Tag Archives: uplifting

Poppies will grow anywhere

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Poppies will grow anywhere

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Poppies will grow anywhere but they need bare soil that has been turned over recently to germinate – which is why they grow so well in cornfields.   We now have two ganders and one drake which are obviously not very productive so I need to think about some mates for them. We inherited the geese and the sensible thing to do would be to get two female geese and have one of the ganders for Christmas but, as with all livestock, it’s not easy to make difficult decisions and the more you put them off the harder they become.

We bought the drake to keep the duck company – and so we would have some fertile eggs if the duck went broody – but then the fox got Jasmine so we were left with one duck again. To make matters worse Drake started chasing the hens but I had to move them to a safer place out of reach of the fox anyway. Now winter is coming and I need to move the hens back into the hen house so need to decide whether to get two ducks to keep Drake happy or – well the only other option is to find a new home for him as once something has a name it’s impossible to eat it!

Daffodils

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Daffodils – I love picking some of the first daffodils when they are in bud and seeing them open out, unfolding their petals, bringing spring scents into the room.  Wordsworth’s poem reminds me of  fields of daffodils in Cornwall ‘fluttering and dancing’ in the breeze.

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I wandered lonely as a cloud

I wandered lonely as a cloud
That floats on high o’er vales and hills,
When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host, of golden daffodils;
Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.

Continuous as the stars that shine
And twinkle on the milky way,
They stretched in never-ending line
Along the margin of a bay:
Ten thousand saw I at a glance,
Tossing their heads in sprightly dance.

The waves beside them danced; but they
Out-did the sparkling waves in glee:
A poet could not but be gay,
In such a jocund company:
I gazed—and gazed—but little thought
What wealth the show to me had brought:

For oft, when on my couch I lie
In vacant or in pensive mood,
They flash upon that inward eye
Which is the bliss of solitude;
And then my heart with pleasure fills,
And dances with the daffodils.

William Wordsworth (1770–1850)

New Zealand White Rabbits like Chives

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New Zealand White Rabbits like Chives

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Eny’s babies are 4 weeks old now and they are hopping about happily.

Chives are growing quite well in the garden and the rabbits love them – just a few stalks each day along with their piece of apple.

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The original Easter Bunny was the Hare.  The Anglo Saxon’s believed that the hare laid eggs in its form to signify the imminence of the year’s rebirth.  However, the church changed the hare into a ‘bunny’ in order to lead the people away from pagan stories and ways.  The Spring Goddess was often depicted as a woman’s body with the head of a hare.

 

Coltsfoot

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Coltsfoot

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One of my favourite spring flowers is coltsfoot – unusual in that the flowers appear before the leaves.

The Christian word ‘Easter’ is derived from the pagan word ‘Eastre’.  Eastre or Ostara is believed to have been the Saxon Goddess of the Dawn, hence the reason why Easter is celebrated at the time of the Spring Equinox.

The connection between Easter and the ‘egg’ symbolising new life also originates from pre-Christian times but fits perfectly with the Christian belief of the resurrection.

Although our youngest son is now 15 (and the others are 25 and 22) we still have an Easter Egg Hunt each year – but now with cryptic clues and riddles they have to solve rather than a trail of tiny Easter eggs.  Clues like:

What has to be broken before you can use it – and where can you find some?  The answer is of course – eggs – in the hen house.

Family time is so important – and often so difficult to organise with so many computer distractions – but it’s always worth it.

 

How to be Truly Happy

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How to be Truly Happy

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If someone asked me what common  theme my Twitter account has then it would have to be ‘Things that make me Happy’.  My glass is always half full – there’s absolutely no point in looking at life any other way.  I collect beautiful pictures, bluebirds and daffodils, great sayings: “There’s no point looking back ‘cos that’s not the way you’re going.”  Funny video clips and happy tunes – I absolutely love ‘Room without a Roof’ because everyone dances to it and I love sharing happiness.

John is the same – and has finally published a book which is full of happy pictures and inspirational words – you can download it from:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00V6Z5PYE?*Version*=1&*entries*=0

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I have had bad times, days when I just couldn’t face getting out of bed, mornings when just the thought of cleaning my teeth was too much effort – but I’ve always found something to focus on, some reason to carry on, something I love – and on those days I have found if I can just get outside and feel the sun on my face and the breeze on my skin, the scent of primroses and a robin singing, life is suddenly wonderful again – even if it’s just for a moment when ‘a chaffinch sings on the orchard bough’ or ‘a crowd of golden daffodils’, and you stop and immerse yourself in nature and forget everything else.

Many people find meditation helps – and is often much better therapy than drugs for lots of stress-related conditions, like headaches, insomnia, IBS, indigestion and phobias.  Sleeping and eating are a vital part of every day and our bodies need a regular balance of both or they start to complain.  www.meditationalstate.com has some beautiful music and images.

Running a business, working for yourself, can be really hard sometimes – but if you love what you do then it’s like having a hobby 7 days a week – and if you do have a bad day where everything seems to go wrong – it’s just one bad day – and you know you’ll be doing something you love doing tomorrow.

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The days are getting longer

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The days are getting longer, Spring is in the air, with the promise of summer to come, there’s a great sense of excitement in the garden, you can almost feel the grass growing and the daffodils bursting into brilliant yellow splashes of sunshine.

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Here is Charlie with his foster-mum – Mrs Grey – and I’ve called the other chick Ebony – I think he (or she) is a pure  is a pure Vorwerk.  If so (s)he’ll look like one of these when (s)he grows up:

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This is Captain Von Vorwerk with Violet, they are quite impressive hens and they lay little white eggs.

A Squirrel in the Hen House

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A Squirrel in the Hen House

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This morning when I went out to feed the hens, Amber was making such a commotion, so Betsy and I went over to see what all the fuss was about.  Amber is in a pen on her own as she has just hatched one chick and it’s only two days old.  I couldn’t see the chick anywhere and Amber was squawking like mad.  When I opened the door of the pen, there was a squirrel inside!  Betsy soon saw him off and shortly afterwards the chick came out of hiding and calm was restored.  But how did the squirrel get in?

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Spring is in the Air

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Spring is in the Air

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It was a beautiful frosty morning, the sun glinting off thawing raindrops.  I love this time of year when it’s just warm enough – and hopefully dry enough – to get out in the garden but not much is growing yet, so you can catch up with clearing up the vegetable patch.

It’s a rare ‘window of opportunity’;  time to get rid of all the perennial weeds like docks, nettles, buttercups and the perennial grasses.  I give the weeds to the hens – they love scratching though them looking for worms.  By the beginning of February there’s a sort of hopefulness in the air, the birds are singing, showing off their bright spring feathers and busily looking for nesting places and the air is alive with the promise of things to come.  It’s exhilarating just getting outside and living and breathing – and becoming part of – Spring.

 

Ozymandias

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20RouteDeLaPlage

Ozymandias

I met a traveller from an antique land
Who said: `Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert. Near them, on the sand,
Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown,
And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
The hand that mocked them and the heart that fed.
And on the pedestal these words appear –
“My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:
Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!”
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away.’

Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792-1822)