TENACITY

 The last day of March is undoubtedly exiting ‘like a lion’ with gusts of wind and rain battering the windows as I write this. One quarter of the year has passed, with few cheerful sunny moments, although last Monday was just such a day, and we made the most of it by visiting Truro.

Truro is Cornwall’s ‘county town’, a cathedral city in fact, and very popular with tourists – although fortunately for us they haven’t quite arrived in their hoards just yet. We used the excellent ‘Park and Ride’ service to access the centre, and took the time in between shopping to visit the Cathedral which we hadn’t seen for many years. A pretty display of hanging baskets in front of the main entrance enhances the grand front of the building. Inside, despite being quite a ‘young’ Cathedral compared with many in Britain, it is truly beautiful both inside and out.

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Since my last blog post our ornamental Japanese Cherry tree has flowered and gone over, the blossom being replaced with new leaves. As the petals fell, a kind of pink snow built up on the grass around the tree, and a number of bluetits could be seen on the branches, moving around with the speed of flashing Christmas tree lights as they fed on bits of dead blossom and tiny insects. They continue to visit it, clinging on with great tenacity, and won’t be put off even when I open the window or creep close with the camera.

Elsewhere in the garden daffodils have been parading their gorgeous bright colours. Some were very early but others have yet to flower, so their season is long this year. Again, the wind knocks them down, but they are quite strong and manage to revive, although today’s blasts may have finished off some of them. I have lost most of my Hebe bushes, which were weakened by the excessively hot Summer and finished off by frost. I planted them when we first moved here eight years ago, so we have taken them out and this is an opportunity to replace or plant something new. The garden is always changing!

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For Christmas I was given a DNA testing kit by our son. This was exciting! A tiny test tube of my saliva was sent to a processing centre in Ireland which works in conjunction with Ancestry, the family history organisation. Six weeks later my results arrived in the form of an email from Ancestry. They are fascinating.

The ethnicity was partly a surprise (Wales??) and partly not, as my father's family originates in England around the Liverpool area, and my maternal grandfather was Swiss. Having researched my mother's family some years ago, I realised that her mother's ancestry has a link to Wales which must be much stronger than I previously thought!

More bonuses followed, the first of which has been the discovery of a new, very distant cousin: Suzi in Iowa, US, who is only a year older than me, and who reached out after my DNA results were published. I had ticked all the boxes for sharing when Ancestry questioned me about this, because my son is the last of our line which will then become extinct, and I am keen to share all my extensive family history information with all those interested. Such links are available to all those whose DNA has been tested and who agreed to share their results. Apparently I have 225 cousins, two of whom I already knew, and the rest more distant. One distant cousin on my mother's side - another bonus - John in Australia, is helping me with my family tree by adding information he has obtained from more cousins. It's extraordinary!

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All the excitement over the DNA and extra work on family history is the reason for this blog post being so delayed. I have also been reading, and one book must be recommended to you. This book was serialised by the BBC and I listened to it after Christmas, but very annoyingly missed the first episode and could not access it from their 'Sounds' set-up (which is often not very user-friendly). So I bought the book, and it has been outstanding. 'Act of Oblivion' by Robert Harris is set in the 1660s in both England and America. This is a short description:

'... spellbinding historical novel that brilliantly imagines one of the greatest manhunts in history: the search for two Englishmen involved in the killing of King Charles I and the implacable foe on their trail—an epic journey into the wilds of seventeenth-century New England, and a chase like no other

'From what is it they flee?'

He took a while to reply. By the time he spoke the men had gone inside. He said quietly, “They killed the King.”'

Here is my review on Goodreads:

'There are almost no words for this. A book which makes you think deeply about its story long after finishing it is something very special. I had never viewed history from Cromwell's point of view, in fact I knew little about this period of history other than what I had read from many authors with a Royalist take. I'm so glad I heard this (brilliantly read) on the radio, because it made me determined to read the book, and I highly recommend others to do the same. It's a gripping story of a brutal age so dominated by religious thought as to be dangerous for almost everyone going about their daily lives. Whichever side you took on the Royalist/Cromwellian divide, you were damned.

Five stars, an outstanding read. Highly recommended, and I'll definitely read it again.'

Just one proviso: there are some very gruesome scenes, extremely well described. Well, it was, after all, the Middle Ages!

Let me know if you have read anything outstanding lately, or if you have had your DNA tested!

All for now, take care of yourselves and enjoy the Spring - when it finally arrives.

Dancing daffodils at Buckland Abbey, March 2023