By: everylittlething Growing against the friendly grey stone wall of our garden is a perfect Mothers’ Day gift of 2013. Dog roses. They are new but already showing great promise. The rose, in all its forms, has always pleased me – except, perhaps, for the poor blue rose which no one has been able to…
Category: Natural Allies
Eggs
By: everylittlething As soon as the unsold Christmas items are off the supermarket shelves, the chocolate eggs appear for Easter. Theologically, I can see a link – but I suspect that God has very little to do with this commercial venture. I’m not pretending that I don’t get excited when I give and receive…
Birdsong
By: everylittlething I listen for the geese as they direct each other over our home, from one feeding ground to another. I have tingled when I heard the swifts scream all around me. Winter sounds, summer songs, spring music, autumn calls – they are everywhere. Some grey days, when the world won’t come alive, are…
Sea
By: everylittlething Babar and Celeste, in a hot air balloon, survey the tiny houses, the field patterns and all of the pieces which make up the everyday patchwork of our lives, “And there was the sea, the great blue sea,” writes Jean de Brunhoff. How powerfully can a string of simple words convey a deeply…
Frost
By: everylittlething Frost matches snow for its ability to purify countryside and town. Like most people, I love the snow – the first real snow of the season is a source of great excitement. Those people who tell you they hate it can just go and suck a snowball. It is a wondrous garment…
Holly
By: everylittlething How easy it is to forget the raw hands and wet socks of a snowball fight – to neglect to remind oneself that lying down with sunburnt shoulders is, to say the least, uncomfortable – and how the joy of collecting holly to decorate the house for Christmas is tempered by punctured palms,…
Viola
By: everylittlething Earlier this month I was delighted to discover that one of my young friends has chosen Violet as the second Christian / given name of her daughter. “Vaahlut” as it was spoken locally when I was growing up is such a pretty name when pronounced clearly – “Vi-o-let”. Even prettier is “Vi-(ee)-o-letta”, as…
Willow
By: everylittlething Growing up in the northern reaches of England’s fen lands, willow has featured in my life from the very beginning. Now, in the northern highlands of Scotland, I see it growing steadfast at the edges of the flow country. Some willows should be classed as shrubs rather than trees – like the…
Mustelids
By: everylittlething Imagine a park for mustelids. How much freedom, how many fences, might you allow these relentless killers? Would the weasel be able to live alongside the pine marten? The ferret and stoat could make good bedfellows – on the other hand – well – who can say? They are a villainous crew….
Quartz
By: everylittlething Silica has never been top of the list of most-often-written-about subjects for poets. One might argue that quartz, because of its crystalline property, should inspire heavenly thoughts – but it doesn’t seem to do that in great works of literature generally. Perhaps it is because, after feldspars, it is the most abundant…