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How many times have you realised that something wonderful is just under your nose, so close that you don't even notice it? That is the case with the Thatcham Discovery Centre, one of our local wildlife reserves, just on the other side of town to where I live, just outside Newbury.
It's not one of the places I did not know about - it has been there certainly since my boys were small - we used to walk there, feeding the birds and taking my Mother for picnics. But I hardly remember visiting since she died, nearly 14 years ago - I guess I had just forgotten about it in some vague way. Now, with the spring air blowing the cobwebs away from my mind, all I want to do at the moment is be out and about, savouring the time of the year. So what better thing to do on the 'official' first day of Spring than take a walk around the lake with my camera, breathe in the air, sit peacefully with the birds? I can't really think of anything more enjoyable - and free! - so take that walk with me...this is what I saw...
Canada geese swimming in formation
The Dipping Pool - part of the educational facilities at the centre - notice the seating amphitheatre and tables for investigating what comes out of the water
Wild daffodils down the bank to one of the peaceful viewing points
A sandbank with canada geese and Mallard poking about
Goldeneye
Alder catkins, some 12-15 cms long
A pair of courting Great Crested Grebe
Dog Violets
Black-cap gull
Pochard
The willow stand alongside the centre, already almost fully green
The elegant courting dance of the Great Crested Grebes
It would have been a special day, yesterday, (as days wandering the Sir Harold Hillier Arboretum and Gardens always are for me), if it had only been for the explosion of springtime colour through the wintering brown earth. The bursting gold of the daffodils and narcissi, the yellow clouds of blossom on the Hammamelis, the pink airbrushing of the early cherry blossom. The appearance of different plants, alone, always gives me an infusion of joy, an immediate reconnection, though primarily my visual sense (though also though olfactory scents) with the totality of the natural world, of which I am just a tiny part.
Dried Miscanthus stems
Iris reticulata
Euphorbia chariacas 'wulfenii'
All this would have been enough...but I also had the pleasure of sitting in the warmth of the garden Pavilion restaurant, able to tuck into delicious Thai lentil cakes and green curry, drinking Elderflower presse and savouring what the gardens had to offer (swathes of wild daffodils spreading down the hill, the Winter garden full of colour and already beckoning me) before we made our foray out into the wild.
The heather beds in the Winter Garden
These two pleasures would have been enough...but I also had the most wonderful encounter with another species. We had walked down to the Great Pond, past the Gunneras still wearing their winter hats and for all the world looking completely dead (before they make their own grand entrance out into the world again in a month or two). We were walking up to Jermyn's House, past the Himalayan gardens and Ghurka Memorial, climbing up though the valley of burgeoning camellias, azaleas, and early rhododendrons. gazing upwards at the new blooms.
Camellia japonica
Magnolia grandiflora buds opening
Rhododendron
Distracted enough, that I almost stepped on a little Robin, bobbing about around my feet. I sidestepped, warned Alec to ‘take care!’ and fully expected the little bird (it was a vividly red-breasted cock Robin) to flutter off into the undergrowth, where a hen Blackbird was also bobbing about, fossicking in the bark chippings for insects, happily unafraid of us, but keeping her distance.
The friendly Robin
But the Robin did not keep his distance. He reduced it, hop by hop, bob by bob. He quite clearly fixed his gaze upon me, looked up at me, cocked his head from side to side, hopped closer and closer - and sang to me. He did not just sing. He sang to me. He connected his gaze with my eye, and addressed me as clearly as I have ever been addressed - by dog, by cat, by human.
He attempted to communicate with me - I did not understand what his message was - but a message he was quite clearly, and quite fearlessly, sending. It was not accompanied by any aggressive gestures; he came closer and closer, (about 30 cms away at my shoulder, when I sat on a bench) still fixing his eye constantly with mine. He warbled softly and most beautifully, directly to me, and I was immensely moved.
I suspected that he had possibly been hand fed, though when I asked one of the staff exiting the building if that was the case, he said, no, nobody there had been doing that to his knowledge, and so wasn't I lucky to be having that encounter anyway? I found it almost impossible to respond to him, because I was, quite simply, choked and overcome. Words are inadequate to describe the emotion I felt, I just know that there are many of you reading this that will know just exactly what touched my heart. One day, we will understand Them.
