Garbling

Days trickle by like sand inside an hour glass. Before you know it, it will all be gone. Time I mean.

We should make the most of it but it is very easy to squander time and to put off the things we mean to do until another day.

A small victory today was the sowing of twenty four runner beans into little plastic  pots and five courgette seeds too. They are up in the front bedroom now waiting for moisture and warmth to stir them from their slumbers. I had collected the runner beans last autumn and dried them in a sunny window. It's something I have done many times before.

Shirley and I visited "Atkinsons" this morning - now Sheffield's premier department store. We were there to seek out some curtaining material upon which we could both agree. It is for our front room. In the thirty four years we have lived in this house, we have only had two different sets of curtains in the bay window of our front room. On each occasion we chose very good quality material that lasted and lasted but last autumn we redecorated the room and new curtains were inevitable. 

We found some material that we were both happy with and brought a large swatch home to assess its suitability in context. We both think it will do just fine so tomorrow we will put in our order. At around £500 ($620 US) this is a purchase with which we need to be contented. Those curtains could easily outlast me.

On Sunday Little Phoebe's behaviour caused me some reflection. She has taken to slamming doors and claiming room spaces for herself. Maybe it's all about asserting control because small children are invariably disallowed such rein. Also, for the first time, she refused to come to the table for her Sunday dinner. I had prepared a plate for her with carrot, parsnip, broccoli, new potato, roasted beef, Yorkshire pudding and gravy upon it. But no. She would not join us and instead played with her bricks. She is developing, changing. She was never going to remain that sweet little innocent forever. 

What else can I say about ordinary, domestic matters?

Ian and Sarah have just returned from a lovely ten day holiday in Mauritius. On the British Airways flight home, they were upgraded to business class. Not something that has ever happened to me but you hear about these things. Their heavenly babe, a little boy, continues to grow day by day, moving towards what we hope will be a healthy birth. No doubt future holidays will be somewhat different.

And tomorrow, I have arranged to pick up my old friend Bert for a pub lunch. His positivity is quite infectious. He's always singing happy songs from long ago and he rarely moans about his aches and pains or other health concerns. "Smile when your heart is breaking" is an instruction that would fit his philosophy of life quite perfectly.

Yes. Days trickle by. We grow older. We forget things. We move on. Soon it will be May. Soon it will be 2024. More famous people die. More come through. We are only here for a short time and then it's done.