Burning Candles

Dear Diary,


You must understand the whole of life, not just one little part of it. That is why you must read, that is why you must look at the skies, that is why you must sing and dance, and write poems, and suffer, and understand, for all that is life.


Jiddu Khrishnamurti



Sunday. A Sun Day, indeed it is.

A Lie-In!

I have opened the bedroom window wide. Pure Welsh air, warmth and sunshine stream in. Can this be true, or am I still dreaming?

I stayed up far too late last night as usual, this time I was catching up on reading others’ blogs. Now I feel tired, will I ever learn? I really must stop trying to burn the candle at both ends but the trouble is I have always been a night owl. Why are people owls or larks? Is it a genetic thing? Or something to do with our time of birth? Sleep is so necessary for a healthy immune system, it is number one on the list (see Matthew Manning book below).

As I enjoy my morning cuppa I dip into various books that are piled up beside my bed. Our book group has evenings where we discuss ‘Books on my Bedside Table’, they are always popular and I usually take in a huge pile to pass round. At the moment I have at hand the following:

1001 ways to Save the Planet by Esme Floyd. This is a really good-easy-to-read book, crammed full of green ideas that everyone can and should think about taking up.

Writing in the Age of Silence by Sara Paretsky, the crime writer. This is a non-fiction book about her life and how she got into writing. Very interesting so far.

Your Mind Can Heal Your Body by Matthew Manning. Matthew is one of my favourite healers so I had to borrow this new one by him.

Stonelight by Sheena Pugh. This is an oldish volume of poetry by a great poet who was born in Birmingham but has made her home in Wales.

I am still waiting for ‘We were the Mulvaneys’ by Joyce Carol Oates. I thought the library service had a copy but I can’t find it on the catalogue. I have suggested they buy a copy but I have ordered one from Amazon as it is the Purple Coo book group’s current choice. I am in need of a good novel, something I can get lost in.

I am tempted by another idea I got from Matthew Manning’s book which is to paint the walls in my little parlour in a honeygoldy colour. The room is currently all-white because I wanted to make it appear more spacious. Our little snug is already a honeygold colour and it always feels sunny in there, whatever the weather. Warm and happy somehow. I am so fed up with the lack of sunshine this year that I think I will just have to bring it indoors in my own way. Matthew apparently has gold stars as well on the walls in his house in Suffolk! I may leave those out although I do have lots of dangly things hanging from the beams, mostly angels and fairy lights, but I do have a gold star and a gold moon amongst them.

I’m very interested in colour therapy and I am a great believer in its powers.

Last night, or rather in the early hours when I was on the computer the dogs became very excited, whelping and whining excited, not their ‘there’s a stranger about barking/growling excited‘. But I bravely went down and double checked that there was no burglar about! I guessed it was the otters in the river, they always bring this reaction out in the dogs. So I did NOT let them out to frighten them away. I dared not open the back door as it may have scared them off.

It’s a pity there was no moonlight to see the otters by (see one of my earliest blogs for my true story of otters in the moonlight). I really must get the hang of this linking business, so much to learn with computers isn’t there? One never stops learning, it’s a bit like life really.

Before I go my daughter has been updating me on the TB in cattle story. She and her husband farm both sheep and cattle so she is writing from experience. I thought it was all black and white but apparently, like most present day media/political scenarios, what we are fed is a murky shade of grey.

The easiest thing is to copy her comment on my blog.

‘The human strain of TB is a different one from that which affects cattle.

Our vet said that she had never actually seen an animal showing signs of TB, nor have any of the farmers I know. Animals are routinely tested now every time they move or go to market not just the two yearly tests which were the norm before. By 'before', I think I mean before the government became anti-farming and anti- sustainability.

Our present government is happy to rely upon cheap imports, taking advantage of the strong pound. Meanwhile many farmers believe in a compelling conspiracy theory which suggests that cattle are being culled simply to cut numbers or daunt British producers.

TB cannot even be passed to humans in the meat and more often than not is dormant in the beasts, often previously undetected perhaps but also unnoticed.

All the vets I have spoken to admit that the whole issue of TB testing is extremely dubious, way too stringent (costing farmers money every time they move cattle) and absolutely pointless to boot. These vets are working for the 'Ministry of Ag' and are on a whacking great wage.

I'm with the monks, not because they should have special treatment but because we should ALL stand up to this government and its sly propagandist tactics’


And now to completely change the subject from the controversial to the romantic, let’s get back into the past and to a poem - the old and well known classic Irish poem, that is a big favourite of mine.




When You Are Old



When you are old and grey and full of sleep,
And nodding by the fire, take down this book,
And slowly read, and dream of the soft look
Your eyes had once, and of their shadows deep;

How many loved your moments of glad grace,
And loved your beauty with love false or true,
But one man loved the pilgrim soul in you,
And loved the sorrows of your changing face;

And bending down beside the glowing bars,
Murmur, a little sadly, how Love fled
And paced upon the mountains overhead
And hid his face amid a crowd of stars.




William Butler Yeats (1865-1939)

I will sign off now, I have a date with the Archers - a lot more farming issues to catch up with on there - and then Desert Island Discs. Chores, indoors and out, a roast dinner maybe and then later we are meeting up with D and family who are arriving from Norfolk.

So much to do and so little time…

Wish I’d gone to bed earlier,

Bye for now,
Caitx