Dear friend,
It’s odd, but somehow it’s escaped my notice all of these years, how close Halloween and Bonfire night are to one another. Bonfire night is where you burn an effigy of a Catholic man and let off fireworks. Probably best to look it up if you’re not from the UK.
Opinion, as ever, is divided.
It was dark crossing the marshes with Bessie late this afternoon and dark when I got up to start the day.
It was Diwali last night too.
We had two dogs sleeping over.
The colourful explosions against the night sky look beautiful; and at the same time mean days and weeks of terrified animals as fireworks are let off until the last person gets bored or runs out of them.
Zara looks miserable and shakes. Her head and ears and shoulders droop. Katie told us to play The Prodigy as loud as we could and that would calm her, and it did. She was able to relax and fall asleep. Bessie too.
When the festivities really got crackling, thumping thwooming, Jeremy, the two dogs and me made a makeshift shelter at the top of the stairs. It was cosy up there chatting and fussing the animals.
You can close the doors to all the rooms and the only direct source of outside noise comes from the stairwell. It was nice all being together like that.
As both an animal lover and a lover of fireworks my vote would be for silent ones, maybe a bit of crackling and fizzing, but the gun shot bangs, personally I can live without.
We had some sad news today. A dog that Santy had found abandoned in the woods, Lua; died this week. She’d had seven years with her new owner Liz.
Liz sent a photograph to let us know Lua had gone.
I wished I could have said goodbye. Here’s a picture of Santy and Lua taken in the place where she found her.
I hadn’t though of Lua for a long time, but she did pop into my mind a few days back. I wonder if she’d come to say goodbye?
I was too involved in what is going on in my life to be fully aware of it, but reflecting on it now it seems very likely.
Sitting here now I miss them all.
You’ll be thinking of the ones you’ve loved and lost too.
The important thing is that we had the chance to be together.
I’m grateful for it.
It’s nuanced and broad and deep and contradictory.
I’m glad of it.
This moment now with Bessie staying over. She’s just let out a sigh and is shuffling around in the communal dog bed, making mouth noises as the clock ticks and my heart expands in my chest.
We’re all so amazingly different from one another.
And everybody wants different things.
But
Behind it all.
We have so much in common.
It’s just good to be together.
To drop the judgement.
Look for what unites us.
There is no distance in mind.
Till tomorrow
Love
Mikey