Sunshine on my shoulders makes me happy
Sunshine in my eyes can make me cry
Sunshine on the water looks so lovely
Sunshine almost always makes me high

Sunshine on my shoulders: John Denver

There is nothing like the warmth of sunshine to make you feel better; and there is nothing like the promise of spring to give you hope.

I am sitting here now with sunshine streaming in through the window, the warmth providing me with all I need – there are no heaters on in February! Spring has well and truly sprung over here and we are reaching temperatures of over twenty degrees on our patio. It has been like that all week, apart from a few foggy days (but let us not forget it is February after all!)

for those of you who read my blog you know that recently I have returned back to my old self: and part of that means that I can be quite driven (as my last post explained) read here

But the thing with that is I can also be hard to keep up with. Years ago (during ‘The War’) my sister told me that I was like a speedboat, I pick something up really quickly and I just run with it, leaving everyone else behind in my wake because they haven’t even got their head around the idea yet. It was a fair analogy, and we used it: so we likened it to me being in the speedboat and Rich on the ski’s behind desparately trying to keep up; and we had a safe phrase for Rich to use which was ‘whoa I’m on one ski! or ‘I’m in the water! When he said this I knew that I was going too fast for him and that I needed to slow down and go back and put him in the boat with me. If you would like to read more about that time in our lives here is the  link: click here

I think that Rich has felt like that recently. He does get down,( I have never hidden any sturggles we have had because I passionately believe that people should talk about mental health,)and he is not able to put into place the coping mechanisms that I can as quickly as I can, but bless him he does try. But last week I decided that I was going back to pick him up and take him with me. So on Saturday morning I said that we were not doing anything to the house or garden, despite all of the things that we have to do. It was a beautiful day and I said we were going out to another town for a walk.

It is so easy over here to just keep working and working, wearing old working clothes and doing the same old thing and I believe that it is important that sometimes you just go ‘sod it!’ let’s just get out there and let life show us the way, in all her simplicity.

When we got to the pretty little town of Lassay Les Chateaux, only a fifteen minute drive away, the sun was shining, the sky was blue and the brooks were babbling.

The town is steeped in history: during ‘Le Terroir’ (the French revolution) the chapel in the chateaux was used to interrogate people, and we found a tiny little alley that was probably a main thoroughfare,or possibly escape route,  all those years ago

It led us down to a small bridge over the babbling brook and out behind the chateaux.

We walked around the chateaux, through the rose gardens, and by the church, and then just sat on the hill and watched the world go by. A simple thing; we didn’t spend any money, we didn’t even have a coffee (the price of two coffees would buy us enough chicken breasts for the week!) but we chilled.

When we got home Rich looked at me and said ‘I am glad we did that, I feel so much better.’

This week he has stripped wallpaper, cut logs, started to tackle the ditch outside our house which is still full of trees; and moved the door in our lounge. Just an afternoon taking time out in the sunshine, letting nature invigorate us, was all it took.

Take the time folks, and have a good weekend.

Moisy

When the cold, harsh winter has given its last breath,
When the sky above shows life instead of death,
When the claws reaching to the frozen sky become decorated with leaves,
When the animals -long in hiding- scurry from trees,
We know winter has ended.

Spring by Camille Gotera

Source: https://www.familyfriendpoems.com/poem/change-of-seasons-spring