Wednesday 19th February - there's life

in the garden but you have to look carefully. Apart from the obvious plants in patio pots, and daffodils and snowdrops in the grass, there are signs of new growth hidden in the old leaves and tangled vines

My gardener came today and spent several hours raking out leaves from 'Eyeore's Gloomy Patch' as I call the damper, shadier side of the garden. She was raking very cautiously as yesterday in someone else's garden she disturbed a toad... I warned her that there was a large mottled toad on that side of the garden last year. (Sadly it wasn't up to eating all the slugs by itself though).

One the leaved and brambles were cleared, and the vines brought under control, I could see little green spears poking through the soil, and tiny leaves leaves just beginning to grow on the vines.

.....

With the help of the website; the 'soul in paraphrase'  is suggesting that the summary of how your soul feels is your prayer, and the 'heart in pilgrimage' is about one's heart on a journey towards God.

Now, today, 'The Christian plummet sounding heav'n and earth'; the plummet is like a plumb line, used to measure depth...

The Ravel Concerto for the left hand begins with the very deepest sounds of a contrabassoon. The the piano part reaches up, striving towards the higher notes and the concerto is well under way.

Settle down, have your coffee and your knitting to hand, and watch, mesmerised by the wonderful Yuja Wang playing with great power, and then the most beautiful delicacy, as we travel through a soundscape of power, love, glory, chaos, tenderness, confusion, war, simplicity, and finally reconciliation and victory. 

From the depths to the highest heaven...

It's 18 minutes long; put your phone on silent, and immerse yourself...

Or at least that's what I did.

What a composer!

What a pianist!

Tuesday 18th February - Look! Daffodils!

 Back when I was younger and more energetic, before 2020, and still hurtling round the county in my car loaded with musical instruments,  watching both the clock and the speedometer and desperately trying to get to the next school with enough time to park, unload, set up and pause for breath...

...back in those (mostly) happy and headlong days, I still had time to watch the seasons changing the hedgerows beside the country lanes. 

The first daffodils always appeared in February  at a particular junction where I would leave the main route, a narrow, twisty, treacherous, high-speed rat-run, for a smaller lane (still a narrow, twisty, and treacherous rat-run). I had time for a glimpse, 'they're here', and then eyes on the road again.

Today I saw signs that I might very well have the joy of February daffodils in my own garden

With any luck they will be able to take over the work of cheering up my world once the snowdrops, which began flowering just before Christmas, have finished.

I have a few potatoes beginning to chit in the kitchen.  I'll get some more started soon.

....

My neck is slowly improving. The funeral, when I sat in the cold for too long, was exactly a week ago. I can now turn my head most of the way from level with each shoulder in turn. Heat, gentle stretching and very careful movement seems the best way forward.

....

I found a useful website which helped me through the second line. 

It's as though the Breath of Life, Breath of God, which gives us life, returns to God as the breath of our prayers...

Tomorrow is a continuation of this idea;

The soul in paraphrase, the heart in pilgrimage

 I've chosen the second movement of Bach's Double Violin Concerto; a loving conversation between the violins, sharing, agreeing and expanding the themes together.

 

Monday 17th February - sunshine makes all the difference

 It might even have been warm outside; I didn't go outside to see.

But the look of the day; the brighter colors, the glossy laurel leaves glinting dark green and reflecting bright highlights, blue sky, the colours on the birds..,

I resumed paperwork duties after a week off. It's good to look back over the day; the heap of empty envelops for the recycling bucket, a small pile of correspondence to be posted, and emails fired off into the wide blue yonder. Even the 'hold' muzak on the phone was endurance and the queues were short.

I knew I was coming up 'from the depths' when I started being able to tackle the harder sudukos on my tablet again!

.....

I made a 'jam cake' which as far as I am concerned is my usual 2-egg all-in-one recipe Victoria sponge with a tablespoon of jam swirled through it. It is a home-made jam with a pretty solid set, so I warmed it first.

I also loaded the bread machine with a half wholemeal, half white loaf. 

........

I've enjoyed thinking about the first line of the poem off and on through the day. What a banquet of delicious food I've had; roast chicken and red cabbage for lunch, home-made bread for baked beans on toast this evening. (My mother adds a little red currant jelly to the red cabbage; it makes all the difference).

Here's the poem again;

I reckon I've got the first line firmly in my head now. Tomorrow I shall think about the second line; God's breath in man returning to his birth. There are a lot of layers; the hymn 'O breath of God come sweeping through us', Ezekiel and his valley of bones...

And then, some music...

In the end I chose the Pastoral music from Messiah as music to breathe with.