Life

A year ago today I was sitting with my father as he slipped from Life into Death and I sent out a blog from an Internet cafe in North Berwick, a Scottish seaside town.
Today my reflections have been gentle as I took my Aspergers, adult son for a drive into the Ashdown Forest,East Suusex. What do you do when in fact there is nothing to do but remember.I would have loved to have walked for miles in the August sunshine or sit in a quiet haven and reflect but my son becomes unsettled and anyway he doesn't do emotions, really.

I took him to visit a friend of mine who lives in a beautiful area in the centre of the area know as the forest.
She is a natural healer living in a wonderful old property with her adult son. They have begun to refurbish an old house and barn into a living and working space. A beautiful English garden, green meadow land and two cats and a horse. How wonderful and so welcoming. On leaving she offered me fresh runner beans and apples from her garden and strong memories came to me of my childhood and how I took for granted the country environment that I was brought up in.
She on the other hand was London born and this is her haven now.

How nostalgic I am for that past life. The summers of strawberries, raspberries, acres of tomatoes flourishing in glasshouses. Private land to walk on feeling safe and secure in the fact it was Dad's land. Carol's parting words to me were " ----it is hard work!"
Yes indeed it was a life's work for my father. Thank you for those memories of the daffodils in spring, leeks in winter, picking peas and eating more than we picked.
For the hard work, the early morning trips to market and for the fact you gave us an ideallic childhood.So perhaps there is a little annual ritual that can develop each year. Being close to nature and man's cultivation of what sustains us. Fond memories!