During our first week of high school, the Standard Sixes (Grade 8s now) had to put on a variety concert. I partnered with a boy – who was destined to become my brother-in-law – to sing There’s a hole in my bucket, which begins:
There’s a hole in the bucket, dear Liza, dear Liza,
There’s a hole in the bucket, dear Liza,
There’s a hole.
Then fix it dear Henry, dear Henry, dear Henry,
Then fix it dear Henry, dear Henry, fix it…
I remembered that when I placed these buckets under the leaks in the roof above my study. Yes – it has been raining all night and for much of today!
On page 10 of the Regimen Sanitatis Salernitanum we read:
Why should a man die in whose garden grows sage?
Against the power of death there is not medicine in our gardens
But Sage calms the nerves, takes away hand
Tremors, and helps cure fever.
Sage, castoreum, lavender, primrose,
Nasturtium, and athanasia cure paralytic parts of the body.
O sage the saviour, of nature the conciliator!
The sage plant in my garden has moved from near death to blooming beautifully in the space of only a few weeks:
How can one ever feel ‘blue’ with a good book to read?
If I need cheering up, there is always the chance to drink coffee from this large breakfast cup given to me by my son in Scotland:
Something really cheering was seeing these gas canisters fitted to the back of a Land Rover in the Mountain Zebra National Park:
Although I am revelling in the longed-for rain at the moment, let me leave you with a picture of the clear blue skies we are treated to throughout most of the year. In the foreground is the tower of our city hall:
Something Over Tea 