Tag: mindfulness

A slice of toast with 007 (and why farmers always moan about the weather)

June 11, 2019

Bread is made with wheat flour. This variety is called SKYFALL 🖤

This morning I needed to pop and get some washing up liquid – thought I’d treat the kitchen to a few minutes of my time. Man of the Woods offered to drive me so we could ‘check the crops’ (hadn’t gone down overnight with the rather torrential rainfall).

Most of us know that bread is made from wheat but how often do we see the crop close-up during the growing season when the ‘ear’ is developing each individual seed which in late July/August will be harvested.

Some farmers grow wheat for feed whereas we grow wheat aimed for milling. It is more expensive to nurture a milling wheat crop, right from the day it’s drilled, because the criteria for bread-making flour is complicated.

Protein in the seed needs to be 13% minimum and moisture needs to be 15% maximum. Every batch of grain taken from the farm after harvest is tested and if the criteria are not reached, your 6-months of hard work becomes obsolete. The expensive seed you bought, drilled and nurtured – because you have the type of land which can support a milling crop (rain-willing) – will be sold instead to a feed merchant for a lot lot less per tonne than it would have been to a milling merchant.

Every time Man of the Woods goes out with his sprayer with fungicide, or fertiliser early on to increase the yield, he is attempting to insure the future of his crop (and yes, I did mean to type insure, not ensure, because these sprays and fertilisers cost thousands). He does this so it will make milling quality. So it will go for flour to make bread. So that we can buy bread and enjoy a slice with blackcurrant.

But in Jan and Feb you simply cannot predict what the Gulf Stream will be doing by May and June. Farming is a gamble. Did you know there are more suicides in farming than any other way of life?

There are some interesting facts here about mental health and farming.

He did make it down to Cornwall, for the final day .. and spent it at an agricultural show 😂😂😂

We mustn’t laugh. The Royal Cornwall show is the jewell in the crown of country shows and there was lots to see. I managed to delay our return to Suffolk and secure two further nights in the holiday apartment so he could enjoy his brief holiday 🤗

I’m not entirely sure where this post is going, I simply had the idea of sharing a rather cool close-up photo of water droplets on some wheat but my words have morphed into something with more meaning.

MoW helps me when I’m low and it is the role of the farmer’s wife to be there morally when they are low and spitting feathers because their multiple working hours have been in vain.

Today he is happy. Only a few patches along the edge of one field has suffered and the green crop is lying flat against the ground and unlikely to recover, lift and continue plumping each seed out to its full potential. The crop is at its heaviest now and therefore susceptible to being knocked over by heavy rain. Once it starts to ripen and go golden (basically dry out and die) it weighs less and can withstand a summer shower.

Can we just take a moment … all washing up done and Joseph still alive on the windowsill ⛩

When life is but a whisper away from death

December 29, 2018

It’s about a year ago that Man of the Woods and I became very lucky parents. Our daughter – then 19 – crashed her car and turned it over. We didn’t lose her. In fact she was the luckiest girl as she only lost a few of her long hairs when the shattered windscreen nipped the ends and pulled some from her scalp, presumably when the car landed. You can read about it here. At the time I asked her permission to put it on social media to illustrate the brilliance of seatbelts to other young drivers.

I’ve just driven home from a friend’s and although there was no frost, I thought about her and once again realised how lucky we were to have her here this Christmas and for me to be able to take this photo. Someone must have been looking after her.

I was inspired to write a quick poem before bed … goodnight folks

🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸

When life is but a breath away from being not so,

As delicate as a whisper beside your ear.

Take it not for granted, pause, watch and see,

Hear, feel and taste life while it is still here.

💫

Worry less about the things you cannot change,

Don’t yearn for the past because it is done.

Avoid waiting for a future full of uncertain promises.

Grab the lapels of today, breath in and feel it on your tongue.

Men and Loneliness

September 15, 2018

This is beautifully written, while having an undertone of sadness through the honesty.
Men have eternally fascinated me, on a much deeper level than being potentially entertaining in the bedroom, or having the criteria to be my husband (Man of the Woods is still working that one out 😂).
My fascination with the male mind is what I’ve spent a lifetime exploring and I have more male friends whom I can call genuine than female. (And I’m not referring to my female readers as they are all gorgeous and divine. I’m talking about flesh and blood ‘friends’ who turned out not to be.

I really enjoyed reading this post and am honoured that this reader follows my writing and enjoys some of it!
Keep writing 💫
Keep talking to us.
Big hugs.

Ineffable… (a post from the heart)

August 31, 2018

What an amazingly honest and heartfelt post.
Inspiring to hear of a writer questioning their
own ability, when those around them know
and feel the quality. Icarus in your mind did not
hang around long enough to lose you completely ..
not into the depths of the ocean.
Just perhaps wandering along the sands
of the shore for a few weeks.
Welcome back to blogosphere.
Keep entertaining us.
Viola
xx

The Renegade Press

Greek mythology tells story of Icarus, son of the great Athenian craftsman Daedalus, who built the Labyrinth for King Minos of Crete. The story goes that Daedalus, imprisoned in his own creation by the King, fashioned two sets of wings from feathers and wax so that he and his son could escape. Before taking to the skies, Daedalus warned his son not fly too close to the sea, where dampness would clog his wings, nor too close to the sun, but to follow his path of flight.