Helleborus orientalis - the 'Lenten Rose' - under the still-bare trees
All these things would have added up to a most delightful day - but even then, there were more special things in store. There is always an exhibition of some artistic nature in the Pavilion; yesterday, three artists were setting up their wildlife paintings in preparation for today's opening of the exhibition entitled 'Inspired by Nature'. I felt particularly deeply engaged with the art of one of the exhibitors, Daphne Ellman, who works mostly in acrylics and had produced a captivating series of paintings depicting various animals and plants present during each month of the year in the UK.
These monthly 'portraits' have been turned into a calendar, which was a lot more affordable than the originals, but still fell into my 'well, I *could' afford it, but *should' I?’ category. While I pondered, Alec stepped in, generously purchasing the calendar as my Mother's Day gift for today from him. The calendar is set for 2013, but before then, it will most certainly be dissected and framed (though where in the world I am going to find the wall space, I really don’t know!)
All these things would be more bounty that anyone could expect on one day - but the final treat was presented when I asked the artist if she did any teaching at all? One of my 'goals for the year' has been to get back to some creative activity, which I have always needed, and for a long time now have not really pursued. She answered affirmatively, and said she had a two day workshop coming up in April. I have a 30th Wedding Anniversary coming up in May, and once more, before I could do any pondering at all, Alec leapt into the breach and paired the two together!
The Birch Grove
Narcissi with Pulmonaria - a planting idea...
...and another idea - wild planting along the rustic hurdle fence to the Children's gardens
Now I have the happy anticipation of the upcoming weekend, as well as the actual pleasure of taking part. How’s that for a long-lasting gift – and don't you think my cup more than ran over yesterday??
Share a sip from my cup by listening to that Robin's song, welcoming Springtime, as well as myself!
A once-upon-a-time-hedge...Field maples at the bottom of the garden
It has been a day for gathering up the leaves at Autumn Cottage - another free harvest from Mother Nature if we care to collect. I have been 'bagging up' leaves for a few years now - piling them into black refuse bags with a few holes at the bottom and stacking them behind the sheds and fences, hidden away to break down into brown gold - leafmould, which acts as a wonderful soil conditioner and fertiliser. But there is such an abundance of leaves here each year that I rapidly run out of bags and places to hide them.
Two old fire-guards = 1 excellent new leaf cage!
This year I have had a brainwave and utilised two old safety fire guards that have been knocking around the garden for a long time. (I can't remember how I acquired them - but do remember thinking that they would come in handy for something one day). I dragged one from the bottom of the garden to join the other one that has been languishing behind the greenhouse - upended them and lashed them together very simply with some gardening wire, and lo - a large open mesh leaf-bin, some 48 inches (1.2 metres) square, into which I have been able to pile springy-sack after springy sack (collapsible garden refuse bins stiffened with a spring coil to keep them open) - 21 loads in all so far. Nearly ALL the garden leaves for this year are now piled up in there, and still there is room to spare.
A carpet of delicate maple leaves ready to be gathered into the springy-sack
There were two main carpets of leaves in the garden - those - light and delicate - at the bottom of the garden, from the field maple, and a carpet of much tougher, ligneous leaves under the apple tree. I alternated loads from each, as they all break down better if they are mixed - now all I have to do is leave them (leave them - get it? :-)) - For a year, and then add to the veg and flower beds as yet another way of returning nutrients and texturisers instead of piling them on a heap and setting fire to them. What a waste - and I do love free stuff in the garden!
I've had plenty of company as well - as the days grow much shorter, Lissie stays closer to the cottage (she apparently spends longer days with my neighbours across the road). This is why Pip appears so much more often here than Liss - but just for the record, here they are together, valiantly holding down the scraps of old carpet that are suppressing weeds prior to me digging over the beds. (Not beautiful, but very, very effective).
'Am I Not Beautiful?'
Pip then put in a solo appearance high up in the Acer branches, just to let me know that pussycats can do such things as run vertically up a tree, while Humans really can't. He enjoys looking down on me...(though there was a blue-tit flitting around some much higher branches, demonstrating to Pip that dicky birds can fly - whilst cats - er - very much can't. Oh, the humiliation!
