Flowers, books and prejudices in The View from the Terrace

The weather is so changable right now. Today the sun is shining while 2 days ago there was another big storm, I don’t know what that one was called, the wind was so strong that the daffodils were almost lying down. The daffodils have had a tough time this year. They began to appear in late January, the earliest I have ever know, but then the weather turned and we had severe frosty nights. The daffodils would be lying on the grass in the mornings, but standing up again by the afternoon. That’s what I love about flowers, they keep standing up again, a valuable lesson.

We went to the garden centre last Sunday after the boys had left. The prices are too high there for most things but I found a tray of red candlestick primula for £2 in the sale and a tray of primroses for the same price, also 2 pretty bi coloured pink primula for £1 each. I also bought a tray of pretty viola to put in a window box to replace the ones that died. Now all I need is a nice afternoon to get into the garden to plant them all! I may be able to spend a little time there today but I have a duty at the helpline at 4pm and would like to pop into the supermarket first to pick up a few things for Easter, I hadn’t realised that it is only 2 weeks away.

I have had quite a lot of ill days lately when I wake with my migraines. The meds I take do relieve the pain and nausea within an hour or two but leave me washed out, uncoordinated and unable to do much. I fill the time reading and doing online courses with Future Learn. At the moment I am doing one on Muslims in Britain. I thought it would be interesting to find out more about these people, I saw so many of them in Cardiff when I was staying there with Cat. Her landlord is Muslim, they own the pharmacy below the flat. They seem really nice people.

Tony is quite prejudiced towards Muslims, I guess the things that have happened in his lifetime and the media don’t help. I have to keep reminding him that the only muslims we have known personally were his French teacher at school and her family and they were lovely. I used to teach their son guitar but he gave it up in the end and she gave Tony his Fender Stratocaster. She could have got a lot of money for that but she thought Tony would like it. Anyway I thought, to quote what the pope said, it might be good to try to build a bridge rather than a wall so I am taking this couse and it is really interesting.

I am also reading a very interesting book. It is called Nella Last’s Peace. It is the diary of a woman from just after the second world war. I read her first book, Nella Last’s War, which was the diary kept during the war, and then I saw this book in a charity shop. This is set around the time I was born which makes it very interesting a lot of the things she talks about, rationing and such, I can remember my mother telling me about. One of the things that is interesting is that I have read that her son was gay, he later became a sculpter. She skirts around this subject with remarks like ‘He is not the marrying type’. Of course gay relationships were illegal then. It’s interesting how attitudes change over years. She says things like ‘We worked like niggers’ which would not be even printed today in a modern book. I remember my mother using that word too.

Even though it is still cold I can really feel spring in the air lately. It’s the difference in the light as the sun gets higher in the sky and the longer days. I’m looking forward to getting out into the garden again.