Small Pleasures in Old Age

                                                   Geoffrey and I at a wedding 20 years ago

 

Dear reader,  

A very dear old friend who I hadn't seen for years very kindly sent me this photograph she had taken of Geoffrey and I at her daughter's wedding.  Gosh did I really look like that I thought and did Geoffrey?    It has been now seven years without Geoffrey who died in 2017.  We had been, and shared, much happiness for 34 years. I miss him.

 I was very lucky because after a year of widowhood I met Francis who has been my partner for the last seven years and we have had lots of love and fun too. 

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I like watching the television after supper and hope to see a good film or series.  But what a disappointment there is.  I expect it is because I am now so old I don't really understand the modern story.  There is so much noise, so many lights, so many characters to remember that mostly I give up.  BUT the marvel is I discovered a series made in the the early 80s (I think) called Heartbeat. 

Most of it takes place in a small country police station. I can so remember life like it is in this film.  It is in a village in Yorkshire where all the usual misdemeanors take place amongst the village folk. And the police station is exactly like the one I used to go to when I was serving as a magistrate. The sort of crimes I had to deal with were sentencing local poachers for poaching salmon or not having a bell on their bicycles.  I very much preferred those days to today, they were quieter and more peaceful.  Still as I said I am old so have to expect change in all things.

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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 for 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 sign of any grass: turnips all gone, and sheep in a starving way.  Al provisions rising in price.  Farmers cannot sow for want of rain.'

 

From Richard Jefferies in 1880 in Surrey

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

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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 best wishes, Patricia