Walking in the Beech Woods at this time of year is always an uplifting moment for me, and we are fortunate to have some beautiful trees sitting on the steep Cotswold escarpment where we live.
Sunday, 21 April 2019
Choose Optimism
........and you will feel much better. Do something that will personally lift your own spirits whatever that may be. Currently all of us are being bombarded on a daily basis with so much negativity and strife. I am feeling particularly shocked by the most recent news. I have just realised that one of the bombs that exploded in Sri Lanka happened in the Cinnamon Grand hotel, a place where we stayed for one night on our arrival in Sri Lanka 10 months ago. The man who exploded the bomb booked into the hotel on Easter Saturday, and then calmly walked into the breakfast room the following day with a bomb strapped inside a rucksack on his back. Just as many of the guests were enjoying their Sunday breakfast he exploded the bomb.
I took a walk around the garden, a good way to lift my spirits, and whilst I was there I noticed that the warm weather had finally opened up the tightly coiled copper spearlike buds of the Beech Trees.
The newly emerging leaves are a lovely chartreuse green with silky hairs running around their edge. They do, however, quickly loose these downy hairs, and become a darker shade of green as they mature. Now is the moment to enjoy them during their brief infancy, and catch them if you can on a day when the sun filters it way through their baby leaves.
Walking in the Beech Woods at this time of year is always an uplifting moment for me, and we are fortunate to have some beautiful trees sitting on the steep Cotswold escarpment where we live.
These giant trees soar forever straight and true and have done so for more than 200 years.
With a profusion of wild garlic and bluebells at their feet, walking in mother natures kingdom offers up a haven of peace and serenity in our tumultuous world.
Walking in the Beech Woods at this time of year is always an uplifting moment for me, and we are fortunate to have some beautiful trees sitting on the steep Cotswold escarpment where we live.
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Getting out in nature always lifts my spirits.
ReplyDelete💙
DeleteIt is disquieting to say the least that you stayed where that fanatic detonated his bomb. I am always happy that as a birder we almost never stay in "regular" hotels and other than for arrival and departure are not in major cities. In fact we are often in remote places. Thus we are unlikely to be where these terrible events take place. I think that your walk in the woods is exactly the kind of therapy you needed.
ReplyDeleteWe spent just our first night in the city and the rest of the time we were in the countryside. We had intended to travel to Myanmar but changed our minds when the Rohingya people were treated so appallingly. This event appears to have taken everyone completely by surprise.
DeleteI am happy that you decided to register a protest over the treatment of the Rohingya people by not visiting Myanmar, thereby stating that the world does not view such actions with equanimity, and you did not spend your money there. It is very disturbing indeed that all of this took place with Aung San Suu Kyi in charge, a person previously bordering on sainthood in the eyes of the world.
DeleteDear Rosemary,
ReplyDeleteThank you so much for your uplifting post, when world travel seems so precarious. My mind is being focused on Cornish cottages and Irish gardens. Always trying to remain positive.
I love your closeup photos. Of course. I love all of your photos and thank you for sharing the beauty which surrounds you in that lovely Cotswold countryside.
Dear Betty if this is your first trip to Ireland then do try to visit the Giant's Causeway - a favourite garden of mine in northern Ireland are those at Mount Stewart sited in a spectacular spot by an inland sea loch called Strangford Lough and has distant views of the Mountains of Moyne. In Southern Ireland The Ring of Kerry is a beautiful day out.
DeleteThanks for your suggestions. I did visit the Giant's Causeway on my first trip to Ireland many years ago. However, I have not been to Mount Stewart. It is on the itinerary and I'm looking forward to it very much. I saw the Mountains of Mourne from Carlingford, across the lough, so will see them from the other side this time. The coach tour visits many gardens both in the north as well as southern Ireland.
DeleteIt is very strange Betty but that area happened to be shown on the TV news today. Apparently they had a fire there over Easter that burnt more than a mile of yellow gorse before it was brought under control mainly due to everything being tinder dry.
DeleteOh, must look it up. It seems so unusual for Ireland to be dry. Hope it rains before I arrive, but not too much while I'm there!
DeletePolice are now treating the fire as suspicious and that it was deliberately started. We haven't had much rain this winter.
DeleteSuch loveliness and so English! Wild garlic and bluebells, ancient woods, and beech trees (how we loved the nuts), if only the entire world could be calm and safe like this.
ReplyDeleteWe so enjoyed Sri Lanka when there some years back - sailing into Colombo's harbor on the Queen Elizabeth at sunrise was stunning - it was her maiden call and local dancers and musicians met us at the dock, all very colorful. The sad happenings today are just heart breaking.
The lady that helped us on our trip was Sri Lankn and a catholic - they are a tiny minority in Sri Lanka and I know she attended the church in Colombo where the bomb killed so many people. I am now left wondering whether she is alright.
DeleteLovely photos - walking through beech woods at any time of year is good for the soul.
ReplyDeleteBeech woods are spectacular throughout the seasons - I love them.
DeleteAs a cricket fan I often read or hear interviews with cricketers from Sri Lanka and from what I can gather there's a constant threat of violence and conflict in some parts of the country. It's amazing that they can still somehow manage to sustain a tourism industry on the same island. It's ironic that there is often such human misery in lands that have the most wonderful natural environment.
