Let there be music!

The internet is a wonderful medium for keeping in touch with people. I have a couple of friends who sing and they both have web sites: 

http://www.myspace.com/annsingsalong 

http://www.myspace.com/bobtaylorsingselvis

Bob Taylor has two other sites on myspace — bobtaylorsings and bobsingsgospel

So I can have regular communication just by listening and occasionally commenting. 

Bob has also put music on my My Space http://www.myspace.com/gladyswrites 

Not only that but he is adding recordings of some of my short stories. 

To think in my youth, we had to write letters to keep in touch with people who lived at a distance. Telephones, like cars, were only for the well-off. Now the world is a different place. This affects us in many ways that are only too obvious. Of course, with movement of people and families, it would be easy to lose touch and for the housebound life can be lonely. But the Internet is a wonderful thing for the elderly — a means of keeping in touch with people all over the world. We can have new friendships, interests and keep on learning about life! (Instead of tutting, "Things aren't what they used to be when I was young!" 

Yes! Let there be music, let there be song! Let us keep in touch with e-mails and 'chats'. And encourage our ageing friends and relatives to do the same. And if you want to give them a good laugh click them onto http://phoolsparadise.blogspot.com

A walk in the woods

My brother (who lived in California) loved the Lake District. he considered it as a gem — all that was best in scenery encapsulated in an area that could be motored around in a day. Mountains and lakes, woods and valleys. Picturesque villages, small old churches. Slate quarries and ancient stone or slate walls. Flora and fauna to delight the eye. Fantastic footpaths through woods and over mountains. A place to refresh and revive. A place for poets and authors, a place to simply 'be'! There are tourist towns where people flock all the year round, some to take the steamers on the lakes, others to take a trip on a steam train. But it is the quiet places where you can walk or sit and drink in heaven that is the Lake District's greatest appeal.

Meet here and there!

To view photographs of my garden and the Lake District go to my website http://www.myspace.com/gladyswrites
My other blogs are http:gladyshobson,wordpress.com
and I have a gladrag site at xanga.
My publishing website is: http://www.magpiesnestpublishing.co.uk

Pleasure of gardens

Few things are more inspirational than gardens. Oh yes, maybe the wide open spaces with mountains and lakes and, since we are just a few miles south of one of the most beautiful areas in the country, we visit them often. But a garden is something that we have to work at, unlike 'God's gardens' that evolve over millions of years. Gardening becomes hard work as we get older and so keenness is required for the best results. We have a third of an acre — lawns back and front and flowering shrubs bordering almost the whole perimeter. We have an ancient oak, a magnificent beach and a number of other trees giving the garden a delightful and informal area of peace and quiet. Beyond the back garden wall, there are green fields stretching into the distance, where animals graze contentedly. We have recently planted a rose patch, and delightfully scented blooms are now growing very well, their colours radiant in the afternoon sun. Look for weeds and you will find them. Just like people's lives, nothing is perfect!

Yo-yo time!

Lack of sleep, things not working to plan, health problems, loss of inspiration, anxiety about friends and family, plus a number of other things which on their own I can take in my stride, build up to a mountain which appears impossible to climb. Inwardly I weep at the loss of 'vision.' And yet it takes but the unexpected kindness of a friend or the gentleness of a loved one, to stem the rot and enable me to see things in a different light. After the early rain and stiff climb, the sun is now shining as hands reach out to me. A beautiful view is now in sight.

Sun after rain

Nothing can be sweeter in the garden than sun after rain. Dryness is overtaken by life-giving moisture bringing growth and colour; even the birds seem to sing more beautifully early in the morning. The robins, tits , finches, blackbirds, woodpeckers and other winged friends visit the feeding stations gathering food for their nestlings. Bees visit the blooms gathering nectar, like the rest of nature doing what they are programmed to do from when their life began. The garden is a hive of activity and yet a place of rest and comfort. With friends and family leaving this earth for loftier regions, the garden is ever a reminder that life with its seasons goes on. We planted a small oak tree in the front garden yesterday. We will never see it reach its full glory but the mother oak standing in the back garden tells us what it will become — if allowed to grow. Like the rest of life, we never know what our small efforts might lead to in the future, nor do we know how we will be remembered. Does it matter? Some people seek immortality through what they leave behind. The trouble today is that what WE are doing to the environment is nothing to be proud about. What indeed is our legacy to future generations? I look out on my garden with joy and yet with sadness too.

Holidays — hard work!

We have just had a short break in the English Lake District. It is a spectacular region of stark mountain tops, forests and lakes, dotted with an occasional ancient country house with pretty 'old fashioned' gardens. A place for sailing, climbing, viewing birds and taking photographs, or like us, walking the many footpaths. To be in the silence of tall trees and inhale the pine scented air, is refreshment indeed, even if, for people like me, the walking is tough! The tinkling streams, the mist over the lakes, the golden light filtering through trees was well worth the upward climb.