Cornflower

On the threshold of the year

  "There is a traditional saying of ancient wisdom: 'A threshold is a sacred thing.' In some places of the world, in some traditional cultures and in monastic life, this is still remembered. It is something, however, that we often forget today. To take time to pause at a threshold - be it a place, or a moment between one action and the next - is to show reverence for the handling of space and time, and respect for those we meet. Pausing allows us to let go of all the demands and expectations of the previous activity, and to prepare for the encounter with another."

    Those words of Esther de Waal's, from her book Living on the Border: Reflections on the Experience of Threshold, have particular resonance as we step into a new year. They come with my thanks to you for your presence here (and here), and my hope that - as Esther de Waal goes on to say -  we are all "firmly earthed and grounded ... ready to move forward into the unknown, open to new questions, new explorations".

    Wishing you well.

Huzzah! Hussar!

    Back in 2014 we went to RMA Sandhurst for my son's Commissioning Parade, marking the beginning of his service as a cavalry officer in the Army Reserve.

    The experience Will gained with his regiment thereafter - very diverse, very worthwhile - helped him decide on a career in the Regular Army, and on Friday we returned to Sandhurst to see him take part in The Sovereign's Parade, the culmination of a year's demanding training but one which has seen him thrive.

    So Junior Under Officer Howlett, inspected by Prince William, becomes a second lieutenant in the King's Royal Hussars and for him, as well as for his proud parents, the next chapter begins.

The generation game

      "  'Keep a notebook. Travel with it, eat with it, sleep with it. Slap into it every stray thought that flutters up into your brain. Cheap paper is less perishable than gray matter. And lead pencil markings endure longer than memory.' — Jack London

    [...] But just having a notebook isn't enough. If we want to have anything useful to jot down, we must regularly place ourselves in situations that are historically known to generate inspiration and creativity, such as long walks, baths, naps, conversations with strangers, tea time, and of course meditation.
    Each can deliver a treasure trove of ideas and new ways of seeing things or simply help us get unstuck."

    That's from Light Watkins, someone else* I discovered through Dr. Chatterjee's podcast, and of course it's relevant to this post.

 

*Dr. Rupy's recipes are still going strong!

The small things

   

    "[Lucilla] tried very hard to teach her grandchildren how to extract the last drop of beauty out of all the small things of life, words and scents and sounds. Many little joys, weighed against the few heavy griefs of existence, could give some sort of balance to the scales and preserve the sanity of life."

    There is more on Lucilla here.

Here and there

    The Mason-Dixon ladies have an excellent video today.

                                                ~~~~~

    If you don't already know Mary's site, do visit it.

    The book she mentions in this post is reviewed over here.

                                               ~~~~~

    As always, Freda has good advice.

Fantastic beasts and where to find them

    I recommend a visit to the Royal Highland Show, Scotland's foremost agricultural show, which is on until Sunday, but I'd strongly suggest you plan ahead, decide what you particularly want to see, and pick up a map of the showground (follow that link and scroll down) in order to make the best of it.

    Our visit yesterday was rather last-minute but we still managed to watch some of the equestrian classes in the main ring, tour the sheds which house the heavy horses, cattle and sheep*, buy some Buchan and very good honey, just miss - because we took the wrong path - the obedience display given by relatives of our dog Mollie, and walk many miles taking in all the sights, sounds and scents of the show.

    As far as getting there is concerned, the tram is quick but the stop is a good 15-20 minute walk from the showground, the bus drops you much closer but will likely take a while because the traffic is always heavy, and if the experience of friends we bumped into is anything to go by, taking the car means you'll have to park "virtually in Glasgow". However you do it it's worth the effort.

   

* If you're at all interested in sheep farming, don't miss James Rebanks' The Shepherd's Life.

Quote of the day (1)

   

    "You cannot train all day; the body wouldn't be able to cope. That isn't just true of running but in all sports ... What better way for a young person to switch off from the demands of sport than by reading, learning and expanding the mind."

    Sir Roger Bannister.

