REFLECTING Why do we no longer use the Celt term for “mayday”? Beltane rolls off the tongue smoothly and sounds much better than the word associated with disasters: ‘mayday, mayday, mayday!” We are now half way between the Spring Equinox and the Summer Solstice, already one third of the way through the year. Time to venture into my garden to tidy up the detritus of winter, to weed out most of the marigold plants which threaten to take over the flower beds and to tie back the climbing rose. Then I need to take a deep breath and fight my way into my Craft Room which has become a dumping ground for everything and anything. Do I want all that stuff? Of course not. I just need to tackle the sifting and sorting . . . .
PLANTING My Spider Plant has thrown out a mass of babies at the end of long stems which dangle down from my bathroom shelf. I have taken five of the largest to pot on ready for the summer plant sale at my local Women’s Institute. I really miss the hardware store Wilco which closed last year and was where I would have purchased the flower pots I need. Luckily I was able to re-use five suitable pots I discovered lurking at the back of my garden shed.

KNITTING I was very pleased when my baby blanket was finished. I panicked at first when I started to knit it because the colours were brighter and zingier that I normally choose for a baby Apparently the Pantone colour for 2024 is “Peach Fuzz” and I spotted the variegated peach baby yarn by Cygnet on a Facebook knitting post. I sent off my order for ten balls before noticing that the balls are 100g size and I only needed about eight 50g balls for the blanket. So I have made two, leaving a couple of balls of yarn over. The yarn is so pretty that I decided would be great to use to knit wristwarmers for Xmas presents. I assumed that if I began each at the start of a new ball the variations in colours would match. No-o-o! The colour changes for each ball are NOT the same. So I spent last evening unwinding one ball to separate each colour into smaller balls then I was able to knit the second wristwarmer to almost match its partner.
LISTENING I am able to read books on my Kindle in an evening, so I decided to start listening to audiobooks and to take more time savouring every word rather than galloping through. Listening to stories would also allow me to knit at the same time. I started with “Dissolution” by the author CJ Sansom who died last week. The book features a medieval lawyer cum detective, Matthew Shardlake, in the times of King Henry’s dissolution of the monasteries. I knew about the destruction of England’s monasteries after the Reformation but I had not appreciated any consequences part from the destruction of ancient churches. Samsom’s Shardlake novels bring to life the results of shutting a monastery, turfing out the monks and all the staff leaving them with nowhere to go, not to mention the effects on all the poor that had been supported by the monks. Then there was the greed of land owners who saw the chance to grab monasterial lands to add to their estates. Besides giving a feel for medieval life, the challenges faced by Shardlake are intriguing.
WALKING There is so much health advice around nowadays .One post on social media recommends walking “10000 steps a day’ – another suggests “half an hour’s brisk exercise daily”. One thing is absolutely certain: I feel better if I walk daily BUT I find it so easy to make excuses not to, especially during the shorter days of winter. Walks always lift my mood – sun or no sun – listening to the birds singing and noticing the plants and trees as they burst into leaf after being dormant all winter. So why am I always tempted to stay curled up in my easy chair?
RESOLVING I WILL get outside for a daily walk. I WILL declutter my Craft Room. And,oh yes! I WILL post my Blog more regularly.

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