healingwords: poetry for the soul

May 20th is  World Bee Day, when we are encouraged to acknowledge the important role bees and other insects play as pollinators. The date was chosen in commemoration of the birth of Anton Jansa, the pioneer of beekeeping who was born on May 20th 1734. At a time when bee populations are threatened world wide by the use of pesticides, changes in habitat, global warming and additional viral infections it is important to consider the vital role they play not only in the natural environment but as pollinators for our agricultural crops. We can all help in a small way by allowing the growth of plants like dandelions, often treated as weeds, flowers and bee friendly plants in our gardens, stopping the weekly cutting of lawns and not using chemical insecticides known to harm bees and other insects. 

This is where I would like to be today. There is no more to say. 

These brilliant yellow flowers on the verges around the countryside terraces and fields were buzzing with insects. The stamens reminded me of a birds nest with the open, squawking mouths of tiny fledgings waiting to be fed. 

I stood mesmerised by the movement of the wind through this patch of long grasses. The changing patterns and colours reminded me of the hypnotic effect of the wind on water, waves building and crashing on the shore or whipped up waves rippling over the surface of a lake. 

My daughter took this photograph this morning on her daily walk. She lives in a town near Barcelona that is usually buzzing with people and cars at this time in the morning, going to work, school, the roads head to tail with traffic heading into the City. The restrictions allow healthy adults to exercise or walk between 6 and 10 and then from 8 until 11 in the evening. Many will use the evening hour as they have children to mind, some are still working or others just used to a slower start to the day. The return to work will be a shock for many, like the worse of Mondays after summer holidays. Despite our desire for normality there is a feeling of anxiety about being out and about and how we will navigate what is being called here, the new normal. 

I love watching the birds at the Marjal marshes near Pego. The rice paddies and the rivers and canals that feed them are home to many water birds, including egrets, herons and more recently ibis. I rarely catch the herons and egrets feeding, more often than not they are standing still, perched on one leg, like statues in the marsh, flapping into the sky when disturbed. Today they were wading the flooded fields, pecking in the mud with spiked beaks.  © 2020 Jacqueline Knight Cotterill.  All rights reserved.  

The seagulls lined up on the crest of the pebble beach, so still is was hard to spot them against the grey white spectrum of the stones. As one the flock rose into the sky, their clapping wings flashing.  © 2019 Jacqueline Knight Cotterill.  All rights reserved.  

At this time of year the browning countryside is greened with the tall, spindly stems of wild fennel. I brush the flower heads as I walk by, releasing the smell of liquorice. Like the older Spanish farmers I snap off a stick of the woody stem and chew it as I walk. The taste whirls me back in time to childhood and the pursed lip taste of inky sweets. I am still unsure if I really like it.  © 2019 Jacqueline Knight Cotterill.  All rights reserved.