On the eve of Midsummer’s Day, many bonfires used to be burnt all over the country. This was in praise of the sun, for the days were getting shorter and the sun appeared to be getting weaker, so people would light fires to try and strengthen the sun. Woodlands Junior School, Kent
It’s mid summers day, the longest day of the year. Certainly felt like a long one to me.
Walking back from meditation this evening there was a certain sadness in the air. Even the grazing rabbits appeared subdued and the young ones were not scampering in their customary way. Soon the nights will be drawing in and in no time it will be February again.
Imagine my delight when this wonderful statue came to visit last evening. It stands 20 inches high and was found in a dustbin. A genuine 1950’s Bugs Bunny statue standing in the classic double teapot stance, hands rolled up and placed on hips.
As a younger monk I was pulled up for double tea potting while trying to get across a point to the head cook. There is also single tea potting, if the point being made is just a minor one. I was completely unaware of this stance and have since wondered if it helps get the point across more forcefully, or not. I have my doubts.
It was too good an opportunity to miss. A practical joke in the rabbit infested garden. Many of us saw the funny side…
The talk around these parts is of rabbits. At this time of year they are wrecking havoc in the gardens, the young ones especially. As one monk put it, they are eating the flowers before they have a chance to grow, let alone blossom. One solution is to flush them out by a whole team of us trawling through the larger garden in a row, sending them towards the garden gate. The gardens are fortified but there are always the adventurous few who find their way in. It only takes one or two baby rabbits to get inside the fences to make for sad and frustrated gardeners.
The garden across the yard from where I work has been the site of much cunning, both on the part of rabbits and the garden caretaker. This morning the second of the three inside the garden was caught, by hand! Two down and one to go. We do use live traps as well as basic stealth by the way. The fencing within the garden is only temporary it being used to flush out the bunnies into open lawn and when there the determined caretaker hurdles the back wall and chases the culprit(s) out of the open gate.
Last evening, just at the crucial moment, one of the cats just happened to wandered through the open gate subverting the current operation. No amount of sweet talking would turn that cat around.
In lonely basements and drafty attics on park benches and noisy coffee shops people are at it, they are writing. People have been writing down there thoughts for ever and I must say I do enjoy reading about the lives of such people. Often incredible tales of loves gained and lost, of hardships and near miraculous recovery and behind them they leave huge literary gifts. Never has it been so easy to read about the lives of writers. Jorge Luis Borges for example, an Argentine writer who wrote this:
“It is often forgotten that (dictionaries) are artificial repositories, put together well after the languages they define. The roots of language are irrational and of a magical nature.”
-Jorge Luis Borges, Prologue to “El otro, el mismo.”
I came across the above quote having followed a link given me by one of the monks who is keen on words, that’s Etymology. The Online Etymology Dictionary is a real gem for those who are interested in exploring the roots of our language…which are irrational and of a magical nature.
