Early Evening On Milton Common

Apple blossom and May flowers.
A fox sat still in the evening sun staring.

Buttercups and boats sailing.

Something about the clouds... and childhood.  Mine.

Laying in the summer grass near a round wood.

And my mum, knowing the names of everything.

Clouds, birds, flowers...

Enough blue sky to make sailors trousers forever.

Or so I thought.

Somewhere tonight my Dad is walking amongst bluebells

and I was too busy to go with him.

Everyone I pass is hand in hand

and the birds are flying together, home.

Mind insistently settles on everything that has gone wrong.

...When a little dog tears through my thoughts

Scattering them into a million fragments of now
each one exclaiming Look! We are alive! Catch me!
This here is all there is
And all there ever was...

It’s enough.

Beltane Blessings!

So, Beltane, a day of freely frolicking about in the woods with my love and an evening of wild dancing around the flames under the open sky...?

Actually today was passing just like most others over the last six months, in a mad rush of no time and lots of stress and seemingly endless pressure to stretch time and energy over many competing elements, and coping with the continued fallout of sadly very estranged relations with ex-love... when I decided to stop.

Just for five minutes. Stop. And count my blessings.

Five minutes to give thankful thoughts to the people who keep love alive in my life, and help me to sustain a passion for life, because that's what Beltane's about. So... my most passionate Beltane thank you to some very amazing people who I can't actually imagine my life without.

Here's four of them, when I managed to squeeze in a quick walk to some bluebell woods earlier this week inbetween the madness :

And this picture represents the richness and sweetness and lightly whipped melt in the mouth deliciousness of good friends and their ability to lift the spirit! I collected a parcel from the post office today (smelt the sweet hawthorn blossoms as I whizzed past on my bike!) which contained a beautiful box of these finely crafted homemade vegan meringues, and me and my son had the pleasure of a lovely unexpected mid-afternoon Beltane feast!

Thank you to amazing friends (and brilliant cousins) who have been there on the phone or through the post, or in their kitchens pouring tea (if I ever got time to call on them!), and being an astounding help with childcare or dog care, to help me through what is one of the most difficult times ever for me and my boy. My heart swells in a blossom-filled ocean of love to you - Beltane blessings! xxx