A blue-tit enjoying the last apples, left on the tree precisely for that purpose
A (rather tatty) Red Admiral, soaking up the last rays of the sun on a blackcurrant leaf in the veg garden
Looking closely in Autumn Cottage garden reveals that Nature only *seems* to close down for the winter. Though the leaves of the Cotinus, about to fall, are truly going out in a blaze of glory, the jasmine (along with the hellebores) is bursting into full flower now, demonstrating that there is actually always something interesting and full of vitality going on in the garden - if only we open our eyes to see and appreciate it.
Purple Cotinus leaves, decaying in a dramatically decorative manner
Winter Jasmine bursting forth - always something beautiful to enjoy
Once again I invite you to stroll with me along the woodland road and into the woods near here on the walk I took two days ago into Great Pen Wood. I am so grateful to have easy access to such beauty - everyone should be able to touch and be touched by it - so you can imagine why I am especially horrified at this latest threat to some of the woodlands of the UK.
The possibility of the sale of Forestry Commission land into private hands probably heralds the possible loss of public access to much of it, with consequential deprivation of contact with nature which I believe we all need for the nourishment of the Spirit. Humans indeed cannot live by bread alone. In these economically difficult and stressful times, it seems that there is a death-wish intention by some political bodies to remove access to stress reduction and healing through this free source of immersion in the natural world, rather than increase it. One more short and narrow sighted political move with grasping financial considerations the only ones in sight. Then, as stress increases, the overburdened NHS will be called upon to hand out the antidepressants - I would prescribe a walk in the woods! I am angry and protest vehemently at this short sightedness.
But for now, I immerse myself again in nature through these images and once again find peace, as I hope you are also able to do.
Beauty in pots at the Penwood Nursery - I'll have the red one!
The vine - Vitis 'Bradt' - chosen mainly for its autumn leaf colour..though each year it has a burgeoning crop of very sweet grapes!
I'm often a mite disappointed when I get up and find that it is a Grey Day - no light and shadow, no contrast. It gives a cosy feeling indoors at this time of the year - but outside it is more of a challenge. I have realised, however, that what is challenged are my assumptions - particularly the assumption that colour is drained away in this sort of weather, and that drabness and dreariness are all that await us at this time of year.
So here are the results of a challenge I set myself in the last hour...to find colour, form and interest on this grey and grimbling day, within just the back garden of Autumn Cottage. As always, Mother Nature laid her palette of treasures before me - once I had taken the blinkers off my eyes - and my mind - and started to both look and see.
Euphorbia polychroma
Another 'last rose of summer'
The sum of my artichoke crop - better luck next year!
More of my obsesssion with decaying Hosta (sieboldiana) leaves - sorry!
More decay - Bergenia leaf
Clematis orientalis, turning from this...
... to this
Fuschia - beautiful and with imperfections (like all of us..)
Variegated Aubretia
Intangible but ever present tranquillity in the quiet corner
...and we return to Greenwich Mean Time here in the UK, I invite you to take a few steps with me along the walk I took through the woods this afternoon. It's unseasonally warm here at the moment, though more seasonally wet. So in-between the showers, this was how I spent a very enjoyable couple of hours. (Correction - not strictly in-between the showers.,..but those that caught me out found me sheltering under the canopy of leaves that were still on the deciduous trees, and the thick cover of the conifers!)
Right - have you got some comfortable shoes on? Come on, then...follow me!
(click on any image to enlarge)
Still green, but the beech leaves are falling
Debris from conifer logging
Fungi, feather, leaf
Oakleaves in stages of decay
A stand of pines
Logged pines left to decay in planned management
Multicoloured beautiful beech tree
Returning to the earth - the circle of life
Cathedral of the trees
Sunlight after shower
On the way home - looking across the fields
A sumach glowing through the gate of a private garden
Wolud you care to take another photo-walk with me around the Sir Harold Hillier Arboretum and gardens? We were only there three weeks ago, but already there are changes, and new things to see....
Some of the multitude of hellebores now flourishing in the gardens
Helleborus "Slate Blue" - and it was!
Tiny, species Narcissi
Balls woven from willow and ?, a metre or so across, hidden under the trees on the "Sculpture Walk"
Stunning white birch bark against a blue, blue sky - and one of many traceries only visible in winter
"The Bathing Girl" catching her death in the frozen pond!
