Monkey Puzzle Tree – SOCIAL BRIDGE ~ Jean Tubridy connecting with you from Ireland

A Soft Day

Today was what is traditionally described in Ireland as ‘a soft day.’ That’s a nice term for a misty, drizzly, warmish kind of a day when you think you’ll never see a blue sky again.

When I peeped out the front door in semi-despair this morning, the haunting look of our Monkey Puzzle tree carried me away from thoughts of blue and the blues:

Softness was playing in the prickly branches and the greens were greener than green.

All thoughts of staying in and waiting for the ‘day to rise’ left me and Stan and I headed to a deserted Garrarus Beach where the tide was fully out. It certainly wasn’t the stuff of picture postcards looking out to sea but the shoreline carried all sorts of soft promises:

This was a day to focus on the gifts that the high tide had left:

Strong colours and soft textures entwined like lovers. Nature playing with us; us playing with nature:

And all the while, the damp daisies on the cliff face gleamed:

As we were leaving the beach an elderly man who was well-wrapped up in fisherman’s gear gave us a wave and shouted over:

‘Soft day, thank God.’

What’s Your View? ~Gatherings from Ireland # 340

I tend to do almost all my writing in ‘my study,’ which is a rather grand name for the little room upstairs that I fell for the minute I clapped eyes on it 22 years ago.

It wasn’t so much the room, but the view ~ the dangling arms of the Monkey Puzzle tree which is much closer to the house than I’m sure it should be. Deepest green, evergreen, but a tree that also presents me with golden glints, pearly raindrops, tapestries of intricate webs …..

About five years ago, two birds, that I liked to think of as The Love Birds, set up home in the Monkey Puzzle and would sit for hours each day on its prickly branches. I missed them dreadfully when they finally left but they’ve kept returning and this year it seems like we have five generations all partying and singing like mad, before sunrise and after sunset.

No, I can’t see their cleverly hidden nest/s but I smile as their music has added a whole new dimension of light to the dark hours when I hear this precious tree that never sleeps.

I often wonder about the views which are part of the lives of the millions of bloggers all round the world. Go on, tell me about yours!

Loving Eyes of Spring ~ Gatherings from Ireland # 73

The Monkey Puzzle, whose branches sway just outside my window, is an old friend. While I was out deadheading some primulas early this morning, he opened his sleepy wise eyes that will soon be shaded from the sun by the white lacy hydrangeas that are clinging to him so lovingly.

Ireland Calling! June’s Haiku-a-Day from my AARP Group: Social Bridge between Ireland and America

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