Singing as the Darkness Lifts

GLANCES, GLIMPSES AND OBSERVATIONS     PodBean Listening Link      This morning the air brings me the tint of caramel. The soft pudding kind. I look around for any clues for where this might be coming from, but my early morning eyes do not determine anything in particular that could account for such a scent. The day is opening quietly, and it brings with it a gentle sweetness.   Alt text says this week’s photo is a person holding a fried onion ring. It actually is and it is a photo of Kath peering through said food item during a lunch date recently. Whilst looking for a photo for this week’s blog I realised that most of the pictures in my camera roll over the last week or so have been of the images needed for my anniversary poems. Squares with numbers and text on, all pretty much the same except for the number. I chuckle as I realise that this might well indicate that I have not been head up noticing the world very much for a while.   It a...

MARGARINE TUBS OF MARBLES AND ERASERS  PodBean Listening Link This morning the air brings a sense of cleanliness and has no particular scent that I can determine. A gentle chatter of birds sounds from the aerials and chimney pots. I get the sense the day started a while ago for them.   Alt text says this week’s photo is a glass jar with a blue ball on top. I say it is a glass jar with three marbles inside and that a large blue marble is placed on top to act as a stopper.   The grass has sprung back into shape after plenty of rain and it seems strange to be needing to be cutting it after weeks of watching it turn yellow (and rather crispy) and not need much attention. Pleasingly its flourishing green renewal has renewed my energy for gardening, and I have thoroughly enjoyed being out in the fresh air. I have also enjoyed the scents I have carried with me on my skin as a result of doing some cutting back and weeding. On the first day I smelt of rosemary, on the...

   JUST START AND KEEP GOING   Listening Link    This morning the air is fresh after the rain, the sky is blurred grey and the magpies are sounding their rattles in the trees. I think I can smell horse chestnut leaves; I call it autumnal. My mind is on the changing of seasons and the passing of time.   Alt text says this week’s photo is a group of people posing for a photo. It is in fact a trio of siblings having their cobwebs well and truly blown away on a boat trip to the forts off the coast of Kent. I loved this summer holiday day and I love the fact that this picture encapsulates a moment in time where we were truly in the moment out on the water.   Three years ago I decided to get up and sniff the air each Monday morning. I also decided to write a blog. The reason? A pivot. A very large one where I decided to step out of my thirty-year career and see what came next for me.   And the first blogs w...

BETTER TO BE BORN LUCKY THAN RICH  PodBean Listening Link   This morning the air brings gentle hints of autumn. It holds coolness and damp. The seasons are shifting.   Alt text says this week’s photo is a person standing in front of a display of knitted clothes. I say it is, and that it is me in front of some of Kath’s designs at Wonderwool Wales. I also say that alt text missed the fact that I am wearing my Dolly Parton t-shirt. This is an older photo, but one which seems suited to this blog. The title for this blog, better to be born lucky than rich , is one of my nan’s sayings. And whenever it rings in my ears it brings a smile to my face. Luck has given me things that I could never buy. And that t-shirt has led to many conversations with a whole host of good people. Back in 2011 I opened an email and cried tears of joy. It was my Golden Ticket, my Charlie Bucket Moment. As a child I loved the story of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and the thought...

LOOKING FOR A SIGN       PodBean Listening Link. This morning the ground is damp, and the birds are singing unhurried songs. The air is fresh and floral; a light mixture of flowers and grass.   Alt text says this week’s photo is a stuffed animal in the air, and indeed it is. It is a blurred Ronnie jumping for joy by a bridge in Port Sunlight. My eyes were a little blurry when taking the photo and I didn’t really realise that he was quite so out of focus until I checked the photos later on! (Note to self... don’t catch up with reading things on the phone during car journeys when your wife is driving without putting the reading glasses on because it makes your eyes feel strained, tired and a wee bit blurry.)   There was a partial eclipse this week, which was marked by brother and sister colanders, jacket potatoes , a dragonfly fly-by, bat swoops and shooting stars. That’s a lovely kind of eclipse evening.   And this weekend I was feelin...

LOGANBERRIES   PodBean Listening Link This morning the air smells of minty toothpaste and traffic. It has elements of autumnal coolness in it as the sun begins to establish itself in the sky. Alt text is not available to offer a suggestion for this week’s photo content. I say it is Ronnie having a photo shoot with some hotel curtains as background in order to add some interest and depth to some hurried photos of blackberries and raspberries. In the back garden whilst marvelling at how a great forest of borage self-seeds each year I noticed that the autumn fruiting raspberries were beginning to ripen. This had me spinning me back in time to my nan giving me my first loganberry. I loved this large firm fruit with its clearly hollowed core and the way it brought my favourite taste of raspberries and mixed this with the depth of blackberries without bringing the tartness of those bramble fruits. I loved those hands that offered it to me and the love that always radiated from my n...