I have come down with a small bump today. Before cooking , I took my two boiled fruit cakes to friends in the village. One to Eirlys who didn’t make the show and the other to John & Mandy next door.
I’ve cleaned the cottage and let Roger explore upstairs when the kittens are out of their room. He did so silently and carefully and apart from a few kitten hisses, he returned downstairs ten minutes later rather nonplussed.
I’ve made a parmesan aubergine bake top heavy with garlic and whilst it was cooking, sent in my nursing revalidation in ( my final one ever)
He enters most years. An elderly man, confused with the labelling of tables and who needs a hand to display his small collection of exhibits.
He’s quiet and diffident and wears a tank top.
And enters five or six vegetables or fruit classes.
This year he won two firsts and second place.
And it made my day when I watched his quiet joy when he checked over his entries as the show opened.
It’s moments like these that make all the hard work survivable.
There’s lots of moments that does your head in though.
The photo of a pet with a family member breast feeding in the background
The plethora of complains about the lack of art entries
The lady that held the queue up for 20 minutes complaining about her admission change,
The child that pressed a long finger into a Victoria sponge.
I could go on
A new lady in the village won the cup for the most marks in the cookery eliciting a self deprecating “ I should have had my hair done” comment before receiving her cup from our local MP Becky Gittins, and suddenly a new tradition is made by her surprised pride
I’m tired and after a sit down with a Welsh licking my feet, I will have a gin and will go to bed.
I’ve seen clients this morning and met a friend for lunch, then shopped for things for the flower show .
Instead of garden flowers to decorate each tea table I’ve bought a delicate single potted cyclamen which will be given as a gift to the volunteers and some of the elderly people of the village when we close.
Pippa who is in her seventies ,stopped me when I was approaching the cottage and talked at length about the show
She got off onto a tangent and suddenly she was sharing that she stopped breast feeding because her son bit her once.
This melancholic lullaby by my lisping Choir suits today’s mood perfectly.
I caught up with an old friend last night for a meal at The Goat and he looked tired and a little sad
Life can be a slog at times and sometimes all you can do as a friend is listen and understand.
It was lovely to see him.
I’ve done a little more of that this morning as I complete my nursing revalidation, sat at the kitchen table,
And from time to time, in between sad texts and messages, I’ve allowed myself to daydream and get lost in the art wall, where the Chicken is always smiling and the wide eyed dogs are galloping joyfully towards the hills.
I’m not depressed or down today, …..I’m reflective
There’s more sadness that’s been passed on to me today that I don’t need to share, and this in turn has recharged old memories and feelings.
It’s hard to soak up a great deal, of sadness and pain and stress, not that anyone is forcing it on me, but when I mean soak up, I mean to assimilate it, to process it.
Now follow me right now, drop what you are doing and go out in your garden, or your park, or your nearest patch of green.
It’s grey here with the gentle hint of rain
There’s a breeze blowing too.
Now lie down on the grass,
my grass is cool and damp and luxurious
And watch the clouds
Like rabbits do when they think you cannot see them
It’s been a day of catching up with Flower Show jobs.
I’m chasing up with previous winners who have not returned their cups and already I’m 3 short.
I’ve washed and ironed my mother’s donated table clothes and bought ingredients to make cakes and entries for the cookery classes as well as build up a food hamper from scratch to support the raffle.
There is enough to do.
An old friend John, is in Llandudno this is week so we are meeting up for dinner tonight.
I’ve also heard from weaver who has eaten a bit better this week because of the positive influence of visitors . She’s been in touch with Rachel,who had shared Weaver’s best wishes around blogland which is nice too.
