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26/03/2017

Clare Balding presents the topical faith programme for Mothering Sunday. Her guest this week is the author Clover Stroud and her faith guest is the landscape designer, Hannah Genders.

1 hour, 57 minutes

Last on

Sun 26 Mar 2017 07:00

Music Played

  • Fleetwood Mac

    Don't Stop

    • 50 Years - Don't Stop.
    • Warner Bros.
    • 009.
  • Carly Simon

    Let The River Run

    • The Very Best Of Carly Simon.
    • Global Television.
  • Alfie Boe

    Trust

    • (CD Single).
    • Decca.
    • 001.
  • The Claze

    The Liberty Song

  • Maren Morris

    My Church

    • (CD Single).
    • Columbia.
    • 1.
  • The Byrds

    Mr Tambourine Man

    • Fifty Number Ones Of The 60's (Variou.
    • Global Television.
  • Elton John

    Island Girl

    • Diamonds.
    • Virgin EMI Records.
  • Aretha Franklin

    I Say A Little Prayer

    • Aretha Franklin - Queen Of Soul.
    • Atlantic.
  • Kristyna Myles

    Heaven Knows

  • Martyn Joseph

    This Fragile World

  • Kevin Walke

    Sons Lointains

  • Al Stewart

    Year Of The Cat

    • 25 Years Of Rock 'N' Roll 1977 (Various Artists).
    • Connoisseur Collection.
  • LeAnn Rimes

    I Need You

    • (CD Single).
    • Curb.
  • Sera

    Optimist

  • Jack Savoretti

    Back Where I Belong

    • (CD Single).
    • BMG Chrysalis.
  • Madison Violet

    Trouble

  • Emmylou Harris

    Leaving Louisiana in the Broad Daylight

  • LP

    Lost On You

    • (CD Single).
    • Vagrant Records.
    • 002.
  • Supertramp

    Dreamer

    • The Very Best Of Supertramp.
    • Polygram Tv.
  • Charlie Dore

    Pilot Of The Airwaves

    • Walking On Sunshine Vol 1.
    • Kenwest.

Hannah Genders

Hannah Genders

Clare鈥檚 Faith Guest is Hannah Genders an award winning gardener who has a passion for creating beautiful gardens that are sustainable and wildlife friendly.听

Clover Stroud

Clover Stroud
Fittingly for Mothering Sunday, Clare鈥檚 main guest is Clover Stroud who describes herself as a journalist, broadcaster and mother. Clover lives in Oxfordshire with her husband and five children; where she writes about travel, motherhood, sex and adventure.听 The Wild Other is her first book.

Sera Owen

Sera Owen

Live music will be performed in the studio by Sera Owen, a Welsh singer-songwriter whose recently released 鈥楲ittle Girl鈥 album has received huge critical acclaim. Sera鈥檚 genre crossing collection of songs range from Americana to folk to rock and are sung in both English and Welsh.

Mothering Sunday: Letter To Mum by Victoria Keiller

MUM

I was too late 鈥 again.听 I really believed that you鈥檇 be there for ever but when I needed you most, you鈥檇 gone.听 I longed for your hand, your smile, your calming voice, your warmth, your hug.听 Where did our last hug go?听

A strange silence had fallen.听 An emptiness, which I had never imagined could ever exist, existed with such starkness.听 It鈥檚 strange how nothing can prepare you for it.听 Since before I was born you鈥檇 been there, the one person I took for granted more than any other because you鈥檇 never let me down.听 Whatever time of day or night I鈥檇 always known I could ring or just walk in and you鈥檇 be there, unchanged, happy to see me, no matter what our last words had been.

