling, she has a bow in her hair" border="0" data-original-height="1920" data-original-width="1920" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjGm6ffcPVyp6bfsL_-A4FHT9GiQoQOhie4J1LhPbfDVdJL7yQcFqLhnJqRjYFQ76Colw8OVWEtxmzsKTSvxHMdbbjmBiUWSYVSi9cRU8yGNOatSWyi3liaBe7MbAfBvbChlyluHHDIulp7l_mnyxC9epW_TmIk6w8uQKT86ncal_17kwHTe3Yv9AlqeA/w320-h320/InShot_20221009_201251528%20(1).jpg" title="Smiling Midi Dog" width="320" /></a></div><br /><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span></span></div><p></p><div class="blogger-post-footer"><g:plus href="https://plus.google.com/102412774245303060744" size="smallbadge"></g:plus>
</div>Lisa Southardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09711376747848601409noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6500425810028077954.post-33454660615523224952022-09-25T16:10:00.001+01:002022-09-25T16:10:35.025+01:00Dear Autumn<div style="text-align: left;"><span><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgd_cs4IxZwEAcn23ldUUpXY0yIJCGtSRk_qF2xSoi0tpNqEwE_o9AyAODUCEB8oC8FbBy7vNpCakjInazaUWU0fxwxtyP0v35Sh2jPIdXPLlV58XCFxL1gh67EVT94fte0gDPed4jJTH9_51X3mTt1099-Ye3_VbRBDjf7i33G733BslxlSeUkfZZVkg/s2289/IMG_20220827_224724_862.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="A log fire glows in the dark" border="0" data-original-height="2289" data-original-width="2289" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgd_cs4IxZwEAcn23ldUUpXY0yIJCGtSRk_qF2xSoi0tpNqEwE_o9AyAODUCEB8oC8FbBy7vNpCakjInazaUWU0fxwxtyP0v35Sh2jPIdXPLlV58XCFxL1gh67EVT94fte0gDPed4jJTH9_51X3mTt1099-Ye3_VbRBDjf7i33G733BslxlSeUkfZZVkg/w320-h320/IMG_20220827_224724_862.jpg" title="Fire pit" width="320" /></a></div><br /><br /></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span id="docs-internal-guid-cbfb9732-7fff-3bcd-384c-fc7c446556df"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">This year, here, the Equinox has slipped by: not shy, not overlooked, more elegant, understated.
This year, here, Autumn steps quietly, her satin gown spun from late summer sun, nut-bronze, gold-stitched.
Her jewels are hedge-fruits, her crown is copperleaf.
Where she steps the earth is rich with mulch, and tree branches bend, weighted by their crop. <br /></span></span></span><span id="docs-internal-guid-cbfb9732-7fff-3bcd-384c-fc7c446556df"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">She is kind and stern, for all of this should be enough.
<br /></span></span></span><span id="docs-internal-guid-cbfb9732-7fff-3bcd-384c-fc7c446556df"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">We are in the garden, licking blackberry juice from purple fingers, picking out thorns, reaching for apples to eat, picking up windfalls to brew, glad to be here, this and every year.<br /></span></span></span><span id="docs-internal-guid-cbfb9732-7fff-3bcd-384c-fc7c446556df"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">In our fields we pluck sloes, and more blackberries.<br /></span></span></span><span id="docs-internal-guid-cbfb9732-7fff-3bcd-384c-fc7c446556df"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Logs are stacked for longer nights. We feel the sun, smoothly warm, and the crackle of cold in the air: it is more than enough.
It is the seasonal rhythm of life.
<br /></span></span></span><span id="docs-internal-guid-cbfb9732-7fff-3bcd-384c-fc7c446556df"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Dear Autumn, we thank you for this abundance, we honour you by the work of harvest and stores.
When winter treads in you will be with us in jars, in hot bubbles of fruit, in the rich fat of nut flours, in our replete resting: then we will honour you with sharing, with generosity of warmth and fodder. <br /></span></span></span><span id="docs-internal-guid-cbfb9732-7fff-3bcd-384c-fc7c446556df"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Dear Autumn, step quietly and watch.</span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiS9J195mzfkugtROqDX5h2FCdqe_jScYWBsxFjm2ZAx0_Hsq7KZ1ISg13mkCkSwr4ulutoDb4a9Y01fb-5kvuOl9JJwjcFbccbEu3EJBH-Tn1gcFyb0-kuYxiGVYxf7SNaCQ5SmNPjwqk2ye1IL5rQNKOlLR5GuKE3KE65zkMUqyjjqPek3FvyWgRbiA/s3088/IMG_20220826_182514_611.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="A gnarly old tree stump that looks like a happy troll face" border="0" data-original-height="3088" data-original-width="3088" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiS9J195mzfkugtROqDX5h2FCdqe_jScYWBsxFjm2ZAx0_Hsq7KZ1ISg13mkCkSwr4ulutoDb4a9Y01fb-5kvuOl9JJwjcFbccbEu3EJBH-Tn1gcFyb0-kuYxiGVYxf7SNaCQ5SmNPjwqk2ye1IL5rQNKOlLR5GuKE3KE65zkMUqyjjqPek3FvyWgRbiA/w320-h320/IMG_20220826_182514_611.jpg" title="Tree face" width="320" /></a></div><br />
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</div>Lisa Southardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09711376747848601409noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6500425810028077954.post-12008179902318592572022-08-19T14:14:00.000+01:002022-08-19T14:14:17.091+01:00The Never-Ending Shed Story: Part Two<div style="text-align: left;"><span><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.blogger.com/video.g?token=AD6v5dz47sWJOyCXxRJZkb8Utv3HE6CF0hDVIoR04qQwVA1g6iZlt1TxsayFfwGNRZMTVoZMAnqRwQa978ZQ0UOvqg' class='b-hbp-video b-uploaded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span id="docs-internal-guid-e770d20e-7fff-3a7a-f9c6-89168940a4aa"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Day 8: We waited for cooler hours before loading up the van, intent on finishing the shed build.<br /></span></span></span><span id="docs-internal-guid-e770d20e-7fff-3a7a-f9c6-89168940a4aa"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The Shed Saga finale! <br /></span></span></span><span id="docs-internal-guid-e770d20e-7fff-3a7a-f9c6-89168940a4aa"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">We were optimistically wrong, of course, though the roof felt was tacked down, and both the fascia and the perched diamond of finial were drilled in. <br /></span></span></span><span id="docs-internal-guid-e770d20e-7fff-3a7a-f9c6-89168940a4aa"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The field grass was looking parched, it was the colour of wheat biscuits. Crickets chirped- they always sound merry. We were hot and sticky like two marinated chunks. <br /></span></span></span><span id="docs-internal-guid-e770d20e-7fff-3a7a-f9c6-89168940a4aa"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">‘It looks like a shed,’ we observed, surprised. ‘We should get the doors hinged!’<br /></span></span></span><span id="docs-internal-guid-e770d20e-7fff-3a7a-f9c6-89168940a4aa"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">But our stomachs were growling and we were clumsy-tired. <br /></span></span></span><span id="docs-internal-guid-e770d20e-7fff-3a7a-f9c6-89168940a4aa"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The doors would have to be another adventure. <br /></span></span></span><span id="docs-internal-guid-e770d20e-7fff-3a7a-f9c6-89168940a4aa"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Meanwhile, it was time for cooking burgers in the van, for getting our stable sofa bed ready for a well-earned sleep, for setting up one table and two chairs under the sweep of the ash tree, looking down across the lower field as the sun dipped behind us and the nearly-full pink-faced moon rose up from the tree line on the opposite hill. <br /></span></span></span><span id="docs-internal-guid-e770d20e-7fff-3a7a-f9c6-89168940a4aa"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">We fetched out our reclining chairs, improvised a wine table, kicked back and stargazed.<br /></span></span></span><span id="docs-internal-guid-e770d20e-7fff-3a7a-f9c6-89168940a4aa"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Somehow, after all the heat of the day, the stable managed to get cold overnight. </span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span id="docs-internal-guid-e770d20e-7fff-3a7a-f9c6-89168940a4aa"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span></span><span id="docs-internal-guid-e770d20e-7fff-3a7a-f9c6-89168940a4aa"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Day 9: We awoke creaky from cold - Mr brewed coffee and by the time that was ready we were hot again. We sat out in the shade of our favourite ash tree, sipping coffee, breakfasting on leftover burgers, while a robin warbled overhead.
Ash tree leaves make beautiful shadows. <br /></span></span></span><span id="docs-internal-guid-e770d20e-7fff-3a7a-f9c6-89168940a4aa"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Then: once more, unto the shed, dear friends! <br /></span></span></span><span id="docs-internal-guid-e770d20e-7fff-3a7a-f9c6-89168940a4aa"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The doors do not fit. We were not surprised. <br /></span></span></span><span id="docs-internal-guid-e770d20e-7fff-3a7a-f9c6-89168940a4aa"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">We puzzled it through and decided there must be amendments that must be done at home, so the project is on hold again- but we lay a length of weed suppressant membrane on the last camping bay before we go home.<br /></span></span></span><span id="docs-internal-guid-e770d20e-7fff-3a7a-f9c6-89168940a4aa"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">It’s health-warning hot. </span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span id="docs-internal-guid-e770d20e-7fff-3a7a-f9c6-89168940a4aa"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span></span><span id="docs-internal-guid-e770d20e-7fff-3a7a-f9c6-89168940a4aa"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Day 10: </span></span></span><span id="docs-internal-guid-e770d20e-7fff-3a7a-f9c6-89168940a4aa"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">After coffee rituals and one load of laundry, we left Old Dog home (too hot for dogs, even hosed down ones with cool-mats) and ventured to the land to jiggle about with our shed doors and effervescent expectations.<br /></span></span></span><span id="docs-internal-guid-e770d20e-7fff-3a7a-f9c6-89168940a4aa"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">While we attempted to think, we also secured another length of weed suppressant membrane. We were slathered in sweat- if we were candles we would have melted to stubs by now.<br /></span></span></span><span id="docs-internal-guid-e770d20e-7fff-3a7a-f9c6-89168940a4aa"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Mr slid away to measure the door struts. <br /></span></span></span><span id="docs-internal-guid-e770d20e-7fff-3a7a-f9c6-89168940a4aa"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I went on a tour, across the road, down a rope, and into the River Deer where the water is muddy with an oily sheen but still beautiful with the sun streaming through the tree cover and the damselflies sparkling; and cool. Climbed back up the rope, dripped all the way back to the shed. <br /></span></span></span><span id="docs-internal-guid-e770d20e-7fff-3a7a-f9c6-89168940a4aa"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Heat was throbbing, like the earth was having a heart attack. My river-wet shoes dried so fast I would not be surprised if they’d shrunk. <br /></span></span></span><span id="docs-internal-guid-e770d20e-7fff-3a7a-f9c6-89168940a4aa"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">We had the measurements we needed now, probably, so we drove home to nap.
Old Dog was upside down sleeping on the sofa, she only moved for food.<br /></span></span></span><span id="docs-internal-guid-e770d20e-7fff-3a7a-f9c6-89168940a4aa"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">This evening the moon was so red it looked sunburned. </span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span id="docs-internal-guid-e770d20e-7fff-3a7a-f9c6-89168940a4aa"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span></span><span id="docs-internal-guid-e770d20e-7fff-3a7a-f9c6-89168940a4aa"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Day 11: Mr braved the heat in his shed to continue creating workarounds for our nemesis shed-in-progress. A lively hot breeze was blowing. If it rubbed two sticks together it could start a fire.<br /></span></span></span><span id="docs-internal-guid-e770d20e-7fff-3a7a-f9c6-89168940a4aa"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">In the evening we set up a bed outside. The moon was so bright it disturbed my sleep, but also so magical I couldn’t go indoors and miss this.
Dog wandered out, up and down the garden in the cool air. She walked over our bed but it was not to her taste so she slept on the grass.
</span></span></span><span id="docs-internal-guid-e770d20e-7fff-3a7a-f9c6-89168940a4aa"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span></span><span id="docs-internal-guid-e770d20e-7fff-3a7a-f9c6-89168940a4aa"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Starlog Date 2052: Just before 6am: sky bright with moon and rising sun, clouds bobbled and pink. Clutching coffee mugs, we sat in our outdoor bed with hedge-birds flitting over our covers as though we had always been there. Afterwards we hung the dew-damp blankets up to dry and blearily began our day. Dog pestered for breakfast - she’d been hopeful since 2am - then retired to the sofa. <br /></span></span></span><span id="docs-internal-guid-e770d20e-7fff-3a7a-f9c6-89168940a4aa"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">This afternoon, when tree shade covered the shed site, we ACTUALLY HUNG THE DOORS.
We fitted the hasp and staple lock but didn't lock it, because we’d rather a nefarious visitor could see there’s nothing inside worth stealing, only a stepladder and the echoes of our building frustrations.
We high-fived and went home- and did not yet open any celebratory bottles. <br /></span></span></span><span id="docs-internal-guid-e770d20e-7fff-3a7a-f9c6-89168940a4aa"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The veranda, guttering, ramp, rain butt, and solar lighting attempts hover in our future.<br /></span></span></span><span id="docs-internal-guid-e770d20e-7fff-3a7a-f9c6-89168940a4aa"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Dare we say it can’t be as bad?<br /></span></span></span><span id="docs-internal-guid-e770d20e-7fff-3a7a-f9c6-89168940a4aa"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Er, no. <br /></span></span></span><span id="docs-internal-guid-e770d20e-7fff-3a7a-f9c6-89168940a4aa"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">But we did say, again, just as surprised: ‘It looks like a shed!’</span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLsEdGYWwT5NAmityjozJj3r4VTqeCfYoo6LX-j2kvvGXxWXJwYSIJh_GBgOHwr1L00i_z-CqaW8e9f1mPFlEY8CrySsYLTg3F1rcfswxEPIWIMbowbx5nJjXNmauA6QUPIF-2fq8DtldJfE16Qb5qcuJ7i2sfJxjHTXlDODNXbQtzxDGIHY4OZTC0Gg/s1920/20220814_062821-01.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Two coffee mugs are being chinked together over a tiger striped bedcover that is set out on a lawn. There's a view of blue sky." border="0" data-original-height="1920" data-original-width="1920" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLsEdGYWwT5NAmityjozJj3r4VTqeCfYoo6LX-j2kvvGXxWXJwYSIJh_GBgOHwr1L00i_z-CqaW8e9f1mPFlEY8CrySsYLTg3F1rcfswxEPIWIMbowbx5nJjXNmauA6QUPIF-2fq8DtldJfE16Qb5qcuJ7i2sfJxjHTXlDODNXbQtzxDGIHY4OZTC0Gg/w320-h320/20220814_062821-01.jpeg" title="Coffee in an outdoor bed" width="320" /></a></div><br /><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span></span></div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><g:plus href="https://plus.google.com/102412774245303060744" size="smallbadge"></g:plus>
</div>Lisa Southardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09711376747848601409noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6500425810028077954.post-64950590138433942952022-08-13T16:11:00.001+01:002022-08-19T14:23:57.484+01:00The Never-Ending Shed Story: Part One<p style="text-align: left;"><span id="docs-internal-guid-71d55245-7fff-5225-7f87-9820b3382854"></span></p><div style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: left;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><i><br /></i></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><i><b><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhkNRmeJC9uclB-jHedeZHU1gVp0efdnOYVGRRgyPFS_cMoUjArFOEiUFEPT7kZldsxyrlE-gIJTch--Slvp8lljHQ1DMux-R6FJKjsGHOj8d4VEwwAmJGvJ9oPQbB9rdxVmA_TmXltMPMHedrg_sJO4b6TdLeEju4PIqqMtUX1CS4tuklfUug3DbJ7WA/s3088/20220805_111551.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Man holding drill and looking perplexed viewed from inside a partly constructed wooden shed" border="0" data-original-height="3088" data-original-width="3088" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhkNRmeJC9uclB-jHedeZHU1gVp0efdnOYVGRRgyPFS_cMoUjArFOEiUFEPT7kZldsxyrlE-gIJTch--Slvp8lljHQ1DMux-R6FJKjsGHOj8d4VEwwAmJGvJ9oPQbB9rdxVmA_TmXltMPMHedrg_sJO4b6TdLeEju4PIqqMtUX1CS4tuklfUug3DbJ7WA/w320-h320/20220805_111551.jpg" title="Man perplexed by shed" width="320" /></a></b></i></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><i><br /></i></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><i><br /></i></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><i style="font-family: "Dancing Script"; font-size: large;">'January 1st, 2022: </i><i style="font-family: "Dancing Script"; font-size: large;"><span style="text-align: left; white-space: pre-wrap;">In bed, chinking coffee cups, we say- what will this year bring? We hope it’s a track and a toilet shed.'</span></i></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><i style="font-family: "Dancing Script"; font-size: large;"><span style="text-align: left; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></i></div></div><div style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Day 1: Our DIY shed kit having been scheduled for delivery on a day on which neither of us was working, we arrived at the land having barely finished our morning coffee. <br /></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Mr had pre-constructed a base, 10 feet by 8 feet, which we diligently levelled. <br /></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Then we waited. <br /></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">We had a picnic lunch. <br /></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">We napped in the dapples under an ash tree. <br /></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">We had afternoon snacks. We wandered to survey the wild blooms, discovered an unexpected tomato plant. <br /></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Somewhere between 4 and 5pm the van arrived and was directed up to the shed site; the terse driver helped us unload, and then sped away to the next ‘place in the middle of nowhere.’ <br /></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">We stared at the heap of flimsy panels and knew that we were wrong to skimp and go for the good price and let ourselves be lulled by the internet write-up.<br /></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">But perhaps we let our expectations run too far? <br /></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">There’s one way to find out - start the adventure!<br /></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">We put the floor panels down on the base- they did not fit flush with each other. There were nails sticking up. We hammered the nails, moved the panels around to get the best fit, and then realised that while the base was a perfect 10x8 feet, the floor was not. The base required some adjustment, and that must be done at home. <br /></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">We were hot and tired, home was a welcome thought. <br /></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">We will leave the big build for tomorrow, we said.
</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Day 2: The reconfigured base was a fine fit. We fixed down the floor, after deciphering tiny diagrammed instructions. Following these instructions, next we tackled the wall panels: they were of different heights. Not by much, just enough to make extra ventilation, at least that’s what we convinced ourselves.<br /></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">While we worked- <br /></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Dog snoozed in the shade, or sauntered around our feet as though this was helpful. <br /></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">A warm wind whispered through the brambles. <br /></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Blackberries sweetened in the hedgerows. <br /></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">We heard buzzards call far up in the clear sky. <br /></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The air smelt of hot earth; we were constantly thirsty. Trekking to the tap was a steep walk.
But we have wanted this shed for a long time, even if it isn’t the shed of our dreams, it is a meaningful progression. We knew we would make mistakes- how else to get things done, how else to learn? <br /></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">It’s a shed and a metaphor now; it’s the poetry of throwing yourself beyond the comfort zone.<br /></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Getting the roof panels straight was definitely uncomfortable: physically, mentally, emotionally draining. We stopped halfway; the back two perched almost acceptably; as we had run out of patience and ideas, and had to get to Bude, and dig out the energy to teach two hours of Tae Kwon-Do, after which we went to the Sea Pool and swam off the day’s heat. <br /></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">(Dog was left in the shade at home, with her cool mat to lie on and a large bowl of water, lest anyone should be concerned for her comfort.)</span></span></div><div style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Day 3: Today we think we will get this done! Like we did the previous two days… <br /></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">We did get the windows fitted, and refitted so they actually fit. <br /></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">We did get the next two roof panels on, also not to our entire satisfaction but the gap in the middle was evenly spaced and we could work with that. <br /></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">There were just the doors to go, and the roofing felt: but we were out of time and energy again. <br /></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Dog seemed happy with our work, though she mostly slept in the shade, oblivious to our headaches, occasionally snapping at a fly.
</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Day 4: I drove to St Austell for my usual care shift. It was a stuffy journey but so pleasant not to be balanced on a breeze block holding a roof panel. <br /></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Mr was at home waiting for our granddaughters to arrive. <br /></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">This morning I dragged out bedding for the big sleepover and discovered that the water tank has been leaking for long enough to rot through a pile of blankets. One of those weeks, I say, and pile up what is salvageable to deal with later. <br /></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">(This evening our granddaughters team up to make up their Grandad as a Slimy Mermaid before picking blackberries, toasting marshmallows, and turning into sharks. Granma also is treated to a makeover which reinvents her as a Disgusted Baker. Glitter everywhere!)
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjW6wy5S5e_u33shozn08Vbk7V11IXEx8n_TuXCkxWT1P4aMNMNp1sDe2T1342FdSOIZbm-itDd1P_3v4NQ9qPBYbuRQsFACnMAf267P3iPXt7WQHR3HNlsUbpxUW8AbSt9qtbq1WhbcyJTLP2yCMDrM0z1894BjLwG7qg_ByyCXzrMKMtitzUT2k8ejw/s1968/IMG_20220808_124115_286.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Two grandparents slathered in make up and glitter" border="0" data-original-height="1968" data-original-width="1968" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjW6wy5S5e_u33shozn08Vbk7V11IXEx8n_TuXCkxWT1P4aMNMNp1sDe2T1342FdSOIZbm-itDd1P_3v4NQ9qPBYbuRQsFACnMAf267P3iPXt7WQHR3HNlsUbpxUW8AbSt9qtbq1WhbcyJTLP2yCMDrM0z1894BjLwG7qg_ByyCXzrMKMtitzUT2k8ejw/w320-h320/IMG_20220808_124115_286.jpg" title="Slimy Mermaid and Disgusted Baker" width="320" /></a></div></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Day 5: Another care shift for me, while Grandad and The Girls are scheduled to meet some ducks. We all still have glitter in our hair.
</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Day 6: Care shift for me- after coffee and Uno Flip in bed. Grandad and The Girls are off hot tubbing, before they are collected in time for him to go to work, and then go to the land to measure bits of shed. <br /></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The Shed that has been lurking in our heads; the unfinished flipping shed.<br /></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">After work I stop for a sunset swim at Polkerris where the harbour wall is a smooth curve, and music and conversation drift from the pub out over the water, and even the gulls call softly.
</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Day 7: It was health-warning hot, so much so that we changed our land plans. <br /></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">This was good in that an electrician appeared to begin a series of jobs that were started so long ago we had forgotten them, so while The Shed still loomed over our existence we had an almost electrically safe home.
If electricity weren’t so expensive we would have plugged some devices in to celebrate.
To be continued! Possibly forever!
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwkV6oqgOpaa8smJShZJU2PvFsliCnEqROdVijLMv071MHvy96yvv2U9rb8BTQNO28636qS-ZX7DgH1Lbu5OSMou9dONjZ0qBr7G2VADP6qGz8J4n-H_tyS1gKbOt_Ra-RhI4tBHFq9sWlSgouSzP2Z0JkTPGUa7H-ED4dCjD-Nqj2sD-nZgMu7__EKQ/s2448/20220810_174050.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="In which I, Lisa Southard, balance a man and a ladder on my head- or is it crafty camera angle trickery?" border="0" data-original-height="2448" data-original-width="2448" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwkV6oqgOpaa8smJShZJU2PvFsliCnEqROdVijLMv071MHvy96yvv2U9rb8BTQNO28636qS-ZX7DgH1Lbu5OSMou9dONjZ0qBr7G2VADP6qGz8J4n-H_tyS1gKbOt_Ra-RhI4tBHFq9sWlSgouSzP2Z0JkTPGUa7H-ED4dCjD-Nqj2sD-nZgMu7__EKQ/w320-h320/20220810_174050.jpg" title="Balancing Act" width="320" /></a></div><br />
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</div>Lisa Southardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09711376747848601409noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6500425810028077954.post-3710684001622089182022-07-30T13:45:00.000+01:002022-07-30T13:45:07.897+01:00The Importance Of Losing When Pounced By Hyenas<div style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjx9TC4sXvKqSkBFkZi-zGxq4RZyfJ6i4tII2eZMFVSfqe---CRt-J4CqKzHkxAyVLLfsFVpqDvjZLzaPlf4PaDsDnwz7AiSA0K1BEvBW4v7LgNM-nBmy4NrCW7zcb_GL1uE6TSFl1EOswaW2xoLsZnvyz6qoftDGavd4nnvXFF-pIcrlq-8wtKJ5xWBA/s1920/InShot_20220729_215113592.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Family picnic group selfie, raggletaggle of people some of whom are looking the right way" border="0" data-original-height="1920" data-original-width="1920" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjx9TC4sXvKqSkBFkZi-zGxq4RZyfJ6i4tII2eZMFVSfqe---CRt-J4CqKzHkxAyVLLfsFVpqDvjZLzaPlf4PaDsDnwz7AiSA0K1BEvBW4v7LgNM-nBmy4NrCW7zcb_GL1uE6TSFl1EOswaW2xoLsZnvyz6qoftDGavd4nnvXFF-pIcrlq-8wtKJ5xWBA/w320-h320/InShot_20220729_215113592.jpg" title="Family picnic" width="320" /></a></div><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span></div><div style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span></div><div style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Work continues on preparing the flat areas for seeding with grass and clover. We have a new routine of stopping at County Tyres to fill the van with their cast-offs, before getting to the land, unrolling one bay’s worth of weed suppressant membrane, weighing it down with one line of stinky rubber and one line of soil dug from the stony ground. By then we are overheated, feel like we’ve been dunked in vaseline, decide that will do for the day, and snort at ourselves for thinking all of this would be done in a few hours. </span></span></div><div style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Usually, we head home for a nap, but sometimes we have company. On this particular day, we are hosting a family picnic- the gazebo is up, some rudimentary furniture is brought from the stable, the cold box is unpacked, salad is chopped. Grandchildren 6 & 7 are here with their Mum, they are ‘helping’ which they are surprised to discover does not include rolling the tyres down the hill. Being made to attempt to recover the tyres does dampen their enthusiasm- G7 informed me as we were pushing uphill ‘I can’t fit in this one,’ so he had considered climbing inside as an extension to the game, which could have been worse, or funnier. <br /></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The cut grass is bleachy pale, dry as tinder. We are all sticky with sunscreen, pinky with heat.</span></span></div><div style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">My brother and his family arrived for their first visit to Paddock Garden. He parked his car in the shade, we walked up the track. Bonkers Niece and the two grandchildren took all of three seconds to begin a game- weary-hot grown-ups launched into feasting, into admiring the view. The children swooped through, scooping down fruit. <br /></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">G6 ate so much I had to dig her an emergency latrine- this is part of the experience here, the adapt-and-overcome spirit. </span></span></div><div style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">My brother and sister-in-law followed me for a mini tour before they continued their homeward journey. I pointed out the little things - funnel web, mugwort - spoke a little of the big picture, the vague future we stumble and tiptoe towards. <br /></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Bonkers Niece joined us just in time to sit on her Dad’s lap and drive back up to the picnic spot. </span></span></div><div style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">After we waved them goodbye, we packed up food and chairs and tools, tidied up, put things in the stable or in the van, topped up water bottles, and waited with my daughter while her Mr was on his way.<br /></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The little ones continued their play, they said:<br /></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">We are koalas.. we are tigers… what eats tigers? <br /></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Mum replied: maybe hyenas? <br /></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">We are hyenas! </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><span id="docs-internal-guid-69bdcba3-7fff-f23a-4ddb-931d05030546"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Where the grass is cut there are clumps of straw and I don’t recall how it started but feasibly with me- me and the little hyenas became embroiled in a fierce straw war. <br /></span></span><span id="docs-internal-guid-69bdcba3-7fff-f23a-4ddb-931d05030546"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I was many battles ahead; they were retreating, shaking stalks from their clothes, when G7 stopped to pull straw out from her underwear, a sight so hilarious that I became helpless with laughter… whereupon the little ones ganged up on me in true group predator fashion, and stuffed so much straw down my shorts and t-shirt they made me into a scarecrow.
</span></span><span id="docs-internal-guid-69bdcba3-7fff-f23a-4ddb-931d05030546"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span><span id="docs-internal-guid-69bdcba3-7fff-f23a-4ddb-931d05030546"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">While I was walking and talking with my brother I said we don’t so much have a business plan, we have abandoned the stress of deadlines: this is an adventure. </span></span><span id="docs-internal-guid-69bdcba3-7fff-f23a-4ddb-931d05030546"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span></span><span id="docs-internal-guid-69bdcba3-7fff-f23a-4ddb-931d05030546"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">Every day we are here, having fun is important. Hearing the owl hoot is important. Peering into webs, identifying scat, counting flowers, and losing the straw wars because you couldn’t stop laughing: this is doing it right.</span></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></span></div><div style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: left;"><span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span></div><div style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: left;"><span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span></div><div style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: left;"><span><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8dKP9cVQBjeWGFUj-ZBAqjLkz8kGqW8i1RmtM_1i21Z9gblnddYSGhKuMgLjc7d0Y_jvHGSkfvtUoHLZkzEE3nBogMhUWvD0OjsrTiA31oohuGrwb8XKvKqf1ewYJG0CIJaTVW2EhZtpV4FQ-kZEzQRXFPXl7_GhdN_gGjYmnRyI71Mn2xa6d7EX29Q/s2047/received_723084008778292-01.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Granma pinned down by two small and determined children, everyone laughing" border="0" data-original-height="1387" data-original-width="2047" height="217" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8dKP9cVQBjeWGFUj-ZBAqjLkz8kGqW8i1RmtM_1i21Z9gblnddYSGhKuMgLjc7d0Y_jvHGSkfvtUoHLZkzEE3nBogMhUWvD0OjsrTiA31oohuGrwb8XKvKqf1ewYJG0CIJaTVW2EhZtpV4FQ-kZEzQRXFPXl7_GhdN_gGjYmnRyI71Mn2xa6d7EX29Q/w320-h217/received_723084008778292-01.jpeg" title="Losing the straw wars" width="320" /></a></div><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span></div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><g:plus href="https://plus.google.com/102412774245303060744" size="smallbadge"></g:plus>
</div>Lisa Southardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09711376747848601409noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6500425810028077954.post-50157728163482874162022-07-24T14:40:00.004+01:002022-08-19T14:23:21.752+01:00The Gross And Wonderful Work<p></p><div style="text-align: left;"><span><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYEa0wRaJ8xmI6teX4oSpoYdHH__bKXuAebQ5fU8ARJA-nnfoj4coNc_IjDzlUxytxcdfjqFaNuNRRg2XWfL5hI2E3-NdbJXxVKp9z4zrjzlR02V4EEPO6AABsvkDJ8zCY-DH8MjyhBktizZCBcQP78YVwriebSirujYtTRzWayHat9ZZCuvWLqdh4KA/s3088/20220721_124041-01.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Two small children, aged 3 and 4, sit on a bright kayak on grass, pretending to paddle through lava" border="0" data-original-height="3088" data-original-width="3088" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYEa0wRaJ8xmI6teX4oSpoYdHH__bKXuAebQ5fU8ARJA-nnfoj4coNc_IjDzlUxytxcdfjqFaNuNRRg2XWfL5hI2E3-NdbJXxVKp9z4zrjzlR02V4EEPO6AABsvkDJ8zCY-DH8MjyhBktizZCBcQP78YVwriebSirujYtTRzWayHat9ZZCuvWLqdh4KA/w320-h320/20220721_124041-01.jpeg" title="Lava river" width="320" /></a></div><br /><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span id="docs-internal-guid-39ba3508-7fff-c72a-c527-478e3d1a430f"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Thursday was hot like all the other days. Everyone had a warm glow like barbeque glaze. <br /></span></span></span><span id="docs-internal-guid-39ba3508-7fff-c72a-c527-478e3d1a430f"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">We had planned to go to the land but babysitting duties intervened. Grandchildren 6 & 7 (we have numbered our blessings) came to have garden adventures while their mother attended Grandchild 2’s Junior School Leavers’ Day Assembly.
<br /></span></span></span><span id="docs-internal-guid-39ba3508-7fff-c72a-c527-478e3d1a430f"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">After surviving our lawn being lava, and an attack of maffive spiders (Maffive? Yeah, really big, Granma, maffive!) and this evening’s heat-hazed Tae Kwon-Do sessions (having returned Gs 6&7 to tell their tales) we, in the van, with a snoozy Dog, headed landwards, to be ready for an early start.
</span></span></span><span id="docs-internal-guid-39ba3508-7fff-c72a-c527-478e3d1a430f"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span></span><span id="docs-internal-guid-39ba3508-7fff-c72a-c527-478e3d1a430f"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">We took a turn around the newly cut fields, soaking in the cooler evening air, serenaded by medieval music - minstrels at a nearby wedding, most likely, another celebratory moment. <br /></span></span></span><span id="docs-internal-guid-39ba3508-7fff-c72a-c527-478e3d1a430f"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">There were tiny bats circling a sycamore tree, there were evening primrose flowers glowing in the lowing light. Old Dog, loving the ease of the short grass, sprang into a joyful run; old limbs and puppy energy. </span></span></span><span id="docs-internal-guid-39ba3508-7fff-c72a-c527-478e3d1a430f"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">
<br /></span></span></span><span id="docs-internal-guid-39ba3508-7fff-c72a-c527-478e3d1a430f"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">We sat outside, listening to the music, bat watching, star gazing through dappled clouds, drinking red wine, feeling our clothes go from sweat-damp to night-damp; and occasionally sniffing an armpit and laughing because things can be so gross and wonderful at the same time.
</span></span></span><span id="docs-internal-guid-39ba3508-7fff-c72a-c527-478e3d1a430f"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span></span><span id="docs-internal-guid-39ba3508-7fff-c72a-c527-478e3d1a430f"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Friday began with coffee, of course, and squinting into the sun. Dog lay on her bed until breakfast seemed like an option.
<br /></span></span></span><span id="docs-internal-guid-39ba3508-7fff-c72a-c527-478e3d1a430f"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Over our grubby skin we layered sunscreen, then clothing to deter horsefly bites. <br /></span></span></span><span id="docs-internal-guid-39ba3508-7fff-c72a-c527-478e3d1a430f"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">We hefted out the first roll of terram (a weed suppressing membrane) to the flat area in the lower field. </span></span></span><span id="docs-internal-guid-39ba3508-7fff-c72a-c527-478e3d1a430f"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span></span><span id="docs-internal-guid-39ba3508-7fff-c72a-c527-478e3d1a430f"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">This area, with a combination of hard work, mistakes rectified, and luck, will one day be our outdoor all-weather training area, suitable for martial arts, yoga, fitness classes, meditators, basket weavers (they need space for those willow whips) and suchlike. As much as possible our whole site will be wheelchair and disability friendly too. <br /></span></span></span><span id="docs-internal-guid-39ba3508-7fff-c72a-c527-478e3d1a430f"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">(We have adorable plans for the top field - that’s for another post.)
</span></span></span><span id="docs-internal-guid-39ba3508-7fff-c72a-c527-478e3d1a430f"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span></span><span id="docs-internal-guid-39ba3508-7fff-c72a-c527-478e3d1a430f"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Rolling it out was the easy part. Carrying pavers and logs and telegraph poles to be sure our terram didn’t blow away, that was the tough bit. Also hammering tent pegs into rocky ground, whilst sitting or stooping over hot black plastic. Excellent stamina and strength training, of course, and my grip has become fearsome. <br /></span></span></span><span id="docs-internal-guid-39ba3508-7fff-c72a-c527-478e3d1a430f"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I think I sweated a river: a river of rivulets. <br /></span></span></span><span id="docs-internal-guid-39ba3508-7fff-c72a-c527-478e3d1a430f"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Horseflies landed on us, but only one bite, leaving an itchy lump on my forearm. I had rolled up my sleeve whilst rehydrating. Walking to and from the tap felt like unnecessary extra work, but the tap was in shade so it was also a reward. <br /></span></span></span><span id="docs-internal-guid-39ba3508-7fff-c72a-c527-478e3d1a430f"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">In the light was instant heat, in the shade was a slow, soul-level, appreciated cooling.
</span></span></span><span id="docs-internal-guid-39ba3508-7fff-c72a-c527-478e3d1a430f"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span></span><span id="docs-internal-guid-39ba3508-7fff-c72a-c527-478e3d1a430f"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">We had hoped to get all the areas covered in one day, which of course was wishful: it was better for one area to be done properly. <br /></span></span></span><span id="docs-internal-guid-39ba3508-7fff-c72a-c527-478e3d1a430f"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">When it was finished (enough, for now - later we will add more weight to be sure it can survive storms) we filmed ourselves performing two Tae Kwon-Do patterns: ChonJi tul, the beginning, and Dan Gun tul, the foundation. <br /></span></span></span><span id="docs-internal-guid-39ba3508-7fff-c72a-c527-478e3d1a430f"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">We were in socks, sliding, hot-footed, and dripping in sweat. Dog wandered out to join us- she kept doing this all day, and got herself overheated too - we led her back to shelter all day, but she longs to be involved. <br /></span></span></span><span id="docs-internal-guid-39ba3508-7fff-c72a-c527-478e3d1a430f"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Dipped her in the old bath to cool off before the journey home. Highly tempted to get in myself (wouldn’t be the first time).
<br /></span></span></span><span id="docs-internal-guid-39ba3508-7fff-c72a-c527-478e3d1a430f"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">At home: big late breakfast, big naps, big showers. Washing on the line. <br /></span></span></span><span id="docs-internal-guid-39ba3508-7fff-c72a-c527-478e3d1a430f"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">It’s divine, all this cleanliness.
</span></span></span><span id="docs-internal-guid-39ba3508-7fff-c72a-c527-478e3d1a430f"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span></span><span id="docs-internal-guid-39ba3508-7fff-c72a-c527-478e3d1a430f"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Mr watches the video and critiques his patterns. Lazy hands, h</span></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-size: medium;">e says. </span></span></span></div><span id="docs-internal-guid-39ba3508-7fff-c72a-c527-478e3d1a430f"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-size: medium;">I don’t think we’ve been lazy today, but we definitely smelt bad.
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</div>Lisa Southardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09711376747848601409noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6500425810028077954.post-1857455425287093512022-07-16T13:43:00.002+01:002022-07-24T15:09:52.315+01:00Heatwave<div style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEic__LDxkOGWNvFV5X-5ztXtuh_OZWj0emRdNIhDHpcUpPTsANtO6KoguFyeAKgi4riq5sHg8Q1_0496vyY3lMLoTushx1wzCfJ1vvBAUyxo0ct8XRDU6PfGORxqKlLUS-idPsaOjuP4demL3KQHTykn9NiV_NNDEFvSpm_gSBXy9cKNR53strSMP3ZaQ/s3088/20220712_110934-01.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Glaring bright sun shines through wildflowers and tall golden grasses" border="0" data-original-height="3088" data-original-width="3088" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEic__LDxkOGWNvFV5X-5ztXtuh_OZWj0emRdNIhDHpcUpPTsANtO6KoguFyeAKgi4riq5sHg8Q1_0496vyY3lMLoTushx1wzCfJ1vvBAUyxo0ct8XRDU6PfGORxqKlLUS-idPsaOjuP4demL3KQHTykn9NiV_NNDEFvSpm_gSBXy9cKNR53strSMP3ZaQ/w320-h320/20220712_110934-01.jpeg" title="Sunny wildflower patch" width="320" /></a></div><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span></div><div style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I leave early for work, to get to the beach. I start each shift tacky with salt, and my head full of sea pictures; the green weed wafting, the crab shell rolling, the sand eels flicker-flicker.
</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">If we trek to the land we do that early too. <br /></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I dunked Old Dog in a bath of rainwater which she calmly tolerated. The next time we brought her, she stood by the bath waiting to be cooled off; not excited by the new trick, just forbearing.
<br /></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Afternoons are for naps and ice cream. If we get it right our brains don’t boil over, they simmer and ferment. <br /></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Days and nights are like the sand eels, they flicker-flicker. <br /></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The moon rises tiger-orange, while the sun oozes down. <br /></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Travelling homewards, sunlight stripes a tree tunnel, lights up trunks like embers like I’m driving down the throat of a fire-breathing beast.
</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Sleep pulls heavy, stealthy, sneaking in. <br /></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">We dream in silver we dream in gold.<br /></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Morning arrives in birdsong, settles into a mug of coffee.<br /></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I leave early for work.
