By Bernie Bell

“Remember  Remember the 3^rd  of November……….”

The good folk of the Orkney Marie Curie supporters group, have teamed up with the folk at Arcadia Park, to have a daffodil planting session on Sunday November 3^rd  from 11 a.m.

Arcadia Park is just across the road from the new Balfour Hospital, and has previously been featured in ‘The Orkney News’  https://theorkneynews.scot/?s=Arcadia+Park

The area has been landscaped, and is now ready for planting, so, if you’ve been dividing your daffodil clumps, or have any spare after planting your garden, please take them along to Arcadia Park next Sunday.  For that matter, any spare plants will be very welcome!

You could just contribute bulbs and plants, or suitably dressed, trowel in hand, go along and get stuck in!

At this time of year, when Orkney is wetwetwet, windy, cold – in a word – dreich, it’s hard to remember what spring can be like, but – picture it – the bulbs will be planted – in no time at all, the little green, pointy, shoots will appear – (every year, that cheers me up) – then, next thing you know, add a bit of sunshine, and we’ll have crowds ( Ok, I’ll say it “a host”) of golden daffodils – little bits of sunshine that they are.  They line the roads of Orkney, and fill the gardens…..

I can imagine  the Marie Curie ‘patch’ in Arcadia Park, come April/May – it will be a sight to raise the spirits.

And that’s what Arcadia Park is about, a place of peace and solace, for all forms of life.

If you’d like to find out more about the daffodil planting, or Arcadia Park, you can contact Bob MacKenzie, of O.A.C.A.S.  http://www.oacas.org.uk/

on 01856 874 738 , or by email  at bobm@oacas.org.uk

And, for anyone not familiar with the work of the Marie Curie charity….. https://www.mariecurie.org.uk/who

Isn’t it good, when people and organizations connect up, to produce something good, for everyone.

And a last word on Daffodils, from Mr W. Wordsworth

I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud

By William Wordsworth

I wandered lonely as a cloud

That floats on high o’er vales and hills,

When all at once I saw a crowd,

A host, of golden daffodils;

Beside the lake, beneath the trees,

Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.

*****

Continuous as the stars that shine

And twinkle on the milky way,

They stretched in never-ending line

Along the margin of a bay:

Ten thousand saw I at a glance,

Tossing their heads in sprightly dance.

*****

The waves beside them danced; but they

Out-did the sparkling waves in glee:

A poet could not but be gay,

In such a jocund company:

I gazed—and gazed—but little thought

What wealth the show to me had brought:

*****

For oft, when on my couch I lie

In vacant or in pensive mood,

They flash upon that inward eye

Which is the bliss of solitude;

And then my heart with pleasure fills,

And dances with the daffodils.