Floral jumble from the garden, including rose ‘This Scepter’d Isle’
Earlier in the year, before winter had ended and when the news seemed rather dreary I wrote several blogposts full of small pieces of good news as an antidote to gloom: otters reinhabiting the rivers of Britain, crocheted baby owls, cake recipes, primroses blooming in their hundreds on a local grassy bank-things that would rarely if ever make the headlines and yet brought small bursts of happiness.
Monkey’s hat shop
Since Friday the news has not only been gloomy, it’s been horrifying. Post-referendum there is a ghastly, in places sinister mess and I confess I’ve read so many political articles trying to find something positive and hopeful to hold on to that my noggin’s knackered.
Cheering list (note my stripey rosa mundi)
I need a bit of cheer so I’ve gathered together another small collection of good things below. I hope this post might be a source of solace just now…if you’d like to add your small pieces of good news in the comments then that would be wonderful…
Sifakas playing horsie
There is a Youtube video I turn to on difficult days. A troupe of sifaka lemurs, filmed by some tourists in Madagascar, are moving along a beach. Meh, so what, right? The thing is sifaka lemurs run in a special way. It’s as though they’re playing horsie – as though they are pretending to gallop with glee like Miranda Hart. Plus after a few gallopy gallopy giddy up steps they have a little sit down on the sand for a small rest. To add to the lemur joy they seem to have created a sort of horsey relay here. I find it immensely cheering:
A song about a guinea pig
The youngest Mitchell turned 8 earlier in the month and her main present was a guitar. Mr M is teaching her to play and she has learned each chord hungrily. In fact she’s written a song, ‘My little Piggy’ about her Guinea pig, whose name is Lamby (because he looks like a little lamb). When she plays it I sometimes have a tiny secret cry whilst pretending to be very busy putting the kettle on.
Lamby, being swaddled in an old sheet
Umbellifers
My favourite flower form is everywhere in the hedgerows just now. Cow parsley may have finished and gone to seed but its cousins and lookalikes are so numerous that we have reached peak umbellifer. It’s joyful (and lacy and beautiful) and all kinds of pollinators are cock a hoop about it.
Brief Encounter
I’m still utterly heartbroken that Victoria Wood died so suddenly earlier in the year.
This has been lifting my spirits today though. Thankyou thankyou Victoria
Comic Relief Crafternoon 2017
Do you remember that magazine that I dreamed up and that Jane Toft and I edited last year? The Mollie Makes special edition for Comic Relief that was on sale in Sainsbury’s? The one with Miranda Hart in a knitted beard as poster girl (see below)? The one with all the felt guinea pigs made by the crafters of Britain (see above)? The one that raised £62,000 for brilliant causes?
Actual Miranda Hart, in a knitted beard, designed by the irrepressible woolly genius Deadly Knitshade
Yes? Well, we’re doing it again for 2017…more on this story as it unfolds
Please add your good news to the comments below – however small.
Has a rose begun to flower in your garden?
Did you make an especially delicious batch of biscuits?
Did your hen sit on your shoulder and it made you feel elated for a minute or two?
I’m pretty certain there are MANY people who would absolutely love to read about it…..
