Category: Gratitude

The View from Here: Christmas in a Box

… much as I love Christmas and despite the melancholy which often accompanies the passing of the season, all good things should draw to a proper close before they outstay their welcome

Epiphany.  A favourite word. Today is the Christian Feast of the Epiphany – the reveal of Christ by the Magi – and an occasion marked by tradition and celebration in many countries as well as by religious services.  Today is also known as Little Christmas among Irish and other Christians when men traditionally took on the household duties for the day and women spent the day together.  Mostly I think of it as the day after Twelfth Night: the end of the twelve days of Christmas and the day by which decorations must be taken down and put away. Continue reading “The View from Here: Christmas in a Box”

The View from Here: in nature’s cathedral

I shall try to remember the message of the trees.

bluebells“Yes, the estate remains open until dusk.  But I’m afraid the bluebells are almost over.”  The National Trust staff member looked genuinely crestfallen that we had perhaps made a futile journey.  I wondered too.  Had we left it too late?  Not in the time of day – I had deliberately chosen late afternoon just as the main house and gardens were closing – but in waiting so late into the spring?  The bluebells have been magnificent this year; we still had plenty at home.  But had I left it too late to see them in their true glory – massed amidst spring woodlands? Continue reading “The View from Here: in nature’s cathedral”

The View from Here: an early May snapshot

For just a few fleeting weeks, green sings and has its moment in the sun. 

May 1st is considered in some quarters to mark the coming of summer.  The meteorological beginning of summer comes later, and this year’s weather would support that.  In this Corner of Cornwall there has been very little merry-making in the merry month of May.  May, thus far, has been cold and stern with northerly winds which carry a sharp bite and a nip of frost, which has blackened tender tips and kept me largely indoors.  But not always.  There have been interludes of sunshine even if temperatures have remained stubbornly low.

Continue reading “The View from Here: an early May snapshot”

The View from Here: when the words don’t come

I had accepted that for the moment I can’t write – nothing publishable at least.  It will pass.  But snippets, fragments, jottings coalesced without my noticing… into what I would be writing about if I could.

Earlier today I accepted that, for whatever reason, at the moment I can’t write.  I have the ideas but not the capacity to create anything from them.  I was explaining this in a reply to Margaret at From Pyrenees to Pennines.

Margaret, thankfully, is much more prolific and consistent than I am.  Among other posts on her blog, she provides a one-word stimulus every Tuesday here at Ragtag Daily Prompts.  She has provided three so far, each one chiming absolutely with things I want to capture.  Every week I want to respond – it just doesn’t happen.  And I was explaining this to Margaret in a comment on her latest post.  Until I realised that without thinking about it, I was writing what’s been eluding me these past weeks. Continue reading “The View from Here: when the words don’t come”

The View from Here: on an afternoon in April

The view from here on this soft and mellow April afternoon has been filled with small and simple joys

We have sunshine.  I took a longer walk than usual, striding along the top road with the warm wind in my hair, skylarks singing in the heavens and solitary seagulls hanging at jaunty angles against the clear blue sky.  I checked the wires for newcomers.  The wires were empty.  Soon, I thought.

Soon. Continue reading “The View from Here: on an afternoon in April”