Author: jemadmin

Day 36 May 11

Day 36 May 11

Posted on by jemadmin

Sometimes just being at home provides all the experiences that going for a walk does. Equally, I’d say. Yesterday seems to be in the long distant past – which has nothing to do with the see-saw of a speech by one Ben, I mean Boris Johnson: Which way is up, which way is down? I dunno…

I admit I am a tad influenced by the latest Jonathan Pie Lockdown episode, which was on the verge of serious acerbicism. I think this experience throws a lot of things into sharp relief: the good the bad and the beautiful. 

I have nothing to say about our continuing situation which -er – continues…

Yesterday I collected nettles and stung my hands again. But I made the most amazing nettle pesto with walnuts! What a triumph. It was worth prickly hands for a taste of sheer garlicky heaven on al dente pasta! 

The walk back from my forage was made more delightful by meeting a lovely young couple and their 3 month old baby girl who live in my brother’s old flat. They emanated such joy in the new life they had created! The park was richer than ever: A deeply poignant image of an empty bench and walking down to it through the picture-frame arch of the house built literally over the road, whose no-entry sentry posts are doing perfect social distancing.

Today the cold wind made for a fast stomp along the seafront to pick up my food order and back over the top by Falaise. I stopped to look at the pier like the stern of a vast battle ship nosing its way out to sea. 

Home again to ponder next steps as many of us are doing. New survival tactics required. But not to worry! How could I when I have this view out of my window?

Nature triumphs again!

Day 27 April 30

Day 27 April 30

Posted on by jemadmin

It is chilly and gusty but the sun is out. Through the park the spring blossoms are looking a little battered but the light is sharp and the contrast of tree shadow on grass jumps out at you like a 3D image. With my phone camera any attempt to capture it is hopeless. The lens of memory is best in these cases. 

On up Maze Hill and past the flowering cherry, whose starry petals, herded by the wind, have thickly coated the gutter. It makes me think of a favourite Oscar Wilde quote: “We are all in the gutter but some of us are looking at the stars.” My brother had it on a fridge magnet which, after he died I placed on my fridge. His life wasn’t easy but he had a quirky way with him that endeared him to many. He owned nothing but papers of all sorts, the skin he inhabited, the magnet and 3 pieces of nice pine furniture bought from redundancy money. 

I walk on into the alley, past fading bluebells comfrey, cow parsley and fallen branches, some pieces of which I take for my fire. I am happiest here, doing this. Then the long patch of wild garlic. I ask, in a manner of speaking, if it’s okay to take some, but it is so dense I know the 50gms or so I need to make my soup won’t be missed.

As I walk, like a country person from long ago, one of my favourite folk songs, Linden Lea, pops into my head. Written in the mid eighteen hundreds, the poet expresses his sheer delight in the countryside and ardently states that other men may make money faster in dark-roomed towns, but he is free to walk about in his domain, rich with the fruits of Nature.

I know how he feels. The soup was a great success!

 

Day 3 April 6

Day 3 April 6

Posted on by jemadmin

As I walked back a different route today I came across this book lying on a low brick wall outside someone’s house. How perfect is that? There were other books together further along the wall, obviously to take. But this one was, well, in social isolation! I have brought it back with me considering it a gift of the day!

 

Day 1 April 4

Day 1 April 4

Posted on by jemadmin

I shall be posting photos celebrating my daily walk – generally along the seafront and around my gorgeous mini Regents Park. I live a stone’s throw away from the park, which is a part of the vision of builder/architect father and son duo, James and Decimus Burton, who, from 1828 began designing and building St. Leonards-on-Sea as a place where the genteel could come and stay! I am truly blest in this period to have the double joys of greenery, old trees (my friends!) well-tended gardens, birds and then, just a step across the road, the timelessness of the mood-swinging sea.