Autumn Cottage Diarist

Tabletop Snapshot of a Moment in Today

Sitting in the open doorway of the garden room this afternoon, proofreading an essay, drinking tea, talking to the cats, who love to stroll in and out, listening to the birds (who are more than happy that the 24 hour downpour has now stopped). Here is the "stuff" on my  oval mahogany pedestal table, (which I love), right now.....

• A Japanese Imari bowl - holding the remote control for the CD player
• Printoffs of academic papers
• A draft of my essay - which I will be glad to see the back of, now.
• My journal - to keep me company and provide an escape!
• Black gel pens
• Highlighter pens in an old pottery mug with the handle broken off
• My reading glasses - which I hate to admit I need nowadays.
• Sunglasses - we live in hope!
• A half-drunk cup of Assam tea
• Endless books - including Simon Jenkin's "1000 Best Churches" (an 'engine primer' for weekend church crawling),  "Leaving a Trace" by Alexandra Johnson (more ideas for journal keeping)..and Dorothy Wordsworth's Illustrated  Lakeland Journals.

Spanish classical guitar on the player, to remind me of the Castelo de Sao Jorge in Lisbon

Tell me about your desk or table - what does it say about you today?

Do You Have a Larder (Pantry?)

Dear Friends of Autumn Cottage Diary 

Its been a long time since I checked in with you all – the beginning of October 2007 seems so far away in many respects (and Lily and Pippin have grown even more!). Even the New Year has been slow in kicking into action here at Autumn Cottage. But I’ve finally been prompted to put finger to keyboard  after mentions of the Slow Food Movement by Britt-Arnhild and Chel of the Yahoo Armchair Travelling group .
 

Tim goes back to college tomorrow, and I had promised him that before he did, I would make and freeze a batch of home made soup for him. These soups are something of a tradition in our family – they are very much “slow food” in their preparation, but fast in the effect that they have of bringing people from the far end of the house to the kitchen, enticed by the herby, garlic-y fragrance which floats abroad when the soup is simmering on the cooker. 

So this afternoon was already designated “soup time”, but mentions of  the interest that others have in Slow Food inspired me to take a few photographs to show just how simple the making of this root vegetable soup really is. Here’s a little gallery of images to show how it progresses – and here is the recipe. You won’t find many weights and measures in it – this is cooking the way that my (our?) mother/s did it – with plenty of tasting along the way to make sure that the things which count are there!
 

We start with this - easy!

Autumn Cottage Root Veg Slow Soup

2 large onions

½ head of celery

¼ Swede

2 large potatoes

8 medium carrots

At least 4 large cloves of garlic

A bunch of sage, rosemary and oregano

About 2 tbsp olive oil

About 1 tbsp butter

2 tsp salt

1 tsp freshly ground black pepper

 

One of the most important additions - a bunch of herbs - can you smell it yet?
 

Put the olive oil, butter and chopped or crushed garlic into a large pan and allow to sweat on a very low heat for 5 minutes – (infusion rather than immolation!). 

Peel and roughly dice all the vegetables, then add to the oil and garlic. Give all a good stir, put the lid on the pan, and allow to sweat for 15 minutes. Meanwhile, boil a kettle of water. 

Add the magic ingredients – the bunch of herbs (add any that you have – fresh are better than dried, but if dried is all you have, Italian herb mixes work well – I imagine about a tbsp would do). 

Pour boiling water over to just cover the vegetables. Lid back on, bring back to the boil, then turn down the heat and allow to simmer for an hour. 

Add 1½ cups of red lentils; continue to simmer until all the water has been absorbed. A little more water may be needed as you go along if it gets too thick – different lentils absorb different amounts of water. 

Allow to cool, removing the bunch of twigs which will be all that is left of the herbs! 

Either eat “chunky” with good granary bread, or whizz in a blender for a smoother soup. Season to taste.

(Throw nothing away! Peelings  can happily be added to the compost heap - where they will miraculously turn into Black Gold for the garden over the space of a few  months - all for FREE!)

