The Lock-Down Diaries Day 3

Today I walked the dog!

Our morning meanderings are getting longer as my body realises I have no reason to hurry...

Today is all about growth and it is that time of year...trees and hedges which seemed salt-blasted and dead only a week ago are bursting with green, and I do believe that my feet are becoming part of the earth and air and water and rock...

Here are some of the fresh things we saw this morning:

Celandines...the banks are full of them, quite suddenly

The blackthorn is particularly lovely in the sunshine this spring...

And then there are these little white flowers on the banks...posing as wood anemones, they are too small -and I suspect they are feral cerastium, escaping randomly, or maybe by design, from someone's misguided rockery...

Ah, and the first bluebell of the year - you're welcome...

Two more things are growing, and here is one of them...

This is an oak-tree...or will be, one fine day, when I am long-gone. I picked up a few acorns last October at Taraloka, followed the googled instructions to 'stratify' them, and planted them in faith and hope the morning after the General Election in December.

This, the first one to sprout and be potted-on, is destined to return to Taraloka one day. It is my Taraloaka, I guess, my hope for the future...

The other thing that is growing? Alistair's 'rack' for the gym bench I rescued from the prom and the weights that will arrive by van sometime soon-ish. So we can set up our garden gym and emerge fit and healthy when this is over...

But, as yet, it is still growing in his fertile mind...see you tomorrow!

The Lock-Down Diaries Day 2

Today I walked the dog!

Another bright morning, so blue and beautiful it makes the heart ache. Kitty and I took a different, less defined path today, wandering at will the deserted woodland and cliff paths.

At the top of the golf-course, the gates all being open and sheep conspicuous by their absence, we took a detour up to the 'trig-point', to look inland to the valley, which was hazy...

The trig-point itself was interesting...I had expected the top to bear a compass, but was pleased that there was a three-pointed metal shape. This, in line with my musings of the last few days on mandalas and random drawings on metal, slate and wood, gave me much food for thought as we completed the (triangular!) detour and returned to our wanderings...

Triangulation points, trig-points, trigonometry...

Why threes and sevens are more pleasing to the eye than fours and eights...

The post came to the gate later, while we were enjoying lunch in the garden...several books I had ordered from the highly-recommended World of Books, including this, which may help answer some of my questions. Or may not...

The Lock-Down Diaries Day 1

Today I walked the dog!

Kitty and I set off at 9.30 for the woods to see how the bluebells are coming on. The road was deserted and the sun was shining, so we turned up through the golf-course instead...

There were sheep and lambs in the field near the Penglais Farm junction, so it was on with the lead for a bit. 

Heading over the top we walked through a field of sheep and lambkins, with just one little oomph from Kitty (well she IS a dog!). This was the field where Evie and I, with great excitement, had watched a lamb being born...can it be six years ago?!

Coming down into Coed Y Cwm, I was pleased to find the ramsons all fresh and green and luscious, so we picked a bagful for the soup. There were wood anemones too, and dandelions for the bees.

Passing the cottages, and looking down on the deserted caravan-site, we trekked to the top of the hill again and Kitty's Field. She was overjoyed and had a good rampage and roll in the grass, while I sat for a few minutes, revelling in the warmth and the view in every direction...north towards Ynys Enlli, west to Ireland, south down the coast and east heading inland with the blue hills and the valley. Truly we live in paradise!

Heading down towards home we met an abundance of peacock butterflies, enjoying the warmth and the early nectar. And one person.

My Day by the Seaside

The morning was beautiful, bright blue and sparkling, as we walked Kitty early in this changed and uncertain world.

Our minds, as so often, were running on different tracks - 

Alistair was pondering 'ways to keep fit'. We have spent the last year building up not inconsiderable muscles at the local gym. Which is now closed, as is so much, for the foreseeable...

Yesterday he ordered online possibly the last set of weights available in the known universe, and is planning a 'rack' made from repurposed bits of metal and wood.

"Wot we need is a gym bench..."

I was musing on stones, shells, metal and mandalas. As you do.

Kitty and I were not finished when we descended the hill so we went down to the beach to collect rubbish and treasure. Kitty is now an only dog and has morphed, almost overnight, into the perfectly-behaved dog I always knew she was. Accordingly she returned to me every time I called her, and sat down beside me when I decided to rest for a few minutes in the sunshine before dragging the bags of rubbish and driftwood up to the prom and home.

As I stood up, in front of me on the shingle was the perfect piece of metal I had 'been looking for' to paint with a plain gold Celtic mandala. And a few feet away was probably the most beautiful coloured stone I have ever found.

This afternoon I drained 2.45kg of perfect recycled clay from the HeathRobinson contraption it had been hanging from, and did a bit of gardening. Alistair cut the grass and started cleaning up and re-covering the gym bench

Yes, I found one on the prom. As you do.

Hope...

A trip out this morning and NantYrArian works its always and familiar magic. We had little old Evie with us so didn't tackle the longer trail, but the shorter, and then the lovely and accessible lakeside walk.

The hills were bracken-brown and the various conifers in the woods were dripping. And it was cold...but the sun was out and the horizons delicious, as always.

The mist was rising from the lake as we descended the trail, and there was a thin and sparkling cover of ice. We were 'alone and palely loitering'. But the birds were singing. And still they sing...

This afternoon? This afternoon I am planting acorns...

Penpynfarch 2020 Embodying Change

Somewhere, deep in the hollow of the hollow of my instep, a seed of change and possibility awoke, yawned, stretched - and loudly refused to be ignored...

Apocalypse

I will die of cold

But bequeath before I do, to you -

The fire and the gold