Thought for today:
"As each spring and summer passes and autumn fades, my body looks forward to the following seasons to come when all the brashness of nature's beauty springs forth to remind the lovers and dreamers of the world that winter is a time for waking the senses while spring comes to excite them in all manner of reverie and passionate dreams.
There was a period during my two-month hospital experience at the start of 2017 when two near-death episodes almost robbed me of the opportunity of seeing another spring and summer. My terminal cancer transformed into a more aggressive cancer type, and after I'd weathered the storm, another four months of chemotherapy treatment lasted until the best part of summer, 2017 was almost over.
Before the sun went into hibernation, Sheila and I managed to experience a nine-day holiday in Cornwall enjoying beautiful weather, and we even got another few good weeks of sunny weather to enjoy afterwards at our allotment in Haworth. Naturally, Sheila did all the labouring whilst I directed operations. I can't wait until next April to taste our home-grown spuds and see all the flowers, bushes, vegetables and herbs we planted spring into new life.
Before then, however, I will have to check out any storm damage that descended on our allotment last night, and in particular to our plastic, lightweight garden shed we had erected a few weeks ago. At the time of purchase, we felt smug buying a shed that didn't need painting and wouldn't rot. Each time I looked at it with mounting pride, it blew me away. Let's hope that last night's stormy gale didn't blow it away also!
Below is one of my springtime poems to remind us of more settled days to come:
'If only one wish was granted to me': Copyright: William Forde:
"If only one wish was granted to me,
to save spring meadows for all to see
would be my wish, my heart's desire
to see spectacular poppy fields fire
icy hearts, stagnant thoughts and sorry souls
back into life where only Nature holds
within its ground, eternity.'
Copyright William Forde: October 17th, 2017.