Nature Heals

June 28, 2021June 17, 2021 Dawn - The Sparkle Diaries.5 Comments

As they say in Ireland, the weather has been cat. From the snow in February to a very cold and windy March and April with the odd warm sunny day. The wettest May for decades and then, at last in June some sunny warm days which meant I was able to get out in the garden. Long time readers of my blog will know that during lockdown last year I got outside and tackled a very overgrown and neglected garden and I fell in love with gardening. Whatever you do out there you get instant results to sit back and look at and be proud of. From lawn mowing to weeding, planting seeds or plants, it is just lovely to get out there and work and let your mind roam wherever it pleases. I find it very therapeutic and healing.

It was like a jungle out there. The grass was so long, the Willow tree was not blooming at it should (the Willow saga continues) and as for weeds…OMG absolutely everywhere and growing fast. I got stuck in and over a three days period which made my body feel as if I had been doing continuous squats, and crawling up the stairs to bed, I did make some headway. I’m learning that no matter how much you do in the garden you are never on top of the work. It really is a work in progress and I really do love it.

I love this Camelia, unfortunately almost as soon as it blooms the rain comes and knocks the blooms to the floor. I also love Viola’s and my hanging basket has looked lovely so far this year.

Obsessed with the Snowball tree this year. I don’t think I have ever seen it bloom as beautifully before. I have had to get the Willow Tree partially cut back, in the hope that it will grow back stronger. By cutting the tree back it let a lot more light and space into the area below it and the Snowball Tree has thrived.

Finally, after over twelve months, I managed to get a garden storage box, WHOOP! There was a huge shortage because lots of people took up gardening last year. I had a busy afternoon planting plus my neighbour gave me two tomato plants. I am growing potatoes, garlic, spinach, dwarf green beans, beetroot and radish. Out of view is a gooseberry bush which my neighbour gave me last year. I didn’t think it would survive the Winter but it did and is actually blooming, fingers crossed.

The Shamrock has gone crazy with the sun, heat and rain, looks beautiful though. Me, tired out after a day gardening.

I planted two halves of a spud in February and yielded fifty small potatoes in early June. They tasted amazing. I have planted some more now for harvesting in September. I honestly can’t believe I’m gardening and growing, or having a go, at growing my own vegetables. It’s very satisfying and I do find that ideas for my music flow whilst I’m out there and my mind is uncluttered and free.

With love and sparkles xxx

Life Sparkles

Perfect Time To Be Happy

June 21, 2021June 17, 2021 Dawn - The Sparkle Diaries.Leave a comment

At last, with vaccinations, restrictions being lifted at various times and a new normal way of life happening it has been just lovely to get out and about a little more. I have to admit that I personally think I was very lucky in the lockdown period. Caring for my parents meant that I was more or less in a lockdown situation for four years. I had just started to venture out and about again when the real lockdown arrived. I was more or less used to not going anywhere socially or even shopping although as usual the minute you are told you can’t do something, you want to do it even more.

Anyway, back to this year and things getting a little easier and days that the sun has shone so brightly and it has felt warm outside. I had a lovely afternoon catching up with my cousins in their garden and it felt like a holiday. So good to see them in person rather than on video calls. Yes, there was Prosecco.

There were a couple of birthday’s amongst the neighbours so I set to baking some cakes. My Mom and my Sister were fantastic cake bakers and I was always just awful. The sponge never rose for me, more like a biscuit base than Victoria Sponge. However in the last couple of years my cake baking has improved. I like to think Mom passed it to me. One of these days I’ll have to bake one of these for himself so that I can have the odd slice. Not even I could finish a whole cake!!

Between the global pandemic, losing my parents and helping himself to care for his Mom who has Vascular Dementia I have realised that what my Dad used to say to me on a regular basis is so true. Life is for living, don’t take life too seriously and the time to be happy is now. I am at peace with my choices, I am free and I have been told that I make people happy with my music, my posts and my random Instagram chats. This makes me happy. I know we all have duties, obligations and worries but we also have life and we owe it to ourselves to be happy and make someone else happy if we can.

Do something everyday that makes you happy. Now is the perfect time to be happy.

With love and sparkles xxx

Life Sparkles

Moving On

June 18, 2021June 17, 2021 Dawn - The Sparkle Diaries.11 Comments

Life changes and we have to make changes and however difficult they are, we just have to get stuck in and do things, make things happen. Otherwise we remain stagnant and this makes it all the more difficult to move on. In the grand scheme of things I’m moving on slowly, in my own time and sorting things out when I’m in the right frame of mind to do things. This post as you will have noticed is very much focused on “things’ and in a way, that’s exactly what this post is about. Clearing out things, possessions, material items because although we may have an emotional attachment to them, they can never touch in depth the feeling of love or the memories we hold of those who have themselves, moved on.

I am of course talking about my parents clothes and other possessions. It has only been in the past months that I have felt in any way ready to move anything, donate items to charity or throw things away. Being practical I know that it’s the right thing to do to go through the various drawers, cupboards and presses. Sometimes I can be quite quick and decisive, I find something and know straight away whether to bin, donate or keep. Other times I have to sit and relive memories before I can let things go. I have donated almost all of Dad’s clothes to a local charity run by the church which gives clothes and food to people with nothing and to help refugees in our city to get on their feet and make a life. I have made a very slow start on Mom’s wardrobe and for some bizarre reason have managed to donate a lot of my own things!

A random weekend that himself managed to be over with me, we cleared out what was Dad’s room. I have decided to decorate it and make it into my music studio/office. Deep down I have the feeling Dad would be happy with that decision. It was hard moving out the furniture and I was overwhelmed with sadness when the charity came to collect it yet there was also this feeling that a family somewhere would benefit from these items and that was a good feeling. My parents were very giving, it is the right thing to do,

There’s a lot of work to do to get the music room ready and I will enjoy transforming it.

I’m mindful of the fact that should something happen to me, himself would have to come and go through everything and that would be hard enough with just my clutter never mind having to deal with my parents possessions. So I am being practical. I know that these tasks need to be done and I know that I am the best person to do them. It doesn’t make it easy and somedays are better than others at doing these tasks. I’m getting there. It does feel very liberating to go through paperwork that has been filed away for years and clear it out and vow not to let that happen again…yeah right, we all say it and it still piles up.

So moving on. It’s difficult, it’s easy, it’s emotional, it’s sad, it’s liberating, it’s happy, it’s any number of feelings all at once. Most of all for me, it’s healing. I can look back on the memories with happiness and feel blessed that I have such wonderful memories and that cannot be taken away from me.

With love and sparkles xxx