Another little dose of spring or is it?

The grey blanket syndrome (when the patient feels as if they are struggling beneath a heavy grey army blanket like a bird caught in a net) which I know I am not the only one to be suffering from at the moment is not curable but there are things which like a paracetomol for a headache will provide temporary relief.  One such  remedy is a day out with friends and so I took myself off to Salisbury on Monday to meet a couple of friends.

We had met up at Fisherton Mill  a lovely gallery and cafe just a few yards from the station and a much more pleasant venue to wait for them than standing about on the station.as their train had been delayed "due to a fatality" as they say (I always wonder why it is the inconvienence that seems so important when some poor soul for whatever reason has lost their life).  I enjoyed an hour by myself looking at the wonderful crafts on sale in the shop and then sitting over a coffee whilst I waited.  The reindeer above was just outside and was huge, apparently 4 metres tall.  If you click on the link you will find out more about him.  I didn't see him lit with fairy lights as it was not dark but he was impressive nonetheless!

When my friends eventually arrived we wandered towards the town and passed yet more weird and wonderful animals this time a trio of different sized sheep - the fleece was made of strips of twisted metal and not the heavy yarn I had thought it might be from the other side of the road.  alongside the sheep were a reindeer and a cockerel!  These were all for sale at a secondhand shop called Allsorts.

We didn't buy any of the animals but made our way along towards the town past the Bishops Mill which is now a restaurant/pub on the banks of the River Avon.  We enjoyed our day together sitting having lunch in our favourite cafe, wandering round the shops, chatting and enjoying each others company.  After sitting over a cup of tea we suddenly realised it was time to get back to the station for our respective trains home and I bid my friends goodbye as they needed to rush and I had half an hour to while away so could take my time getting to the station (I can't run these days and they are both younger than I am!).  No sooner had they gone than the grey blanket fell again and the little hole through which I had seen our time together was no longer in evidence!  But the several hours I had spent in the company of good friends had been a welcome relief from the winter blues.

This morning I wandered round the garden and discovered some little primroses in bloom here and there.

This little dear is going to get trodden on between the stones of the path so I picked it and along with tow or three more and a couple of leaves and have them on my kitchen windowsill to remind me that spring will come again one day!

No daffodils in flower in my garden as yet but there are signs.

And some periwinkles in bloom against the wall.

This afternoon I walked up through the wood to the post offive to post a birthday card to a friend.  It wasn't cold and although not sunny like Monday there was a pale sun coming through the trees here and there.  The birds were singing and it sounded like spring.  I do hope they won't be fooled into nesting as we are surely going to have some winter weather eventually!

I passed a tree stump beautifully decorated with fungi.

 This one made me think of crochet and with its white edging I thought it a real source of inspiration though whether I would ever attempt to recreate it in crochet with beads or maybe stumpwork for the little mushroom balls I rather doubt especially in my current state of mind!

 Near the post office I noticed this pretty pink chaenomeles japonica in bloom.

 And on my way back through the wood some blackberry bushes in blossom too - when will we get the blackberries I wonder?

It is all very heartening to see these signs of spring and yet it also seems all wrong too.  Should I be rejoicing or worried about the climate change which is making everything flower and fruit at the wrong time of the year, the seasons to be so different, the floods and torrential rain in Cumbria not to mention the weird effects elsewhere in the world. Although I don't want it to snow and to have to totter along icy pavements I miss proper winter weather with frosty mornings and birght sunny days when your breath forms clouds in front of you and your fingers and toes are freezing.  Maybe it is a case of wanting what I haven't got or just another symptom of the grey blanket syndrome?

Lucky me - Reflections

 Today is the anniversary of my mother's death 12 years ago and Saturday is her birthday - I can't believe that were she still alive she'd be 99 on that day!!  I wrote my tribute to her before here so I won't do it again now.

I am currently reading Martin Sixsmith's book The lost child of Philomena Lee and as it is about a mother's love for her child it seems appropriate reading material for today.

