Monday

Posted by Tania Kindersley.

There shall be no opinions on world events on this blog today (which I was vaguely planning, after all that dogginess last week) for the simple reason that I have no idea what is going on in the world.

Sometimes there are days like this. Sarah rang during the Today programme, so I missed that. I did not go to the newsagent. I have not yet been on the internet today. I ate lunch on the hoof, without turning on the wireless. If you held a gun to my head, I could tell you that there is bloody fighting in Libya and everyone is rather cross with Prince Andrew. That's it.

Instead of the world, in this house there was: work, walk in the sun, the making of a mushroom soup, more work. I am reading this week, partly because I need more hinterland for the book, and partly because I almost chopped off the top of my little finger with a clownishly large pair of scissors on Saturday night, and I am having to type with only three fingers on one hand, which baffles my qwerty-trained brain.

I did, however, come across some interesting facts which I did not know. I am not sure I knew that the King adored Ramsey Macdonald, even though the Prime Minister was a pacifist and a socialist, which everyone thought would not go down well in the Royal Household. I did not know that although the cavalry was sent to the First World War, they were not used for charging, but given menial tasks behind the lines, including the awful grisly job of taking away and burying hundreds and hundreds of dead bodies. I did not know that the Battle of the Somme lasted for over four months.

I never studied the First War. I stopped my study of history at the end of Gladstone, and in later reading went straight to the Second War. I can bore you endlessly on that subject. I suddenly realise that I know hardly anything about that Great War. I know the schoolgirl stuff of the Archduke in Sarajevo and all the great powers pointlessly picking sides and everyone saying it was almost like a family quarrel, since all the European Royals were related and it would be over by Christmas. I know about Lord Kitchener and the white feathers and people kicking Daschunds in the streets and the eerie sight of huge Zeppelins flying over to bomb London. I know about the famous Christmas Eve football match and the horrors of the trenches and the flower of a generation being mown down for no good reason. But that's about it. So four and a half months was a shock. I am determined to read more and redress my ignorance.

Now for the photographs.

The first daffodil shoots are starting to look as if they mean business:

The snowdrops continue their enchantment:

These cheerful little fellows are growing wild in the earth:

The very first elder leaf has appeared, overnight; it was not there yesterday:

There has not been a pointless picture of some random logs for a while:

As is becoming customary, there shall be tree trunks:

Views to the south:

SNIFFING:

Sometimes I have whimsical little thoughts in my head, like: wouldn't it be odd if humans enjoyed sniffing as much as dogs do?

More ladyship beauty, in the blinding light:

The hill, almost lost in the dazzle: