Letter to Monty 35

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Monty,

Gardens, statistics and singing.

I have been resting my tired brain, tired from all the inputting of information into the machine.

20/5/12  Dawn chorus of woodpidgeon, raven, chiffchaff, pheasant and cuckoo - a song before sunrise.

Today I read that King David was stirred up to do a census of his fighting men. It seems he lost his ability to trust and needed to count in order to have evidence of strength. We still love counting, love evidence, our whole political system is based on numbers, statistics, strategies, reports and enquiries. We spend a lot of time money and energy compiling them. There is no rest for those who need to count.

I walked up Carn Ingli again, a song without words. The landscape resonates with the melody, the curve of hills, valley and bay below. A 360 degree song. The landscape carved by the hand of God using water, wind, ice, flood and fault to sculpt this land which is still being made. I in a brief moment in the vastness of time breathe in the song of heaven deeply. Just as I am doing this I meet a psychologist.



21/5/12  Another walk up the hill, this time to draw. A butterfly lands on my drawing, it seems like an amen, a sealed moment of pure joy.



24/5/12  Last day at Nant y blodau bach. Walked from Newport around the coastal path from Parrog to a small inlet below the cliffs. Then we walked up a woodland path through what seemed like a secret garden, with a 'Japanese' waterfall with luxurious moss covered stones. Then up onto wild moorland and along ancient byways past the old watermill to the Norman castle and church of Newport. This place really does make the soul sing.

27/5/12 Mysterious wisdom. Martin Amis spoke of the certainty of death, of ageing, of life moving toward death. He pointed out how animals have no concept of death, they live in the now. We however have brains which contemplate death, if this is a product of natural selection....how can it be an advantage? There are so many questions but the answer is in the rest, amen.


Home in the garden, it changed so much in a week. Since visiting Pembrokeshire I have fallen in love with our native plants and I am determined to allow them to be part of this garden.
  
                                        

Didn't see you at Chelsea, but then you are off filming for your next series in France. Looking forward to it.

Paul.

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