Quickening

 Dear reader,

 

Cherry blossoms, or sakura, are deeply embedded in Japanese culture with a history spanning over 1,000 years, symbolizing transience, beauty and renewal.   Originating as a way to predict harvests, hanami (flower viewing) became popular in the 18th century, representing samurai, honor and ephemeral nature of life.

According to HuffPost it is widely held consensus that the origin of the first cherry blossoms happened somewhere in the Himalayas, Eurasia, but scholars posit that the blossoms may have reached Japan around several thousand years ago.

Cherry blossoms mark the arrival of spring, a season of new beginnings and rebirth.   Their short life span, blossoming for just a couple of weeks serves as a powerful reminder of the transience of life and the importance of cherishing every moment.  It is said that the oldest cherry blossom tree is between 1,800  and 2,000 years old.

 

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From Francis Kilvert    April 18th  1876 in Wiltshire

'This morning I married John Knight and Elizabeth Austin at Langley Burrell Church.  It ws April weather with showers and gleams by whiles.....Rice and flowers were showered upon the bride in the porch and churchyard.  There were three carriages, with greys and postilions in Scarlet. '

 

From Samuel Pepys   April 22nd  1664 in Kent

'I was called up this morning before four o'clock.  It was full light to dress myself:   and so by water against tide, it being a little cool, to Greenwich; and thence only that it was somewhat foggy till the sun got up to some height, walked with great pleasure to Woolwich, in my way staying several times to listen to the nightingales. 

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Quickening

 

 

 

 

I want the pulse of life that has been asleep

to wake, embrace me, put on the light.

To hear the thrush, song-repeat, to keep

my trust in God to hurry icy winter’s flight.

I want to glimpse, under sodden leaves, green shoots

to announce life’s circle, its beginnings, have begun.

I want to run barefoot, abandon boots,

to walk through primrose paths, savour the sun.

I want to take off winter’s dress, change its season,

to see the coloured petticoats of spring, bloom

and show us mortals nature’s reason

to start afresh, admire the peacock’s plume.

Cellar the coal, brush the ashes from the fire,

I want to intertwine, my love, quicken, feel desire.

 

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 I have been doing a few sketches on Instagram which you might like to see.  I just did them for fun because I haven't been feeling very well lately and they make me laugh and cheer me up. Perhaps you will enjoy them, I did them with my daughter Jessica and my two grandchildren.

 

 

 

 

With very best wishes, Patricia 

 

 

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The Date Jar

 Dear reader,

 

Marmalade originated from ancient Greek and Roman quince pastes, with the name deriving from the Portuguese 'marmelada.'  In the 16th and 17th centuries this firm, sugary, fruit paste formula evolved in Britain into a citrus preserve using imported Seville oranges, becoming a popular quintessential British breakfast staple by the 18th/19th centuries, largely popularized by Scottish commercial production.

The tale that Mary Queen of Scots ate it when sick, supposingly sparking the name "Marie Malade", is generally considered a myth.  Modern marmalade has existed since the 1700s when the Scots added water to marmalade to male it less solid than before.

James Keiller founded the first marmalade factory in 1997, so the story of the Keiller Dundeed marmalade is difficult to avoid.  The myth goes that marmalade was invented in Dundee by the wife of a grocer named James Keiller after he bought a loaf of discounted and unsalable oranges from a storm blasted cargo ship. 

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Toast, butter and marmalade make for me, a perfect breakfast or supper.

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From Dorothy Wordsworth    April 6th   1798   in Somerset

'Walked a short distance up the lesser Coombe, with an intention of going to the source of the brook, but the evening closing in, cold prevented us. The Spring still advancing very slowly.  The horse-chestnuts budding, and the hedgerows beginning to look green, but nothing fully expanded.'

From Gilbert White    April 8th    1770 in Hampshire

'No birds sing. and no insects appear during this wintry sharp season. '

From Gilbert White   April 11th  1790 in Oxford

'Thames very full and beautiful, after so much dry weather wheat looks well; meadows dry, and scorched; roads very dusty.'

