This was the most interesting Sunday, nothing in the diary. Good weather so Francoise asked me whether we should go for a walk. It had occurred to me but I don’t need half considered it. We find out best decisions are those when we make them together and it was interesting to see how events unfolded in the day.
I normally like to get a picture of where we should walk. No such picture occurred, so I thought we would go to one of our favourite places, Mells. I have written about this on many occasions, so just do a search to find out more about this delightful very small village.
We decided to go and have a drink in the local post office come cafe. We ordered our drink and sat down and chatted to the nearest person who was reading the Sun paper. I asked her if there was anything of value in it and she replied in the negative but carried on reading anyway. Things took an interesting turn when our neighbour’s table was joined by a young lady who embellished a postcard cover in a very artistic way.
I had to ask her if she was an artist. She said she does not draw but she is a painter of abstract work. She showed us a sample of her work. I got the strong instinct to ask her if she had a website, to which she replied in the negative. I said that the act of creating the website, which anyone can do, would actually enhance her sense of direction and put her work before the right audience.
She had said something very significant: ‘Now things are coming together’ so I was obviously not the first person to mention this. I gave her my card and said that if you needed any help, I would be delighted to assist. She asked me what I did, and I more or less said, “What I am doing now, which is encouraging others.” Whether she does something or is not the point; the fact is that I followed my instinct and encouraged her. I am aware that people will start things when they are ready and not before, but hopefully she has been more encouraged than discouraged by my intervention.
Outside we met a lady with a dog and she said she had been to the old ironworks, “Ruins, Fussells Iron Works”, which is a local historical feature so we decided to make that the object of our day. It is along a long path which leads into a valley and you could almost believe you were in the 19th century. No buildings apart from derelict ones, nature untroubled by developments, surprise surprise no internet signal and I thought the ideal place to take friends or visitors.
Detailed notes of this iron smelting way of life
just about as natural as you can get
We had a lovely day walking by ourselves and absorbing unspoilt nature, and that was exactly what I needed to do to escape from sitting in front of my computer. We would not have visited without the advice of the lady outside the cafe, and maybe she was inspired to mention it to us. So we planned but did not plan today. We set our intentions, remained open to everything on and talked to everybody along the way. This is how I try to get my day normally but it was particularly rewarding in this case.
Over the last couple of months I’ve spent a lot of time and energy completing my book which is by the way called ‘ Secrets of Village Life in Somerset’ and which can be found and ordered on Amazon by just typing in the name.
I can hardly believe that it’s been just over two weeks since the book was first published. I had done all I can and I’m going to enjoy my Christmas, have time off, and then come back in the new year. Last week I wrote a book about how to get the most out of village life and I will let you know when it is published.
This is the time of year in which no one expects anything of you and this will go on until the first week in January, January the 5th to be precise, so I feel less of a sense of being on duty.
