A call to action ?

 

One of our regular routes takes us past an unassuming semi with a driveway . The driveway has pots of all shapes and sizes with a surprising array of plants in them . A leisurely browse will generally yield several gems . 

The owner is short and well rounded with her hair in a white bun . She is strangely elusive . She will exchange a few remarks with you and when you turn round to reply she has vanished . Scuttled away like a hedgehog . More than once I have not seen her go towards the road or behind a bush and certainly she has not passed me for her side gate or her front door . She has simply , inexplicably disappeared . 

Today we stopped in the wet and dark and I walked gingerly through the pots to the front door . 

I rang the bell prepared to have made a gesture and left . 

After a minute or two the front door opened a crack and two piercing pale blue eyes appeared . The eyes were an unusually pale blue ( mine are bright blue but not as piercing or that shade of ice blue ).

I explained I had bought various plants across the year and paid through the letterbox . I said that I wanted her to know that my garden was flourishing because of her . I wished her a happy Christmas and held out a rather nice jar of jam .

The door opened on a lit hall and she stepped forward . 

"Do you have rosemary " she said . I said I didn't ( which was not true as I have planted a whole hedge from rosemary and lavender cuttings )

She looked at me very intently and I felt she could see everything I had ever done .

"Wait here " she said shortly and scuttled away . I waited . She scurried back .

" I did not grow this rosemary tree  " she said . "my friend did , she planted it with love and tended it until it grew into a tree , with  love ". 

"She gave me five of these and told me to give them to the right people ". " I cannot charge you for this because it has love in it - do you understand me ? "

I said that I did and took the tree from her . We regarded one another squarely . 

This was not at all what I had intended or expected to happen . She stepped back , I thanked her and turned . The door shut .

I said to the saxophonist " do I look needy ? " He said i was probably one of the least needy people he knew . 

I will never know who the other four " right " people are and I am still thinking through something which feels like much more than a sum of its parts .

Agreed ?

 

I have gathered sea holly from the wilder parts of the estuary . Just enough to mix with the traditional holly from the garden . The sea holly is blue grey and has no berries . The garden holly has lots of red berries . The two sit oddly well together . 

The sea holly has sharper points and they come off invisibly . I climbed shoe - less on furniture to put the two hollies over picture frames . I need not , I am sure , go into detail of what ensued . 

The butcher in the village nearby does the very best herb sausage meat to compliment a bird . The ride home goes into the wilds and just after the goose farm four firs sit on a bank . 

A cry went up "back up ! " , "back up !".

The thick branch I choose was , the saxophonist said  , too  thick to come off clean . I looked disappointed and it came off clean .

I went to the recycling centre for a new tea pot and some paperbacks .There , amongst the bric a brac was a gold and opaque glass sphere . Flat bottomed and open necked . 

They never slaughter the geese at the goose farm. They are a constant feature  of the landscape ,  year round  .

I am writing this by the " tree " in the sphere nursing " sea holly feet " . A pile of paperbacks sit enticingly nearby and a large brown tea pot sits on the draining board . 

Life can be water and dry bread . Or it can be a mug of good strong tea and thickly buttered crunchy toast .I believe you can choose and probably a lot more than you suppose .

The geese have no reason to disagree .