Small Pleasures…

I was driving home M6 from Birmingham last night, the weather all shade and showers, smell of freshly cut fields coming in through the air conditioning, light changing minute by minute - when suddenly it hit me… WHAM!

The green! It was all so green. How had it escaped notice until this moment?

Early June in the British countryside. Green things growing greener by the tick, the fullness of life all around and sure promise of fruit yet to be fulfilled. How lucky I am to live in this land of ours, despite having to put up with the treachery and flannel of our simpering politicians – they can all go whistle - I have my bench.

Small pleasures no. three.

My garden bench.

How lucky I am to live in this land of ours and how lucky am I to have this bench to sit on in the evenings on my Welsh weekends; sun slowly sinking redly in the distance, drinking a glass of me-made cider surrounded by seed grown plantings, pots, and come-along beach finds. Picture me sitting so absent-mindedly listening to the birdsong, breathing it all in.

Ours is a quiet lane – a cyclist or two, a car every hour or so, the occasional dog-walker, once a flock of sheep, big noisy tractors at haymaking, an escaped cow once every blue moon. A good place to let your thoughts wander.

Sometimes mine wander far and deep. I go everywhere and nowhere - backwards, forwards, up, down, real, unreal, dark, light, hot, cold. Other times, contentedly, I just stay where I am.

Sometimes I remember, and sometimes I make myself forget – it just depends.

‘That feels nice’, ‘Good to see you again’, ‘To infinity and beyond’, ‘Don’t do that, please don’t do that.’, ‘On the top of the Crumpetty Tree’, ‘Well done!’, ‘I don’t like this at all’, ‘That blue is all wrong’, ‘Why? Ju-Wu, why?’…

It all comes to settle as I sit on my bench.

Rupert Brooke - 'Hearts at peace, under an English heaven'? Sometimes, usually - and it applies equally under a Welsh one.

Sitting on my bench absent-mindedly listening to the birdsong, breathing it all in, it’s so easy to believe - it really is a wonderful life.