Oh to be in Somerset now Spring is here, to paraphrase R. Browning

Tell me why I don’t like mondays…… Had a most excellent weekend and now back to reality, boo, hiss. I spent Saturday messing around in the countryside; I had to go to Crewkerne in Somerset and it was a perfect day for driving. God help me when we all have our cars confiscated to save the planet – I’m working on a scheme to run an engine on potato spirit, I’ll keep you posted. I realised how much I love driving when I was making a journey from Manchester to the Southern coast. The bossy lady on Google Maps said ‘Take the first exit at the roundabout and drive for 186 miles’, and I started smiling. That’s when I knew I had a problem. So, there I was ambling down winding country roads, birds were twittering, the sun was out, and the place names were brilliant: Staple Fitzpaine, Thornfalcon, Hatch Beauchamp, and my personal favourite, Wreath. Rural England is ridiculously beautiful in Spring; you ought to see the wildflowers in the hedgerows. I also saw fields full of wretched crows helping themselves to the winter wheat. Read more

Well, last week was pretty ghastly. Not that anything in particular happened but it was just filled with conflict and stress and fatigue. My tolerance level seemed to have diminshed significantly; you know when you have that feeling that you’re surrounded by buzzing bees and can’t get away? The only time I didn’t feel like that was when I felt like a bird dashing itself against the door of a cage. And yet, nothing really happened to precipitate this; just battle-fatigue. So, by last night my prayers had become something along the lines of…. “This is crazy, I’m so exhausted, why is everything so difficult, you said, you said, do as you promised, do as you promised…. (ad nauseaum for 45 minutes)” Quite frankly, if I were God, I’d have a mute button. It would be: “Dearest Father, it’s me again. Let me tell you about my awful day. First of all…..” CLICK! 🙂 Fortunately for me, God is not like me. Crashed out on the sofa, went to bed at 5am (don’t ask). Had one of those wonderful anxiety dreams when you’re sitting your finals but don’t have time to get to the hall…. Awesome. I haven’t had one of those for yonks. So, I did not wake up refreshed. Woke up an hour before the alarm time thinking what the helling hell. Thought, OK, read Isaiah 40 again, it’s what I read last night and it’s a firm favourite. Opened the Bible, Psalm 121 “I was glad when they said unto me, let us go into the house of the Lord”. Me to God, “well, you can forget that for a start” Scowl. 🙁

So, I ran my bath, put in half a litre of Jasmine & Citron bath oil, lolling in the bath, reading magazines, and came across the excerpt above, illustrated with a picture of our products. The very first article in my entire born life that name-checked Alara Apothecary. I didn’t even know that they’d visited our stockist. How thrilled was I? You’ve no idea. And yes, I know it’s Somerset Living, not Vogue, but it is so thrilling and I’ve learnt to count my blessings. As far as I’m concerned, it’s a small cloud the size of a man’s hand. And God said, “You were saying?”, and I said, “I’m  natural born idiot, I repent in dust and ashes”. And yes, I did go to the evening service, and yes, the final song was from Isaiah 40, as was the random text a friend sent me this afternoon. Surely God is good to Israel, and to me also. Have a week full of blessings and divine grace.