August ramblings

Today is the first time for many months that I have sat down to write my weekly blog and did not know what theme I would have. Normally during the week before, something happens that triggers my writing but this week there was nothing. However I do have lots of rambling thoughts I can write down, so here goes.

I live about 1/2 mile from the town centre and have always walked down the hill into town and caught the bus back, a little 18 seater bus that can cope with the streets of the various housing estates it travels through. But since March when restrictions came into being, I had not ventured into town at all. I have walked in the local park or around the streets but not gone into town. I knew I could walk down the hill but did not want to use the little bus to come back. Social distancing is impossible in such a small bus and most of us that use it are in the vulnerable class of being over 60.

I needed to go to the bank this week so my son took me down in his car. It was the first time for around 5 months and I was quite apprehensive. However all went well and I did some shopping as well. But this leads me to another few rambling thoughts.

I belong to several groups , photography, discussion and nature groups. None of these can be attended at the moment. I run the nature group and don’t have a car so the group has closed. Car sharing is not allowed unless with a member of your household or bubble. Some groups have gone online like the discussion groups but I don’t fancy sitting at my computer for an hour or two using Zoom. So while many others can go out with their groups because they have a car, there are many others who don’t have a car and so cannot get back to doing the things they used to do. I find it quite difficult to listen and see on social media just what my friends have been up to just because they have a car. Yet on the other hand I don’t like the idea of single occupancy cars because of the carbon footprint. We were supposed to be getting rid of cars and making the environment better for us all yet we are encouraged to use cars now and not public transport.

A final rambling thought is about the seasons. I wrote last week about the spring flowers blooming in my garden. This week the RHS stated that autumn had arrived and looking around the garden I can see that this is so. Many plants are already dying down and some are yet to bloom. I went for a short walk early this morning. It felt like October out there and I noticed that the trees in the park were starting to turn orange and fall onto the ground. Global warming?

Confusion in the garden world

Confusion is understandable when their is a lot of uncertainty around. This is so at the current time of changing guidelines and restrictions. They change so often it is hard to keep up with them and know what you can and can’t do. I find it quite hard to deal with and tend to stay home instead of going out each day. But this is our human world.

In the garden the other day I was very surprised to find one of my spring flowers blooming again. I really was struck by this so went around the rest of the garden to see what else was happening. And there next to the autumn Michaelmas daisies were cowslips and primroses coming into flower. Maybe they do flower twice a year like some other plants but I have never seen them do this before. I know the weather has been very unpredictable at times going from very hot to cold and wet in a short period of time. I did notice that the autumn flowers are a bit early too as were the Victoria plums which are now all gone.

I’ve always felt that I could follow the seasons through my garden but this is now a bit of a problem when the plants flower at what I feel is the wrong time. Maybe some of you reading this will be able to tell me more about the flowering habits of spring flowers. I mean it has felt like autumn for a few days now. There is that definite smell in the mornings of autumn mists and fruitfulness. But the butterflies and bees are still busy and on a good day there are lots of them around.

I suppose that if we are going through climate change then we can expect more things like this to happen but it will make life difficult for the flowering plants. What are your thoughts on what is happening with my spring flowering plants?

Changes in our lives

Restrictions in our lives over the last few months have enabled us to look deep inside ourselves. We have been able to spend time looking at the way we live and start to make changes. We have slowed down and are able to enjoy our days much more and in better ways. Rushing around has come to a halt. There is no pressure to do things quickly and decisions have not been rushed. Some of us have found new hobbies and leisure activities and many of us have also found a different purpose to our lives.

So how has my life changed during these last few months? First of all I have been able to finish several projects which have been hanging around for up to a few years so that is a very good thing. This has enabled me to start new projects like making a scrapbook of the changes in my garden through the seasons. I have taken photos of each plant as it came into bloom, noted the visitors, the birds, bees and butterflies. This has been absorbing and has given me a lot of joy.

I have worked with Reiki and other healing modalities much more and have got back into a daily session of meditation with Reiki. I have also started to train others to Level 3 which is something I have always enjoyed. The sharing of knowledge gained over the last 40 years or more is something I want to share so that others can also find out more about who they really are.

This is a time of regeneration if you like to call it that. Chaos comes first as structure falls but then rebuilding starts in a new way with more consideration for how we live. That is what I hope and am doing my part to help. What changes to your lives have happened during the last few months?

Complacency

I am sure I have written about complacency in the past but it seems very relevant in the current time. So what is complacency about? It is about accepting that things are non changing, it is an uncritical satisfaction with oneself or one’s achievements. It is a feeling of smugness. So are you complacent? Are you one of those who say ‘I’m alright Jack!’, ‘it won’t happen to me’, it’s nothing to do with me’?

Do you question things or just accept everything you are told or read about? Do you ever think that something is wrong but do nothing about it? Do you protest at the things that are going on in the lives of others or do you just ignore it?

Lots of questions here for you to think about. I often get told off for having an input into what I think is wrong and told to just let it be. But if we all do this then where is the world going to end up?There is a lot of injustice around and a lot of people who say that it won’t happen to them especially during this pandemic. There are guidelines for us to follow, many of which make sense. Remember that in school, one child gets chicken pox and then all the others get it.Viruses spread just the same so it is good to be sensible and follow guidelines when necessary.

But there are other instances when being complacent can be wrong. There is a problem locally with teenagers on bikes damaging trees and abusing people. Should they get away with this or should they be found and spoken to. I did not say punished as that can often be the wrong thing to do but most children will respond to being told why what they are doing is wrong. Things triggers another subject, the subject of education. Here in the UK children have not been at school since March or at least most children. Some have been at school for part of the time but most have been home schooling.

So back to complacency, should we all be doing more to change things by getting involved and not just sitting back and letting everything go by without comment or action?

Nature just carries on

It doesn’t matter what is going on in the world we are currently living in, the natural world around us, at least around me, is just carrying on as normal.

The birds are still producing young, some sparrows are on their second brood while I have young starlings, blackbirds, blue tits and goldfinches as well in my garden. They are emptying the bird feeders very rapidly and demolishing fatballs at a steady pace. The plants are still growing and producing flowers and seed heads while the butterflies are still busy as are the bees. Despite the changes in the weather every few days from very hot to cooler to rain and gales, the birds and insects continue as normal.

Meanwhile, the’ normal’ world is not any kind of normal. The changes in guidelines and rules change so often that they become confusing. There are many who have made plans yet again only to have to put them on one side until the right kind of change is made for the plans to be effective.

I am just carrying on, taking each day as it comes and doing what I would normally do apart from the shopping which is now done online. Today’s deliveryman stated that his employer, Tesco, would be taking back used carrier bags from next week and recycling them or at least disposing of them safely. So some good things are happening.

I go out once a week with my son and we have been visiting some local nature reserves. Three of these were quite similar in habitat and all had wonderful beautiful meadows, full of wild flowers, butterflies and many other insects. It seemed as if I was in a different world when standing on the path through the meadow with it’s knee high and sometimes higher, flowers and grasses. There was so much to see and so much to feel with the energy of everything growing there. It was a really amazing experience. So I wonder where we will go next week? Maybe a woodland walk instead to hug some beautiful trees.