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.