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.