Taking time out

Last week I decided to take some time away from social media amd do things I really wanted to do and enjoy each day as it came. I did have a few appointments but decided to keep most of these. So what did I do? I spent time in the garden, sometimes just sitting and meditating on what I could see. I spent time with friends and did some creative sewing which I love.

I did have a quick read of my social media accounts but did not post or comment on anything preferring to let things go on as planned. I had a lovely afternoon out in some gardens belonging to a large house not too far away. It was wonderful to stroll through woodland and gardens I did not know. The views were tremendous.

So what did I gain from my time out, after all I was busy a lot of the time. I felt better and much closer to the natural world around me. I felt more attuned to the sounds of nature as well. I was less stressed as I had been busy over the last few months writing and talking to people about climate change. It is very easy to get involved in such things and let them take over your life so that you do or think about nothing else.

Climate change is of course very important and I hope that I have sown seeds of change with many people and via my book, sowed these seeds in others far away. But it is easy to overdo things and burn out which is when I decided to take a break. Taking a break also allows you to get things in perspective and see the overall picture not just the details. For me this time out has replenished my soul. So when things get hectic and seem out of control, stand back, take some time out and enjoy the natural world around you.

Summertime

I seem to remember words to a song going like this,’Summertime, and the living is easy’. I suppose that living is easier in the summer and there is so much to enjoy. I love the blue skies and the sun shining but I don’t like it too hot. The garden is full of different insects. The bees are bussing around the cotoneaster hedge and in the many other flowers.

The young birds are learning to fly and to use the bird feeder. It can be amusing to watch them as they find a way to perch on the feeder. There are so many of them this year. There must have been at least 3 different nests in my hedge as the broods of fledglings arrive in fours and fives.

I already have a lot of flowers in bloom and many more to come as summer progresses. I can see ladybirds in plenty and other flying insects. Soon there may be damselflies and dragonflies as one of my neighbours has a pond.

The hedge is alive with the noise of the birds and insects. It is also very green. One of the things I love about this time of the year is how green everything is, so alive.

But now the Summer Solstice has passed the night is creeping slowly over the day, making each day that little bit shorter. Years ago I wrote a poem for the Solstice. Here it is now;

Solstice Prayer
It is the time of the longest day
When the Sun is at the height of its power
And as the Sun watches over us and feeds us all
So we feed our Inner Fire.
May the power of the One unite us all
Bringing hope and peace to our planet;
May the Ancient Wisdom, the Eternal Truth,
Be warmed by the Sun this day
Let us join together in peace and love,
Let the Sun shine within our hearts,
Let the Child of Light guide us on our way,
As our world is filled with peace and love.

Taking action

First of all I would like to thank those who responded to my blog questions last week. It was interesting to read the various ways of looking at ‘ancestral memories or what’ and I am much happier with my interpretations now.

So today I want to write about taking action. It is fine to talk about what we should do and how to do it but actually doing it is a bit different. I know many who sit there and say ‘Well I’m alright so why do anything?’ To me this is not the right way to go. Thinking that you are OK is not enough. You have to think about others too as well as the environment which supports us.

Yesterday I spent a couple of hours at a fete in one of my nearby villages where a local group for climate change had a stand. We had a petition to sign to give to the parish council, asking that all new build homes were fitted with solar panels. We also had a petition for our borough council asking it to declare a climate emergency. There are quite a few cities and towns and some counties that have already done this. But even though the emergency has been declared you can’t stop there. Changes have to be made and we all have to make them not just sit back and let others get on with it. It is very easy to say we have a climate emergency then sit back and do nothing.

I am pleased to see that the supermarkets are starting to do their bit by getting rid of plastics and offering boxes for recycling stuff. So what can you do? Apart from doing your best with the recycling, you can spread the word to others. I recently wrote a book about changing yourself and the world around you. I have been giving these away to interested readers and told them to pass the book on when they have read it. But not everyone can or wants to write a book. I use the bus service to get to and from town so I chat in the bus queue. It is easy to bring the subject of plastics up and get people talking. It is like planting a seed then watching it grow.

So what are you doing? Not just about recycling but about other ways of living, food, clothes, and so on. I have used this photo before but if you have a garden then making it bee friendly is a good start.

Ancestral memories or what?

This week has been a bit of a roller coaster emotionally and many memories have surfaced but I don’t know how I got these memories. So I have spent time looking for answers but not really got those yet. Maybe you, my readers, can give me some answers.

Most of these memories are to do with World War II. I was born during the war in 1941. The war ending some few years later in 1945 and I remember the things that came afterwards quite well, like ration books for a start. I also remember the dried egg powder in the larder. I remember the siren telling us to get somewhere safe and the searchlights in the sky trying to trace the bombers.

But I have said for many years that I remember the bomb that dropped in the next street just a few houses away from ours. Later research has shown me that the bomb dropped one week before I was born. So how do I remember it? We did not have a bomb shelter and my mother always said she felt safe under the stairs. It was known as the glory hole and was not very large but you could sit in it. Imagine my mother, nine months pregnant sitting in there. How did she feel? Did her emotions communicate themselves to me? Is this why and how I can remember this bomb dropping close by?

I do know that I get claustrophobic in small spaces! Other than these emotional memories for that is what they are, I have very few memories of my life in a visual way. In other words I don’t have photos or see images from my past in my memories. There is a block there to these things.

I have looked at memories stored in the aura and in our souls but for me these mean more of a past life memory thing not what you could call recent this life memories. Did all this emotional stuff come from my mothers emotions when I was in the womb? If so did she carry similar emotions from her mother. My mother was born in the first World War so maybe these war memories are stored somehow in our genes. This is getting a bit deep so I will stop here but if any of you have any thoughts on this then please let me know. The photo is of my mother and my grandmother.

The natural world

I am continuing with the theme of nature, plants, birds and all life however small it may be. It never ceases to amaze me how many varieties of plants and insects that there are. I have an amazing flower called a horned poppy. It has beautiful yellow flowers which open and die on the same day. The seed pods of this plant are long thin pods up to 12 inches long. Then there are the ants in the garden. Someone told me to spray the blackfly on the foxgloves but I said the ants like the blackfly and so do the ladybirds. There is a place in nature for everything.

I think many of us are only just beginning to understand how important each species is and how they interconnect with each other. I have noticed that some councils are making bee trails in their parks by planting wildflower meadows some yards apart. This is a good start to helping our natural environment to survive.

One thing that really annoys me is the paving over of gardens because people cannot be bothered to cut grass and pull out weeds, When I have asked them about the need for paving those are the answers I get. But paving over your garden leaves nowhere for the rain to go.

Recent reading has been about 5G and I have read that many trees will have to be cut down as they affect the signal. Do we really need 5G? It is also a health hazard. Do we need HS2 as well? I don’t think so. Is it really important for faster trains so people can get to work a few minutes earlier? To have these faster trains, ancient woodland will be chopped down and nature reserves lost. The powers that be said that another place could be found for the nature reserve, which shows a complete lack of understanding of how nature works. We are supposed to be in a climate change emergency but those in charge do not seem to be able to join the dots and make sensible resolutions. They need to get together and talk about it all with the scientists and those who do understand how everything is connected. Enough of my moaning. The photo is of the horned poppy. I wonder if the point in the centre is what gives it its name.