A
few days ago I came back from visiting Southern Spain where we got
more rain than here but in solid useful bursts and mostly at night.
They seem to be able to control these things better. There the roses
were in what we would think of as late June fullness, the Iris are
over and the hills were covered in the brightest of Spanish Broom. The air was fully scented and the nightingales were singing during the daytime as well as giving full throated night time concerts. What could be nicer?
However,
let us not make odious comparisons; the journey back from Stansted
via Cambridge gave just as many delights. The Cambridge line to Bury
can always be a travellers pleasure. True the landscape is most very
flat but this gives us magnificent skies. I have been known take many
photographs of these East Anglian skies with their different clouds
on my mobile phone.
The
journey showed the countryside as it edges from Spring to early
Summer. The rails ran close to banks of foaming Cow’s Parsley
(Sheep’s Parsley often locally here) billowing out in great white
waves. This has always been a humble plant of comment and delight,
for it is also known as Queen Anne’s Lace in honour of the fabric
that must have cheered up the sight that huge, po-faced looking
monarch. In The Netherlands it is called Flauterkraut, meaning flute
plant. One can imagine small Dutch children cutting lengths between
the joint in the stems and trying to make music with them. As a boy
my friends and I, scrambling through Surrey woodlands, would cut
similar lengths of dried vine from Old Man’s Beard and try very
hard to smoke them. These bits we called Whiffy Wood, but I digress.
Along
the tracks we saw the early Marguerite daisies, buttercups, lilac,
and the creamy candle flowers of the first chestnut flowers. Maybe
this can be thought of as unremarkable, and my unimpressed companions
in the carriage were a young lady who chatted all the way on her
mobile phone, a lady engrossed in her game of Solitaire on her tablet
and a man fast asleep. None of them would have guessed at the joy the
simple country things were giving to somebody who had been away a few
short weeks. There is so much to see and delight in if we will only
take a look.
In
our garden things are similarly behind what I was seeing in Spain.
The Iris are full with promise, the tulips have been good and some
are still flowering, there is abundant blossom on the Medlar and the
Quince trees and some deep dark roses have already been in flower a
week or two. No sign of Mole though. Maybe he is courting far
underground or busy making his own version of CrossRail so he can
provide more easily for an expected family.
On
a different point, I cannot help thinking just how strange and ironic
the world is becoming. Suffolk voted in the main for Brexit. This
might have been because of the fear of our way of life being changed
and damaged by an influx of people from economically deprived or from
dangerous regions. “This country is too small!” had been the cry.
Now France has a new President who is on record that he is going to
abandon the treaty by which France held back the flow of people to
this country. So whether we like it or not we are likely to be having
to welcome thousands of people from war torn areas and hunger zones.
People who have been displaced.
We
were able to rise to the challenge here some years ago when
Vietnamese “Boat People” came to Suffolk and were accommodated in
buildings in old war time aerodromes and the like. These refugees
needed food, bedding, utensils, language training and to learn life
skills in this very different climate, and jobs. So too will the
people from the other countries who will surely be coming here. Is
this not the time when we, here, in this small corner of the country
consider what we will best be able to do to help in what is going to
be a very real crisis? Is it not our human responsibility to offer
help and a hand of friendship? In Benefice terms is it not our
"Christian Duty” so to do?
Might
I suggest this is a subject that is put on the agendas of each Parish
Council, each PCC and addressed at Benefice level as well. Better to
be prepared than overwhelmed.
Before
we all enjoy the summer let’s have home real RAIN!
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