Reasons To Be Cheerful (Part 1)

Yep that is a reference to the amazing Ian Dury and the Blockheads. Look him up on You Tube, now there was a man who knew how to make words work well.
     OK folks, I think it is time we stopped bewailing what we can't do and look at the positives.
     Today is the festival of Fortuna, the Goddess of luck and fortune, whose main symbol is the ever turning wheel.
     Fortuna's Wheel reminds us that change is inevitable and that also if we feel at our lowest ebb, that is when the Wheel will begin its journey upwards again.
     This time last year no-one had heard of Corona Virus or Covid 19 as they are now calling it. This time next year, Corona Virus will be a distant memory and we will be getting on with our lives again. So now is the time to make the most of what we have and what we can do.
     There are so many things we can do at home and I have a whole list of stuff to amuse Graham and myself including jigsaws, games, jobs around the house and garden. I haven't had a chance to look at my stamp collection for ages. There is also drawing, painting, writing and making things.
     This week Graham came out of Aldi with Treasure! There was some ombre wool reduced to clear, so he bought the lot, Four Balls! Ombre wool is yarn that goes from one colour or shade to another. And Oh! the Joy four new balls of wool gave me!
     Yes I am already working on quite a big project with my crocheting, but now I have some more lovely wool to prick my imagination and creativity with.

     There is lots to do in the garden. That is actually an unending source of busy-ness. At the moment Graham is creating a chicken wire fence to protect the new seedlings he has transplanted around the new archway.

      We have a bird bath in the front garden and that is a perennial source of entertainment, as the birds use it frequently. Sometimes you will see a relatively enormous pigeon, or even two, sitting in the water while sparrows periodically try to shoo it/them away.

     We recently unearthed a pair of binoculars and they are now to hand both for bird watching and also for star gazing - I popped outside at 3am this morning to have a look at the Moon as she was flooding the garden with light.

     We had a clear out of stuff in the living room, just before the isolation thing kicked in and found a load of pieces of fabric which I have been threatening to make into clothes for several years now.

     If you look around your home I am sure you too will have more stuff than you realised to occupy yourself with.

     If you have a pen and paper, you can draw.

     If you have a windowsill, you can garden (most supermarkets are still selling some kinds of plants in pots including culinary herbs). 

     You now have the time to practise your cooking skills - I had a go at baking for the first time for years.

     If you can see outside, or go outside into a garden, you can watch or listen to the birds, and of course tend to plants, cut the lawn etc.

     Oh and I haven't mentioned the positive effects on the planet the lock-down will be having.

     So few planes are flying, so few factories are working, so many fewer car journeys are being made that our atmosphere must be the cleanest it has been for centuries!

     Carbon emissions must be way down. In fact I bet some countries are now behaving as carbon sinks, drawing even more CO2 out of the atmosphere.

     Yes, we are not having a comfortable time, it is terrible not to be able to see friends and family and having to treat everyone we meet as if they or we are 'unclean' is very sad.

     But it seems to me that, whether we like it or not, by staying at home we are not only protecting ourselves and other people, but also (and perhaps more importantly) doing the Planet good.