Jam and privilege

Tuesday 22nd September, 2020

As the news of the Government in England and the one in Scotland tightening rules and regulations to attempt to pause Covid filtered through to me so the weather changed! If I was superstitious I would see the change as an omen. In actual fact the weather people had been forecasting a change so perhaps they should have been the omen re Covid! 

I have finished the biography of Yeats and he was a man of symbols, occultism and all sorts. A fascinating read but somehow his poetry is more powerful, for me, not knowing his life and thoughts. One thing I have identified with is his complaints of old age...he started muttering about it in his mid fifties! Well, I rather enjoy the curmudgeonly old man syndrome as murmuring helps me dissipate irritations. I have always admired sumo wrestlers. The loud grunts and gurgles are part of the beauty of it. Try it....for if you shout or grunt loudly as you lift a heavy weight it is so much easier. Like the world of rugby wherein the scrum is ever noisome. Do you recall McEnroe in tennis? 

It was a glorious morning, a lovely day and one without breeze so particularly hot. The tortoise proved it by coming out and having two meals. The dog sought the shade as did the sheep and the Pygmy goat butted sheep out of his shed. The hens formed dirt baths and attacked their fleas with dust. The hanging baskets needed water. 

A gentle day but I needed that as some sad and upsetting family news percolated through. It is all swings and roundabouts as one sadness comes another goes....I ponder Yeats's gyres. The old saying is what goes around comes around. 

Lastly let me tell you of my strange concoction. A failure or a success I cannot yet tell but will know tomorrow. The rose hip jelly recipe I gleaned from the Internet. It wanted rose hips and crab apples, a lemon and some honey. I did EXACTLY as told. I have ended up after boilings, sievings, strainings, re boilings with what looks like a rose tinted mud mush! I tasted it and it had a texture of how I imagine pig swill feels on the mouth and tongue. It is now in the fridge and I hope will be a miraculous special revelation tomorrow. Like the weather my jam and jelly makings have been good and not so good but the fun has been making them, foraging for the ingredients and feeling, for no reason at all, virtuous. Some might say smug. 

Sadly my idyl comes to an end and I return to Scotland soon. It has been such a joy and privilege...aloneness, the care of animals, the seeing of friends, the silence, peace and pace of a retreat, the wild life, the canal and its boats as well as the excitements of the hedgerows and their provender. How privileged.