</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I swim. I write:<br /></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Diamonds are ten a penny<br /></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Floating on the skin of the sea<br /></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I wear each wave as a voluminous dress<br /></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Trailing foam lace<br /></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">My laughing is like<br /></span><span id="docs-internal-guid-c6b17a06-7fff-d5f0-05c8-d66cfed84452"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">A renewal of vows.</span></span></span></div><div style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span></span></div><div style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjv2RfDZ75N5WQNd2t_QDIyWqX73BXl-LMRUpgg0xkksxeF9U4aD4HNAO5SQ4NC5Of-OoCjCUFuoLpkfnLk4B7s4anqWlO6-RXP_BIV622xzz8KaHVlHzbzuWGIahV8WO6-fL48xiiDtByGzLr18G2_WVUkyLte6zF5NLykU-G2RiTzTowldIYj6vym8A/s1920/20220710_101034.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Long shot of beach with tall cliffs, low tide, soft sand, sun light making a smiley arc in the blue sky" border="0" data-original-height="1920" data-original-width="1920" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjv2RfDZ75N5WQNd2t_QDIyWqX73BXl-LMRUpgg0xkksxeF9U4aD4HNAO5SQ4NC5Of-OoCjCUFuoLpkfnLk4B7s4anqWlO6-RXP_BIV622xzz8KaHVlHzbzuWGIahV8WO6-fL48xiiDtByGzLr18G2_WVUkyLte6zF5NLykU-G2RiTzTowldIYj6vym8A/w320-h320/20220710_101034.jpg" title="Porthpean Beach" width="320" /></a></div><br /><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span></span></div><p style="text-align: left;"><span id="docs-internal-guid-c6b17a06-7fff-d5f0-05c8-d66cfed84452"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span></p><div class="blogger-post-footer"><g:plus href="https://plus.google.com/102412774245303060744" size="smallbadge"></g:plus>
</div>Lisa Southardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09711376747848601409noreply@blogger.com4Porthpean, Saint Austell PL26 6AY, UK50.321185000000007 -4.770042999999999444.61133015324026 -13.5591055 56.031039846759754 4.0190195000000006tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6500425810028077954.post-64786953865186929042022-07-10T14:36:00.001+01:002022-07-24T15:11:53.495+01:00A Curative Dip<div style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiuVh3HcFZeLSoG2Mq7pTFByRZLrhmytgS8eq9kO7pPRJBJdXhlqye_VzS7pqJPwO0dmB6FzzOiISEuCWO-mjvn_uFhCs2VrFLFmOzrT8eyqVrEeMXhimzgSckMQck_8XnjfmQVq2BllPttt5r31YbEOS_Gg2DdS8tS5ss0hjVjta40I4BCifZa80LsTw/s1920/20220710_101020.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="View from a beach out to a calm sea, a few gauzy clouds, a bright sun" border="0" data-original-height="1920" data-original-width="1920" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiuVh3HcFZeLSoG2Mq7pTFByRZLrhmytgS8eq9kO7pPRJBJdXhlqye_VzS7pqJPwO0dmB6FzzOiISEuCWO-mjvn_uFhCs2VrFLFmOzrT8eyqVrEeMXhimzgSckMQck_8XnjfmQVq2BllPttt5r31YbEOS_Gg2DdS8tS5ss0hjVjta40I4BCifZa80LsTw/w320-h320/20220710_101020.jpg" title="Porthpean Beach" width="320" /></a></div><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span></div><div style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span></div><div style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Gauzy strips of cloud drift, patterned wavy like the sand; the wind is no more than a sigh. <br /></span></span><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Into the clear sea I walk, watching my feet on the fine sand, watching the gulls and their shadows swoop from cliffside nests to the smooth water, where they have both shadow and reflection. Sand eels dash below. A hermit crab hides in its chunky whelk shell. <br /></span></span><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Sun shines through the water, it makes a net of rainbows. <br /></span></span><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I swim slowly in a rainbowed ocean; tired, yes, resting, yes. <br /></span></span><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Drift, but pay attention. <br /></span></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">Ideas dip and dive, like the eels, like the light. </span></span></div><p><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span id="docs-internal-guid-7a138ee2-7fff-ea07-a466-682d6312fbb8"></span></span></p><div class="blogger-post-footer"><g:plus href="https://plus.google.com/102412774245303060744" size="smallbadge"></g:plus>
</div>Lisa Southardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09711376747848601409noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6500425810028077954.post-14234065302636395782022-07-01T13:03:00.001+01:002022-07-24T15:13:11.256+01:00Kitchen Hygiene<div style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmOpqcC3_Rpqm0PKEy6AS7ek4WXH4AsnkNQA-UaXGYgu-2s6xYKQidrsXp5k_kQ-wPU211zXDgsG58L-P0NN_C5Yjk1DljvspXKhLS4Aa_eU3GHtIZS971cVeaagbpKQS_RiuugEllJkPaS_opPzDID1693W7Oe5VHDaG5hE5TP9PQEWEuMUyAk2RYcA/s2047/20220630_121243.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Tansy leaved physalis, a round purple cloud of flowers in a sea of frilly green foliage" border="0" data-original-height="2047" data-original-width="2047" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmOpqcC3_Rpqm0PKEy6AS7ek4WXH4AsnkNQA-UaXGYgu-2s6xYKQidrsXp5k_kQ-wPU211zXDgsG58L-P0NN_C5Yjk1DljvspXKhLS4Aa_eU3GHtIZS971cVeaagbpKQS_RiuugEllJkPaS_opPzDID1693W7Oe5VHDaG5hE5TP9PQEWEuMUyAk2RYcA/w320-h320/20220630_121243.jpg" title="Tansy leaved physalis" width="320" /></a></div><br />
30/6/22, A Thursday.<br /></span></span><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Yesterday’s forecast suggested ‘light rain’ but the clouds clearly had not paid that much attention. Yesterday’s washing is sagging on the line, dripping like it's been dropped in a pond.<br /></span></span><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">We did not check the weather this morning; we drank our coffee, listened to the birds shrill, and lest this sound too much of a rural idyll, also scrolled our phones for emails and social media whatevers.
We speak to each other too, Mr and I. <br /></span></span><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">This morning’s chat ruled out repurposing old carpets for suppressing weeds on the bare-earth areas on our land, due to possible contamination of the soil and transportation cost. We chose terram, a geotextile fabric, instead, which we will buy new but be able to reuse. <br /></span></span><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">We tog up for a land trip (which for me includes flower earrings, a pretty hair tie, maybe a polka-dot scarf; this is part of my fun-on-the-land policy, which in turn is part of preventing burnout), taking a tape measure to check how much terram to purchase.
</span></span><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">At the land, we trek over the squared flat dirt, trailing the tape. Old Dog follows, attempting a bounce through the long grass before sitting down, tongue slung out, looking like she’s amused by her efforts. <br /></span></span><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">She follows us back to the stable, as witnessed by our new CCTV anti-theft, once-bitten-twice-aware-of-the-budget, security installation. (I have a plan to learn necromancy and install a demon instead but these things take time.) She is hot, so we put Old Dog in a shady spot on her cool mat before we take a tour of the lower fence where our wildflowers are opening up. We find a few we don’t recognise, so we take photos for ID- a tall yellow, multi-floreted thing, a purple thing, a pale pink, and one from the snapdragon family. <br /></span></span><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">There is feathery tansy-leaved physalis, chunky borage, three colours of sweetpeas; marble white, amethyst purple, carnelian red; yellow trumpets of evening primrose, spires of salvia with its busy bee visitors. </span></span></div><div style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium; white-space: pre-wrap;">There’s dog rose and blackberries with lookalike flowers, white and pale pink in the green jumble. Mugwort buds are in evidence, soft and padded- the wind stirs up foliage, showing the silver underleaf, the stems that are candy-striped, stippled with stiff hairs. The weeping willow, munched by deer and rabbits, is in a protective cage and leaping back to life. </span></div><div style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Meadow vetchling sprawls everywhere with its yellow bobbles, and there’s purple vetch too- the yellow alas does not taste good but the purple is pea flavoured, we munch it up.
</span></span><span id="docs-internal-guid-1445e1d7-7fff-aea1-be23-42a2a4b2e77b"><span style="font-family: arial; white-space: pre-wrap;">All the heathers and roses and fruit trees that we planted are slowly taking shape and holding their places in the tall grass and the creeping brambles and the blackthorn shoots.</span><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">We walk back to the stable, let Old Dog wander out before the journey home: we all need a wee. <br /></span></span></span><span id="docs-internal-guid-1445e1d7-7fff-aea1-be23-42a2a4b2e77b"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">It only occurs to me, as Old Dog hobbles behind the stable, that none of us choose to relieve our bladders next to the stable anymore. This area is earmarked for an outdoor kitchen. It has a post to mark the boundary but no other physical sign. In our minds it is built, so we take ourselves elsewhere, and do not urinate in the imagined kitchen. <br /></span></span></span><span id="docs-internal-guid-1445e1d7-7fff-aea1-be23-42a2a4b2e77b"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I don’t know why this strikes me as so funny. I laugh persistently, regardless. </span></span></span></span></div><div style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: left;"><span><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span></span></div><div style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: left;"><span><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.blogger.com/video.g?token=AD6v5dy98gUGaaPjhb3g9tr0oDakYkDy1d8XgDXEKktWeEEZiaohqrYNDzQvEUs1n6uyi5kEgKyWgbFMeP-DQCtMsQ' class='b-hbp-video b-uploaded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">Pictured above: current bathroom </div><br /><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span></span></div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><g:plus href="https://plus.google.com/102412774245303060744" size="smallbadge"></g:plus>
</div>Lisa Southardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09711376747848601409noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6500425810028077954.post-53702198967541105212022-06-24T18:09:00.001+01:002022-07-24T15:14:54.591+01:00Theft, Solstice, Sweetpea<div style="text-align: left;"><span><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg3W-0iZOe4tHlOyFQMQyOrAFbn4ifHQeqsFk5y9pcR2fglrOvqFbLlR1ywoWJoizRe3PBoT9JgZWVisSQNE9lhe4mtIDIAS5iXsE4gJaPhDJda4xLFWpxpSIFMtSc_iDJgUpPDcAoX4ha024V0jR3TxgCqVthxjeLRPGCliLpTtNuh8VoaesKXFM8hhQ/s3088/20220624_133506.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Bright yellow sticker on a corrugated steel wall: reads '24 hour CCTV'" border="0" data-original-height="3088" data-original-width="3088" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg3W-0iZOe4tHlOyFQMQyOrAFbn4ifHQeqsFk5y9pcR2fglrOvqFbLlR1ywoWJoizRe3PBoT9JgZWVisSQNE9lhe4mtIDIAS5iXsE4gJaPhDJda4xLFWpxpSIFMtSc_iDJgUpPDcAoX4ha024V0jR3TxgCqVthxjeLRPGCliLpTtNuh8VoaesKXFM8hhQ/w320-h320/20220624_133506.jpg" title="CCTV sticker" width="320" /></a></div><br /></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span id="docs-internal-guid-4e9fd0b5-7fff-c1c2-3547-773d1220ac53"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Theft: <br /></span></span></span><span id="docs-internal-guid-4e9fd0b5-7fff-c1c2-3547-773d1220ac53"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">At first we thought: we have moved them and forgotten. We went home from the land and looked- we doubted ourselves and went back to the land. The stable was all locked up as expected, so how our Mitsubishi strimmer (fitted with a scrub cutting blade) and our long poled Tanaka hedge trimmer had been stolen was a mystery until our contractor told us he’d found a latch on the floor- he thought it had fallen out and had pushed it back into place. (That’s the downside of honest people, they don’t expect dishonesty.)<br /></span></span></span><span id="docs-internal-guid-4e9fd0b5-7fff-c1c2-3547-773d1220ac53"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">On closer inspection the marks of it being prised off were visible. <br /></span></span></span><span id="docs-internal-guid-4e9fd0b5-7fff-c1c2-3547-773d1220ac53"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">From now on we will be noting all serial numbers, indelibly marking all articles of worth, photographing things, and remembering to complete our insurance documents. While we work on upgrading security we have moved all the expensive things to a secure lock-up.<br /></span></span></span><span id="docs-internal-guid-4e9fd0b5-7fff-c1c2-3547-773d1220ac53"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Obviously, it’s not an actual tragic occurrence. No life or limbs lost, and we will purposely look to the bright side: how much we’ve learned about CCTV cameras, motion detectors, WiFi hotspots, and small-scale solar power packs. <br /></span></span></span><span id="docs-internal-guid-4e9fd0b5-7fff-c1c2-3547-773d1220ac53"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">It’s just like a harshly stubbed toe that twangs all of your insecurities.
</span></span></span><span id="docs-internal-guid-4e9fd0b5-7fff-c1c2-3547-773d1220ac53"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span></span><span id="docs-internal-guid-4e9fd0b5-7fff-c1c2-3547-773d1220ac53"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Solstice:<br /></span></span></span><span id="docs-internal-guid-4e9fd0b5-7fff-c1c2-3547-773d1220ac53"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Slept through the sunrise, a good solid sleep in spite of the heat, and the perturbing thievery. <br /></span></span></span><span id="docs-internal-guid-4e9fd0b5-7fff-c1c2-3547-773d1220ac53"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">We have bought Dog a cooling mat, to stop her old glue from melting. She curled up on it, solid-slept all day.<br /></span></span></span><span id="docs-internal-guid-4e9fd0b5-7fff-c1c2-3547-773d1220ac53"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I toiled in the home garden, head safely wedged under a hat, limbs painted in sunscreen, ignoring the rest of the world, but in a celebratory way- recharging, as though I too am now solar powered. <br /></span></span></span><span id="docs-internal-guid-4e9fd0b5-7fff-c1c2-3547-773d1220ac53"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">In the evening, after work, we stopped at Meldon Quarry. There was a cool wind blowing, almost stormy, the sun was lowering and glimmering. Mr sat on a rock, wrapped in a sweatshirt, while I braved the water- which was warmer than the air. <br /></span></span></span><span id="docs-internal-guid-4e9fd0b5-7fff-c1c2-3547-773d1220ac53"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I was in the river, swimming over dark rocks towards the lace-froth of a waterfall, edged by rowan trees and gorse and weather sculpted granite, watching the sun ooze orange over the edge of the earth, untroubled.
