Ho hum

Life has been a bit trying lately, mainly because of one of my choirs, the one of which I'm chair. Basically, our treasurer has taken offence at our musical director, for reasons which seem totally bewildering to me, and has resigned. Treasurers are valuable people, so we've all been falling over backwards to please him. However, he's thrown his toys out of the pram, and gone. This isn't as bad as it might be, because his 3-year term of office was to be up in October anyway, and we have - or at least I hope we still have - a new treasurer lined up. But it's been very stressful and unpleasant and surprising. In my peaceful retired life, I'd kind of forgotten about difficult people who throw strops. 

I'm meeting with the new (I hope) treasurer on Thursday. I just hope that the toy-thrower hasn't put him off joining us on the committee. 

Ah well, we can still walk along the river and watch this heron, 

and admire the meadowsweet and knapweed,

which grow happily despite everything. 

Daughter 2 has been home for a few days because her lovely friend, the owner of the very small architecture firm near Edinburgh for which she works in London, has died of a brain tumour, which is not only very sad but has also been very difficult for the rest of them in various ways. 

I shouldn't feel sorry for myself, because he was eight years younger than me and is no longer around, and I'm still quite well, as far as I know. But I always feel so sad when Daughter 2 goes away. (Yes, I know, she could be in Australia.) I'm worried about her and for them all. But one just has to buck up and be grateful for what one has. 

I've been doing Duolingo for French and German for a couple of years now. My French was always reasonable, though my German was pretty feeble, and I suppose they've both been polished up a bit. On a whim, the other day, I started learning Duolingo Scottish Gaelic. When I was at teacher training college - which I found somewhat boring compared to university - my dad and I went to Gaelic classes for a couple of terms, and bits are coming back to me. I haven't got very far yet, as you can imagine, but am enjoying the spelling. For example, I could ask for "ti" and "cofaidh" (tea and coffee, pronounced "tea" and "coffee") and say that "tha tidsear" (I'm a teacher - pronounced "ha teacher"). I haven't got to the past tense yet... I also like "tioraidh" (pronounced "cheery" and meaning "goodbye"), as in "cheerio".  Is that a British thing, or do Americans/Canadians/Australians/New Zealanders say "cheerio" for goodbye? 

It's not all as easy as that (mind you, the spelling isn't easy at all), but one takes one's pleasures where one can. 

 

Flowers

It's all about flowers at the moment. 

I can't bear to listen to the news in any detail. 

Why on earth are people (well, it's men, isn't it? - a few, horrible ones) still behaving in this uncivilised way, when we are so clever about so much?

Anyway, the garden blooms on, regardless. 

These poppies self-seed and I love them. 

Along the river, things are also in full bloom. This is cow parsley or something of the sort. 

Wild geraniums.

Elder flowers

and wild roses. 

And in Saughton Park, a shortish walk from where we live, the herbaceous beds are at their best.

 

We're lucky to live so near. 

More poppies. So delicious.

Heuchera in the foreground. 

And I can't remember what this white fluffy thing is in the foreground, but the pink flowers are peonies. The white-flowered plant is a member of the cabbage family, I think? It's very pretty, anyway. 

So that's life at the moment: doing the garden, making a quilt, going for walks in gardens and nature, socialising with friends - very peaceful. If only the whole world could enjoy the gentle things of life. 

 

Doings

So in brief: we went to the Tirzah Garwood exhibition at the Dulwich Picture Gallery - interesting, since we'd seen the Eric Ravilious (her husband) exhibition there some years ago and I've read her memoir.

Her art was very varied. 

and in various media.

I had a lovely visit to a school friend's house, and met her partner. M and I were never particularly close at school but we were friendly, and I always liked her. It's been so nice to reconnect. 

And then we came home and Littlest Granddaughter also came (to her) home and reconnected with her guinea pigs, which we had managed to keep fed and watered. 

Apart from that, it's been a flowery time. These mecanopsis were at Branklyn Gardens in Perth, which we always like to visit. 

And we met up with a very old friend, also M, and went to Little Sparta, about an hour's drive away, which is the garden of poet and artist Ian Hamilton Finlay. We've been meaning to go for ages, and when M - who lives in London - said that she would like to visit it, that was the spur for us to take her. M's mother and mine were friends in London during the war, specifically during the Blitz, and her mother was my mother's bridesmaid. 

It's a very pleasant garden

with various art installations and inscriptions, some rather mysterious. 

And then, at home, all is very floriferous.

A neighbour (whose front garden is mainly paved, with some neatly trimmed small bushes) said to me yesterday that she liked the wild effect of my garden. 

I know what she meant, but it takes a lot of work to achieve such a wild effect. 

And that's me just about caught up with our doings, though frankly I don't really know why I do this...
 

More Salisbury

 On the same day as Stonehenge, we also visited Old Sarum, which is the former site of the city of Salisbury. 

And the next day we went to the magnificent Salisbury Cathedral; and after that to the Salisbury Museum. 

However, Blogger is insisting on loading the photos backwards, so...

Here are two beautiful green glass bowls buried with a rich lady. I wish I could remember when, but I think it was in Anglo Saxon times, so about eight hundred years ago. I would happily have them on a shelf now. 

Quite a few of the effigies on tombs in Salisbury Cathedral have ancient graffiti on them. Tut tut. But quite interesting. 

The cathedral was built in between 1220 and 1258 and has the highest spire in Britain - though the spire was a bit of an afterthought and wasn't added till 1330. 

Going back in time, Old Sarum used to look as below, but now looks - roughly the same view - as above. It had a castle and a cathedral, and was built on the site of an Iron Age hillfort with earthwork ramparts and a ditch in between them, still visible today. Because it was on a hill, there was only one, deep well, and the nobles and the clergy used to argue about access to water. So the king decided to move the city to two miles away, and used much of the stone to build the new city and cathedral. Well, when I say "new" - it was new then. 

Now there are bits of walls and so on, so that you can get a good idea of what used to be there. It's very interesting. 

Stonehenge

The next day, we went to Salisbury, in the south-west of England, with the aim of visiting Stonehenge. Our hotel dated from 1226, as you can see above. The oldest of its buildings were erected to house the stonemasons who were building Salisbury Cathedral. 

You can see the red lion behind Mr L. 

This is a very elderly fireplace, with The Last Supper carved on to it. Later we had dinner in this room but I'm happy to say that it wasn't our last supper. 

This is, I think, Jesus. He looks understandably gloomy. 

You can see that the hotel has been put together in a fairly ad hoc way over the centuries. 

The following day, we went to Stonehenge, which was duly astonishing. It was put up about 5000 years ago, with some stones brought from as far away as Wales and northern Scotland. The big stones weigh around 3 tons. It's all very amazing. There are theories about how it was done, and also why - but no one really knows. Some stones have fallen and some are missing, but there's enough there to provoke quite a bit of gasping. I didn't know that the crossbar stones have hollows carved in them, and the upright stones have corresponding knobs that fit into these. Just in case, for example, they were blown off by a breeze? 

Anyway, that's one thing crossed off the bucket list. There's a good museum there too, and a nice cafe. Essential!