Yesterday was the Summer Solstice and I enjoyed it in a garden in Belmont. We stood round in a circle and welcomed the summer, flowers in our hair, solemnly making promises to look after our beautiful natural world. it was very special and reminded me of the upside down poem –
It was a nice day in October, last September in July
The moon lay thick upon the ground,
The mud shone in the sky.
The flowers were singing sweetly,
The birds were in full bloom,
So I went into the cellar to sweep an upstairs room.
The flowers were indeed blooming, such has been the growth over the last couple of weeks with the rain and the sun doing their stuff. And as for the birds. In our garden there is a bird of indeterminate identification with the most amazing repertoire – “he whistles and he sings till the green woods ring all for the love of a lady”, and this lady appreciates it.
I was in Donegal recently and the skylarks were filling the air with their song and it is quite exquisite. A cuckoo became irritating. There was a corncrake somewhere but I wasn’t lucky enough to hear let along see it and the seagulls sang their mournful song. To me it wounds like the souls of fishermen lost at sea.
And then there’s the twittering of Trump and Johnson, it’s not even funny any more.
Trump and Iran and the The B-2 Spirit, one of three strategic heavy bombers in U.S. Air Force service. ‘Originally conceived to infiltrate the Soviet air-defense network and attack targets with nuclear weapons, over the decades its mission has grown to include conventional precision attack. The B-2 is the most advanced bomber in U.S. service, and the only one of three types that still carries nuclear gravity bombs.’ Sounds terrifying and it is; thank goodness if Trump plunges the red button it has to go through to the next room for the generals to make the final decision, that gives me a certain sense of ease.
Then there is Johnson, what was he at in his partner’s flat, his terrible performance in the first Leaders Debate maybe left him stressed out and needing a row to calm his nerves. So what but he really is a piece of work. Poor Hunt, even his name is a problem, nice boy but he just doesn’t have the charisma. Yesterday’s debate was another waste of time.
If the sun shines later today I’m off to Newtownards and the glories of Mount Stewart. This was the home of Lady Mairi Berry, a woman with a history.
‘The cast of characters in the life of Lady Mairi Bury, member of a remarkable aristocratic family, included both Winston Churchill and Adolf Hitler, as well as a host of major figures in politics and high society. Churchill was most unimpressed when her father, a former British air minister, flew to Berlin to talk to Hitler. The teenaged Mairi herself, who went along with him, was less than impressed with the German dictator.
“I thought, what a nondescript person,” she recalled in later life. “You would never have picked him out in a crowd. No, I’m afraid no aura of evil, no sense of foreboding, a rather quiet voice. In fact, little stands out other than the memory of his most extraordinary blue eyes.”
Her father, Lord Londonderry, spent years in vain attempts to reason with Hitler and other Nazis. At one point he brought to Mount Stewart, his grand home near Belfast, senior Hitler official Von Ribbentrop, who arrived “with a noisy gang of SS men.”
Once upon a time I attended a dinner at Mount Stewart and the table was set up in the black and white hall. It was gracious living and pure theatre. Suddenly Lady Mairi put a hand on my arm and said: “Just listen”. We all fell silent. Then a chiming clock struck up, then a second and a third. Throughout the house there was the delightful clamour of tinkling bells and solid peals and it was magical. Life is full of little cameos that last only a few moments but last a life time. That was one. Another was standing in the garden last night with my younger brother in the twilight of eleven o’clock not a breath of air to disturb even the littlest leaf talking about our parents and our brother. Precious moments.
Good bye to the cast of Rock of Ages who are travelling on today to entertain audiences in towns throughout England. They brought such joy to the Opera House and the thousands who travelled to watch them during last week. Thanks for the memories.
Certainly I sometimes think my iPhone is an idiot – it rings people I don’t always want to talk to! What will this week bring. Who knows – I hope it’s a good one for you and yours.
Read more: http://www.advicenators.com/qview.php?q=583476#ixzz5rc5k2XrD