Glorious!

Corpus Christi, Thursday 11th June, 2020

A lovely day. The second time in 12 weeks that I have been out. Car had to go to garage for MOT....delivered at 8am and collected after busy day at 15.25. In between. This is in the form of notes written as I mused and recorded happenings....I do notes to remind myself of entries for diary and letters.

Arrived The Grange to be greeted by Stoat, the terror terrier who demands chocolate.

Given breakfast of sausages, scrambled eggs on toast and with toast for Mrs Darlingtons Marmalade. Also Dijon mustard. Delicious and filling. Felt like a feast..a real outing, an experience. Now legal and allowed as well!

Blue room with lots of paintings as hostess and her two daughters paint. Also a sculptress so those also. A powerful beautiful room. Photographs galore...children, grandchildren: handsome women in bridal gowns, men in military uniform, dogs and horses with people, riders and grooms. Also parents and grandparents of hostess.

Coffee...very strong and revitalising. Peonies and wild blooms and weeds in glass jars and vases. A Bechstein piano.

A numinous feel....a presence. Yup...God about or at least Angels.

In to garden...utterly wild. Over 80 varieties of roses, each known and named as we walked about where undergrowth  and overgrowth cut back. I loved 'rambling rector'. A riot of nature and a feeling of intense peace and beauty.

To the back garden...a field with apple and pear and cherry trees...and a resident roe deer with two fawns.

Master of the house put out bird feed of every type and style. As he clanged his drum so scores of birds flew in..linnets, yellow hammers, woodpeckers, tits galore, wrens, robins, finches, wagtails, pheasant and a partridge or two. Ok thrushes, blackbirds and pigeons with stately crow and rook.

Off to cut elder flowers...and argue if it was a chalk hill blue or a cabbage white we had just seen. Romanians harvesting the cauliflowers. Potatoes being watered. Sun came out...hot even fiercely so.

Back to rest in holy room. Then luncheon of pate, boeuf bourgignon and chocolate mousse. Puzzled over crossword.

Left to pick up car and pay bill.

Arrived home to make cordial, now maturing. Also to mourn runner bean eaten by deer.

I feel life is still there. Actually my lockdown has made me so appreciate everything. Getting out and being feted makes me appreciate lockdown also.

How incredibly fortunate I am.