</span></span></span><span id="docs-internal-guid-4e9fd0b5-7fff-c1c2-3547-773d1220ac53"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span></span><span id="docs-internal-guid-4e9fd0b5-7fff-c1c2-3547-773d1220ac53"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Sweetpea:<br /></span></span></span><span id="docs-internal-guid-4e9fd0b5-7fff-c1c2-3547-773d1220ac53"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The stone track is rollered flat and done. We went to see; it is still a little rough, which is sufficient for this stage of our journey, we are happy. Toilet shed site looks good: level and capacious. <br /></span></span></span><span id="docs-internal-guid-4e9fd0b5-7fff-c1c2-3547-773d1220ac53"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">We made an inventory of shed tools- then find we are also missing a garden fork but this could turn up propped against a hedge. (Who heists a fork but not the matching spade?)<br /></span></span></span><span id="docs-internal-guid-4e9fd0b5-7fff-c1c2-3547-773d1220ac53"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I look down the hedgerow at the bracken, brambles, nettles- all the scrub that we should be cutting but we can’t because someone thought it was okay to steal from us- all the overhanging branches we also can’t cut back- the work we should be doing vs the work we now have to do. <br /></span></span></span><span id="docs-internal-guid-4e9fd0b5-7fff-c1c2-3547-773d1220ac53"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The cost of what we lost and the cost of security measures. </span></span></span><span id="docs-internal-guid-4e9fd0b5-7fff-c1c2-3547-773d1220ac53"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span></span><span id="docs-internal-guid-4e9fd0b5-7fff-c1c2-3547-773d1220ac53"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The hours worked to afford the equipment, the hours worked to mend and restore it.<br /></span></span></span><span id="docs-internal-guid-4e9fd0b5-7fff-c1c2-3547-773d1220ac53"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Are there too many obstacles to following a dream?
Is our budget too puny? <br /></span></span></span><span id="docs-internal-guid-4e9fd0b5-7fff-c1c2-3547-773d1220ac53"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I walk to the bottom of the track, where the wooden gate is falling apart and the sizable ash stump sits. There’s a burst of deep red in the dead-hedge: the first sweetpea to bloom, winding through the blackthorn spines, surviving the crush of nettle roots and the city of snails that has established itself under the prickly brush.
<br /></span></span></span><span id="docs-internal-guid-4e9fd0b5-7fff-c1c2-3547-773d1220ac53"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I remember when we went on a social enterprise business course and a lady said you are going to feel overwhelmed more than once, this is normal, just keep going.
<br /></span></span></span><span id="docs-internal-guid-4e9fd0b5-7fff-c1c2-3547-773d1220ac53"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Okay, sweetpea, I hear you. <br /></span></span></span><span id="docs-internal-guid-4e9fd0b5-7fff-c1c2-3547-773d1220ac53"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I’m a sweetpea too. </span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhkJdFpF-B55zYd_nFF-7-SWYIoUHhkCkEBvds0493Lasc5keFrVFITlAGpqErpAaj59EyISSVZiuSmeKbEkuqzR-wY1PV-d7rMvTBqP40_MJVfdokrG7oBuihcHOa7ZymHRIaDW-DQ43Vf3aHTpEoCqmrbBqhWOWfpu1o55hSadP_08ICvvmNUcj1OwQ/s1872/IMG_20220622_154405_754.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Beautiful sloping flower, bright deep red, backlit by sun" border="0" data-original-height="1872" data-original-width="1872" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhkJdFpF-B55zYd_nFF-7-SWYIoUHhkCkEBvds0493Lasc5keFrVFITlAGpqErpAaj59EyISSVZiuSmeKbEkuqzR-wY1PV-d7rMvTBqP40_MJVfdokrG7oBuihcHOa7ZymHRIaDW-DQ43Vf3aHTpEoCqmrbBqhWOWfpu1o55hSadP_08ICvvmNUcj1OwQ/w320-h320/IMG_20220622_154405_754.jpg" title="Sweetpea" width="320" /></a></div><br /><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span></span></div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><g:plus href="https://plus.google.com/102412774245303060744" size="smallbadge"></g:plus>
</div>Lisa Southardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09711376747848601409noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6500425810028077954.post-48835026095969630332022-06-17T18:41:00.000+01:002022-06-17T18:41:29.325+01:00On Track<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1cab9DwDLD4AFZZ1EPOUNlBk_gQYISvMVvI5B0uS4OAWG1pTEjE7blIxYIgS3wEWU-b94koayrkoLuDn_jPGmT6hzWGbFAEPhlEUCXMRXBUmXQN5icxKnq-UUS4NUZndIyyWdCRPmVxFPFBFmeBQri_mVKUC0eLBTihiqxOIZiw43Bdam-o067f8XYA/s3088/20220617_125114.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Blue sky above, grassy field below, there's a stone track running from the top to the bottom of the field." border="0" data-original-height="3088" data-original-width="3088" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1cab9DwDLD4AFZZ1EPOUNlBk_gQYISvMVvI5B0uS4OAWG1pTEjE7blIxYIgS3wEWU-b94koayrkoLuDn_jPGmT6hzWGbFAEPhlEUCXMRXBUmXQN5icxKnq-UUS4NUZndIyyWdCRPmVxFPFBFmeBQri_mVKUC0eLBTihiqxOIZiw43Bdam-o067f8XYA/w320-h320/20220617_125114.jpg" title="Stone Track" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-size: medium;">The grass track was supposed to be a fairly straight run from the top gate to the bottom gate. It had additional wiggles where the muddy spots had snagged a wheel.
I will not miss digging the van out of muddy trouble, or pushing it. We rarely dared to drive uphill. </span></span></div><span id="docs-internal-guid-bd20c949-7fff-964c-5597-05ec32185483"><span style="font-size: medium;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial; white-space: pre-wrap;">The stone track gently curves to follow the land. It will need compacting before we call it a job done- but here we are, driving uphill, downhill, hearing the stone crunch, not quite believing what our ears and eyes are confirming. It’s a silly-hot day, we barely get any work done, and every job we do wanders back to the stone line and rechecks: yep, it’s here. We did dream it, but then we ordered all this stone and now it’s real.
</span></div><span style="font-family: arial;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">So, what next?</span></div><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div style="text-align: left;">Of course, there’s a list we can refer to, and subdivisions of lists depending on which segment of our project we deem to be the next practical step. </div></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div style="text-align: left;">So..?</div></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div style="text-align: left;">It’s easy to write lists.
The first item usually starts ‘research…’ because we are edging along a tightrope here, a couple of self-taught amateurs, wobbling from dreams to plans, at the whim of so many variables:</div></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div style="text-align: left;">wind direction, soil type, budget, sudden frosts, heatwaves, sharknados, tree diseases, the right footwear, velociraptors, burst pipes, socks full of grass seed, number of hand trowels put down in the grass and never found again, how many tons of stone for a track all the way down,</div></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div style="text-align: left;">and so forth. </div></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div style="text-align: left;">We dreamed it, we planned it, we did it.
We learned that achievement can be a shock requiring rest and acclimatisation, that it too is a variable. </div></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div style="text-align: left;">When we get home we unpeg and fold the dry washing, make a nice cup of tea. </div></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div style="text-align: left;">We watch the cherry tree sway in a welcome breeze.</div></span></span></span></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjEBHB17HFzRuMhgqRU0kJvqalKGbViAU_vW-kMrzr65zYy_l1hTiRYl-fcV_IXR2gd7xOy4j9CHYxj8y5jovKnhc9w2lPKdeDLPgu4qSWxiA56YJhkjNTOq2f22Ml9ckOnYsPHy4gf8VpyBu_gKc1ceCLzmZ4HRliDhE8mL5E6c29SXEaQn3rq0cWOA/s3088/20220617_121606.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Gnarly old tree stump looks like a smiling face- a gurning sort of a smile, funny and friendly" border="0" data-original-height="3088" data-original-width="3088" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjEBHB17HFzRuMhgqRU0kJvqalKGbViAU_vW-kMrzr65zYy_l1hTiRYl-fcV_IXR2gd7xOy4j9CHYxj8y5jovKnhc9w2lPKdeDLPgu4qSWxiA56YJhkjNTOq2f22Ml9ckOnYsPHy4gf8VpyBu_gKc1ceCLzmZ4HRliDhE8mL5E6c29SXEaQn3rq0cWOA/w320-h320/20220617_121606.jpg" title="Tree Stump" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Happy-faced tree stump admiring the track :-) </td></tr></tbody></table><br /><p></p><div class="blogger-post-footer"><g:plus href="https://plus.google.com/102412774245303060744" size="smallbadge"></g:plus>
</div>Lisa Southardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09711376747848601409noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6500425810028077954.post-62529181321394194632022-06-10T17:30:00.000+01:002022-06-10T17:30:04.572+01:00Yes! <p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"></p><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgH21vWECrtelhZgyLgKr8HRNWSqICZGIk3BE54GkgD9Rr7DAQ8zj4WjitEa1bOAUOG1zfiofDjsP8FxwAJNmEKnjmKJEshUykMzMA26YpKvjQd6b6lC4hHT5mTRcfphRBREmMaXy6TMfQehTaoKCsBb28WhpU9CcYWW-KHJmQWENxFibiEctdRWc1JTg/s1920/InShot_20220610_171241271.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="A fabulous granma wears leopard print and walks with her cute little grandchldren up a muddy track. There are tractor tyre marks in the mud. It's lightly raining." border="0" data-original-height="1920" data-original-width="1920" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgH21vWECrtelhZgyLgKr8HRNWSqICZGIk3BE54GkgD9Rr7DAQ8zj4WjitEa1bOAUOG1zfiofDjsP8FxwAJNmEKnjmKJEshUykMzMA26YpKvjQd6b6lC4hHT5mTRcfphRBREmMaXy6TMfQehTaoKCsBb28WhpU9CcYWW-KHJmQWENxFibiEctdRWc1JTg/w320-h320/InShot_20220610_171241271.jpg" title="Road to somewhere" width="320" /></a></div><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">June’s weather has been issued in short spells: sunny-dry, sunny-drizzle, cloudy, downpour, rainbows, humid, might-rain-might-be-blowy. Washing is on the line to dry or to get an extra rinse. Roses bloom, and when I get a chance to check the polytunnel there are tomato plants rising, the strawberries and nasturtiums are zooming over the path, the lovage has doubled.</span></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">
</span></div><div style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">When I get to the land, with Mr, Old Dog, and grandchildren 6 & 7 (aged 4 and 3 respectively) there are tracks through it. This is magic to all of us: we, the adults who instructed this progress and fully expected to see it, and the children to whom this is pure surprise. Knowledge is no impediment to murmuring ‘wow’ and savouring the press of our boots into bare earth as we wander up through the fickle mizzle. I see the levelled area which will become an outdoor kitchen: it’s mud and scraped nettle root and it makes my heart boom YES THIS IS IT!
<br /></span></span><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">We walk to the top field to admire the yellow digger, the huge blue tractor. We mark the occasion with photographs, but then the grown-ups get talking.
<br /></span></span></div><div style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVSsG8VuvFaYu0dX2prALWJQjBRNLajwnGIR9kNxgI7w7SzTk6wSNLyjvk-Rg4KhqvcashTZ7kwptDJf0H2PqF9D3sIN0bEsoChRiwlP0-0BISSjpxK6QXJj9wEO5Ah9Sv0EP2JbTWcM3yd0Rg_p-1-BUUGsKRbyYhYAsHIcw4_eAHeWWx6w-AEqNn8Q/s1920/InShot_20220610_171409982.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Two cute children sit high up in a tall tractor, thrilled with themselves. They are waving." border="0" data-original-height="1920" data-original-width="1920" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVSsG8VuvFaYu0dX2prALWJQjBRNLajwnGIR9kNxgI7w7SzTk6wSNLyjvk-Rg4KhqvcashTZ7kwptDJf0H2PqF9D3sIN0bEsoChRiwlP0-0BISSjpxK6QXJj9wEO5Ah9Sv0EP2JbTWcM3yd0Rg_p-1-BUUGsKRbyYhYAsHIcw4_eAHeWWx6w-AEqNn8Q/w320-h320/InShot_20220610_171409982.jpg" title="Kids love tractors" width="320" /></a></div><br /></span></span><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The little ones break free from my hands.
</span></span><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">It’s sunny now and they run down through the meadow and are lost in the blonde swish. When they reemerge Grandchild 6 has her t-shirt pulled up so the grass can tickle her belly. Grandchild 7 has lost and found his wellies, his socks and trousers are soaked, an unimportant detail to him. (We are relieved not to be on a boot hunt.)<br /></span></span><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">They chase butterflies, they rescue a slug lest a crow eats it, they hang on the carved up chunks of felled ash</span><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">!</span><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">- which is a bicycle but also a horse and a nest.