The contents of the compost bin - greens, peelings, old paper and cardboard. Magic!

My question in the title was inspired by opening the door to the larder to find the lentils (which I then dropped all over the floor when returning them to their shelf, but that is another story – Lily and Pippin have offered to clear them up – I don’t know if I should believe them?). Every time I look in that cupboard, I have a little thrill of pleasure, to see the shelves lined with packets, pots and jars - all manner of good things. 

I was determined to keep the larder when we bought “part 2” of Autumn Cottage (then called “Myrtle Cottage”) in 1995. So many people rip them out, in favour of “integrated” storage in a fitted kitchen, but, though small (what I really long for is the bliss of a walk-in Victorian larder, complete with slate and marble shelving), it is my cool repository of magical ingredients, which will transform a pot of water and humble vegetables into wholesome soups, purees, olives and pasta which will transport me back to Italy, powders and potions which will take me travelling to the Middle East and India., What a treasure nook it is! So, do you long for or have a larder? If you do, what do you keep in it? If not, what would your ideal larder be?

[I thought that these links may be of interest, noticing that several comments to this blog have noted the use of "Pantry" for what I have termed "Larder". I've certainly learned something myself - especially that there is even a website dedicated to "Everything Pantry"!]
 

Though we have travelled three months through the fallow part of the year, dear readers, there have been many changes at Autumn Cottage – and the coming year promises to see many more. Change is often difficult, and without burdening you with tedious personal details, I have found some of the changes more challenging than I expected. Looking back, I am now trying to do what I sometimes encourage my clients to do, to find the learning in all the events that have, and continue to occur. (I am SO much better at telling other people how to live their lives than I am at living my own!) 

Alec is seeking horizons new, after leaving the work he has done for 29 years. I, in turn, am now also open to the possibility of new things in my life, new directions, new adventures, new challenges – which I hope I shall continue to meet here at Autumn Cottage. 

I still continue to study at Winchester for the moment, though the openness to new challenges may include suspending those studies for a while, while I continue to build my counselling and psychotherapy practice, which will be extending more into on-line work in the next year, and also to offer many more day classes and courses here at the cottage. The new herb garden will be another place for my lovely workshop attendees to sit,contemplate, and write. here it is, in the depths of winter. Watch this space as it develops over the year.

In fact, I am returning to some of the things that first brought me to writing “Autumn Cottage Diary” on the Internet, some 12 years ago. I still want to share life here in an English country cottage with those of you who love such things – I want to return to sharing the changing seasons of the beautiful countryside with which I am surrounded, the old buildings in the interesting towns and villages which still exist – if you know where to look for them – the old bookshops, the antiques, the crafts, the good food and drink that can also still be found. 

Not every town has been completely taken over by plate glass-windowed emporia, clones of their brother and sister shops in every other town – all lookalike “Next”, Debenhams, Homebase and Tesco. The interesting and the downright eccentric still exist! (The superstores are also great – in their own way – but often very unlovely). 

So join me through 2008, as I bring the pleasures that I enjoy daily – here in the garden and house at Autumn Cottage, and when I travel in the towns and villages of England and abroad. I’ve missed you all – thank you, so many of you, for writing and telling me how much you have missed me. Your sincere concern has been heart warming to me. 

To bow out for today, who else could I leave you with other than Pippin, Lily, and Lissie (who decided to feast a day early at Christmas, ending up on the veterinary operating table the day after Boxing Day – but that, too, is another story!)

Who's bigger now? Lissie, thin and fragile but OK after surgery.

Another computer geek in the house!

 

A belated Happy New Year to you all!

Treading Quietly in January

January! By mid-day, it had hardly got light. It was blustery, blowy, misty-
drizzly - but oh, so mild. My hair looked like a birds nest - my cheeks
looked - healthy!