When other people I loved had died I knew you were always there.听 I could ring you up and you鈥檇 instantly know if there was something wrong.听 I never thought you鈥檇 go.听 Somehow I thought that, because you鈥檇 never changed, you never would.听 The security you gave me was so tangible I simply couldn鈥檛 imagine a time when I couldn鈥檛 reach you.听

Your last few days seemed to take for ever but now they seem like a moment.听 Suddenly, above me there is an extraordinary void, inexplicable, intangible, unfillable; an emptiness, a noiseless pause, a colourless, silent space. 听AVK听 27/10/2005

It was some time later when I realised that you hadn鈥檛 actually gone.听 I could no longer see your face or smell your perfume, I could no longer hear your voice or hold your hand but the less I looked for you the more I found you.听

You are in our garden where I see you in the Peace rose, the bay tree, the crocuses.听 I see you in the frost and the sunset, I see your smile in the faces of our children.听 I hear your voice when I read poetry and I see the flowers you painted so patiently when I walk among the flower beds.

You are in our home, in all the beautiful things you gave us; many of which were your special treasures; I hear you playing the piano when I play; I hear your laugh when I laugh and so often, when I find something I like, I sense you there enjoying it too.

I say things and stop myself because it is what you would have said; I laugh.听 I actually feel happy when someone says 鈥淵ou鈥檙e so like your mother鈥 鈥 how things change!

Yes, the 鈥榲oid鈥 is extraordinary but it is no longer empty; it has changed and it is full, alive, unintrusive.听 Yes, you are noiseless but I hear you, you are intangible but I feel you, invisible but I see you.

When I need you I silently call your name and I feel your strength.听 When I cry I feel your hand on my face, I hear your calming words wrap themselves around me like a cloak and I feel stronger once again. 听 听AVK 2014-16

A Poem For Mother's Day by Ali Oxtoby


My mother didn't want

chocolates or flowers

or a plant

for mothers day

she wanted . . . a poem

so a poem she got

I started off gently

I wrote that

even though she doesn't know how

she ever found time to go to work

she always finds time for us

would do anything

for us

how

she encourages us

in all our endeavours

cheering us on quietly behind the scenes

helping us become the person we could be

while proud of the person we are

how

if she were ever to disapprove

of what we were doing

she would never dream of saying

how

she accepted

through grace and gritted teeth

our adolescent moods

and the hurtful words

hurled at her in anger

at ourselves and the world

while patiently waiting

for us to return

to our true selves

knowing she was

our safety valve

I wrote about

her interest in family history

and her great pride concerning

our very tenuous, unconfirmed link

with Robbie Burns

then I got a bit cheeky

I wrote about her valiant attempt

to clear 80

years worth of clutter

when she really wants

to be painting, metal detecting

learning french

I help her shift it from room to room

like most of us

she has trouble letting go

I wrote about her love for her family

how her best holidays

her only holidays

revolve around visiting

her nearest and dearest

none of whom

live in France

I wrote about the challenge

of dealing with her addiction

...to digestives

how she bravely limits herself

to two per cup of tea

without limiting

the cups of tea

I wrote about how she gets tipsy

after one sherry

how she gets the giggles

at inappropriate times

in inappropriate places

even when she hasn't had

a sherry

I wrote about how she listens to us

with great attention

once she's found her hearing aid

and the battery to go in it

and the charger

which is almost impossible

in all that clutter

even with

divining rods

I wrote about her open and enquiring mind

and her interest in all things Ancient -

the Pyramids, Atlantis...my dad

then I got serious

I wrote about how when we were small

she wasn't the first to say

out of sheer frustration and fatigue

you'll miss me when I'm gone

I seem to remember her

actually packing her bags

on one occasion

I wrote about how lucky I am

to still have a mother

when many of my friends do not

I am especially lucky to have her

I believe

she's the sort of woman

who wouldn't mind her daughter

sharing a poem about her

with all and sundry

as long as she was

somewhere else

There!

I wrote it all down in a poem

your mother's day gift

and yes...I will

miss you


From Heart to Heart by听Ali Oxtoby (published by kind permission of the author)

Broadcast

  • Sun 26 Mar 2017 07:00