Autumn Cottage Diarist

A Gardening Angel Flew in Today!

I went to the home store this afternoon, just intending to buy two
wooden shelves, to put up in my bedroom. But of course.....I just HAD to
take a look in the garden centre attached to the store, and look what
(or rather, who) was in the "reduced for quick sale" bucket, for 50 UK
pence - about a dollar.

It's my very own gardening angel, who has now come to hover beside my garden pond, just  outside the summerhouse. And what's more - I am sure many of you will notice that this is not just ANY old gardening angel - but resembles more than just a little a real life angel that we know very well...and now she can flitter in and out, amongst the lavender, watching over the pond and garden at Autumn Cottage all year long!

And below - just for those of you who have not has a Lissie-fix for a while, is a shot of her taken a few nights ago - very late, when she had
obviously decided that I had been at the computer long enough. How's this for a heavy hint that someone is tired and hungry?

A Wet Weekend in Warwick

A week ago today I was braving the downpouring rain in Warwick, where I was
staying for a few days in pursuit of some family history background
information. The rain has continued to pour this week - but for now, I
prefer to remember some of the more pleasant parts of last weekend, when
I was able to visit some of the same places in which I imagine my great-
grandfather Thomas Latham, and his wife, Mary Amici, lived, walked and
worshipped with their 6 children.

Will you come ome for a walk with me around the town?

The first building on my route into town - and the first picture above - the Lord Leycester's Hospital, which still houses "brethren" - retired gentlemen from her Majesty's Army. Founded by Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester, and favourite of Queen Elizabeth 1.

I took tea later in the delightful Brethren's Kitchen - look out through the window to the timber framed buidings of the courtyard beyond.......

But first, up into the Market Square and the Saturday Market in full swing - this is where I sat, taking the opportunity to enjoy the sun outside the Tilted Wig hostelry, with a glass of wine, watching the world go by.....

Next, a stroll around the market, and a visit (of course!) to the Antiques Centre in the Square, in which this cabinet of coloured glass caught my eye. How I would have liked some of these pieces to come home with me - particularly those of blue milk glass.

Then on to visit the beautiful collegiate church of St Mary's.(to which I returned, on Sunday evening, for Choral Evensong ) The effigy on the tomb in the chancel, of Thomas Beauchamp (guardian of the Black Prince, Victor of the Battle of Crecy in 1346) and his wife Katherine is one I find very moving - for they seem to have been holding hands for six and a half centuries.

The church also houses the spectacular Beauchamp Chapel, in which are three magnificent tombs, of the aforementioned Robert Dudley himself, but also of  Ambrose Dudley, and, in the centre, still gilded and glorious, that of Richard Beauchamp, the founder of the Chapel.

Here he is - and notice his hands - not together in prayer - but apart - and missing, perhaps, his Earl's coronet that was once, long ago, held there?

Sunday was a dismal day. I drove out to Tudor Charlecote House - home of the Lucy family for the last 700 years - but photographs outside were disappointing - and inside were forbidden (one of the more annoying rules decreed by the National Trust which now owns the building). There were wonderful Jacobean portraits to see - but you, dear readers, are not allowed to see them.

The gardens and park - the other glory of Charlcote - were literally a wash out. So back to Warwick for lunch and an afternoon wander around the town - but this time, always dodging the raindrops. And back to church for an uplifiting Evensong with magnificent organ accompaniment to a choral rendition of "Abide with Me" - which, as ever, left me in floods of tears - torrents both inside and outside the church!

I left the church on Sunday evening in the pouring rain which had become a feature of the weekend - but walking back to my hotel, feeling ever more like a drowned rat, my spirits were at least lifted by walking past such beautiful buidings as this one - one of many still in existance in this ancient town

And finally, not long before leaving, and as the result of a conversation with some locals, I discovered one of the places that I had come to find - the place of my great-grandfathers first recorded house in Warwick. They had told me that the street still existed - but that one side had been knocked down - they did not know which one.

I prayed that it was not "my" side - and when I arrived, I could see Number 1 - hurrah!! - great grandfather had lived in Number 51 - and the odd numbers were still there.! I had discovered the row of houses - and here are all those up to No. 47....but, yes, you've guessed it - the ones I was hoping to find had been demolished to make way for the modern one there on the right. But this is what it would have looked like - if it had still been there!

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!