HEADSTANDS

In the yogic tradition, headstands, or Shirshasana, are a revered yoga position, and are said to have many health benefits such as: an increased blood flow to the brain, improved concentration and balance, stimulating the digestive system, and also endowing a calming effect onto the practitioner. 

All I know, is that I get a real urge to do headstands when I am laying in bed, or in a field of grass. There is something so satisfying and exhilarating about turning your body upside down, feet to the sky. Like an expression of joy that radiates upwards. 

BOUQUETS OF DAFFODILS

“I wandered lonely as a cloud
That floats on high o’er vales and hills,
When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host, of golden daffodils;
Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.

Continuous as the stars that shine
And twinkle on the milky way,
They stretched in never-ending line
Along the margin of a bay:
Ten thousand saw I at a glance,
Tossing their heads in sprightly dance.

The waves beside them danced; but they
Out-did the sparkling waves in glee:
A poet could not but be gay,
In such a jocund company:
I gazed—and gazed—but little thought
What wealth the show to me had brought:

For oft, when on my couch I lie
In vacant or in pensive mood,
They flash upon that inward eye
Which is the bliss of solitude;
And then my heart with pleasure fills,
And dances with the daffodils.”

— William Wordsworth

OUR VEGGIE GARDEN

One of my favourite places on earth is the Vegetable Garden in our backyard. It is a small veggie garden, with only a few things growing there in each season, but it is a testament to the changes of the year. 

WINTER

The garden seems bare on the surface, and devoid of colour. The artichoke plant produces a few blooms of prickly silver, and the dill and other herbs are still growing. But under the dirt is a treasure trove of potatoes and yams: purple and tiny white orbs, alongside red and yellow gems. The branches of the raspberry bushes look like thin whips, all crackled and dry. 

SPRING

There are pansies growing between the strawberry leaves, and small shoots of spring onion are sprouting through the dirt. In the glasshouse, the cold and bare vines of winter are starting to grow leaves. Everything is flowers - the raspberries, the strawberries, the chives and the gooseberries.

SUMMER

The strawberries are ripe and bumblebees trail lazily between the purple artichoke flowers. There is an abundance of gooseberries, so that the thorny arms of the bushes droop low under their burden. The red of the rhubarb is peeking through green leaves, and brightly coloured stalks of chard shine in the sun. 

AUTUMN

The raspberries have arrived, and I spend my days atop the water tanks, picking them and eating them then and there. Over in the field the hazelnuts are falling, and dad is whistling to the dogs as he picks them from the ground. The vines in the glasshouse are bearing small, sour grapes. All the gooseberries are gone, stolen by the birds, and the earth readies itself for winter.