monsters & fairies

There are stories that parents tell their impressionable children that remain with them for their whole lives. I’m not sure why I’m feeling nostalgic, but I’ve been remembering two such stories, one from my mother and one from my father.

Both are set in the dim and distant past, when we lived in Scotland.
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day after day

Friday was World Sleep Day and Red Nose Day. Yesterday was the Vernal Equinox, the beginning of spring, International Happiness Day and Persian New Year. Today is Census Day and International Day of Forests.

That’s eight days in just 72 hours and doesn’t come close to naming all the high days and holy days that other people celebrate. It’s really no wonder I am exhausted.
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counting on it

Occasionally a phrase in a news story or online article brings me up short and demands to be noted and preserved in some way.

The phrase that caught my attention this week comes from an article on the current all-time high of double births, which has been so widely reported under headlines that use the phrase “Twins peak” that I can only assume that is an exact quotation from a press release.
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what a difference a week makes

Yesterday I went out to the local shop at lunchtime. I was in a bit of a hurry as I had come out of one virtual meeting later than expected and had to hurry back for another. But I got to the shop, bought the couple of things I needed, and set off home before I realised I didn’t have my phone.

I paused in the middle of the street and did a quick mental check of pockets and was shocked to realise there was no way I’d dropped it or left it in the shop: I must have left my phone at home.
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ten thousand saw I at a glance

It’s the last day of February, and the daffodils are in bloom. Perhaps there aren’t ten thousand visible at a single glance, but there are certainly a great number in all different spaces, from public parks and private gardens to pub yards and churchyards.

In view of the fact that tomorrow is St David’s day, I have been collecting photographs over the last week.
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