ReplyDeleteThe civil war between the minority 'Tamil Tigers' as they were called and the majority Sinhalese lasted for 26 years, but for the last decade all has been seemingly peaceful. The latest atrocity appears to have been quite unexpected and was against the minority Catholic population of whom there are only 6%. However, as news is coming out the perpetrators appear to have been very organised and calculated in their approach.
DeleteWalking in natural surroundings is something I love too, particularly when life presents dilemmas or difficulties. The events in Sri Lanka are shocking indeed. Our local church is holding a prayer vigil today for the people involved. The copper colour of the beech trees is gorgeous, and I look forward to seeing it again in the Canadian Autumn. Bluebells make my heart sing and they are so pretty with the wild garlic. Lovely photos, as always.
ReplyDeleteDue to the weather being so warm the smell from the wild garlic was extraordinary - it was like walking into a busy restaurant kitchen. Do you have wild garlic growing with you. Here it can be used to make a lovely pesto and added to food generally.
DeleteDoes this mean that you are heading off to Canada sometime soon?
Hello Rosemary, I am still upset from reading about the Sri Lanka attacks. Sometimes it seems that there is no hope for civilization--for every advance, it seems that the lunatic fringe grows more dangerous. No wonder we have to escape to nature for respite. Lately I have been missing watching spring in a more temperate climate--not only the delicate flowers, but also the many shades of green as you mentioned when the trees leaf out. The presence of water in the spring is likewise remarkable--it has a vital force and excitement that will slow down during the more placid summer.
ReplyDelete--Jim
Hello Jim - I can fully understand how and why you must miss watching the arrival of spring. The huge technological advances made when placed in the wrong hands has become a threat to us all.
DeleteYou said it all.... Not much to add...
ReplyDelete💚
DeleteYes, we need nature to soothe our souls in this often tragic world.
ReplyDeleteMother nature is very calming.
DeleteSuch beauty all around us, I love my morning walks with the dogs. Lovely photos.
ReplyDeleteI am loving this spring everything is so fresh and beautiful - they had their annual daffodil day in Mells, Somerset today, and of course they are already dead and finished.
DeleteWalking in the woods is one of my favourite things to do when in need of something uplifting. No beeches, or many of the other British trees I'm familiar with from ancient woods. Canadian Evergreens forests, however, smell wonderful and provide aromatherapy. Choose optimism is good advice which I'll add to my stand fast toolkit. My own mantra, tweaked from a version I'm less comfortable with, is Loving well is the best defence.
ReplyDeleteThe aromatherapy in the evergreen woods sounds good - the profusion of wild garlic in our Beech Wood on such a warm day was perhaps not the most choice of smells, that is if you don't like the small of garlic.
DeleteWalking in the woods does have a soothing effect on our souls, and being bombarded with terrible news every day, it is essentiel to find a way to stay optimist.
ReplyDeleteThe world has changed so much from the one that I knew as a young girl.
DeleteThanks for the lovely flowers and a walk in the woods!
ReplyDeleteGlad you enjoyed them.
DeleteSpring is traditionally an optimistic time anyway with new young life everywhere. So the thing that has given me most optimism recently is the million plus schoolchildren worldwide refusing to go to school until politicians fix climate change and not just pay lip service to the problem. If enough of them band together, on their own- no adults allowed- in a non aggressive intelligent manner it may just shame governments to act but I'm not holding my breath on that happening. Nice collection. Garlic woodland path walks are amazing at this time of year.
ReplyDeleteI agree wholeheartedly with you Bob - I really admire that sweet little Swedish girl, Greta Thunberg, she has a gracious presence, and always replies to questions admirably.
DeleteMy husband worked for the UN and we both attended the Earth Summit in Brazil of heads of government from around the world. Highlighted were the enormous risks to our oceans from shipping pollution, garbage, and the negative environmental impacts of invasive aquatic organisms being transferred to different parts of the world on the underwater hulls of ships. All of the governments signed up to the UN Protocol called Agenda 21, but what has happened since - they simply payed lip-service to the Protocol, babies born during that summit are now 39 year old adults, and only now are things very slowly being addressed, but it may be too late, the door may already have closed.
Beautiful shots.
ReplyDeleteThank you William
DeleteDearest Rosemary,
ReplyDeleteYes, I was telling my Pieter, that's where Rosemary went with her husband, not too long ago. Just as Pieter's brother and his new love (after he lost his wife) went in Bali where so many had lost their lives.
It certainly weighs heavy on a day like Easter...
May we hope that still the good in this world will prevail!
Beech trees are the last ones to bud out but as you say, those light green colors of baby leaves I enjoy the very most. Not too long and things will blend into more or less one shade of a darker green...
Hugs,
Mariette
Dear Mariette - there are now possible unforeseen dangers for any of us today anywhere in our beautiful world.
Delete😔
DeleteI agree that we must make an effort these days to feel optimistic. It seems there is horrific news everywhere we turn. Your beautiful photos have started my day off right. I especially like the one with the path thru the magnificent trees.
ReplyDelete💚
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