It's that extra day today, 29th February. I thought it fun that the Eleusis site happened to have 108 members today and Leap year has 366 days and 3x6x6=108, so there is a bit of numerology for you!
It's Monday which, at the moment, is the day that the nurse comes to take a sample of my blood. She usually arrives just as we are finishing breakfast and so it was today. Fortunately for this test I do not have to have an empty stomach! Today it was a new nurse. We had a bit of pleasant conversation, she took the blood and drove away. We shall get the result tomorrow, I expect.
As usual my day has been divided between reading, writing and outdoor activity. It was a cold morning but brightened up in the afternoon. I went out and got some air and found some hawthorn trees at the far side of Champs de Ville au Roi that were in danger of being swamped by blackthorn. There is something about hawthorn in winter that makes one think of fairy tales, of the thickets that the prince must cut his way through, or, alternatively, of the wizened features of an old witch or wizard - the knotty, twisted wood - it looks as if under a spell. Where blackthorn is definitely a bush, hawthorn is a tree, often making a completely spherical shape out of all its gnarled branches, so difficult to penetrate. Elja found me there and said that she thought they should be called holy thorn rather than haw thorn. I'm looking forward to seeing all the blossom later in the year. Not long now. It feels as if all the plants are preparing for spring, and, in a certain way, I am too.
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