I have taken a walk through the woods - and it was wonderful. I felt as if all the cobwebs from the last month of hibernation have been blown away. I actually NEED to get out into Nature, to keep me from "Cabin Fever".

Here is the result of days of lashing rain - ditches and water drains overflowing. surely there can be no "hosepipe ban" THIS year?

Here are just a few images taken along the road through the woods, from
around mid-day. This is where the first of my "WoodWalks" writing day workshops will take place in February (local readers - mail me for details!)

These are some of the features of the natural world that I am privileged to have all around me here. Come for a walk along "The Drove" with me.

As you can see, I love the old, gnarled tree trunks, deeply cleft and covered with mosses and lichen, bent and  twisted into what I think is a magnificent expression of their age.

But look also how green and lush everything is already - this is not the frozen midwinter, but unseasonally warm weather - the yellow furze here is flowering months before its usual appearance. Yet one more indicator of global warming?

Then the light began to fall once again, and the misty drizzle covered the fields, but still - it was silently beautiful, peaceful and calm. Blissful to be walking in it  - the soft rain, the best skin treatment ever.

Enjoy your own winter evening..........

The Remnants of Christmas

Christmas and New Year have come and (nearly) gone – here are just a few remaining fragments. All I wait for now are the signs that springtime is on its way. The pond and the summerhouse wait for the sound of frogs and the song of the birds. The pots on the patio are waiting to be filled with waterfalls of colour again – and I wait as well for the warm sunshine to return.

Very few photographs of Christmas time here at Autumn Cottage (after I left my camera out in the rain overnight) – the sparseness of which rather parallels the paucity of Christmas cheer here this year – for several reasons, the ball never really did get rolling properly.

But at least I’m now lucky enough to have a new mobile phone (after no updates for five years!) – which came with an onboard camera with nearly as many pixels as the one left out in the rain – so now I can capture the early part of the year and share it with you here. Losing the use of a camera was like losing part of my anatomy!

I’m hoping that at least one of my online friends, Rose, will be taking tea with me in this summerhouse in a few months time – I have the tea (sent from another ACJ friend, Dora) - I’m already getting ready the table linen, and where are the china cups?

Almost the Adventure!

In three days time, Liz and I will board a train from Waterloo station in London to Paris, on the first stage of our adventure  to Venice. More here when I return......for last minute updates, visit Ladies of a Certain Age.

See you all in a couple of weeks time!

Pottering About in Winchester

Can you think of a nicer way to spend an afternoon than browsing through secondhand books underneath cathedral arches, having lunch in  a 250 year old pub, or wandering around the streets where Jane Austen lived - and died?

This is how Alec and I spend an afternoon when we want comfortable familiarity rather than adventure. We quite happily do the same things most times that we visit - first a look around the open air market, then a visit to the Oxfam bookshop.

On to the Cathedral Green, through the arches and the Cathedral precincts to the Wykham Arms, where the menu is always wonderful and the atmosphere embracing and courteous.

Until the rains of Autumn come, there is also an ongoing book sale underneath the arches at the back of the cathedral - so we always sit down to lunch with a pile of books to browse through. (It's a tough old life - but somebody has to do it!)

Nelson said that "England expects every man to do his duty" - you can see that such are the temptations on the menu at the Wykham Arms, that Alec is still carrying out his expectations - by eating - TWO puddings - for England!

While just around the corner from "The Wyk", I take a stroll (to walk OFF the pounds) past the very modest house where Jane Austen spent her last days.

O. lovely autumn afternoon, in this most lovely English cathedral city - am I not blessed with great good fortune to be so near to these delights, Gentle Readers?

Timber Frames and Cottage Gardens

Though it was a very wet day, it was a delight to walk along the back lanes of the ancient Oxfordshire village of East Hagbourne (mentioned in the Domesday Book of 1086) on Thursday - to see the cottage gardens.

The flowers in these gardens are starting to "go over" a little now, leaves are beginning to yellow. Sunflower heads are starting to drop, seed heads are browning and bursting. But now the vegetables are coming into abundance.

