JUST BEFORE ELECTION BLOG #9
We all await news of the election with all fingers crossed.
Poor T; he was sick the whole of the 2 weeks of half term. Started with flu, turned into a chesty cough and he went back to school today, dosed up with antibiotics, but has hardly been outside during the whole 2 weeks off, as he felt weak and chilly.
He did have time to do a project for school about his family ancestry though: Alan cut a wooden shield shape for him, which he painted with fantastic designs representing different branches of his family (dragon for Wales, fleur-de-lis for France, bear for California, etc).
He has also designed a Christmas card with a drawing of the school (a Victorian Gothic mansion) in the snow, with all kinds of activities going on around it, including Santa on the roof.
In the mornings now, my breath comes in cloudy bursts as I walk the dogs - sometimes in bright golden sunshine against a crisp turquoise sky, sometimes in grey damp. The field nearby where the ponies graze is sometimes layered with a light silvery film of dew. When it gets colder, that will become early morning frost and will shimmer and sparkle if the sun is out, until it melts. I remember when I was little, my mother would put washing out on the clothes line, and, if she forgot to bring it in at night, the next morning all the clothes would be stiff and frozen!
Someone said it sounds like my life is a cross between Dickens and a Turner painting! I just tend to notice all the wonderful things, I think, because I have time to stop and smell the roses, and now intend to make sure I always can do that in future, whatever work brings. (Also, I trained as an artist and I notice things). I could dwell on the downsides (not that I see that many) but that's no fun. The economy is horrible everywhere. I feel the entrepreneurial spirit is alive and kicking over here. People are tightening their belts, but that's natural, and they are not all depressed about it.
I have found a wonderful yoga teacher here in the nearest village!!! He's Indonesian, about 62, I think, and exudes calm and support, He leads yoga retreats to places like the Greek Islands...I can dream. He is a great teacher and so knowledgeable about the internal structure of the body - muscles, organs, skeletal etc, and all the benefits of each pose. I am not practicing at home because we still have no space anywhere (I kid you not - it's still a mess with boxes everywhere - very slow process). But I walk for miles with the dogs every day and do yoga twice a week at Sam's classes.
