Crown Prince Wilhelm

Apologies again for my tardiness in updating this blog! Interesting how matter arise in our lives that lead us into a kind of temporary seclusion, which leaves a lot of time for sitting about in unwholesome atmospheres but brings thing to light. Family 'illness' necessitates time spent in such hospital atmospheres. Can anything be less conducive to health than being in that kind of atmosphere of a conglomeration of belief in illness? The more I see of illness, the more apparent it is that everything originates in our thoughts...but that's another story....)

For some bizarre reason, last night I dreamed of Crown Prince Wilhelm of Prussia, eldest son of the Kaiser, and wished so much this morning that I could remember that dream! The Crown Prince's memoirs were written in exile so short a time after World War I, during which he must have lived through horrendous experiences, including the daily reports of the loss of his friends and the gradual collapse of all he had been brought up to expect he would one day inherit. Like most adolescents, he seemed to go through a stage of rebelling against his father while his love for his mother casts a whole new light on a woman whom I considered rather shallow. He also is impressive in his balanced view of events - I stand in admiration of his considered appraisal of all that had happened, which sounds so balanced and thoughtful, even down to his fair descriptions of his father.

As I am presently working in a book in which he plays quite a minor role, it feels like opening a door to a whole new world of understanding. Rather than seeing Queen Victoria's family solely from the perspective of her children and grandchildren, it's interesting to see how they appeared as parents. In truth, nothing is ever as it seems, is it?

Please, kind people who drop by here, don't stop visiting because there is a delay in updating this blog...Meanwhile, here are a couple of photos, taken last week, of May time in the woods and gardens of Temple Newsam...