I had a very interesting afternoon beginning with tea in The Waterloo Tea Gardens alongside twelve members of my reading groups followed by a talk about Scott of the Antarctic (this year is the centenary of his ill fated attempt to be the first to reach the summit). There were copies of letters that he and some of his team had written to one of their benefactors in Cardiff. While in 2010 we were complaining of the temperature going as low as minus 12.5 degrees over Christmas Scott's team had experienced temperatures in the minus mid thirties and as low as a bone chillingly minus 79. A report of one of the men taking off his gloves and getting inch long semi-frozen blisters in his fingers within one minute astounded me and one of the men wrote that all he wanted was ten minutes in hell to warm up! A letter explaining that three of the ponies drowned after falling through broken ice and that the others succumbed to the terrible conditions was heartbreaking. When I was a child I lived close to where Captain Scott's only child, Peter Scot, by then an old man, had a wildfowl centre (Slimbridge) so we locals were always aware of the story of Scott but it was brought to life by the hand written correspondence of some of those brave men.
As Shakespeare wrote, "Be not afraid of greatness: some are born great, some achieve greatness and some have greatness thrust upon them".
Then again, to flip the coin, there is also the saying, "Most men lead lives of quiet desperation and go to the grave with the song still in them." . When I first heard those words I was haunted by them before realising that we don't all have to do great things to make a difference, to validate our lives - all we need to do is be true to our beliefs, do the right thing and live harmoniously.
A silly but relevant thing I discovered when I was off work for a couple of weeks when my father was dying was to take the time to smell the roses, to spend a few seconds more holding a door open for someone walking through because little things like that matter to me. Whilst great men make great discoveries and give us great quotes all I offer (which sounds ridiculous but in my own small way still matters) is that life is short but not too short to take your goods trolley back to it's bay! Laughably insignificant but for some reason it's my barometer of when life is getting too busy and my leveller when I'm rushing. I'll always still take my trolley back to where it's stored.
So, just before 5.00pm tonight, when all the traffic was about to hit the road home and I really wanted to make a quick exit to miss it all I unloaded my latest (don't say anything, I know I shouldn't) gardening purchase and walked the trolley back in the rain to it's collection point outside the centre. I'm not going to set the world alight or break records but I can clear up behind me at least.
Once I got home I unloaded my alpines in readiness for the bank I want to give a new look to.
6 tiny plants for £10 and 3 larger plants for the same amount meant I could form the basis of my spring and summer bank. A few grape hyacinths (75% reduced because they have flopped over) and something that I've never seen before and can't quite remember what it's called were also added to my trolley as was a lovely ranuncula because they can sweet talk me into buying them anytime. "A fool and his money...," is the quote I'm going to end on.....; "are easily parted"
Say no more.
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