Hailstones battering the windows, swirling clouds bringing snow to nearby higher ground and driving rain everywhere else: winter announced herself loudly, unmistakably making up for lost time. However, ever keen to test my endurance, as if waking in a house that’s barely 9oC isn’t testing enough, I went a wandering. The need for testing took me up and through overgrown terracing in previously unexplored areas beyond the house, sliding on mossy wet slopes, traversing a stream and generally getting myself and my good suede boots mucked up and wet. How worth it. I may even venture out again and soak another pair of boots, for there’s a vast area to discover and I’m sure to return with more leaves and berries that have been promised a feature somewhere on an art project, as yet unplanned. I’ll also return with a clearer, fresher mind, wind and rain can do that, as can a small adventure and enjoying a day without schedule.
There was only one matter of importance for today and that was to ensure my log delivery arrived. Alas, the heavy rain wasn’t compatible with wood arriving in decent condition for burning, or perhaps conditions were not conducive for delivery people. Whatever the reason, I was left with only a few hours of logs on one of the coldest days of winter, my calculations unfortunately now are good at this but I understood too late and ordered last minute. It was one of those occasions I’d have preferred to be wrong and to discover at least another full 24 hours of warmth-burning power! Explaining my quandary to the wood supplier we quickly arranged to meet at his home where he filled my car boot with enough wood until the delivery could be assured.
That’s an act of friendship like so many others I experience, so often from the most unexpected sources. In life, friends will come and go; that’s a given. Some will let us down in the most disappointing manner yet somehow, an intervening force will cause others, just as surely, to step up to the mark. What heart warming questions on a stormy night – ‘are you ok? Do you have all you need?’
Questions like that, truly meant, cannot fail to sustain and give comfort.
As clouds swirl and prepare to engulf the house I decide it’s probably wiser to not torture another pair of boots, but instead to enjoy the peace of a warm home and the smell of marmalade bubbling in a pot on the stove.