Post 17/2022 Thursday 21 April . . . A segment on BBC Breakfast, Wednesday, featured a dementia choir. Brilliant! People with dementia and their carers sang, motioned and danced with the song, Sweet Caroline. Smiles, engagement, fun. Will we see a national director for dementia appointed to wave the baton for making a joyful noise? I’m guessing some forward-looking communities are already doing just that.

Some weeks ago we attended a concert, Songs From Shows And Films, at St Paul’s Church, Chacewater, near Truro. What fun. We sang along to songs such as A Spoonful of Sugar, Singing in the Rain, The Sunny Side of the Street, Fly Me to the Moon, The Lion Sleeps Tonight, Singin’ the Blues, The Surrey With the Fringe on the Top. Tasty refreshments followed. It was a rare night out.

It would have been timely to reflect on song, on music for the voice, or the tuneful sound made by certain birds as the S-Song reference this week. We’ve been hearing the blackbird (the common European thrust species). The blackbird’s melodious every-changing repertoire is a delight at or near dusk.

Be that as it may, I’ve opted for another S word, probably a less-loved creature of nature.

S-Slow-Worm

“Slow-Worm or Blind-worm (Sauria: Anguis fragilis). A legless viviparous harmless lizard, often mistaken for a snake and neither blind nor slow; widespread and locally common. The blue-spotted slow-is a variant found only in England and Wales in which only males are known.”

That definition from British Natural History (1967, 1978) leaves me wondering about “in which only males are known.” We haven’t seen a slow-worm very often. Probably because we’ve been too slow in spotting them. We did see one a few years ago on the footpath from Penryn to Flushing (that’s a favorite route for lunch in Flushing and then a ferry ride across to Falmouth and home by train).

Fields, lanes and moors

We finally made our way to the Lakeside Café at Nance, about two miles from our door. We took several Public Footpaths through farm fields and farmsteads to Nance Lakes, only to arrive and learn that because of the large number of customers they were no longer serving lunch, only desserts. So, a cream tea for Marty and a piece of lemon chiffon pie for me. Very good, plenty of energy for our return walk on a less-well-waymarked path. The path did offer wonderful views from one moor to another but left us going astray. We did find our way.

Tuesday walk

Glory be, for the first time this year we got to walk with the West Cornwall Footpaths Preservation Society. We took the bus to St Erth Station, walked into St Erth Village (25 minutes) and enjoyed the walker reunion as well as getting acquainted with a few new members. The group does one walk each week, averaging four miles.

Midweek

On Wednesday late afternoon we walked to Halsetown for dinner, passing close to Knills Monument en route. Dinner was fine, the walk was splendid.

T-Truro

County town, Cornwall’s sole city, population about 23,000, slogan, “Our Great Little City,” home to Truro Cathedral, Royal Cornwall Hospital, Royal Cornwall Museum, city core shopping center, and, oh yes, The Hall for Cornwall. We’ll attend a show at Hall for Cornwall tonight. Watch for a review next post.

Not quite a curmudgeon but close

“You have heard it said that flowers only flourish rightly in the garden of someone who loves them. I know you would like that to be true; and would think it a pleasant magic if you could flush your flowers into brighter bloom by a kind look upon them.” -John Ruskin, Sesame and Lilies. More realist than curmudgeon.

Also to the point: “How fair is a garden amid the toils and passions of existence.” -Benjamin Disraeli. Amen

Today, Happy Ninety-Sixth birthday wishes to Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth.

-John