Sometimes our world shrinks. We are all now limited in where we can go and who we can see and are having to learn to be very patient. On New Year's Day 2021 my world shrank in a very frightening way when I lost the sight in my right eye and had to go to York Hospital. How glad I was that someone would see me even though it was a holiday. The following day I was back at York Hospital for an operation to mend a detached retina. I am now recovering and being very patient. I still have a good left eye, so I am quite literally playing "Eye spy with my little eye". I can do very little, certainly not yet engage in research. But within the limitations of my suddenly diminished world I can play I Spy with my left Eye. This month's blog is written in very short bursts with me lying down in between. V is for Visitors. I put out food for them each day and they flit from the hedge to the bird feeder to entertain me. These are my favourites, Long-tailed tits. They are tiny little balls of fluff with a tail longer than their bodies and flit about in flocks of ten or a dozen. What fun to see eight, nine or ten of them doing acrobatics on a coconut shell. But I also get these visitors who also come for food, not so welcome, but I cannot begrudge them the left overs in this harsh weather. Just once I spied this one, a goldfinch, what a lovely treat. Have you guessed the ones above ? Coal tit, Blue tit, Great tit, Robin, Blackbird, Tree sparrow, Hedge sparrow, Long tailed tit, woodpigeon, Magpie and Grey Squirrel. Some things have to be seen to be believed - if I had not seen this with my one good eye, well, I would not have believed it !
C is for Companion We share many interests. We both like watching the birds out of the window. Puss also likes to sit on whatever newspaper I am wanting to read, and if I should get out of my favourite chair he is very quick to curl up in it the minute I turn my back. We also have nice chats. C is also for Children. I have not seen any of my grandchildren since before Christmas, we all had Christmas Day in our own homes and did not mix and I have not seen them since. I miss them very much, but have watched lots of other children from my window. As the first week of January was all black ice followed by snow, and the second week of January was more snow and more ice children have been out enjoying themselves. Pieter Brueghel the Elder's painting called Children's Games at the Kunsthistoriches Museum in Vienna, painted 1560, and many of the games are indentifiable, though fast going out of fashion now. Another by Pieter Brueghel the Elder, this one is Winter landscape with skaters and a bird trap, 1565, in the Royal Museum of Art of Belgium in Brussels. There is a gentle hill between our garden and the wood, with a broad path which has enough gradient and length to get a little bit of speed up on a sledge. Children have provided hours of entertainment running up the hill and sliding down. One day there were two tiny tots, under five, who appeared to be dressed in plastic carrier bags. They set off to run then would sit down hard on their bottoms and slide down the hill with squeals of enjoyment, then get up to run up the hill and do it again, and again, and again. And for Home and for Help. Husband has come up trumps and fortunately, or unfortunately, all golf clubs closed at the time I became ill, so he is at Home and does Help, and has taken on most tasks quite cheerily. F is for Friends, and although I have not seen any in person, it is good to know they are out there. On the left Rowland Hill [1795 - 1879] who thought up the idea of pre-paid postage stamps, and on the right Alexander Graham Bell [1847 - 1922] who thought up the telephone , but never had one himself. A clever man, but he was also involved with eugenics, which rather casts a shadow on his reputation. However, I have reverted to writing (and receiving) letters and spending some time on the telephone. Which has made me realise how much time I spent at the computer formerly .... and how grateful we should be for the two gentlemen above, even if we now have mostly forgotten them. And F is for Food, which when you are sitting most of the time can be Friend or FOE. Food punctuates the day, and you anticipate the next meal, but if Husband is doing all the cooking it can be laden with calories. He thinks most things have to be cooked with butter ! Above is Husband's FIRST attempt at making Yorkshire Puddings ! I am now redundant. Depending on your age the next begins with either W or R for Wireless or Radio. I was brought up listening to t'wireless, and have several radios all over the house so where ever I am I can listen, be transported to some distant place, educated and entertained at all hours of the day and night. Gugliemo Marconi [ 1874 - 1937] transmitted signals across the Atlantic in 1901 and won a Nobel prize for physics in 1909. How much we owe to Marconi. B is for Blankets. When you are sitting still most of the time it is comforting to have a blanket over your knees, it is amazing how much warmer you feel. I have always subscribed to the motto I once saw in a wool shop in Northallerton - "Save heating - knit a sweater". I love knitting blankets and always have some in stock to give to new-borns, or keep for myself. We are all living within restrictions imposed upon us and have to find something to cheer us in our own little world. I do hope that as the year unfolds our horizons will become wider and we will be able to take up former activities and social occasions to fill our 2021 diaries (other than appointments at York Hospital !).
Meanwhile I will end with a poem by Christina Georgina Rossetti Lord, purge our eyes to see Within the seed a tree, Within the glowing egg a bird, Within the shroud a butterfly ' Till taught by such, we see Beyond all creatures Thee And my next milestone will be when I can thread a needle ....... I hope normal service will soon be resumed and I can do some research.
0 Comments
|
AuthorThis is where you can share creativity with me. I believe that everyone has something creative within them, and it is a joy to find ways of being creative. Blogging is NEW to me, so here goes ..... Archives
January 2024
Categories |