Because sometimes nature reminds us things are not as bleak as they seem.
It’s their season.
Hopeful Bluebells
Thank You For The Vaccine
Guess what happened, my friends, I’ve just had the first dose of covid vaccine!
I didn’t even expect it, in fact when I tried to book through NHS website last weekend, it didn’t let me continue, even though I’m of eligible age. Then, only a few days later, I received a letter from NHS informing me I can now book, so I did–and now I’ve had the first jab.
In the waiting room.
I’m so lucky to live only a walking distance from the vaccination centre.
Thank you to everyone who has worked on the vaccine, thank you NHS and everyone else involved with vaccinating us. The guy who gave me the vaccine was wearing a St John Ambulance shirt, so thank you to St John Ambulance and your amazing volunteers. You are the superheroes of the real world.
My second jab is due in July, incidentally on my godson’s birthday. Surely a good sign!
Church Tower Behind Trees
Sometimes I title a post literally what it is, because I can’t think of anything better.
It’s also my first picture taken in the month of May 2021.
May is a good month. Two bank holidays (if you’re in UK), it gets warmer, days are longer, lots of flowers… I like May. Let’s hope it’s a good one!
Colours of Spring
Spring is truly in and here I give you some photos I made in the last couple of weeks, of different colours–yellow, blue, pink, red and white. And green, obviously.
The top two pictures were taken with my Canon, the other three with smartphone.
Gnarled Trees
They really look like old men that have lived through a lot.
The last looks like a very old wizard, the long-grey-or-white-hair-and-beard type. I might call him Merlin. He’s probably their leader, that is, if trees have leaders at all.
An old wizard brings to mind Gandalf from Lord of the Rings and that series, of course, has tree-like beings, ents. Maybe that’s what they really are?
Pictures are from Heaton Park.
A Quiet Evening in April
I’m just sneaking in this one, as it came rather unexpectedly. This section of my park always looks the best around the time of the day before the sun starts setting. I love the long shadows.
It is also touched with sadness, as it was not half an hour after I heard the news of Helen McCrory’s death. Like last year with Chadwick Boseman, devastating doesn’t express the feelings enough. What can one say in this situation, other than, Rest in power, Helen.
It’s no wonder people want to believe in afterlife.
Journal with Rose
I uploaded this photo to my blog months ago–I think I intended for it to be included in a post (probably this one) but then changed my mind and decided to wait for a better occasion. Now is that occasion.
The rose looks a bit withered, I think I probably had had it for a while. It does spark one’s imagination, though. Maybe the lady who received the rose died of consumption and the man who loved her wants to keep the rose, together with her journal, in memory of her.
Ain’t that bleak? Bronte sisters would be proud!
Or imagine journaling with your friend, whose name is Rose.
Beware of the Headstone
If you have glanced at my blog before, you will know that I’m always into seeing any unusual sign. I spotted this one on my Easter Sunday walk in Prestwich (area of Manchester), at the St Mary’s church graveyard.
It’s not a joke! The graveyard is quite old and there are fallen headstones; you can see a leaning stone cross on the left there, with a background of daffodils. The more recent deceased have their resting places on the right side of that wall, on a little hill under the trees. This leads to Prestwich Clough, a little piece of land of woods, which I have enjoyed having a wander in on previous occasions.
The Love of a Cat
I’ve been tidying my blog lately; by which I mean sorting out my tags, mostly, and even deleting some older posts. One of the deleted posts was titled “Animal” and I wrote it in response to the WordPress Discover Challenge. (Remember that one? Yeah. They killed that one before they killed the Weekly Photo Challenge. What was good about the Discover Challenge was that you could respond in any way you wanted, using text, photo, video, music, anything. I made four posts for this challenge before it quietly disappeared, all of which I have now deleted.) It was a good post, though, so I decided to repost what I wrote, with better pictures. If you’ve visited my blog before, and even from the title of this entry, you can guess that the animal in question was a cat.
My cat is called Pepper and, as you can see, she is black. Black cats are not popular, they struggle most with being rehomed from shelters, whether it’s due to prejudice or the fact that people think they won’t look good on Instagram–both stupid reasons. And that’s why I like them. Someone has to stick up for the unloved, forgotten creatures.
I’ve learned a lot from Pepper. Without her I wouldn’t have known how magnificent cats are. And most of all, I would never have discovered that I was a cat person. I would have lived my life without this knowledge. She made me know myself better.
That’s her resting her head on the book I was reading. It’s The Hollow* by Agatha Christie (actually it’s a volume of four novels, also including Three Act Tragedy, Sad Cypress, and Evil Under The Sun), featured in my post about Yggdrasil tree.
People joke about cats wanting to take over the world, but I disagree. They already rule the world. They do what they want and we love them and feed them. Why would they bother? Also, they’re quite lazy. Ruling the world would be just too much work.
Here’s some good quotes about cats:
I would like to see anyone, prophet, king or God, convince a thousand cats to do the same thing at the same time.
Neil Gaiman
Women and cats will do as they please, and men and dogs should relax and get used to the idea.
Robert A Heinlein
If animals could speak, the dog would be a blundering outspoken fellow; but the cat would have the rare grace of never saying a word too much.
Mark Twain
Cats are far wiser than we; their language is silence.
Ki Longfellow
What greater gift than the love of a cat.
Charles Dickens
Dickens got it right. There’s nothing better than a love of a cat.
And finally, let me throw in some Star Trek.
And creative beings too, I’d argue.
*I feel I have to mention this, The Hollow contains some bad antisemitism, so just content warning about that. The book wasn’t fresh in my mind when I did the Yggdrasil post, and only on the recent re-read I noticed how bad it really was. Although *** spoilers, I guess *** the Jewish character is not the victim or the culprit. It’s just a minor character, Midge’s boss, but she’s badly stereotyped.
Blossoms
They’re only just coming out; this is from the same day as my two previous posts from Heaton Park. This is the second time in the last two months I’ve used pictures from the same trip for three different blog entries–maybe that’ll be blogging in 2021 for me. Which I’m not complaining about in the least.
No idea what tree it is, as usual, so if anyone out there knows, by all means enlighten me!
Hope everyone’s having a good Easter. This holiday doesn’t inspire me to do photoshoots like Christmas, or even Valentine’s Day, does, I’ve only ever done one, in 2019. I do like the four-day weekend and the chocolate eggs, but that’s it. Like, I’m happy for Jesus for having been resurrected and all that, but it just doesn’t mean much to me. I’m sure the son of God would not begrudge me the chocolate eggs, though.