 

                                                                               

The Date Jar

(after cancer operation)

 

On the breakfast table I noticed

the date jar, 

hiding a little behind the cereals,

the milk, the marmalade, the sugar bowl,

and a small jug full of early daffodils.

 

The date jar?

 

My throat constricted.

It was the thought he had had,

laying things out,

that I might like a date,

that touched the chord.

 

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With very best wishes, Patricia 

 

 

Absent

 Dear reader, 

 

Lawn daises or "day's eyes" are native to Europe and have been used for centuries for their medicinal properties, folklore, and as popular lawn decorations.

Originally used by Romans for wounds, they have evolved from a traditional spring herb to a widely recognized often tolerated component of short-mown turf, particularly in the UK.

In the 14th century they were used in ointments for gout and fever.  Henry VIII reputedly ate them to treat stomach ulcers.

Daisies symbolize innocence and purity.  In Norse mythology they were sacred to Freya, the goddess of love and fertility.   In Celtic love they represented the spirits of children who died in infancy.

While treated as a weed in pristine, modern chemically treated lawns, they are also recognised as important early season food source for bees and as an alternative to bare soil.

 

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From Gilbert White   March 31st   1768 in Hampshire

'Black weather.  Cucumber fruit swells.   Rooks sit.  This day the dry weather has lasted a month.' 

 

From Gilbert White   March 31st 1771 in Hampshire

'The face of the earth naked to a surprising degree.  Wheat hardly to be seen, and no signs of any grass: turnips all gone, and sheep in a starving way.  All provisions rising in price. Farmers cannot sow for want of rain.'

 

From Richard Jefferies   March 3lst  1880 in Surrey

'Rain at last after weeks of the driest weather. Rain in night and early morning.' 

 

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Absent

 

In this spectral place
there is a sense of desolation,
of God not being here
that strikes icy cold.
In the dank, dark nave
lies a decomposing owl,
a cobwebbed confessional, worn rotten
and on the battered altar
a smashed wooden cross.

Long ago, did sunlight venture through
the cracked, ruby-stained glass window?

Were bread and wine transformed
into Christ's body and blood?
Did young men, expectant, marry
young women, kiss and breathe in
the churchyard's sweet summer air?
And did tears blow away unseen
in the southern mistral winds,
after a service testifying that life was here
in the absent place?

 

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Walking in woods in France I came across this church and felt very sad.

 

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With very best wishes, Patricia 

 

 

 

 

Small moments of warmth

 

Dear Reader, 

 

Great Yarmouth is a seaside town which gave its name to the wider Borough of Great Yarmouth.   Yarmouth has been a resort since 1760 and a gateway from the Norfolk Broads to the North sea.

Through the 20th century Yarmouth boomed as a resort with a promenade, pubs, trams, fish and chip shops, theatres, the pleasure Beach, the sea Life centres, and a Victorian seaside Winter Garden in cast iron and glass. 

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From John Ruskin  March 28th  1886   in Lancashire

 'Softest quiet poised clouds, calm lake in sunshine,  the sound of steams from hills, and the sense of peaceful power in all things.' 

  

 

 

Small moments of warmth

 

 

 

 

I remember a little warmth,

Joey trotting the family through Norfolk lanes,

the small yellow trap swaying in the sunshine.

 

I remember picnics on Yarmouth beach

with enough blue sky ‘to make a sailor’s trouser’.

We ate cucumber sandwiches, Penguin biscuits.

 

I remember dark evenings,

the small warm flame from a Tilly lamp

lighting the kitchen, and sometimes for supper

we had chicken, chocolate mousse.

 

I remember a warm holiday in France

squeezed into the back of a car,
singing old thirties love songs.

 

But will these small moments of warmth,

at the end, be enough to heat and split

the heavy stones that circle the human heart,
allow salt tears to trickle through the cracks?

 

 

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With very best wishes, Patricia 

 

 

 

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Realization

 Dear reader,

The Eurasian bullfinch is a chunky distinctive songbird native to Europe and Asia, historically viewed as a agricultural pest due to its fondness for fruit buds.  Known for its shy nature and ability to mimic tunes it was famously kept as a caged bird in the 19th century and underwent a population decline int the late 20th century holding a "amber" conservation status.