The deliciously gnarled burrs on an aged tree trunk
The watercourse outside the Education Centre - the stones engraved with a multitude of plant names
Pebbles in the sunlit water
Pinus engelmanii - looking like a tropical offering in the winter chill
"Walk in Beauty" - those were the words with which the poet Rose Flint closed the 11th Lapidus Conference on Sunday, whose theme was "Footprints - the marks we carry and the marks we leave behind".
I can't begin to convey the atmosphere of the Lapidus Conferences - Creativity, intensity, passion, compassion, community - but I can show rather than tell that the emphasis this year was on "returning to the wild" in ourselves as well as into nature.
I need little encouragement, but this afternoon's "Medicine Walk" was done even more mindfully after listening to wonderful poetry and engaging with my own writing in the workshops.
Accompany me now, at the turning of the year, when the sun still carries warmth, the earth both absorbs and reflects it, and growth is abundant again after the (brief) summer hiatus. Walk in beauty with me through Penwood - and may some of your own inner peace be restored through the enjoyment of these images. (click on any image for a larger version)
Acorns in their cups
Late flowering Rhododendron Ponticum - a bee gathering nectar while it may...
It looks as if summer might have finally decided to stay for a day or two – the weather has been dry and warmer today – though with a breeze that made walking a pleasure.
I have continued the major works in all sheds, garages and garden – but, hey, the sun was shining, so I combined my "downtime" with a walk in the woods. (Officially known as "exercise" when I’m feeling guilty). I never fail to feel immensely lucky that this spectacular woodland is literally across the road from me – complete with metalled road down through its middle, and sideshoot pathways all along it for intermittent wilder forays.
So take a little walk with me down through Great Pen Wood as it was this morning – I’ll meet you back in the garden later!
Here's some new growth on a rhododendron
Let's go off the beaten track
A moth sunning itself, beetles doing all SORTS of things in the sun!
The Secret Lake
I generally freak out over unexpected spiders - but I must admit to a sneaking admiration for the contruction of this hidey-hole - (click on all these images for a bigger view)
I think that's enough wildlife for one walk!
Right. I'm back.
A couple or three more hours work and the shed is nearly finished now. The garage would be half done as well if the STUPID "no bolt" shelving bought from Homebase yesterday had actually had even 1% chance of fitting together – as it was, it was returned to the store (after much bashing with mallets and squirting with WD 40 – and for goodness sakes, that works with EVERYTHING!!) – with an admonition to the Manager ready prepared, that if he could put it together, we would accept it.
No problem – it was accepted back without question. (I will look elsewhere for metal shelving – Haynes, the furniture warehouse just outside Wantage should be a good bet. Tried FreeCycle, but nobody giving any away today. More about the shelving search anon.).
Oh, enough of all this talk of clearing and cleaning – these are the beasts in my garden that have come out to play now that the sun has started to shine – much more interesting, don’t you agree?
Firstly, Queen Beast of all she surveys......Lissie, contemplating the possible pleasures of butterfly hunting.
Here is the object of her "affections" - a lowly Cabbage White, but our own....
Observation...
Exertion...
Exhaustion... (No, she didn't catch it!)
And finally for today, the real workers of the garden on an eryngium – aren’t they just beautiful? Now I know it's summer again.
Frantically searching for Lissie this evening, as it had got dark and the cat flap had not been shut, I was drawn to the pond, where occasional plops and a quiet croaking gave away the fact that amorous activities were underway in the water.
This is what was going on - taken one-handedly with only a simple Fuji digital camera and a failing torch, I was still able to capture the froggie "boys night out".
I counted at least nine frogs skimming about on the pond - here five are in evidence, white throated mug-shots caught on camera. A veil was drawn across the final herpetological embrace in the interests of privacy (and due to the fact that the torch gave out).
Lissie came in before I got the camera - with wet leaves stuck to her tail and a wet underside. Now I think I know where she was...sat in the same place where had been watching, down by the pond, just as fascinated as I was - but probably trying, in addition, to figure out how she could walk on water (well, only a week or so she was able to :-).
Frantically searching for Lissie this evening, as it had got dark and
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