Wednesday, February 26, 2020

Ash Wednesday
February 26th, 2020

The sun is shining again today, and the sky is that lovely soft blue
of spring time.....

The catkins outside my window are growing fatter and a little more lush,
marking the time as spring steps closer 
and the sun grows warmer.

I think to ask someone to bring the summertime table and chair out 
of its winter hibernation in the garden shed,
so I can take my book and a cup of tea outside
and contemplate the garden, and the hellebores, still covered with snow.

It is Ash Wednesday!

I see the cars gathered around the Roman Catholic Church
and lament that there is no service across the street
in the Anglican Church....
no ashen crosses on our forehead
but still, the day causes me to meditate a bit on Lent;
its meaning and what it accomplishes
in the lives of those who commit to those forty days.

I wonder if the days of Lent, before its Christian origin,
were observed as a time of purification,
or if the fasting that is part of Lent
arose because of a lack of food after a hard winter
and before summertime filled the larder again?

In place of a quiet service
I read parts of T.S. Eliot's long poem
"Ash Wednesday"
and think about Lenten Days and how best to make
them meaningful, and rich in their sparseness

And I listen to Stjepan Hauser  and Luka Sulic
and their beautiful rendition of  "Benedictus"
once again!!!


Monday, February 24, 2020



February 24th, 2020

Monday

The first day of the last week of Faint February, and I spent it firstly
at the loom,  beaming on a towel warp, - then at the end of the Hoover, purging rugs,
and lastly in an easy chair, reading, and listening to music.

I have no guarantee that March will be a better month, - it does not have
a good reputation here in the Similkameen, but surely it will have
more character than February, which has been so dull and uninspiring!!!

The one big snowfall we had has not melted away in the sunshine,
but rather has turned to large solid ridges of snow that line the village
roads and make parking very difficult.

Not that I am parking anywhere, since I have not driven since my
license expired a few months ago, and I am not brave enough
to go to the nearest city and take a driving test to renew it.....
somehow I don't think the license inspectors are too
interested in helping the aged to roam the streets in a motorized vehicle,
and so I plan on gaily joining the horde of cart drivers
in this retirement village, with Charles' big blue machine.

As to what I am reading....  I am enjoying
Alexander McCall Smith's new book - "The Department of
Sensitive Crimes"  which I find a delight to read...

from the dust cover.....

Alan Bradley (bestselling author of the Flavia de Luce series) says
"with astonishing heart and mind, Alexander McCall Smith
launches a bold and original series.  With The
Department of Sensitive Crimes, he invents a new
and compassionate genre:  I didn't know whether to
laugh or cry, but in the end I did both.

aside - the Flavia de Luce series is also a delight to read.....

The other book I am reading is another of Robert McFarlane's.
This time, instead of the Underworld,  he "accounts legendary
mountain ascents with vivid descriptions of his own forays
into wild, high landscapes". Great Book!!

Within it he quotes Keats...

"I stood tiptoe upon a little hill
...I gazed a while and felt as light and free
as though the fanning wings of Mercury
had played upon my heels.  I was light-hearted
and many pleasures to my vision started...."

The music I listened to was Hauser the cellist.


Absolutely gorgeous!