Of Different Stuff

 Dear reader,

Prunus cerasifera is a species of plum known by the common names cherry plum and myrobalan plum.  It is native to Southeast Europe and Western Asia, and is naturalized in the British Isles and scattered locations in North America.

The cherry plum is a popular ornamental tree for gardens and landscaping use, grown for its very early flowering. Cultivated cherry plums can have fruits, foliage, and flowers in any of several colours.  Some varieties have sweet fruits that can be eaten fresh, while others are sour and better for making jam.  It is a popular tree in Romania where its fruits are used for souring soups when immature, for eating raw when ripened and for making moonshine when over ripe because of their high sugar content.

There is one I can see from my sitting room window in someone else's garden and lovely it is too. I really feel that spring is unfolding, with daffodils and snowdrops in the flower beds.  And crocuses on the lawn.

                                                                            

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From Dorothy Wordsworth   February 14th 1798 in Somerset

Gathered sticks with William in the wood, he being unwell and not able to go further.  The young birch trees of a bright red, through which gleams a shade of purple.  Sat down in a thick part of the wood.  The near trees still, ever to their topmost boughs, but a perpetual motion in those that skirt the wood.  The breeze rose gently; its path distinctly marked, till it came to the very spot where we were. 

From Gilbert White  February 18th 1786 in Hampshire

Pleasant season: paths dry.  Men plough and sow.   Large titmouse sings his three notes.

 

From James Woodforde    February 18th 1795 in Norfolk

Very hard frost with strong easterly winds, a black frost.....Had a fire again in my bedchamber to-night.

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Of Different Stuff

 

 The ATS, the WAAFS, the WRENS,

rode in battleships,

flew spitfires and mosquitoes,

decoded enemy messages

nursed the wounded.

 

They tilled the land

drove tractors, fed the pigs,

birthed the lambs,

rose with the dawn,

went to bed late

exhausted and often hungry.

 

They walked alone in London

late at night

in the dark and dangerous streets,

they slept in freezing dormitories

shared a lavatory and basin

with twenty others.

 

These women were made

of different stuff.

They were fearless,

 they were brave.

 

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I am ashamed at my fearfulness

in the peace they fought for us,

gave us.

I am made, sadly, of different stuff.

 

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^{With very best wishes, Patricia}