Week 18
Snowy woods
Hello and Happy Beltane!
Somehow it is May, and, well…does it feel like it? There is a little bit of magic in the air as there always is in May, and I think I noticed a slight softening of the chill, but yeah, it still doesn’t quite want to do what we want it to do does it. Luckily the flowers and the birds and the bees seem to be getting on with everything anyway. The fairies too, probably.
I hope you have had a gorgeous week, and thank you so much for such a lovely reaction to the Big Beautiful April Poem. There is something very special indeed about doing things this way around, the ‘poem’ becomes a kind of skim around the world through little moments. Su commented that it provided ‘glimpses of other lives not as a strolling through images but through heartfelt moments' while Cathryn said she loves ‘the small things, the fleeting glimpses, the big moments, the funny bits - everything moves and turns and shifts’. I have to admit I particularly love it when there are lots of mundane bits - ‘no tights’ and ‘an orchestra of lawn mowers’ - among your more profound and heartfelt moments. This whole exercise seems to have cemented the incredible feeling of community that has grown up here almost without my bidding. By which I mean: I’m not quite sure what I did to deserve you all but you’re wonderful!
Today we begin it all again for May. I will share something I have noticed this week that felt particularly ‘this week’ and then I will ask you to do the same, in the comments. And then on the last day of May we will have a poem built of these moments. We would *love* it if you would give some indication of where you are, particularly if you are not posting from the UK. We get very excited when there is mention of bears, mangroves, auroras and autumn leaves in (our) spring an though I love just wondering it would also be magic to know.
Here’s mine:
Snow in the woods
I have some Beltane plans but they are all this weekend so nothing very new from me here today as when I look through my camera roll ALL I have are pictures of the woods looking ravishing and covered in white, again. But I think it is such an incredible moment in the woodland year that I can indulge in this - the woods, looking absolutely like the fairy woodlands that they should at this moment in the year.
Remember that this Sunday is the first Sunday of the month, and it is ‘Usual Spot’ time on our Sunday show-and-tell over on the chat part of the app. Get your pictures lined up for that (we all take a picture of the same spot once a month, and share it there). And if you haven’t ever found the chat, I now have a handy BUTTON to lead you all to it, replacing my convoluted explanations of how to get there. Here it is:
Fancy eh?
That’s it from me, now over to you. What have you noticed/eaten/smelt/worn this week that has felt particularly ‘this week in the year’. We’ll have all your deep and meaningful stuff and all of your mundane bits too, please.
Hello nature friends in my phone. After a brutal 4 weeks and 5 days in hospital for my stem cell transplant, I am home. My three things come from my view of the garden through the doors from my red armchair, but that feels like sweet freedom currently: the abundance of green everywhere, with the sycamores in full leaf already; learning new bird calls from the wonderful Merlin app - we have black caps this year; the eagerness of the shrubs and perennials, who seem quite unbothered by the greyness of the days.
This week we stayed with friends in beautiful Northumberland (Embleton) for a few days. On May Day morning I saw a hare for the first time in my life (I’m nearly 59) and I can’t describe how special it felt. Back home in Sheffield yesterday, it was amazing to see how much the garden had moved on.