Blue skies

Yesterday the sun actually shone. We had blue skies for the first time in ages. People’s spirits rose. Everyone seemed happier, less withdrawn. I can’t help being struck by what a difference a bit of sun makes.

We do our supermarket shop & end up having a long chat with the lady on the till.

Afterwards we pop down to our village pub. We join a friend. Only recently he went on holiday to Corfu. He came back feeling his holiday had been a disaster. He came back saying never again, yet yesterday he had been looking at offers on a winter break in Spain. The sunshine had made him realise how much he felt the need for blue skies & warmth, but above all for blue skies.

We, too, are finding ourselves once more thinking about a holiday break. We’re contemplating the south of France in winter. We’re not sure we’ll get to the spring without some sort of a break, a time away from the stresses of everyday life, a time for someone else to do the chores & run around after us for a change.

This year we seem to have had very little sun. Apart from a very hot spell in May,  we’ve hardly sat out in the garden. Since we’ve got table & chairs in the walled garden area, most years we’ve sat out on several occasions. This year we’ve sat out maybe twice – hardly worth the effort of getting the table & chairs out. As for the table under the large pergola where we eat in the summer, that too has rarely been used.  Last year we had promised to invite some friends round to see our garden in full bloom – we had talked about it so much they were curious to see it – but the weather, & for that matter our health, has been so poor we’ve not found a dry spell to invite them.

All in all, I’m looking forward to the end of 2017. It seems to have been a bad year for us & all our friends.