The gardens I enjoyed a couple of days ago were what cottage gardens should be all about - vegetables and flowers mixed together in beautifully orderly beds, or scrambling about and falling over each other in beds, nooks and  crannies of many shapes - corners of earth
utilised wherever they are found, beds shaped to fit in wherever a patch of earth is accessible.

Every last square inch of space seemed to be utilised including the yards, alleyways and paths alongside and behind the cottages as well as in the bigger, "proper" gardens that were on show. Every corner filled with flowers, fruit and  vegetables, giving forth, from now on, the
Autumn crops of marrows, pumpkins, cabbages, runner beans romping up bamboo wigwams.

And in the orchards, apples bow the trees down with their weight, while free-range chickens feast on the windfalls.

These Little Edens are an inspiration - are you feeling inspired to plant something yourself next year - making your own little cottage garden? If not, just enjoy the beauty of yet another ancient English village - and wish these little characters being fed in the Church porch Godspeed on their Autumn journey south.

Village Glimpses

A few images of village life in peaceful little North Waltham,
just outside bustling Basingstoke in Hampshire, and only a few miles
from Steventon, the birthplace of Jane Austen.

Today the ducks were a dabbling, up-tails all, pelargoniums were cascading from pots and around cottage windows, and the old red telephone kiosk brought back memories of English daily life fifty years ago.

These gentle, delightful villages do not just exist on the covers of chocolate boxes - they are still here, minding their own business and getting on with things in an understated way, down leafy lanes, hidden from view, all over this island.

If you visit, and you promise not to disturb the inhabitants (human or animal) - I might even show you where to find more of them!

Taking Solace in Gardens

Lots of changes going on for me - probably good for me if only I could
see the wood for the trees - but at the moment, the trees cast long shadows.

So I do what I've done before - I take refuge in gardens - my own - my friends, any garden that will have me. I get down close to the earth, to dig, and plant, and not think too much - other than where the next planting will be sited.

And I visit other gardens...the first images here are taken on a walk around the village of Blewbury in Oxfordshire -
it's difficult not get inspiration and solace from the peace and beauty of an ancient English village in June.

I've been trying to do a lot of work in Autumn Cottage garden around the pond this weekend (though the bug which has plagued me since returning from Portugal is still not gone, so "work" in the garden has consisted of 15 minutes work and five minutes rest/collapse!). Raining today, so not so much done, as the weedy area - the last to get a layer of bark chippings, has already hardened, making it difficult to pull the weeds. The showers will moisten it - I should be able to do more tomorrow.

  On Friday, I spent an "R&R" afternoon with my dear friend Liz. We "mooched" around the local Antiques Centre, (where I found a carved screen and the Italianate pottery cornucopia of vegetables that now sits as a "bit of fun" in the garden) - had a nice pub lunch surrounded by
hanging baskets and overflowing tubs of flowers, and then returned to her house and garden.

It's the sort of house and garden that make me rush home and wield the planting fork again! Here are some images of the afternoon to enjoy while I wait for the rain to stop :-)

Thorns Around the Heart - Roses Round the Door

Haunted by too many ghosts to stay inside right now, so this afternoon, to Avebury - site of the striking, mystical, prehistoric stone circle in Wiltshire. It was a gloriously sunny day and the village, which sits in the middle of the stone circle, was not too busy with visitors (the numbers of which can become overwhelming at times).

Instead, the only abundance was manifest in the roses which have started to smother the fronts of village cottages and announce that Spring is over and Summer is really here!

I was also able to visit the Henge shop, to pick up a book on dream work and give myself the gift of a lovely Celtic knot necklace to inspire me when working in my journal writing workshops.

I had hoped to visit Avebury Manor and garden, owned by the National Trust - but wouldn't you know it? - today was one of the two days in the week on which it is closed. C'est la vie - means I will have to make another visit sometime soon.

For now, just walk the stones, enjoy the peace and smell the roses with me.