Moment

 Dear Reader,

Stained glass windows, made up of coloured and painted glass pieces held together by lead strips, were especially popular in Europe in the period between 1150 and 1550, when they were a prominent feature of cathedrals and other churches as well as city halls and homes for the elite.  

Its translucent qualities made stained glass especially popular in religious contexts where large windows with scenes from the bible and the lives of saints could animate a saved space with colourful glimmering lights, and subtly change the atmosphere depending on the tie of day, and the changing of the seasons. 

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I see it is going to be very hot next week, a heatwave on Monday and Tuesday.  This kind of weather does not suit me at all.   I shut all the curtains and blinds, put on the fans and spend the time reading and doing a jigsaw puzzle.  Mary gave me the puzzle for Christmas this year and I am doing it again for the third time.  I like doing the same puzzle over and over again, I don't why this is the case, but it is a fact nevertheless.

                                                                                

                                                                                     *

 

From Dorothy Wordsworth     June 20th  1802  in Westmorland

'We lay upon the sloping turf.   Earth and sky were so lovely that they melted our very hearts.  The sky to the north was of a chastened yet rich yellow, fading into pale blue and streaked and scattered over with a steady islands of purple, melting away into shades of pink.  It made my heart almost feel like a vision to me.' 

From William Cowper    June 21st  1784 in Buckinghamshire

'We have now frosty mornings, and so cold a wind, that even at high noon we have been obliged to break off our walk in the southern side of the garden and seek shelter, I in the greenhouse, and Mrs. Unwin by the fireside.  Haymaking begins here to-morrow.' 

 

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Moment

 

The church is cool from summer sun,

organ music plays.

 

We walk down the aisle

enjoy the scent of lilies

filling the holy air

point out ruby stained glass windows

depicting Christ on the cross,

examine oak and stone carvings

plaster heads of saints

the altar cloth rich in green and gold.

 

He runs up the pulpit steps

says a few words in Latin.

I laugh

then we kneel together in a back pew

say a prayer.

 

He takes my hand.

 

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With best wishes, Patricia 

 

Maybe Prince Philip's bedroom looked like this.

 Dear reader,

 

The only things I know about Prince Philip are the ones I read in the newspaper or in a book.  It seems to me that he was rather a difficult and taciturn man, not easy for the Queen or for anyone else for that matter.  

I sometimes like to imagine the Royal family and concluded that Prince Philip was very traditional in his tastes so I wrote the following poem with that in mind. I really know someone who reads a book called "Grouse in Health and Disease' and finds it very interesting.  Well it takes all sorts doesn't it?

The Duchess of Kent, now sadly died, was my favourite Royal.  She was, I think, kind and good and taught the piano at a local school calling herself Mrs. Kent. 

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I have been doing small sketches about this and that on Instagram which seem to go down well.  This week I had had a good idea so I spoke about it. Lots of the women who perform on Instagram wear lovely  new clothes and I suddenly decided that I would like some new ones too.  But I am short of money and had a good idea. Put all your existing clothes out on the bed, I said, then jumble them all up.  Put different cardigans with different dresses and change the colour scarves you usually wear and lo you have new outfits from your own collection.  It works very well and I am pleased with the results.

 

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From Gerald Manly Hopkins   June 16th  1873 in Lancashire

'I looked at the pigeons down in the  kitchen yard and so on.  The look like little gay jugs by shape when they walk, strutting and jod-jodding with their heads.  The two young ones are all white and the pins of the folded wings, quill pleated over quill, are like the crisp and shapely cuttle-shells found on the shore.   The others are dull thunder-colour or black-grape-colour except in the the white pieings, the quills and tail, and in the shot of the neck.  I saw one up on the eaves of the roof: as it moved its head a crush of stain green came and went, a wet or soft flaming of the light.'

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Maybe

 

Prince Philip’s bedroom

looked like this:

 

Two afghan carpets cover the floor,

in the corner a narrow bed with quilted eiderdown,

a small oak bedside table

with lamp and parchment shade,

two small books:

‘Grouse in Health and Disease’

and ‘Fishing on the Spey’,

hunting pictures, horses and dogs

are hung round the room,

a mahogany chest of drawers

with family photographs on top,

one with the Queen and a corgi,

two silver hair brushes lie on

a round table with mirror,

and his bright blue dressing gown

is thrown over an embroidered stool.

The arm chair has a floral cover

with matching chintz cushions,

and there is small vase

of early daffodils on the window seat.

 

Or maybe not.

 

                                                                         *

 

With best wishes, Patricia 

 

 

This Man

Pictures of Ratty

Dear reader, 

Making my breakfast last week I looked out of the window and saw a large rat in the garden.  Now I am not keen on rats.  They are a smidgen better than mice because they don't scuttle about but nevertheless I am not keen.  In fact I sat down all of a tremble.  Knowing my usual anxious state I started to imagine that he/she would get into the house, and possibly have lots of baby rats as well.

So what was the best thing to do?  I decided that I had to think of a rat that I liked or at least tolerated.  Ah yes, I thought, Ratty from The Wind in the Willows, and was in fact,  quite fond of. It was possible I suppose that the rat in my garden was a vague relation of The Wind in the Willows character and therefore a sort of friend.  

The trembling stopped and I felt composed again.  

The moral of this tale is, I suppose, that it is your attitude to events that makes us calm and happy.The way we digest news of any kind can take take the stress out of it if we allow it to.

Change your attitude and see if I am not right.

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 From Gilbert White    June7th 1783 in Hampshire

'Tulips are faded.   Honeysuckles still in beauty.  My columbines are very beautiful.  Tied some of the stems with pieces of worsted, to mark them for seed.  Planted out pots of green cucumbers.'

 

From Francis Kilvert   June 15th  1873 in Wiltshire

'The sun and the golden buttercup meadow had it almost to themselves......One or two people were crossing the Common early by the several paths through the golden sea of buttercups which will soon be the silver sea of ox-eyes.   The birds were signing quietly.  The cuckoo's notes tolled clear and sweet as a silver bell.' 

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this man

 

loved blue

 

it was a ship, a blue ship

 

that he sailed in

 

it was his power

 

made his heart beat faster

 

drove him along life’s waterways

 

 

but he sailed away

 

came adrift

 

became shipwrecked

 

no power no heartbeat

 

this man

 

had lost the blue

 

 

but I made a small ship out of wood

 

gave it sails of the finest silk

 

an engine fired with love

 

 now he sails again

 

his power came back

 

 

and I painted the ship blue

 

for

 

this man

 

 

                                                              *

With very best wishes, Patricia