Small Pleasures in Old Age

 

 

Peanut butter sandwiches

 

Dear Reader,

Since I have gone rather deaf I haven't been listening to the radio very much lately.  If I haven't listened to the start of the programme I can't seem to understand what is being talked about, I can't hear the words well enough.   But all this changed this week.  I was ironing and decided to give it another try.  It was just as good as it always has been, Radio 4, an excellent outpouring of so many disparate subjects from Woman's Hour, to the hourly up date on the news, to music and much more. This time I was lucky enough to catch Sir Keith Starmer talking about his own life, and very interesting it was too.  What an excellent man he seems to be and I will seriously think of giving him my vote next time round. It is such a relief to know that if I tune in at a given time I will, once again, be able to enjoy the marvelous Radio 4.

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From Francis Kilvert's Wiltshire Diary,  24th November, 1872

'My mother writes from Monnington that William had just been at a clerical meeting at Mr. Phillott's, the Rector of Stanton-on-wye, and came back not very deeply impressed by the brilliancy of some of the Herefordshire Clergy.

She mentions too a story which seems almost incredible but which she states is well known to be true. Mr. Ormerod, the Rector of Presteign, who has a living of £1,000 a year who is nevertheless always over head and ears in debt, has every Sunday two Celebrations of Holy Communion at which he always puts upon the plate his pocket knife by way of alms, saying that he has no change.  After service he returns the knife to his pocket, but (it is stated) invariably forgets to redeem it.'

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Small Pleasures in Old Age

Listening to Mozart's Andante
in front of a log fire

hearing the robin's call
in early spring
spotting the first violets, first primroses

walking in the woods
sitting under the trees
whilst the bagpipes utter

their unique spiritual sounds
watching the deer hurrying
through the undergrowth

following the antics
of the Archer family
eating peanut butter sandwiches

watching the goldfinch spitting
out seeds, and laughing
at the absurdity of life itself

exchanging family news
proudly loving the grandchildren
and their stories

small away holidays
with Francis, by the sea
in Dorset

And, perhaps best of all, having the courage
to not say yes to things
when I mean no

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With very best wishes, Patricia