Long and Lovely and Lush

If you recognise the words of the title above, then it's just possible you studied the poems of Gerard Manley Hopkins at school, as we did. I can't say I 'got it' back then, but the words of his poems often come back to me, when I see a bit of the old Nature being particularly splendid.

The words come from 'Spring'

"Nothing is so beautiful as spring—
When weeds, in wheels, shoot long and lovely and lush;"

They often pop into my head now in early summer, when I see exuberant hedgerows, bursting with long grass and wildflowers.

"What is all this juice and all this joy?" 

Our English teacher told us it was sap rising, which for some reason, we thought hilarious at the time, and tried to use the word 'sap' as often as possible in lessons.

This hot midsummer is definitely long and lovely and lush round here, and I've managed to spend some quality time lying around looking at green grass and blue sky. A very summery occupation, and a little bit unexpected.

 Despite the freedom of not having a 'proper job', Mr Kitsch and I don't always take 'days off' as such. Our work time and fun time is quite confused and intermingled. And like most people, 'free' time often involves doing chores or essential shopping. Also the lack of a 'proper' job means the lack of funds for a 'proper' holiday. So when all this good weather started, Mr Kitsch suggested a 'staycation'. In other words, stay at home, but act like you're on holiday, going out on day trips and visiting places you haven't been or don't often go to. (And not worrying about chores when you get home!)

I'm not sure we actually succeeded in having a 'staycation', but we did take some proper days off. We went to Bath, we spent a wonderfully lazy afternoon having a picnic on The Downs in Bristol, near where we live. Last week we went to the Gower, and spent the afternoon on the beach at Oxwich. I even swam in the sea (very briefly!). The Gower is where we had our first holiday together, and is always lovely. The beaches are huge and sandy and generally uncrowded.

This week we went to Clevedon Court. I don't know why, but we never managed to visit it when we belonged to the National Trust, despite it being so nearby. It's a small place, but a delight to visit. The front facade is very impressive, but I totally failed to get a picture of that, so this is the back garden with palm tree

There is also a room full of 'Nailsea Glass', which apparently doesn't come from Nailsea at all. On the way home, we got Greek kebabs, which didn't come from Greece, either. Lovely and Lush!