This morning the sun is warming the rained-on ground and the green scent of plants is rising in the air.
Alt text says this week’s photo is a person flying a horse on a beach and this description absolutely delights me. It gives me the perfect title for my blog in a week when things that have happened don’t really make great titles. It was one of those weeks which I thought would be summed up well by a photo of Ronnie not quite in shot as he jumps for joy (it was very windy and he kept blowing off course). I have other photos of him completely in the frame where the sky appears beautifully blue, but this one represents for me that wonderful human balance of finding joy when life sprinkles in a few obstacles.
The photo was taken on my birthday during a visit to Rhos-on-Sea for some ice-cream. Being at the coast and eating ice-cream are on my list of fun things I like to do, and birthdays are definitely the kind of days for choosing which fun things you want to do. I was feeling a little under the weather so we planned a simple short stroll after taking a Ronnie photo and before ice-cream perusal. Half our stroll had us remarking on the joy of the feel of sun on skin and half had us laughing as the rain soaked us through. Luckily the ice-cream parlour has comfortable seats and friendly staff so we had plenty of time to enjoy a treat and dry off. Later in the evening we enjoyed a delicious meal out at a local pub and managed to save room for birthday cake as pudding when we got home.
The bits of the week that wouldn’t make such great titles for this week’s blog originate from a couple of medical appointments I have had, including one on my birthday which wasn’t on my list of fun things to do on my special day. And the joy in all of that has been the expertise and kindness of the staff. I was heard to describe a procedure as refreshing when it involved the introduction of saline. There was much laughter when I was told that no one had ever described it in that way before.
So that’s me learning not to be the person who puts up with symptoms that I don’t need to and channelling my dad who always said if there’s a strange noise coming from the car’s engine it isn’t going to fix itself. So here’s me being a grown-up and getting my engine fixed.
And here’s a poem from Magnifying Glass which captures a moment from childhood when I was stung for the first time…
STUNG
If it was a wasp
it stung once and fled,
if it was a bee
I didn’t see it die
I stood naked
gazing at a splinter;
a black spine centred in a pink circle.
I pushed my stomach out to watch what next,
alone and naked in a field I saw it
redden concentrically as I stared.
I held out my arms to the summer air
let my lungs expel their cry.
Sue Finch 