Post 13/2022 Friday 25 March . . . Music has helped raise spirits and support for Ukrainians facing the unspeakably devastating invasion of their country. In the early days of the war, seven-year-old Amelia Anisovych sang the Ukrainian national anthem while she and her family were holed up in a bomb shelter in Kyiv, a clip of which went viral on the internet. Amelia is now safe with relatives in Poland, where she sang the anthem in front of thousands at a charity concert.
Solidarity in song, doves, sheep and shelter
Below: Amelia Anisovych. Amelia told the BBC, as quoted in the i newspaper (22 March), “I practise singing every day in the morning, afternoon and evening… it has always been my dream to sing.” Doves adorn Madron Parish Church in South West Cornwall, “where villagers have been praying for peace,” reported The Cornishman (10 March).
Sheep on a West Cornwall farm were painted with the Ukrainian flag, the flag an emblem of blue sky and yellow fields of wheat. (The Cornishman, 10 March).The Ukraine flag flies in Marazion, Cornwall. In County Cornwall, 2000 offers have been made to host Ukrainian refugees. Cornwall Council is working with partners from health and education sectors, as well as charitable organizations, in coordinating the effort.
On Monday (21 March) a Ukrainian mother and her son, who had arrived in Cornwall the previous week, were in Truro to shop for shoes for 12-year-old Akim to go to school. The mother, Tanya, told a newspaper that they felt moved to step into Truro Cathedral, where at the moment the Cathedral choir was singing Ave Maria in Ukrainian in preparation for recording the number for their Mothering Sunday YouTube release. Akim and his mother joined the choir in the rehearsal. “God has led us here today,” Tanya said.
The letters K and L
As noted in previous posts, I’m using the alphabet in weekly blogs to mark our time in Cornwall (when the alphabet comes to an end, so does our winter/spring stay).
K-Keck, or Kex. “A general term for the taller white-flowered umbellifers, most often applied to cow parsley and hog weed.”
Keck, or cow parsley, lines a hedge in one of the last fields we crossed on Thursday on St Michael’s Way.
L-Lament. Desolation calls forth lament, passionate expression of grief or sorrow. I can imagine Ukrainians singing songs of wailing, composing poetic laments, weeping, searching for hope. What can I do but listen? Listening seems so little; prayers of petition too few, hope seemingly invisible. I listen to these enduring words from The Old Testament’s book of Lamentations:
St Michael’s Way
On Thursday we walked a major part of St Michael’s Way from Carbis Bay on the Atlantic to Marazion on the English Channel. Fresh air, clear sky, birdsong, lunch/rest stop at The White Hart Inn in Ludgvan, chat with villager Roy, and a cream tea in Marazion made for nine delightful miles on foot. Returned home by bus.
Opportunities for reflection and prayer abounded all along the way, especially in petition for soon and lasting resolution to the devastating assault on the people and country of Ukraine. God have mercy.
This stile on St Michael’s Way needs a new waymarker. Thankfully, we’ve gone this way more than a dozen times, never tired of the up and down, around and over, and the good tiredness at the end. We walked through fields with drystone hedges, grand vistas, the sea beyond, docile (always a hope) livestock.Is this a welcoming party or just a curious host wondering what these bipeds are doing in their pasture? We managed to avoid any close contact by detouring off the path.Idyllic setting, next to a residence in a former Methodist Chapel. First view of St Michael’s Mount, still miles in the distance.Distant view of St Michael’s Mount in Mount’s Bay on the English Channel.What better than a Ploughman’s Lunch at the White Hart Inn in Ludgvan, about two miles from Marazion.Almost there.As we entered this stretch of St Michael’s Way, a man walking his dog told me that for taking a photo of this daffodil field I’d have to count the flowers. His hearty laugh left me off the hook before I could even guess at a count. The Ludgvan villager, Roy, proved an engaging conversationalist. We’ve wondered for years who had made the pooper scoopers that hand from a branch at intervals along the path. Roy did, and he has seen many dog walkers use them–those who don’t don’t go down kindly in his estimation. Roy is a wood enthusiast who built the benches along a section of St Michael’s Way out of Ludgvan. For many years he mowed the stretch and cut the weeds, but is no longer able to do that. He is sitting on the bench that he made to replace one that had given up the ghost to the elements. He carved his wife’s name, Cilla (for Pricilla) on the upper back rest; his own name on the bench alongside. The lumber for the new bench came from the former Lamb and Flag Inn, now being converted to a home. If Roy would have had his wish to visit the US and Canada, it would have been to see the Redwoods in California and British Columbia and the Spruce Goose (the wooden airship–Hughes H-4 Hercules–built by Howard Hughes’ aviation company to ferry soldiers and supplies across the Atlantic in WW 2. The enormous flying boat was not finished in time, but it flew once on November 2, 1947. It is the centerpiece of the Evergreen Aviation Museum in McMinnville, Oregon). We opted for a shared cream tea at The Godolphin Hotel in Marazion, the restaurant facing St Michael’s Mount. We were the last to leave, all the tables had been filled minutes before the end of afternoon tea.
Flowers for Mothering Sunday
The crew that picked daffodils on Friday for the Mothering Sunday Benefice service of St Uny and St Anta churches. From left: Marty, Lynne, Noel, Jenny, Hanan.
Keep on blooming, by the thousands and tens of thousands.
Thanks, John. A wonderful day walking St Michael’s Way!
Monty
May the God of Wonder be with you, delighting you with the beauty of sunrise and the majesty of sunset, with the song of the bird and the fragrance of the flower. —Maxine Shonk, OP
It's About Now 
The fields of daffodils are a beautiful sight to behold. I can’t wait to see them bloom here too. So nice to see animals grazing in the fields too.
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Snow will go away right soon. Look quickly. Best!
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Thanks, John. A wonderful day walking St Michael’s Way!
Monty
May the God of Wonder be with you, delighting you with the beauty of sunrise and the majesty of sunset, with the song of the bird and the fragrance of the flower. —Maxine Shonk, OP
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Thanks, Monty.
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