Saturday Pick and Mix . . .

 

The weather can be so changeable this time of year when the garden is in transition. One minute the sun is brilliantly shining and the next the sky is pelting down rain.  Yesterday we had a sunshower with brilliant sunshine and at the same time rain so heavy you would have called it "Raining cats and Dogs!" 

I have a brilliant memory of a sunshower back when I was a child and living in Gimli, Manitoba. I would not have been much older than 6 or 7 because I remember exactly where I lived when this memory happened. I remember standing beneath the overhang of our garage and the sun was shining brilliantly where not a foot from the front of my face the rain was falling in sheets onto the ground from the garage roof. I remember holding my hand out and letting it fall through my fingers like molten silver, some of it puddling in my palm like a small pond . . .  the smell of ozone and wet pavement filling my nostrils, a heady scent for one who has always felt at one with the earth.  

 

I love the light on these early autumn mornings when it is beginning as a sunny day.  I see things that I can never transform into photos the same as what I see them.  Yesterday this cloud above the rooftops to the back of us mesmerized me  . . . I thought it quite beautiful, the colours, the layers  . . .  

 

The only way to show you truly is to focus in and even then it's not showcasing its true beauty.  I love how the bottom of the predominant cloud was almost purple, and the top gilded with platinum  . . . with rosy silky cloud in behind  . . . the sky was almost shimmering  . . . 

 

Even in the city, there is so much beauty to be found early in the morning when the sun is just dawning  . . .  gilding the brickwork of the houses to russet amidst the shadows that still remain from the night  . . .  and then that sky. It is the icing on the cake, but there was so much more  . . . 

 

The  moon was still hanging in the sky, its brilliance being enhanced by the sun which was coming up at the opposite end of the sky. This was the third quarter  . . .  I had to zoom in . . . I knew it was a once in a lifetime opportunity for me to see it really up close and I did  . . .  and as I gazed at it I thought about how 50 years ago, a seeming lifetime (how did I get that old!) men had actually walked on its surface . . . a miraclulous feat for mankind at that time.  How did their wives, families . . .  girlfriends feel to look up at the moon and think that their loved ones were there.  So close and yet so far . . . 

I remember watching it on our television as if it were yesterday.  Black and white and grainy.  I remember looking at the moon up in the sky that night and thinking about man actually walking on its surface . . . 

 

This was a Mary Tyler Moore world . . .  Mary and Rhoda, both gone now . . .  

   

Marsha, Marsha, Marsha  . . .  who didn't want to be Marsha Brady . . .  

  

 

There were some crows sitting on a the rooftop of a house not too far from us.  I zoomed in on them.  Did you know a group of crows was called a "Murder" of crows?    I don't think this was enough to fit that classification . . .  that one on the right is sneaking into the party  . . . 

  

Destined to become a party of one  . . . see the raindrops on the wires.  The rest flew away, leaving him feeling quite abandaoned and at a bit of a loose end  . . .  but not as bad as . . .  

   

him across the way.  Mr Wood Pigeon. He had not even been invited to the party . . .  oh well, who wanted to go to that stupid party anyways  . . .   

 

Did you know that over here in the UK we have an "Apple Day?"  Neither did I until I consulted my Farmer's Almanac.  This year it falls on the 21st of October.  The day was started by the charity Common Ground back in 1990. (29 years ago now, how time flies!) It was created to celebrate the rich variety of apples that are produced in the British Isles.  I wish we got more of them in our shops.  They seem to export most of them, whereas we get apples from France.  Talk about carbon footprints. 

  

This is Bardsey Island which is just off the Llŷn Peninsula, Gwynedd, North Wales. Not too far from us I guess, only a few hours.  It is home to a wonderful array of wildlife, including seals, puffins and 310 species of birds. But it is also a real world candidat for being the legendary Isle of Apples of Arthurian Legend, widely known as the Isle of Avalon.  It has been said that here the wizard merlin lived in a magical glass castle, and Morgan Le Fay, (the healer and enchantress, as well as being King Arthur's half sister) studied under him.  Apples quite often play a magican role in folk tales and myths, with the trees being gateways to fairy lands or the underworld, the apples themselves seen to be enchanted or poisoned. 

 

(source)  

Avalon was said to be one such gateway, with the trees on its slopes producing fruit all year round.  Morgan brought Arthur to Avalon when he was mortally wounded, and he was either laid to rest, or in keeping with the apple island's magical powers, he still awaits the moment for his messianic return to claim the throne.  

 

In 1998 ornithologist, Andy Clarke, was on Bardsey Island  to catch and ring birds. Needing bait for his net,  he collected some windfall apples under a gnarled tree at the lee of an old house. He noted that unsually for North Wales, the aples were disease-free, so he sent samples to the National Fruit Collection at Brogdale in Kent. The National Fruit Collection pronounced them to be unique. No one had seen this apple before. Cuttings were taken and now you can buy the trees in small quantities.  The apple is rosy in colour and is said to have a lemony sweet flavour. Locals say the tree has always been there and that the apples are known as "Merlin's Apples."  It is thought that the myth of the glass castle has arisen from some kind of early greenhouse that allowed apples to thrive in Bardsey's harsh conditions. 

And now you know the whole story.  Must dash before my back starts giving me jip  . . . there was a point last night where I could only stand pain free for a few  minutes at a time, and sitting was excruciating completely.  Not. Getting. Better. 

A thought to carry with you  . . . 

° * 。 • ˚ ˚ ˛ ˚ ˛ •
•。★★ 。* 。
° 。 ° ˛˚˛ * _Π_____*。*˚
˚ ˛ •˛•˚ */______/~＼。˚ ˚ ˛
˚ ˛ •˛• ˚ ｜ 田田 ｜門 ★
 *If you see someone

without a smile.

give them one of yours.

~Dolly Parton•。★★ 。* 。 

 

In the kitchen today . . . Coffee Cake. This delicious teatime cake is composed of two moist coffee layers, filled with a lush walnut and coffee buttercream and decorated with dollops of butter cream adorned with toasted walnut halves.  Yummy!

Have a wonderful Saturday.  I need to sort my iPad out.  For some reason it won't let me stay on Instagram on it, which has never been a problem before. Maybe it is coming to the end of it's life.  I can look for only about 60 seconds and it shuts it down.  I have tried removing it and re-installing it, but it just keeps happening.  The mysteries of modern technology I guess.  Don't forget!

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And I do too!