It is always strange to deal with the aftermath of the clocks going back by an hour. But never more so than this year when the summer seems to have gone on so long.
No grumbles though.
Hildergard of Bingen was a twelfth-century theologian and mystic. She speaks of the mysterious divine power within all things:
I flame above the beauty of the fields: I shine in the waters;
in the sun, the moon and the stars.
I burn.
And by means of the airy wind,
I stir everything into quickness with a certain invisible life which sustains all.
Friends of over thirty years standing have been staying with us. Good food, good company and the ordinary sharing and fun of the everday.
Extraordinary.
19.2 degrees centigrade yesterday – and the newspapers carried headlines of the big freeze due to arrive for this winter. Sum total of work completed was (1) emptying and distributing contents of one of the compost bins. Great feeling of success, decent compost for the first time ever. (2) Weeding and clearing front beds; (3) moving one small tree. Him Behind the Wheel did the conifer transplant and pressure-washed the paving slabs round the house. What a difference.
Let's hope for some more good tidy-up days.
Gardening is good for the soul. It must be the being close to creation and the satisfaction of bringing order out of disorder. I wonder if that makes us the created doing the creating?
The temperature this morning is 16 degrees C – normally one would have expected autumn to deepen into frosty weather by now. So today is going to be an outside and gardening day, to take advantage of the balmy southerly breeze. That means the bushes have to get moved, the beds tidied up and some of this year's extraordinary growth cut back.
Does anyone know how to treat a lawn infested by lichen?
It seems to me that the government are making a terrible fuss over the smoking/no smoking proposals for England. After all the Republic of Ireland has happily gone over to a total ban in public buildings, and Scotland looks set to follow next year. As you may have gathered I am in favour of a ban; I just don't like being smoked at, particularly when I am eating.
It's all very well fondly thinking about winter hobbies….. but I keep losing various important bits of information. Some of it, I suspect, has never been recovered since the removal at the beginning of April. Never mind, having to hunt through cupboards and the garage is all good exercise. I have been enjoying dipping into May Sarton's journals again. Makes me feel that I am at last living an individuated life. Why does it take so long though? Here I am at sixty-one with an awareness that I would like to have had at thirty-one, (or even forty-one.) it is something that cannot be passed onto another, each human being has to learn for themselves and some of us take longer than others.
Jung describes individuation as the process of self-awareness that takes place in the second half of life. (See http://www.schuelers.com/ChaosPsyche/part_1_27.htm) Anyway, as I am such a late starter, maybe that means I am going to live long. (And prosper…..)
The plumber is due today to finish off the work he started several weeks ago.
Let's hope there isn't an emergency somewhere else. Funny how plumbers, joiners and electricians have become such a valuable commodity. Mind you I wouldn't fancy any of their jobs even if I knew one end of a spanner from another.
God be with thee in every pass,
Jesus be with thee on every hill,
Spirit be with thee on every stream,
Headland and ridge and lawn:
Each sea and land, each moor and meadow,
Each lying down, each rising up,
In the trough of the waves, on the crest of the billows,
Each step of the journey thou goest.
Carmina Gadelica III
It is that time of year again. And the dark nights are drawing in.
Time to……
Look out the stamp collection and start trying to create order…..
Look up the genealogy sites and start trying to remember where I was back to……
Look at the skies and marvel at this wonderful world……
Look at the next Writing Assignment……
I do like being retired!