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUuLzy-C2LkkLmkCjhtjtNtcl-egJx1ImnUx4FAuv01hBy_8cZ4FiqA4N7Wv8uy4yuyyWAqXn7yzIegFIw7hg7YIoFDQQwb8rfEOCAAFs1YkA0dXdbV9Ruq_Q93tKL5H9gI_dxs3jckk2W-tkERrMhuZjgbsI6tkEej3p2ViM4FePy24lLrfke6kOuzw/s3088/20220610_103948.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Two cute children perch on large chunks of cut down tree, they are engrossed in play" border="0" data-original-height="3088" data-original-width="3088" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUuLzy-C2LkkLmkCjhtjtNtcl-egJx1ImnUx4FAuv01hBy_8cZ4FiqA4N7Wv8uy4yuyyWAqXn7yzIegFIw7hg7YIoFDQQwb8rfEOCAAFs1YkA0dXdbV9Ruq_Q93tKL5H9gI_dxs3jckk2W-tkERrMhuZjgbsI6tkEej3p2ViM4FePy24lLrfke6kOuzw/w320-h320/20220610_103948.jpg" title="Climbing on the felled ash" width="320" /></a></div><br /></span></span><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I follow, watching them at play, vaguely thinking: so random, but connected. In the moment and timeless. It’s what you know plus magic. Deliberate creation that works with the raw materials, there’s a flow.<br /></span></span><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">This is going somewhere. <br /></span></span><span id="docs-internal-guid-5e6d4b35-7fff-35c5-59f8-2ec078bbd3e4"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">This is the adventure. Sometimes it gets hidden in work but-<br /></span></span></span><span id="docs-internal-guid-5e6d4b35-7fff-35c5-59f8-2ec078bbd3e4"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">YES THIS IS IT</span></span></span></div><p></p><div class="blogger-post-footer"><g:plus href="https://plus.google.com/102412774245303060744" size="smallbadge"></g:plus>
</div>Lisa Southardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09711376747848601409noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6500425810028077954.post-18971628810493772902022-06-04T19:06:00.003+01:002022-06-04T19:06:29.730+01:00The Silly Ones<div style="text-align: left;"><span id="docs-internal-guid-15c7a5b0-7fff-8bbb-402a-150b63273795"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjAexrDO4jMDuuQBlXhDaENMEACXUjzOyaH9wWBhxsqnk5IUGMi41G8N_QPbfrhyOSmwVQLmeo-EVTPugubQUGNAs-I5EBckkVeEp6yoIh9TP2VfJdmIA4cg3-4cmo0VXJnGMmYa72ipua6M9GIgBBkGzQfZvnwX31940FdJ5gJYjrWa-Dz4Ii1A3v_4g/s1600/IMG-20220602-WA0003.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Dark skyline of trees, a fingernail moon above" border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="721" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjAexrDO4jMDuuQBlXhDaENMEACXUjzOyaH9wWBhxsqnk5IUGMi41G8N_QPbfrhyOSmwVQLmeo-EVTPugubQUGNAs-I5EBckkVeEp6yoIh9TP2VfJdmIA4cg3-4cmo0VXJnGMmYa72ipua6M9GIgBBkGzQfZvnwX31940FdJ5gJYjrWa-Dz4Ii1A3v_4g/w187-h320/IMG-20220602-WA0003.jpg" title="Night sky" width="187" /></a></div>
After six months or so of diary reports that make the speed of progress indelibly clear- slow, edging around various constraints, meshed with life in general, savoured, scary, and delightful- I am whittling reportage to (mainly, anyway, one must be wary of making rash promises) a series of snapshots from our land journey.
I want to focus on the specifics of bringing a dream to life- I want to bring you, Dear Reader, closer to the process. I want to share.
So come with me, and Mr, and our wonky arthritic but otherwise healthy-happy Dog, and feel free to chortle as we set up camp in the stable on a June night.
The day has been glorious, summery, hot. The stable is cool, dusty underfoot. There is still a roll of dung in each corner, dried like cement. There are mouseholes, ratholes, old spiderwebs thick as ropes. There is sunlight sneaking through the gaps, there is a calmness here, there is birdsong and a swoop of wind through leaves. We fix our camping mattresses on top of the sofa bed, cover it with a blanket, a sheet, put a duvet on top. Dog has her foam square with two old pillows and a retired curtain, at the foot of our bed.
We close the doors up to keep damp air to a minimum, wander down to the big fire pit, which we light, which then displaces a small family of mice. Oops- we resolve not to make a fire up in advance again. The mice relocate under a pile of sticks, we hear them scuttle, we assume they are cross with us.
Dog has a bone to chew, she pays the mice no attention at all.
It's light enough to watch the bats swirl and dip.
The fire curls, the wood burns to cinders that pulse with hot colours, that fade to pale ash. We lean back in our chairs, watch the sky reveal stars and a fingernail moon.
Sleep calls.
We are idiots who forgot how cold the stable gets at night. Dog snuggles down in her fur. She pays no attention to the elder tree knocking on the roof, or our shivers.
Maybe next time we will remember to bring our thermal wear.
</span></span></span><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span id="docs-internal-guid-15c7a5b0-7fff-8bbb-402a-150b63273795"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">In the morning with the doors open, I stay snuggled in the bed, watching spider lines and insect wings catch the sun and dance in the branches of the ash tree opposite. Mr makes coffee.
Day heat rises. We cling to our mugs, wry and weary and loving the adventure.
Bit by bit we dress, we organise, we set to jobs.
Scything and mulching for me, scrub cutting for Mr.
My work is the maintenance of things planted, clearing growing room for them with a hand scythe, pulling up handfuls of nettles till my arms buzz with stings (I like this sensation, it's lively), adding nettle tea to feed their growth, and mulching with woodchips to lessen the competition.
Mr cuts back bracken, bramble, and nettles in the overhang of the middle hedge, partly in readiness for mowing, partly to clear space for the track that we hope will happen soon.
Dog ambles between us, then lies in the shade.
After a few hot hours, we stop for breakfast: pan-fried sausages, eggs, and beans, a classic dish, all cooked on the stove in the van. We sit with plates on laps, glad of food, glad of the landscape.
The field grasses shimmer, pink-topped with seed, there are butterflies darting, buttercups wobbling their glossy yellow heads. The hedges are heavy with leaf and blossom, the sky showcases hues of blue.
Progress is slow, mistakes are part of it, the grand ones, the silly ones, but the view- the field of vision, the composition- is always greater than the sum of the parts.
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjGBnTHwyV-WwgeLCbLAdUB6xtlcnw3baFTYo6i45jXVapgMhs-ePqStnbyo4LOMFzgpaaMUH5Hu32OoFFk8G1ASNUchsJq6FzlyI1QWN4bgKSwoltFsZBeMHtWRTBX0ZKZG7UNduKZPTCviob_VnZBMwGnuBtdgIKoDJtsgSGML4cJTis6q5mPdVw8HQ/s3088/20220602_201201.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Close up of pink tipped grass, background of rolling fields" border="0" data-original-height="3088" data-original-width="3088" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjGBnTHwyV-WwgeLCbLAdUB6xtlcnw3baFTYo6i45jXVapgMhs-ePqStnbyo4LOMFzgpaaMUH5Hu32OoFFk8G1ASNUchsJq6FzlyI1QWN4bgKSwoltFsZBeMHtWRTBX0ZKZG7UNduKZPTCviob_VnZBMwGnuBtdgIKoDJtsgSGML4cJTis6q5mPdVw8HQ/w320-h320/20220602_201201.jpg" title="Pink grass" width="320" /></a></div><br />
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</div>Lisa Southardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09711376747848601409noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6500425810028077954.post-51375607093188283672022-05-27T09:15:00.001+01:002022-05-27T09:19:27.270+01:00We Are The Flow<div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8VYO_fDLHaGD2JzpmDmEdHazhjcUlZxsA0iRkdQnbNav8uE-QHFrKx8r6knKO-57VGQ4SUP2Pph5sQ63z4bXcojrLVTyvl7hYrNz1Uf8z-M5P2EMfWmVcH7mLFu7Qm145m_zfMjdwh3cLz-cE0NpevhSswdWZm6y_YQwbenr9gpqqEKGC6zhI_hrTHw/s1920/20220407_150401.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="View from beach out to sea, sun sparkles on water, sky blue, clouds fluffy" border="0" data-original-height="1920" data-original-width="1920" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8VYO_fDLHaGD2JzpmDmEdHazhjcUlZxsA0iRkdQnbNav8uE-QHFrKx8r6knKO-57VGQ4SUP2Pph5sQ63z4bXcojrLVTyvl7hYrNz1Uf8z-M5P2EMfWmVcH7mLFu7Qm145m_zfMjdwh3cLz-cE0NpevhSswdWZm6y_YQwbenr9gpqqEKGC6zhI_hrTHw/w320-h320/20220407_150401.jpg" title="Beach scene, Carlyon Bay" width="320" /></a></div><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: medium;">This week I was a stranded fish. <br />Time and tasks rolled me onto the shore where I couldn't catch a calm breath; where everything is a struggle, and even though I know that overwhelm is part of this Bringing Dreams To Life process, it gets to me. No big problem has caused this, it's more that I lost focus and perspective after doing housework instead of writing, but I don't want to live in a disgusting mess all of the time. <br />If you've been following my year, you will probably know this pattern. You will know that I just need a minute, then I'm back to swimming and laughing. It is a pattern, it has a repeat. <br />So, dear Reader, where are you? In the flow, on the shore, caught in a current? <br />I am not so caught up that I don't think of you, I just forget to tell you that. But if you listen to the water, to the wind, to the shuffle of the sand, the twist of a leaf- here we all are. We are not isolated, not separated. We are the flow. We reach under the surf, under the dirt and debris, and here we are. Here we are with our kindness and our care, drop by drop adding up, all the labels soaked out of us; weighted to a common, uncommon level. <br />We are in the deep and glowing. </span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.blogger.com/video.g?token=AD6v5dxdfLFidCwDzZnNpjhlXGjTlyCqtrSH8vf-ed-nCoG7AfckOgstS3TnhkUZfgrcwdzadi5cGhQUeWCl_RSTlQ' class='b-hbp-video b-uploaded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">Wind blowing through the grass, Paddock Garden, bottom field.</div><br /><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></span></div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><g:plus href="https://plus.google.com/102412774245303060744" size="smallbadge"></g:plus>
</div>Lisa Southardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09711376747848601409noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6500425810028077954.post-31363307585638828632022-05-20T18:53:00.002+01:002022-05-20T18:53:33.161+01:00Bunting And Butts<div style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiw-Gj04zzU8sMaK4toXsSww3cCPemcS1vShJeCVXW90RXFB0YaFogLnqIyQB-CW8pARqEgkob1EjPpuBvUMKuFIsH-I0KVAUxEldt1jOSN6f8Z_ZpMXBdHW89X0A0eAW-hzfbVSniUrMnhmO1D2NIE_SJG14desQayKXUzOViqzhkvucDHzrc-DzxPGw/s3088/20220520_114137-01.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Cute blonde kid in a yellow baseball cap, looks whimsical, holding a toy turtle and a little pompom" border="0" data-original-height="3088" data-original-width="3088" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiw-Gj04zzU8sMaK4toXsSww3cCPemcS1vShJeCVXW90RXFB0YaFogLnqIyQB-CW8pARqEgkob1EjPpuBvUMKuFIsH-I0KVAUxEldt1jOSN6f8Z_ZpMXBdHW89X0A0eAW-hzfbVSniUrMnhmO1D2NIE_SJG14desQayKXUzOViqzhkvucDHzrc-DzxPGw/w320-h320/20220520_114137-01.jpeg" title="Grandchild 6 with turtle and pompom" width="320" /></a></div><br /></span></div><div style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">14/5/22 Saturday<br /></span></span><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I am at work. Hydrotherapy on a warm spring day leaves us relaxed like rag dolls. <br /></span></span><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Washing is pegged and dried on the line. I had to add extra water to the lupin which appeared to have fainted. All the pots are well mulched but they dry out anyway. Luckily the maintenance is pleasing. I tell the plants how beautiful they are, and taste-test the mint. <br /></span></span><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Mr is out at Paddock Garden cutting up felled trees and clearing nettles to make compost tea while Dog slumbers in the stable.
</span></span><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">15/5/22 Sunday<br /></span></span><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I peg washing on the line before leaving for work; as I start the car a light shower also begins. <br /></span></span><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Goodbye washing, enjoy your second rinse!<br /></span></span><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">At work we have a mission of putting together some jubilee planters, so we scour the garden department at Homebase for red, white, and blue blooms. <br /></span></span><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I have mixed feelings about the jubilee, partly because the world is on fire and that seems more important. I’m neither a royalist nor a hater. It was good to have a Queen when I was growing up, she was a reminder that girls do rule, and she looked rocking on all those Sex Pistols posters. Maybe if I add some punk bunting I will be more into it?
</span></span><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">16/5/22 Monday<br /></span></span><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I wake early and walk around our teeny lanes with my exceptionally pink weighted vest, under a grey heavy sky, flanked by hedge-flowers, before returning to bed to drink coffee, and then driving to work with rain pelting my car. Most of the scenery is faded into mist.<br /></span></span><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">We bought compost so the jubilee pots are planted up now, and they look even jollier than bunting. Every time I look at them I get technicolour 70s flashbacks- I had a swimsuit as red as that, the sky was blue as that, clouds were neon-white.
</span></span><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">17/5/22 Tuesday<br /></span></span><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">At home. The weather is warm with a fresh wind that is pushing rain clouds our way, so we choose to do our fieldwork this morning.<br /></span></span><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">It’s dry enough to drive the van down from the top field to the middle gate where we unload the beamingly orange chipper, and a box of things to plant- asiatic lilies that will bloom red and orange, a white and pink fuschia, a pink rose named Queen Elizabeth (for Nanny Liz, a matriarch not a monarch), a nearly-dead buddleia that deserves a chance, a bronze-red Acer, and probably something else that skips my mind in the general blur of digging holes and adding colour. <br /></span></span><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Wind turns the meadow grass to a billowing ocean. <br /></span></span><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Mr does the chipping, I, the planting; together, the admiring. <br /></span></span><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I find myself a spot in the top field to lie in the long grass and snooze. Dog lies down next to me so all is wholesome and well with the world. <br /></span></span><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">This afternoon: much rain, optimal for floral growth.
