Wednesday, July 29, 2020

Reasons to be cheerful


I may have decided that vegetable gardening is not for me, but I might grow French beans next year,  just for the flowers. Aren't they a fabulous colour?




Another part of the garden I'm loving is this bit with the cosmos, phlox and feverfew -





I'm making good progress with Anna Karenina, the longest book I have ever attempted and not given up on. (You need to know that I attempted The Corrections twice and jacked it in, and I will no longer even consider a novel by Barbara Kingsolver because she is s-o-o-o-h wordy.) I am now at page 640 in AK and have only 160 pages to go. After that I'm giving myself a treat and reading Nina Stibbe's Reasons to be Cheerful. Also, that is it as far as Tolstoy goes.



Lovely bookmark painted by my brother Pete


I am rather puzzled at my sticking with the Tolstoy. Is it because of the oceans of time there are when my social life and outside entertainment schedule is so severely reduced?

Lastly, I've sewn up all the patches and reclaimed my study floor.



Next, I have to line it, back it and bind it. But it's going away for a week because now I want to paint.

I'll leave you with this poem by A.S.J. Tessimond, first published in the middle of the last century.


Daydream

One day people will touch and talk perhaps easily,
And loving be natural as breathing and warm as sunlight
And people will untie themselves, as string is unknotted
Unfold and yawn and stretch and spread their fingers
Unfurl and curl like seaweed returned to the sea
And work will be simple and swift as a seagull flying
And play will be casual and quiet as a seagull settling
And the clocks will stop, and no one will wonder
or care or notice,
And people will smile without reason, even in the winter,
even in the rain.


A.S.J.Tessimond





2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Thank you, Sue for the hope-filled poem and for the joyful colours of your photos These are all much appreciated here today.. Ana

Sue Hepworth said...

Sending you a virtual hug across the oceans, Ana. Xxx