But Icarus, overcome with the thrill of flying, ignored his father’s warning, soaring ever higher until the sun melted his wings, and he was left flapping his bare arms. Falling to the sea beneath him, Icarus drowned.

The story of Icarus is one of over-ambition. The Athenian’s failure to recognize the separation between his desire to soar closer to the sun, and his…

View original post 1,327 more words

Slow down, listen and be mindful of your surroundings. They are free entertainment 🌸

May 7, 2018

Heat from the sun on my thighs,

Tingling skin not yet been exposed.

Move limbs into the shade before the burn,

So tired, can’t move at all, ten more minutes.

🌞

Skylarks chirruping so high I cannot see them,

The leaves move in whispers in the poplar.

A hum close to me, closer still. A flaunting bee.

The squawk of a distant pheasant,

🐝

The blue skies are vast when unpunctured by cloud,

A glass of water warming steadily,

If I roll over I can read. But sometimes doing nothing,

Just being, just listening, is so cathartic and beautiful.

🌸

<a href=”https://dailypost.wordpress.com/prompts/flaunt/”>Flaunt</a&gt;

Sarah Knight told me “YOU DO YOU” … so I’m just doing 20 mins of me 💪🏼

April 23, 2018

 Vague

I’m meant to be working.

I am working; been on the road for over an hour. All workers need a break, even the Bosses 👌🏼

This is the third Sarah Knight book – and is as eye-opening as her first two reads.

I discovered them at a time in my life where I was ready for a little push in the right direction, not because I was googling self-help books but because my daughter informed me I needed to ‘get my shit together’ when I’d lost the house keys for the third day running, and she could recommend a book of the same name because she was reading it herself.

‘Get Your Shit Together’

‘The Life-Changing Magic Of Not giving a F**k’

Overall Sarah leaves you with the knowledge that it’s seriously ok (and actually essential) to look after yourself first and foremost, yet explains how to do so without turning into a selfish bitch.   Sarah is not vague with her words .. she is in fact a right-between-the-eyes writer.  And I like that.

 

Thank goodness I brought this book on my deliveries today.  It is my new read for this week. Have you heard of it?

Kiltie Jackson…… A Rock ‘n Roll Lovestyle

Blurb:

So who exactly is Sukie McClaren? A Cat lover? A Sound of Music Fanatic? A Fiercely Independent Woman? She’s all of the above. And when she is sent to Salzburg for a business trip in early December, she believes all her dreams have come true. Packing her suitcase, the only thing on her mind is finding the Sound of Music locations around the city and finally seeing the Doh-Ray-Me steps. Becoming the new best friend of the world’s hottest rock-star doesn’t even get a look in. Pete Wallace is a reclusive, rock-star and the world’s Number One, male solo artist. It’s been three years since his last tour and he’s preparing to go back on the road again. A week in Salzburg, schmoozing with the music press, is one of his worst nightmares. He can’t wait for it to be over. When Pete and Sukie meet, it is the beginning of a beautiful friendship. Lonely for too long, he begins to remember how it feels to be happy and have people in his life who care for him. However… Eduardo di Santo’s wants Pete dead! His kid sister was badly injured at a Pete Wallace concert three years before and Eduardo is intent on getting revenge. The desire now consumes his every waking moment. When Pete’s new tour is announced, he begins to make his plans. Plans that will culminate in Pete’s demise! Is Pete and Sukie’s new friendship destined to die before it has a chance to flourish? A love story that begins in Austria.

The flame is dying

April 15, 2018

<a href=”https://dailypost.wordpress.com/photo-challenges/awakening/”>Awakening</a&gt;

My 21 year old eyelids flutter open as skylarks chirrup in a far away place. Other sounds filter through the open window. A steady noise up higher in the sky, an easyJet passenger plane returning from Europe on the flight path faintly rumbles across the sky.

More gentle than a breeze, cool air moves across my naked shoulder like the lightest weight silk being drawn across it.

A closer bird, in the blossoming cherry tree in the garden below, sings a dawn chorus of clackety clacks.

Pheasants also stirring make that sudden ruffling to announce their presence, then a squawk in nearby fir woods.

I think about the night before; the lantern of conversation between us flickering softly, at first.

Always there for you I’ve wanted to help in all your troubles. I think I finally see that my help, words, touch, understanding is not enough. You repeat your issues time and time again.

My words now sound repetitive and I realise they did not become absorbed but were allowed to bounce off and around you, left on the ground to die away.

I’ve grown up now and I see I cannot change you to help you. Only you can do that.