In the 16th century HenryV111 viewed them as disruptive of fruit crops.  Parliament authorized a one-penny reward for every bird killed as their appetite for buds was considered a 'criminal attack' on orchards.

The species experience a significant 40% decline in the UK from the mid-1970s through to the
90s largely attributed to agricultural intensification and loss of hedgerows, though the might have shown signs of recovery since 2000.

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From Dorothy Wordsworth     March 20th  1798 in Somerset 

' A very cold evening, but clear.  The spring seemingly very little advanced.  No green trees, only the hedges are budding, and looking very lovely.' 

 

From Richard Hayes   March 21st   1762 in Kent

'This day I saw a yellow butterfly....My rooks, by the cold weather and snow, did not begin building till last Sunday (14th).'From John Ruskin   March 28th  1886  Coniston, in Lancashire 

 

From John Ruskin   March 28th   1886 in Lancashire

'Softest quiet poised clouds, calm lake in sunshine, the sound of streams from hills and the sense of peaceful power in all things.' 

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Realization

 

 

I am

part of the whole.

 

I am

in the first light,

the bird’s first song,

the sun’s first dart

through the curtain crack,

in the music of summer trees.

 

I am

part of the alpha,

the birth,

the awakening,

the growing and spreading,

the throbbing of life.

 

I am part of all suffering

hands blood-stained.

Part of love

humanity shares and

of all good things.

 

I am

part of the omega,

the closing, the last light,

the call back from the dark

to the bright, eternal night.

 

 

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With very best wishes, Patricia 

 

 

 

violets

 Dear  Reader,

 

I thought you might like to see these violets, photographed by Jessica, in a Cotswold wood.

 

Best wishes Patricia 

Spring Fair

 Dear reader,

Country fairs originated from ancient seasonal European gatherings evolving from medieval trading markets into, by the 18th century, major spectacles of entertainment, agriculture and commerce.

While early fairs were strictly for trade, they transformed in the 19th century with mechanized rides, sideshows, and, in America, agricultural competitions.

Funfairs have been a staple for family days out in the UK for centureis.  One of the earliest fairs recorded was Bartholemew Fair in 1133.  The oldest fair in the UK is Goose Fair, a tradition for the ages.   Nottingham's Goose Fair is still going strong over 700 years later. The event started in the 13th century and is referred to as the world's oldest travelling fair.

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I wrote this poem after taking Jessica to a fair when she was about 17.  She really did disappear and I didn't see her again until the next morning. I never found out where she had gone and what she was doing. 

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 `From Dorothy Wordsworth   March 13th  1802 in Westmorland

'After dinner we walked to Rydale for letters - it was terribly cold- we had 2 or 3 brisk hail showers - the hail stones looked clean and pretty upon the dry clean road.  Little Peggy Simpson was standing at the door catching the hail stones in her hand.'

From Francis Kilvert   March 19th   1871 in Radnorshire

'The sun was almost overpowering.   Heavy black clouds drove up and rolled round the sky without veiling the hot sunshine, black clouds with white edges they were, looking suspiciously like thunder clouds.  Against these black clouds the sunshine showed the faint delicate green and pink of the trees thickening with bursting buds.' 

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Spring Fair                 

 

 

 

The young girl

and her mother, holding hands,

hurry down the hill

where the bright lights beckon,

see the big dippers hurtling,

painted horses swirling, yellow

swing boats diving, swooping,

smell the grease and diesel,

hear the loud beat of music,

the children’s screams.

 

Young men of the fair,

long-haired, dark, a little wild,

eye the girls with bright,

knowing looks.

The air is full of restlessness, of quickening,

an urgency to act

before the end of night,

when morning light will move them on.

 

Dusk falls, the young girl drops her mother’s hand,

stirred by the primal desire of early spring.

Running silently she disappears into the night, eager

to share what ancient fires of life can bring.

 

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With very best wishes, Patricia