April

 Sue from Suffolk mentioned a poem about April in her post today and it sparked the memory of a poem I learnt when I was at school.   Enjoy!

Home-Thoughts, from Abroad

Oh, to be in England

Now that April's there,

And whoever wakes in England

Sees, some morning, unaware,

That the lowest boughs and the brushwood sheaf

Round the elm-tree bole are in tiny leaf,

While the chaffinch sings on the orchard bough

In England—now!

 

And after April, when May follows,

And the whitethroat builds, and all the swallows!

Hark, where my blossomed pear-tree in the hedge

Leans to the field and scatters on the clover

Blossoms and dewdrops—at the bent spray's edge—

That's the wise thrush; he sings each song twice over,

Lest you should think he never could recapture

The first fine careless rapture!

And though the fields look rough with hoary dew,

All will be gay when noontide wakes anew

The buttercups, the little children's dower

—Far brighter than this gaudy melon-flower!

Robert Browning

Caistor Heritage Centre

 

I remember the first time I went into the building which is now Caistor Heritage Centre.   I went to my aunt's wedding there around 1960 when it was Caistor Primitive Methodist Chapel.

A few years later the chapel closed and the congregation joined up with the Wesleyan congregation as Caistor Methodists.  The building then became Caistor Youth Centre but eventually it became very little used and a local group applied for (and got) lottery funding to create a wonderful centre including a cafe, an exhibition room and our local library.   

That was around 2012 (I think) and the centre is still well used today.  There is a paid manager but most of the work is done by volunteers.  There's a charity shop in Caistor which raises the necessary funding and the coffee shop does a very nice line in tea, coffee and cakes.

The centre is really important to our community.  The library is a lovely place to go and books are supplied by the county library service but the library is staffed by volunteers.  Volunteers do most of the work in the cafe too and I can vouch for the deliciousness of the cakes!

Today I went to see an exhibition and sale of artwork by a local artist.  Charles Blake is autistic and non-verbal but his artwork is stunning.  He does all sorts of crafts as well and I was delighted that he has accepted my commision to decorate a very tatty old table of mine with decopatch.  I'll show you when it's done.  

The (outdoor) tree in April

"My" tree

 Once again Holly Dog has invited me to stay so I have been looking at "my" tree.  I chose it back in January but I wasn't too sure what it was!  I thought it was probably a beech but didn't want to commit myself.

Anyway, I've now been close up and have looked at the bark.  (It would have been dangerous for me to walk across the rather soggy grass in January.)  And now I've looked at the tree, the leaves and the bark and have decided that it is, indeed, a beech tree, Fagus Sylvatica f. purpurea.

The bark of "my" tree

It's a copper beech (that's the purpurea bit), one of my favourite trees.  The leaves are currently only half formed but they are so lovely.

In Celtic mythology, Fagus was the god of beech trees. It was thought to have medicinal properties – beech leaves were used to relieve swellings, and boiling the leaves could make a poultice.  I think I will just enjoy my tree for itself.  

Hare Time

 Many thanks for the suggestions about my next period of time now that my hibernaculum period has ended.  

I decided to go with the suggestions of a fifty day period, ending at Pentecost which this year is Sunday 24th May.  In the Anglican liturgical calendar (and many more), all this time is Eastertide.  It's fifty days and that seems like a good period to work with.  

But now we go down a rabbit hole or rather into a hare's form.  Hares are becoming more common around here and that is good news.  They don't like land which has been over-treated with pesticides or fertilisers, so an increase in their numbers means that the land is being treated gently and with  more respect.

My motto for the period will be "Hare today, done tomorrow".  I want to treat my time with respect.  I've got plans for these fifty days (or the forty which are left).  I'm hoping that some time during June to September we will get a very hot period when I won't want to do much but this time should be comfortable and conducive to action.  

I hope you like the Hare Brained Hare above.  It's by Hannah Dale who lives not far from here.  She's created a "wilding" project which you can read about here.    Please visit her website.   

The (Indoor) tree in April

 

During March I had Irish themed charms on my little tree, in honour of St Patrick, and they stayed  up until Holy Saturday (4th April).  

Easter is here now so I have taken away the old and displayed my little eggs.  I've had these for quite a few years.  Indeed, they were the first non-Christmassy themed decorations I had for this tree.  

For Christians, eggs represent the sealed tomb of Jesus from which new life springs.  In the Middle Ages eggs were forbidden during Lent so Easter eggs (of the hen variety!) would have been very welcome after the austerity of the previous weeks.  

I treated myself to a small(ish) chocolate egg on Easter Sunday but I made sure I had real eggs too for breakfast.  

In search of a word.

 Yesterday my hibernaculum project ended for this year.  It started on my birthday back in October and ended Easter Sunday.  To mark the occasion I bought some alstroemeria (one of my favourite indoor flowers) and reduced the candles from twelve to three.  The mice didn't need the warmth of the fire anymore so they went back to the mantle piece to say their prayers.    Obviously there are other changes in the house but for me this was the symbolic transition.

But it leaves me a (minor) problem.  What is the new period to be called?  It's not summer yet and spring is partly over.  Maybe it will be subdivided: it's over seven months long so that is a possibility.  

Any ideas?