Spring 2016

Spring blog 2016

Welcome to our Good Friday blog, a time when our thoughts always turn to George in remembrance. Easter is this year very much heralding spring – the word perhaps comes from the German "Eastre", the name of a goddess who is closely associated with spring. I am reminded of this connection in the following poem by Housman:  

A. E. Housman (1859–1936).  A Shropshire Lad.  1896.

Loveliest of trees, the cherry now

LOVELIEST of trees, the cherry now Is hung with bloom along the bough, And stands about the woodland ride Wearing white for Eastertide. Now, of my threescore years and ten, Twenty will not come again, And take from seventy springs a score, It only leaves me fifty more. And since to look at things in bloom Fifty springs are little room, About the woodlands I will go To see the cherry hung with snow.

Perhaps, as well, this poem seems all the more appropriate because of my own ‘threescore years and ten’, none of which can now come again; and maybe because George’s life had “all too short a lease” – to look at things in bloom, George’s twenty seven springs were indeed little room. The only blossom in the woodland at the moment is on the wild cherry and, with the unseasonably warm weather of winter, even this is now fast fading, though careful observation of the photo below reveals the fresh new shoots of green pushing through to replace it, once again awakening our woodland (it belongs to all of us) into life. 

 

    Back in November my sister Rosemary helped us to clear a large area of woodland by the bridge of dead wood, nettles and debris which revealed this spring a mass of snowdrops which were lurking beneath the surface.

Our other news, exciting news, from Georges Wood is the arrival of a new resident –a barn owl – sorry as yet I only have one photo at some distance of this shy creature. But he/she has been visiting our Owl Box specially made for ‘spring’ purposes and hopefully a family of owls may emerge one day. We hope it can find a mate and be persuaded to stay. We hear it calling (or rather screeching!) at night to attempt to attract a partner.

        

And now ‘about the woodland I will go to see the cherry hung with snow’.

Love and best wishes to you all and I hope you enjoy sharing in this ‘remembrance’ of George. I know I have quoted from Shakespeare’s sonnet before but just a reminder that the wood is a living memorial and hopefully “as long as men do breathe and eyes can see, so long lives this (wood) and this gives life to thee” –our George