</span></span><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">18/5/22 Wednesday<br /></span></span><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Awake early, put on my weighted walking gear, yomp around the sunny lanes. Stop to befriend one snail and one cat, and to photograph the landscape from a field gate looking down towards our house.<br /></span></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">At work: take Care Client to Newquay Garden Centre. Am tempted by a eucalyptus, and a smoke bush, and all of it- my mind can't stop planting.
</span></span><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></span><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">19/5/22 Thursday<br /></span></span><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">On the early shift. It's a long day, so I take a lunchtime stroll to break it up.<br /></span></span><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">It’s warm and windy out. Heavy clouds. I bring my coat, which doesn't get worn but I pick up some shopping on the way back and tie up the coat sleeves to improvise a bag.</span></span><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">
</span></span><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">20/5/22 Friday<br /></span></span><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">After a late breakfast, a small rescue. Grandchild 6 is at nursery but feeling unwell. Not so ill she isn’t delighted to see her Granma, but paler and quieter than usual. We go to meet Mummy who is busy at work. While we wait in the car G6 asks if water has a butt. A water butt is a thing, I tell her, and I’m getting one for my land. That, apparently, is disgusting, but amusing.<br /></span></span><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Next question: does poo fart?<br /></span></span><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">While we are investigating the possibility of this; where do farts come from, does poo have a bum; Mummy arrives. She has done her work so fast she is made of steam. Little one falls asleep on the drive home. Aw. <br /></span></span><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I have my off-road running shoes in the car, so I stop at Wilsey Woods to have a jog. <br /></span></span><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I haven’t done any sort of running in a while so I set a timer on my phone to keep it gentle. Hacking up a hill, hot, tired, thinking this 10 minutes is dragging… yeah, forgot to press start. Then I take a ‘shortcut’ back to my car which adds a few more minutes and a quick check on Google maps to see how lost I am. By now there is more walking than running but here I am in these creepy-fine pine woods having an adventure, just me and the trees (which is good, since I can’t resist yelling ‘Does poo have a bum?’ into the open air).
</span></span><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDQ1c3DdXuZd3cO8MJV9-8z7wiFAGhufy1A9ErZbPuDOT2yAy0VkpYBeXfGAjiBnVBCkCbJTYh9uCBzryN9trnZRA7T_YC5ndJuFG339cHSYsjPGPAoOoRnSYA53FXQAlQdy1ZnJCbTet1Tj_AXGwILK0IzFhPLlL3XQ42mSH-v76agtIiwvQJlqvccw/s3088/IMG_20220515_193130_699.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Two black planters with flowerpots stood in and around: flowers in pots are a bright selsction of red, white, and blue" border="0" data-original-height="3088" data-original-width="3088" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDQ1c3DdXuZd3cO8MJV9-8z7wiFAGhufy1A9ErZbPuDOT2yAy0VkpYBeXfGAjiBnVBCkCbJTYh9uCBzryN9trnZRA7T_YC5ndJuFG339cHSYsjPGPAoOoRnSYA53FXQAlQdy1ZnJCbTet1Tj_AXGwILK0IzFhPLlL3XQ42mSH-v76agtIiwvQJlqvccw/w320-h320/IMG_20220515_193130_699.jpg" title="Jubilee flowers" width="320" /></a></div><br /></span><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></span></div><p></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt;"><br /></span></span></p><div class="blogger-post-footer"><g:plus href="https://plus.google.com/102412774245303060744" size="smallbadge"></g:plus>
</div>Lisa Southardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09711376747848601409noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6500425810028077954.post-55122391450817958252022-05-13T20:06:00.000+01:002022-05-13T20:06:15.134+01:00Planting, Plans, Pants, And Perfection<div style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: left;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHuJUBcX-W9mcIQf5MU5Ezb80admY0RtUvb8KGvVUCqSsVQkcZ63myTdMTSrcsp0VeNmi-WSeOpjqP9t2cnhAsrsnXoK92_MDluJPbumh8wUlg3w5JPj70XAWE9k3ulycbAJlH4zFQHY6RhgvalV18eZjsP9Ql4W_hSHSbMkpPwbo3hV0_p-gTItSVnQ/s3088/20220510_133127-01.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="View up over a grassy field towards a horizon of trees, blue sky, white fluffy clouds" border="0" data-original-height="3088" data-original-width="3088" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHuJUBcX-W9mcIQf5MU5Ezb80admY0RtUvb8KGvVUCqSsVQkcZ63myTdMTSrcsp0VeNmi-WSeOpjqP9t2cnhAsrsnXoK92_MDluJPbumh8wUlg3w5JPj70XAWE9k3ulycbAJlH4zFQHY6RhgvalV18eZjsP9Ql4W_hSHSbMkpPwbo3hV0_p-gTItSVnQ/w320-h320/20220510_133127-01.jpeg" title="Top Field" width="320" /></a></div><br /></span></div><div style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: left;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">7/5/22 Saturday<br /></span></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">I am raring to be back to work shenanigans.
Little Care Client has not been well though, so she is having a quiet sleepy day.
We make do with a YouTube beach; the garden pots are watered, the window ajar, the washing machine rumbling.
Mr is at Paddock Garden clearing the storm-felled ash, ready for track building times. As is usual, we are not sure when our contractor will appear. It's a little frustrating mixed with the excitement of surprise.</span></span></div><div style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: left;"><b id="docs-internal-guid-a790416b-7fff-91ae-bbb2-c63de8dd1187" style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span></b><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">8/5/22 Sunday<br /></span></span><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Coffee in bed, listening to birdsong, peering at weather forecasts.
Watered the polytunnel which seems untenanted since last week’s pest control clearance. It will soon fill up: lulls and excess is how it rolls. <br /></span></span><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">My drive to work starts sunny; gathers mist from Bodmin onwards. My legs are cold but my dress has a bright floral print, my scarf is cobalt blue, my shoes are giraffe print and fun. At work I have shopping chores - batteries for the noisy toys little Care Client loves the best, and canes for her peas - which allows me to also gather up sale rail plants; pink and purple flower bushes, a chunky pot of citrusy thyme; for myself, and generally daydream of planting everything everywhere. Kitchens become kitchen gardens, bathrooms are jungles, living rooms crammed with lilies: don't look for your bedroom you sleep in a tree now. </span></span><br /></div><div style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: left;"><b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span></b><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">9/5/22 Monday<br /></span></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">Wolf spiders in the polytunnel are congregating in the strawberry patch under the grapevine, many of them hefting egg sacs. I re-pot yesterday's plant bargains before washing the earth from my hands and heading for work.
Little Care Client is perkier today, she plays her guitar with vigour.
It is misty-sunny in St. Austell, fresh but warm. We have the windows open, washing on the rotary line, flowers blinking in a light breeze; water sounds on YouTube. </span></span></div><div style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: left;"><b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span></b><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">10/5/22 Tuesday
Pausing only for pasty purchases, we head to Paddock Garden where </span></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">all the latest plant bargains are found homes, and Dog scrounges our pasty crusts. <br /></span></span><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The pink cordyline on the earth mound- which is a grassy overgrown knoll now- has not survived, so I am thinking to replace it with an acer which I could weave into the cobnut on the corner, and make one of my favourite things: an arch. Cobnut is barely a foot high, so it will take a while and I can then plan what else to weave in: honeysuckle, jasmine, ivy- so many pretty plans! </span></span><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The sun gains strength. It bakes our feet in our boots. Dog lies in the shade of the van, snoozing. Short grass grows thick, taller grasses grow in patches, swaying under seed weight. Buttercups glow yellow, pimpernels make clouds of blue. </span></span><br /></div><div style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">11/5/22 Wednesday<br /></span></span><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Wake to rainfall. Our wildflower seeds need a soaking, and all of yesterday’s plantings too. It’s good when the sky does the work.
Dog had a vet check-up mid-morning; she is old, arthritic, but on the whole in healthy condition. She seems smug. The vet had given her a treat for being well behaved.
Meanwhile, I constructed a large map of Paddock Garden ready for a planting plan, although we need to do some measuring to check the scale... plans and plants, they grow at their own pace. <br /></span></span><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">This evening: I stay home to cook roast - it smells so delicious my stomach is passive-aggressively mumbling trying to undermine the anticipatory delight: I choose mind over matter for this fight, stomach, but in the end we will both win. <br /></span></span><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Update: Yes, it’s a win. <br /></span></span><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Later this evening: Dog wakes herself in a scramble- too late. There’s poop on the sofa- luckily we always have a coverlet in place for such emergencies. Habit takes her outside; suddenly she’s barking an alert and Mr is shouting ‘No!’ because there is a hedgehog, now rolled up and feeling unwelcome, on our doorstep.
Dog gets prickled, there’s no sign of harm to our guest. We put a piece of banana down by way of apology and leave Little Hog to recover in peace.
The fruit goes uneaten so I lob it into the undergrowth.
Sorry about Dog, dear hedgepig. We were delighted to see you. Hope you find the banana, or some delicious banana-stuffed slugs.</span></span></div><div style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span></div><div style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgokoxH6Ssd6iJyUZ98mF-AymFVq0gWL7Ue7iUnMPV3Aerv4nq0Xa25GrkinkP0ISGW8MC-7ZsVgvvnKaraS0jT-YZhrTPWtvGzd7YNzs5w5HcsGTP7q2ylklG3g3A2uR9h3PFPX2IwK8ZNMP9-gmVCcPXi0O_BSKzZDBeS4H6heXjl5v0_zL4q6x9jKw/s3088/20220511_234703-01.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Rolled up hedgehog on a door mat" border="0" data-original-height="3088" data-original-width="3088" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgokoxH6Ssd6iJyUZ98mF-AymFVq0gWL7Ue7iUnMPV3Aerv4nq0Xa25GrkinkP0ISGW8MC-7ZsVgvvnKaraS0jT-YZhrTPWtvGzd7YNzs5w5HcsGTP7q2ylklG3g3A2uR9h3PFPX2IwK8ZNMP9-gmVCcPXi0O_BSKzZDBeS4H6heXjl5v0_zL4q6x9jKw/w320-h320/20220511_234703-01.jpeg" title="Rolled up hedgehog" width="320" /></a></div><br /></span></div><div style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">12/5/22 Thursday<br /></span></span><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Cloudy, sunny, heat bundled in clouds. After our coffee ritual, Mr gets on with fixing machinery, I with polytunnel and general chores; slowly washing up while fat renders in a frying pan, and leftovers are prepped, some as a curry.
Leftovers is my all-time favourite food, being inventive and always a bit different.
Dog gets a bone to chew on the lawn. <br /></span></span><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Our lawn, though kept mowed, is bio-diverse (aka packed with weeds) and edged in wild undergrowth so there’s plenty of habitat space for hedgehogs, multitudinous pollinators, frogs, slugs, spiders, beetles, newts, lizards, and all the critters (whether Dog cares to share or not).</span></span></div><div style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: left;"><b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span></b><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">13/5/22 Friday<br /></span></span><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Covering a short shift today for a colleague whose partner has a fracture clinic appointment. It provides me with a good opportunity for an after-work swim.
Dog left a dotted trail from the living room to the front door earlier this morning.
Friday the Turdteenth?
I had better check the sewage report before I hit the waves. <br /></span></span><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">After work, Carlyon Beach: no poop. Picked up the wrong swim bag, so also no swimsuit. This is barely a deterrent. I enter the water in t-shirt and pants, a classic combo.<br /></span></span><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Ah, here I am:
me, the waves, the blues and greens, one seagull, one cormorant, swirls of curling seaweed dotting dark on the pale sand, sun sparkles on the water-
if a diamond could be worked like a sheet of silver, and if it could breathe, it would look like this. <br /></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">Hide under my scarf to get changed, my jeans are lined with damp sand, the seagull sounds very much as though it is laughing- I am smirking, full of fun. </span></span></div><div style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: medium; white-space: pre-wrap;">It doesn’t have to be perfect to be perfect.</span></div><div style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: medium; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div><div style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: left;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.blogger.com/video.g?token=AD6v5dwKFe9tpGdaJ_zEVWXkz2AZsnzSNfecHy7lAGVTYu-VcY8Ku3gDZrjtBc0ox_rl7hWfVz_WiSXFclouSWDZBA' class='b-hbp-video b-uploaded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: medium; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><div class="blogger-post-footer"><g:plus href="https://plus.google.com/102412774245303060744" size="smallbadge"></g:plus>
</div>Lisa Southardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09711376747848601409noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6500425810028077954.post-56694206006987282342022-05-06T19:29:00.001+01:002022-05-06T19:29:57.227+01:00The Week Of Clarke And Covid<div style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><div style="text-align: left;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjIZDXsJsmQFVSm3u_AqYMKFNc-RCdCl0m3u8rDxTqiuBn6veaf721HM1cwZUMty_q2BqUIlXTeHtEHHY4YnhE5lHapvDhpO8LiY6HiJ5hOliuY98Emisp0tlKX7EJ_3X9_tQZ9ZpzvDo1BUMbDkglzQXikhAVbKiXsP1q12rzT_yR_vKh8ZxJLdGCUMQ/s1968/IMG_20220430_141056_046.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Close up of wry faced lady of 52 years who faces camera from her bed." border="0" data-original-height="1968" data-original-width="1968" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjIZDXsJsmQFVSm3u_AqYMKFNc-RCdCl0m3u8rDxTqiuBn6veaf721HM1cwZUMty_q2BqUIlXTeHtEHHY4YnhE5lHapvDhpO8LiY6HiJ5hOliuY98Emisp0tlKX7EJ_3X9_tQZ9ZpzvDo1BUMbDkglzQXikhAVbKiXsP1q12rzT_yR_vKh8ZxJLdGCUMQ/w320-h320/IMG_20220430_141056_046.jpg" title="Bed rest" width="320" /></a></div><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: large; white-space: pre-wrap;">30/4/22 Saturday</span></div><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">It’s not odd to wake up achy.
