Spring has come to Cambridge, proper summery-spring, and so many joyful moments arrived with the sun. Last week:
Sunday
Doing yoga in the park near the house with Jacob, which meant mud-stained knees from cat cows and grass in my face during child's pose. The smell of fresh grass - why isn't that a smell I smell more often?
Having breakfast in the garden with Jacob - overnight oats, peanut butter, cinnamon, strawberries and banana is such as classic and delicious combination. Combined with sun, clear skies and Jacob's blue eyes and there's my perfect morning.
Having lunch with Pierre, Charlotte and Jacob at Kettle's Yard and then watching the Akomfrah installation Auto Da Fe -- and THEN cycling down to Skater's Meadow and lying in swimming costumes in the sun -- and THEN jumping into the Cam, first Harriet, then Jacob, then me. Getting over the first gasping breaths, then swimming to shake off the cold-limb-heaviness. There were a few punts out, and a handy tree to cling on to for a mid swim break. But oh what a delight, to swim in cold water on a hot day, with people fill with the joy of the Lord!
Clinging on the Harriet as she gave me a 'backie' into town, which involved an incredible feat of strength on her part as she cycled without sitting on the seat and with the bike on gear 6 all the way from granchester, with my hanging on for dear life on the back! I think I laughed or smiled almost the whole way, it was surreal. Except for the moments where I said 'ouch' at bumpy bits, or when Harriet and I called out 'ring ring' at crowded parts to compensate for my lack of a bike bell!
Trying to get ice cream with Jacob in the interim between rehearsal and evensong and failing and walking back sans shoes and feeling absolutely a l i v e.
Singing Stanford in A during evensong and being drenched in a shaft of sunlight that pierced through a chapel window during the magnificant. I felt like it was a big warm embrace from God - a sharing in the joy I absolutely could not contain that day.
Ending the day, as I started, with Jacob and joy.
Tuesday
Sitting in the sun on the wall outside Kings with Jacob by my side and peanut butter ice cream in my hand, feeling like you couldn't add much to the mix to make me any happier.
Going to a swing dancing class with Kerry, and being spun around by a man in a Hawaiian t-shirt who was going to Bulgaria over the weekend just to do more swing dancing. Seeing people dance with each other so naturally across the room, laughing over my own clumsiness and awkwardness as I tried to remember to follow the leader's body-suggestions while also remembering to move my own body to the music and through the steps I'd learnt that evening. I cycled back remembering how in the second term of first year I'd set up a series of challenges for myself, including 'do one new thing every week'. This swing class was certainly a new thing, and so rewarding...
Wednesday
Making not-very-successful dumplings that tasted successful despite their misshapen appearances with Jacob, and eating them out in the garden. Bella warned us of a spider infestation in the garden, which we failed to spot until mid way through something Jacob was saying I spied a tiny spider, only slightly bigger than the head of a pin, hanging from his ear like an earring and stopped him to take it off. (The infestation turned out to be a little colony of these miniscule spiders, set up on the compost bin)
Thursday
A bright, brisk morning on the river, which made me feel so alive. The boat was so much more settled and rowing felt a lot easier, and we went further and faster which was incredibly exciting! It's funny to see the path I often run down from the river, the perspective I never thought I'd have.
Then singing Vaughn Williams' 'Silent Noon' in my singing lesson.
And feeling so incredibly absorbed in Hollywood revision that I burnt the chickpeas I'd left boiling on the hob and set the fire alarm off... (Hollywood is a fascinating subject - I didn't think I'd like it much, but it's incredible and has to do so much with human psychology and what we want/desire and how that changes based on context/history, or how we're told certain desires are acceptable and others aren't... all so interesting...)
Friday
A fruitful day in the UL, punctuated by lunch on the grass outside with Jacob, and a 'bimble' (as she called it) with Alex in which we tried in words tumbling over themselves to catch up on a week of not seeing each other, and admired a particularly impressive tree.
Saturday
Doing sprint intervals with Jacob - so painful, so good. I ran to the rhythm of Grandma's rhyme 'left, left, he had a good job and he left, right, right, it serves him jolly good right, left, left...' and heard Jacob's more complicated version of the same feet-pace-poem. Each circuit was tough, but I imagined in my head Luk Ching's encouraging shouting from AC track days 'Go Miriam!' and thought of Nat's wise words - that I don't have to run, I get to run, what a blessing! - and felt so affirmed, running to Jacob at the finish line, and hearing his encouragement (and also seeing that he shared my pain/tiredness!)
Singing American Boy in a circle with the SusSex Pistols - what a song, what a group of girls, and --- halfway through one sing-through a black Labrador walked into the room and then walked out again, disinterested, which made us all laugh.
Sunday
An interesting new beetroot muesli breakfast adventure with Jacob, and then the construction of a rhubarb cheesecake!
Sunday
Singing 'Oh praise the name of the Lord our God, oh praise His name forever more! For endless days we will sing your praise O Lord, O Lord our God' before a really heartening sermon by a visiting preacher about how 'the Kingdom of God is like a mustard seed' - small and often unnoticeable in its growth, and yet it will grow into the biggest tree in the garden. The preacher told us about his family, and how just one man in his family in 1882 had been brought to hear the gospel by his parlour maid when he was just a boy, and he heard and believed, and subsequently passed the faith down through his family, and on and on.
A rowing outing where we almost crashed into a house boat, and heard children in the boat singing at the top of their lungs 'JINGLE BELLS JINGLE BELLS JINGLE ALL THE WAYYYYY'
Evensong (Howells' 'St Pauls service', and Harris' 'Bring Us O Lord God') and then a happy formal including conversations about life museums (if you had a museum of you, what would you put in it?), the better kind of fruit salad dessert and not one but two absolute classic vestry sing-song pieces ('Noble in B Minor', very aptly put forward by Jacob, and Parry's 'I was glad')