I am finding it really hard to believe that what happens to Philomena, a young pregnant teenager who is sent to a convent to be looked after as a "fallen woman" who is kept a virtual prisoner working at the convent and whose child at the age of 3 was whisked away to be "sold" to America for adoption, happened not hundreds of years ago but in the 1950s when I would have been about 8 years old myself.  Reading the book reminds me how lucky I am that my mother wasn't an Irish Catholic or who knows where I might have ended up (although it's true my mother was not a teenager but in her late 20s when she became pregnant).  Life for my mother was hard but at least she knew her baby was safe!!

According to the book it was believed that children born out of wedlock were fated "to become rebels and to suffer from complexes analogous to those of certain invalids....Such offspring are destined for suffering and often for failure".  The mothers were "grave sinners with severe moral problems.... unfit to have custody of their own children". 

Lucky, lucky me then that I was born to a Methodist Englishwoman whose family were supportive and helped her every way they could.  I couldn't have had a better mother and as far as I could tell she was never a grave sinner with moral problems but simply a young woman who loved too well and paid the price.  Nor have I have ever been a rebel nor suffered from complexes or failure or at least no more than anyone else!  It is a sad thought provoking book though and if Judi Dench is in the film I am sure that too will be worth seeing when it is released.

I have noticed today that there seem to be dozens of ladybirds about on the window sills, in the conservatory and everywhere.  I dare say they are looking for somewhere to hibernate but in France ladybirds are thought of as lucky - so as I said LUCKY ME!

Photos taken at Forde Abbey some while ago

Family - does size matter?

Noticed this duck with her family en route for town this morning - she had 10 babies last week if she is the same one!

 I had an e-mail from a friend this morning in which she told me of her recent doings which all concerned masses of visitors and cooking, a wedding and various other exploits incorporating a massive cast of family and friends.  It got me thinking about families and how different they are.

My family is miniscule in comparison and never have we had a big family gathering such as many of my friends do at the drop of a hat.

I am an only child (or as the French say une enfant unique which sounds much nicer and less apologetic don't you think?) of a single mother.  I did of course have a father but not only was he someone else's father too (some of you may remember this story) but he died when I was only 2 years old and I have no recollections of him at all.

My mother's mother died when my mother was a girl so I never had a Granny but I did know her father so had a Grandfather.  My paternal grandparents never knew of my existence!

My mother had 2 sisters neither of whom had any children nor were they married, and 3 brothers 2 of whom married and had families one having one child and the other 4 children.  As a child I saw my cousins fairly often but we have gradually lost contact other than a card at Christmas and rarely see each other - last time was at my mother's funeral 11 years ago!

My husband has 2 sisters one of whom is single and whom we see regularly and the other who has 2 children and several grandchildren but she lives in Australia and those neices and nephews we have never seen

We have one daughter (not through choice but that's just how it happened) and she is single.

So our family consists of a very independent daughter in her 30s, and a sister-in-law plus us two.  It's hard to have a family get together with lots of noise and laughter with only 4 people. I do sometimes wonder if it would be nice to be part of a big close family but then again I realise that it doesn't always work out like that.

As a child I was always able to be alone if I wanted to which would obviously not be possible with brothers and sisters around and sharing bedrooms and so on.  I learned to be independent and also how to make friends as if I wanted anyone to play with that was a necessity!  I had a choice of whether to be out enjoying my friends' company or whether I might prefer to play alone maybe reading or doing some other solitary pursuit.  What I didn't learn was how to share, how to enjoy playing card games and things which require someone else to play with or how the give and take of normal family life works.

I wonder if you come from big families or small.  If you have lots of brothers and sisters do you all get on well together.  Does family size matter?

PS As I finished typing this Thomas has just come to remind me that we also have two cats so our family is not as small as I would have you believe!

PPS Do pop over to Pipany's blog to see her large family having fun and running their own Olympics - if we did that unless we had the cats joining in we'd all get medals as there wouldn't be enough of us to not win!!