Yesterday I was dragging and rolling logs, amongst other land tasks. I don’t feel right though, so I take a covid test before thinking about heading to work. The control line is bold red, the test line is barely visible but it’s not <i>not</i> there... message my coworker to pre-warn her that I might not be arriving, though the result may be erroneous.
Wait one hour.
Re-test.
Both lines bold red.
Mr’s test is negative, putting him on nurse duty.
It feels wrong, at first, not to be off to work, but while I am sitting in bed reading up on the pros and cons of stone tracks; drainage issues in particular; the excitement of having a rest kicks in.
Mr goes to the shops and comes home with a cream tea. </span></div><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div style="text-align: left;">1/5/22 Sunday</div></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div style="text-align: left;">The last calendar month of spring begins with light rain, light grey sky, barely a breeze. The hedge birds have a lot to say; swallows swoop by the bedroom window so fast I see only a fork-tailed blur. </div></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div style="text-align: left;">Today I rest, I write.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div style="text-align: left;">2/5/22 Monday</div></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div style="text-align: left;">Resting is working, though now I’m at the dangerous point where I think I’m good to relaunch into everything, and risk delaying full healing. Mr has gone out to Paddock Garden, to chop up felled trees. I am staying home, mostly in bed, window open, listening to birds gossip, watching a light stirring in the taller branches, planning my next section of novel writing. Working on just the next sentence, just the next word, is meticulous but also freeing. I’ve thought out most of the big picture, so no need to scatter thoughts, only to focus on where I am. It’s what we're doing with land plans too; the big picture is mostly in place, now we work on it piece by piece. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div style="text-align: left;">3/5/22 Tuesday</div></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div style="text-align: left;">Wandered to the polytunnel this morning and automatically set to work. Cleared all the winter warming gear; the black bins, the bubble wrap, the insulated foil, the plastic and glass bottles that all make cosy thermal mass; thinned out the greenfly infested strawberry and herb robert plants; remembered I was not supposed to be doing this. The lime tree has been under some kind of attack, so I pruned and fed that as a matter of urgency, and turfed out the flower crab spider for eating a bee.
Mr helped with the tidying up, and rounding me back to rest.
I am back in bed, a little bored, very tired, and have just had a late, low-effort breakfast of ice cream and banana. </div><div style="text-align: left;"> </div></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div style="text-align: left;">4/5/22 Wednesday</div></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div style="text-align: left;">(May The Fourth Be With All Who Celebrate)</div></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div style="text-align: left;">Mr went shopping twice, the second time for the stuff he forgot the first time around.</div></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div style="text-align: left;">I snuck off for another polytunnel stint thinning out strawberries, watering, and planting beans. Transplanted some mint to see if that discourages ants and woodlice, they are rumoured not to be fond of it. Saw a beautiful nursery web spider with her mouth full of egg sac, also some harvestmen, mouse spiders (UK version, they are furry looking, they do not feast on mice), a joyfully pink worm, a hefty bee, too many ants, and one lost looking moth. </div></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div style="text-align: left;">5/5/22 Thursday</div></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div style="text-align: left;">It’s sunny, there’s a breeze that is barely cooler than the air, like summer is just ahead, whispering back over her shoulder. </div></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div style="text-align: left;">I pack up winter woolly wear, hang some flower bright skirts and dresses in my wardrobe. This week I have been in chrysalis mode, I am getting ready to emerge. This readiness is backed up by a negative test. I will miss this resting mode: I must remember I don't have to be ill to have a day off.</div></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div style="text-align: left;">This evening: Mr drives to Tavistock to buy a generator. It’s too good a deal not to, now we need to figure out how and where to house it. It’s bright red, and has the name Clarke Power blazoned on it, so no regrets. Welcome to the household, Clarke. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div style="text-align: left;">6/5/22 Friday</div></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div style="text-align: left;">Dog wakes me at 6:30am, in our bedroom making huffing noises like she needs to either puke or breathe slowly into a paper bag. She bolts for the stairs, rolls down them, recovers herself mournfully. I let her outside, and sit in the reclining chair waiting for her return.
I stay there to keep her company, and almost drift to sleep before she leaps off the sofa, hitting every door and frame on her furious run into the garden to chase whatever has irked her. When she comes back the lump on her tail is bleeding. I go to look, she stops cleaning it, stands, squats, drops three turds onto the carpet. </div></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div style="text-align: left;">7am: I am making coffee.</div></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div style="text-align: left;">11am: we are at Paddock Garden. Mr is tucking into log piling, I am on light duties moving some heathers and primroses for their own safety prior to track building, picking a few dandelion flower heads, and general wanderings. Mr joins me and wobbly Dog for a stroll to the top. Strolling and wandering, sometimes referred to as ‘site surveys’ when we wish to pretend we are in control of this process, are essential. Without wandering, we would not know our land, nor be available for the ideas that seem to pop out of it, and allow it to guide us. We feel ready for the next instalment. We still don’t know where to store the generator but- no regrets. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTDt5hyRtbowBRx_OvaGXvtB_i7sfR6YlUKX3BV8cTt6nLy1Ii28jzPcPfi_i6ZWG6RKZJ5P62p5A8YuJpm9gQQokISwiIdhChdWnJne_b09G2beTKKuYDFChxh6fIMdg2SrSdLWJsC0gJvqiuUFAe5f0Lwq-RCZM1CyX57j3Cfg14nglw8BwrIW9Emg/s3088/20220505_210838.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Clarke Power, a red generator machine, fills the boot of a small white car." border="0" data-original-height="3088" data-original-width="3088" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTDt5hyRtbowBRx_OvaGXvtB_i7sfR6YlUKX3BV8cTt6nLy1Ii28jzPcPfi_i6ZWG6RKZJ5P62p5A8YuJpm9gQQokISwiIdhChdWnJne_b09G2beTKKuYDFChxh6fIMdg2SrSdLWJsC0gJvqiuUFAe5f0Lwq-RCZM1CyX57j3Cfg14nglw8BwrIW9Emg/w320-h320/20220505_210838.jpg" title="Clarke Power, Generator" width="320" /></a></div><br />
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</div>Lisa Southardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09711376747848601409noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6500425810028077954.post-87352381329220736742022-04-30T11:42:00.000+01:002022-04-30T11:42:13.521+01:00Unusual Koalas<div style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: left;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiRJ8609Qok5j5DI5E8QkWLT8PmptH6U5Tb17DpvGHzrZsNNWnrUszSuM6v3UPwKt1lxOD19h4N4AOmzTdL66DErF-kxHhBJZ6pGZkP4Ighgg70zM8KpsW1KB76BfWDAOQQOW-uctJab3LUIuBqswHsUKNIivtCn4BVEPGMkH017i_LDarmXyQI5jUxNg/s3088/20220426_113322.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Two small children sit on a felled tree trunk, one is sticking out their tongue, the other is looking serious" border="0" data-original-height="3088" data-original-width="3088" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiRJ8609Qok5j5DI5E8QkWLT8PmptH6U5Tb17DpvGHzrZsNNWnrUszSuM6v3UPwKt1lxOD19h4N4AOmzTdL66DErF-kxHhBJZ6pGZkP4Ighgg70zM8KpsW1KB76BfWDAOQQOW-uctJab3LUIuBqswHsUKNIivtCn4BVEPGMkH017i_LDarmXyQI5jUxNg/w320-h320/20220426_113322.jpg" title="Grandchildren, partly feral" width="320" /></a></div><br /><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></span></div><div style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: left;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">23/4/22 Saturday<br /></span></span><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Coffee and stretches start this day, then I go off to work and Mr readies himself to meet Contractor Thomas on the land, to talk tracks and flat areas for camping pitches. (This meeting has taken around 5 months to arrive, and that’s how it goes with land plans, folks.)<br /></span></span><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Hydrotherapy sessions have restarted, so to keep our care client entertained but not tired prior to this we have set up disco lights to play over her mat where she sits with her toys. It’s a cool clouded day and we are all disco-dappled and listening to birdsong on YouTube. </span></span><br /></div><div style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: left;"><b id="docs-internal-guid-43652016-7fff-80d6-4af5-3d80b6b1b052" style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span></b><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">24/4/22 Sunday<br /></span></span><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Rain, moderate, mostly over Bodmin Moor.<br /></span></span><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Our care client is tired from her hydrotherapy yesterday, she plays on her mat in between snoozes. We have lakeside and beach scenes courtesy of YouTube; she loves the sounds of nature, I love pretending to be on a writing retreat. </span></span></div><div style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Get writing done in short bursts. It is not easy to world build in break times like this, but we edge through it. I type ‘we’ here because Care Client feels like part of the process now, and it’s strange to write without her when I’m at home. </span></span></div><div style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: left;"><b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span></b><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">25/4/22 Monday <br /></span></span><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Early start to babysit grandchildren 6&7. We went to the park to play, and to wait for Grandad, who had to drop the van in for a service. Unexpectedly sunny. We ditched jumpers, little ones also dumped their welly boots. Played on everything but what really sticks in my mind is pushing G7 on the swing and him shouting to the entire park ‘Granma is getting me HIGH!!!’ <br /></span></span><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">At work: </span></span><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I have eaten a stomach stretching pile of vegetables, so now is a good time to sit down and write.</span></span><br /></div><div style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: left;"><b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span></b><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">26/4/22 Tuesday </span></span></div><div style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: left;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">Another early start for babysitting the little ones, and their bigger sister.</span></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">Grandchild 6: (in the back of the car, to her brother) I saw a butt-tree<br /></span></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">(much laughter)<br /></span></span><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Grandchild 7: I saw a poo tree<br /></span></span><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">(hooting laughter- this exchange goes on a while)<br /></span></span><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">G6: I saw a unicorn tree<br /></span></span><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">G7- laughs<br /></span></span><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">G6- No, brother, a </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">unicorn</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> tree<br /></span></span><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">G7- No! <br /></span></span><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">(they seem to be asphyxiating with laughter)<br /></span></span><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">We drove to the land, so I could help Mr unload the rotavator. The rotavator is heavy and hard work but he pushes on to make a swathe for wildflowers: food for pollinators, happiness for us.
Work was halted for a picnic. Children decide to roll down the hill. Grandchild 2 finds this is not great after eating, but is not sick in the car. </span></span><br /></div><div style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: left;"><b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span></b><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">27/4/22 Wednesday</span></span></div><div style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: left;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">Another early start, this time to get Care Client to her horse riding session</span></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">, always lovely to witness. I take a walk to town, it’s warm with a fresh wind.
Bought some tomatoes and garlic in a greengrocer’s shop, which are roasting in the oven for my tea. </span></span></div><div style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: left;"><b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span></b><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">28/4/22 Thursday<br /></span></span><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">No alarms set, just woke up. </span></span></div><div style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Mr made coffee. </span></span></div><div style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">We wandered to the land, under a clear sky. Sun beamed, a cold wind blew. We added layers that soon were hanging on fences because work warmed us up. Mr was rotavating another spot, I was raking grass and topsoil.
We took a picnic break, sat on the grass in the van’s shadow.
All across the field bright yellow dandelions and buttercups bob in the breeze, all along the hedges bluebells pool in the shadows. The horse chestnut planted in the hedge to replace the felled ash tree is in leaf, it seems happy.
Dog was sneaking closer and closer to our hard-boiled eggs, nearly got lucky when one rolled under the van.
After lunch, we opened packets of seeds, wildflower mixes and cover crops, and poured them into two containers, one each to scatter in the rotavated, raked soil.
The seeds were trodden in, the grass was raked back over - now we wait, to see if this work will bloom.
No word yet from Thomas on prices, but we have our first insurance quote which is exciting to us. Plans are big, progress is slow, but it is real and it is happening. </span></span><br /></div><div style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: left;"><b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span></b><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">29/4/22 Friday</span></span><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">At the land we get on with tidying up the felled ash, making size graded piles of firewood. Blackthorn branches are placed over the wildflower patches, to deter dogs and children from digging around. I had my straw hat on, no need for jumpers or coats today. <br /></span></span><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">As we were packing up a lovely parcel of family arrived, with an air rifle. Youngest Son set up targets so we all leaned in between the twin ash trees in the middle hedge, struggling with the scope which is loose but doesn't stop it from being fun. The little ones found gun-shaped sticks to use instead, before absconding to the felled ash trunk where they turned into gun-toting koalas, one of whom claimed to have laid an egg. </span></span></div><div style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span></div><div style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiSSqZ57QXOJGwAVTFEPII2ozv58BQHkqbNZolSAzf7nyhcKJT021JDTYY3HAjRtda6ly3aKXJvGi9VdRnNmYJY45r-XpgR9w2XRV0xLKzg2btwNSG5jH6rx_wuPUj6DX2OuzK7aDMsbNTYJX7OazT0psDMoRKZfZRlvytqpDrJWcqh-qtkIjiTLVZBQA/s3088/20220429_152539.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3088" data-original-width="3088" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiSSqZ57QXOJGwAVTFEPII2ozv58BQHkqbNZolSAzf7nyhcKJT021JDTYY3HAjRtda6ly3aKXJvGi9VdRnNmYJY45r-XpgR9w2XRV0xLKzg2btwNSG5jH6rx_wuPUj6DX2OuzK7aDMsbNTYJX7OazT0psDMoRKZfZRlvytqpDrJWcqh-qtkIjiTLVZBQA/s320/20220429_152539.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span></div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><g:plus href="https://plus.google.com/102412774245303060744" size="smallbadge"></g:plus>
</div>Lisa Southardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09711376747848601409noreply@blogger.com6