Advice for emerging artists

    Wise words here from John Rutter, applicable - at least in part - to artists in many disciplines.

While winter holds the earth

   There's a good line or two in an essay by Rob Cowen in the Spring anthology I've been reading. "Everything is brimming with possibility," he says. "Everything is pointing forward to what is to come. And isn't that the way with spring? It feels sweeter even than the highest summer day because it arrives while winter still holds the earth. Like the birdsong washing over Britain in the pre-dawn, spring emerges from the dark."

    He's right, of course, and the 'dark' has just descended again with the arrival of heavy snow over much of Britain, principally at the moment the central belt of Scotland where everything is closing early and flights and trains have been cancelled. If the video is anything to go by, they seemed to cope better in the olden days ...

Rugby post

    We won (and by a greater margin than last time)!

Quickening

   

    "It is a moment of quickening, of rebirth. The old, lovely story: life surging back, despite everything, once again. However spring finds you - birdsong, blossom or spawn - it is a signal: the earth turning its ancient face back to the sun."

    Melissa Harrison, Spring: An Anthology for the Changing Seasons.

Learn something

    " 'The best thing for being sad,' replied Merlyn, 'is to learn something. That is the only thing that never fails. You may grow old and trembling in your anatomies, you may lie awake at night listening to the disorder of your veins, you may miss your only love, you may see the world about you devastated by evil lunatics, or know your honour trampled in the sewers of baser minds. There is only one thing for it then - to learn. Learn why the world works and what wags it. That is the only thing which the mind can never exhaust, never alienate, never be tortured by, never fear or distrust, and never dream of regretting.'

    This is the trick [...] There are too many self-help guides that say: get fit, lose weight, make friends, find a hobby, revamp your wardrobe. Clear the clutter to clear your mind. Eat right - and right is always avocado, chia and other whatnot - to 'improve your mood'.

    Better that they should say: feed your mind. Learn something, read something, see something new: a painting, a church, a bird, a rose garden, a park, a monument, a castle moat white with swans and hidden perch, a mews of hooded merlins, an elephant with ivory tusks and a palanquin throne on his back. Fill your thoughts with the world and what wags it. Plant roses so that thistles may not grow. Be as curious as you were as a child, as curious as the Wart, helping himself to Merlyn's breakfast and gasping: 'Oh, I love the mustard-pot! Wherever did you get it?' "

    Laura Freeman quoting T.H. White's The Once and Future King in The Reading Cure: How Books Restored My Appetite.

Networking

    A flying visit to London to see Network at the National Theatre - not, perhaps, typical Cornflower fare*, but an exciting production and a first class performance from Bryan Cranston as deranged news anchor Howard Beale.

    Tickets are now very scarce, but go if you get the chance.

*Not least because there is a certain degree of 'audience participation' involved.

Owlish

    " ... he is subtext, something present but unseen."

    So says John Lewis-Stempel of the owl, subject of this charming little book of owlish facts, history, and observations.

    Did you know that there have been owls in Britain for a million years? That Florence Nightingale had a pet owl, Athena, now embalmed and in residence in her museum (where you can buy a finger puppet)? That the presence of owls is "a benediction on the land" for what it says about the health of the ecosystem? That the collective noun for owls - other than 'parliament' - is a 'stare'? There's more to the "sage in feathers" than meets the eye.

    The suitably strigine wool, by the way, is 'Owl' by Uschitita, found at Be Inspired Fibres.

New Year wishes

    A look back at my year via the so-called 'best nine' Instagram pictures, and gardens seem to be a theme!

    From the top, left to right:

    my garden in May; Le Manoir aux Quat' Saisons at dusk; Oxford Botanic Garden;

    Kellie Castle, Fife; reading in the greenhouse on a rainy day; socks and Shakespeare;

    Spring colours - book and wool; St. Mary's Pleasance, Haddington; Oxford again.

    My thanks to you for visiting here (and here), and for your kind, informed, helpful comments - it's a pleasure to have you stop by.

    All the best to you in 2018!