The Ringing Of The Bell

A quick post today. I need to go back to bed very soon.
My last night is tonight, and I was awoken by Winnie having a tantrum around 2pm
She was booting cushions around the living room with the force of Beckham's right foot.
She knows, when I am on nights she gets to play at Trendy Carol's for much of the afternoon.

On my way back to the cottage, I suddenly noticed that scaffolding had been erected around the tiny bell tower of the Church.
Work on the Church Bell has begun and I felt a prickle of emotion looking at it.

I know it doesn't sound that vital
But the prospect of having the bell ringing again has suddenly become rather important to me
Does that sound a daft thing to say?

Rising Bosoms

I'm on my coffee break, my patients are sleeping and the wind is blowing hard around the hospice eves.
It's Sunday night and for the first time I'm missing The Archers...enough of those old episode repeats!
The Velvet Voiced Linda has messaged all of the wardens in the village and we have all answered promptly with an " all is well" message
I commented that it all sounded like the end of The Waltons 
Linda replied with a pithy " Goodnight John Boy!"

I saw Trendy Carol earlier ( in a very figure hugging leopard print ensemble ) she had hijacked Mary for an afternoon cuddle...a lot of village people seem to be doing that recently.
Apart from her I have seen no one until I got to work.
My colleagues all seemed somewhat confused with Boris' new Stay Alert Message
The Welsh health minister made things clearer and more unambiguous....our message is generally Stay At Home.
The ponies have left my field now, which is a shame but the weeds and nettles have gone leaving the allotment areas free to be dug over again
" Bosoms " are on the rise again
Which is nice.

I bought the above poster for my bedroom

The View From Work

I nearly broadsided one of the wild goats of Llandudno when I got into work this evening
He was a magnificent fellow who gave me the Dead Eye as I drove into the hospice car park.
We are situated a stones through from West Shore and its magnificent views at sunset

The Church Laburnam

I couldn't engage with anything yesterday.
The VE celebrations left me cold and unmoved and instead of chasing up friends  which seems to be a daily occurance in these lockdown times,
I busied myself with mundane action move clips organised from Asian websites and the odd tiktok video of attractive but indulgent young men dancing to camera.
Things that underline the new lockdown norm.

I feel as though there is a change in the air !
Does anyone else feel this way?
My friend Nigel perhaps has underlined the restlessness I feel by explaining my last two years  in his usual understated way
" You got through it rather all rather unscathed in my opinion......I'm proud of you"

Time to plan ahead and anew ...that was the subtext of his comment ......and he is right
All of last year I coped with a series of new stressors, a new job, new responsibilities, financial ups and downs and finally a fucking emotional backward step regression revisited by a degree Absolute I thought Would never come 

Now I feel that lockdown has given me a chance to take stock and get straight.
Financially now I almost have my head if not above water at least into the shallow end of the pool and over the past few weeks I'm making a whole series of plans for myself , albeit lockdown confined plans, to move forward in this strange new world.

The travel book I bought a few months ago on the city of Venice lies open and read on the top of my book shelf as a constant reminder of future things new and hopeful.

I have my constants now
I have my dogs and my family and my friends and my job and my village position
The Cemetary laburnam has started to flower just this morning , like it does every year,
And this morning I photographed it yet again with a renewed sense of time and place that doesn't need to be stuck in the routine and the tried and tested.

The lockdown means that change isn't immediate
But like all change , it's the mindset that is the most important and when things are lifted and normality creeps back into our lives.
Instead of waiting for things to happen

I will be ready for them

Enjoy

Mrs Trellis Wins The War

The velvet Voiced Linda sent out a round robin on the Street Wardens what's app Group stating that Mrs Trellis had organised herself into a one woman, bobble hatted dynamo

 Good morning all you wonderful people and Happy VE Day. I've been contacted by Joyce aka Mrs Trellis- she is going to do a sponsored walk (3 x 1hour stints in keeping with the lockdown guidelines) to raise money for NHS charities. She will walk on Monday, Wednesday and Friday and I've said I'll collect any contributions. So, if you would like to sponsor Joyce, please will you let me know. Thank you 😘 xx

The wardens that received the app have pledged almost 200 £ in just  an hour or so , so I suspect Mrs Trellis will be tickled pink!
if  anyone wants to contribute from the village please see Velvet Voiced Linda at Well Street

Mini Drama

The girls tonight

I took the younger dogs out for a walk this morning
We walked up to Chic Eleanor's house
Leaving Winnie asleep on the lawn
We were gone perhaps half an hour
On returning to the cottage I turned the corner by Trevor's bungalow  to see a British Telicon van  stopped in the middle of road with its driver standing in the lane by the open van door.
I could see a large brown bulldog shape lying in the road

" oh god!"  I shouted out and galloped forward dragging the dogs with me and the driver suddenly grinned when he saw me
" He won't move !" He said pointing forward 
Winnie was sunbathing in the middle of the lane, right on the corner
She was grinning at both of us

A Safe Place

One of the saddest things about divorce is that you have to split joint possessions .
I managed to keep my beloved grandfather clock and sort of swapped it for an antique writing desk I bought years ago with money from my mother's estate , but on reflection it is the loss of several of the  paintings bought during our early years together that smarts the most.
Buying paintings together is something intensely personal and indelibly shared
And so the watercolour of the Bluebell wood in Derbyshire and the gentle 1930s painting of rolling wheat fields of Kent I still grieve for.
Not because of their monetary value
But because of the memories and feelings about how they were acquired.

All this talk stems from my chimney sweep
He returned yesterday morning as promised to give my flue a bit of a going over after I had experienced so many smoke problems a while ago.
" I'm one of those hidden key workers" he told me cheerfully from behind his face mask " No lockdown at home for me!!" 
Winnie blew him kisses as he beavered away with his brushes and as he walked through the kitchen on the way home, he noticed an oil painting sat against my art wall.
It was a painting I had saved up to buy for an age after seeing it in exhibition at Theatre Clwyd
" Now I like That!" he said brightly " May I?" he gestured to pick it up.
I nodded

He chose a study of a woodland scene in autumn by Irene Goodier 
"A Safe Quiet Place" he read from the label on the back of the painting"We all need one of those !"
He made a note of the painter saying that he needed something similar for his living room only larger
I told him it was my first purchase of my new collection.
" Hedy Lamar the actress, said that "a good painting is like a friend it keeps you company and inspires!" he added.......
Not something you expect a chimney sweep to say for sure
But he and Hedy nailed it
They do keep you company
And they do inspire!!!