Autumn Cottage Diarist

In and Out of the Garden

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.

Recycle with FreeCycle!

About a month ago, a friend on another list mistakenly sent a post
intended for her local (California) FreeCycle list to our writing list
instead. I had investigated FreeCycle a year or so ago myself, but since
the closest local branch was then in Swindon (an hours drive away) I
didn't follow it up any further.

On reading my friend's post, however, I was prompted to investigate
again, and discovered that there is now a very local (Newbury) branch -
since when, I have been having a wonderful time passing on items that
are of no use to me, not much monetary value to anyone else, and would
otherwise have ended up in the local land fill.

So far, I have passed on an aquarium, a rabbit hutch, a knitting machine, three dolls houses
& children's toys and am just awaiting the collection of a rowing
machine and on old sewing machine - all going to people who can make use
of them instead of them gathering dust and cluttering up the house.

I also acquired a couple of items - a lovely old desk which now resides
in the summerhouse, and a couple of tables which have been given a good
home in the studio - one persons trash is definitely another person's
treasure in this organisation - why not check out your local FreeCycle
branch yourself and become part of the whole wonderful network of
recycling!

On another note - I read this poem from this morning's daily email
posting of Garrison Keiller's excellent "Writer's Almanac" and thought
of my heroic friend Carolyn at TumbleweedandThyme.  I'll leave you to
read the full story on Carolyn's blog of the events which b efell
Carolyn's dear husband Arnie and the changes it brought to all their
lives - but once you have read their story, you will understand why this
poem held such meaning for me.

This one is for Josh and Arnie, Carolyn....

Poem: "The Friday Night Fights" by Ronald Wallace, from Long for This
World: New and Selected Poems. (c) University of Pittsburgh Press, 2003.

The Friday Night Fights

Every Friday night we watched the fights.
Me, ten years old and stretched out on the couch;
my father, in his wheelchair, looking on
as Rocky Marciano, Sonny Liston, Floyd Patterson
fought and won the battles we could not.
Him, twenty-nine, and beat up with disease;
me, counting God among my enemies
for what he'd done to us. We never touched.

But in between the rounds we'd sing how we'd
Look sharp! Feel sharp! Be sharp! With Gillette
And Howard Cosell, the Bela Lugosi of boxing.
Out in the kitchen, my mother never understood
our need for blood, how this was as close as we'd get
to love-bobbing and weaving, feinting and sparring.

Rain, Rain, PLEASE Go Away!!

Oh, where has the British summer gone? For more than two months now, we have suffered torrential rain and serious flooding over large parts of England – it was our turn in Berkshire (along with Gloucestershire and Herefordshire) to suffer considerable flooding a week ago, and now, as I look out through my window, it is pouring down again. The reflection of the Portuguese china swan "floating" in my conservatory window tells the whole story of what we have seen too much of these past few weeks - RAIN!

For several years now, we have had empty reservoirs, water shortages and hosepipe bans here in the UK – this year, it is somewhat different! The gardens that are not flooded are loving it, in the warm and the wet they are flourishing – the grass is emerald green, but the flowers are struggling a bit – they really do need some sun now – along with the humans!

Here are some images from the local newspaper, the Newbury Weekly News, to show what the locality had to contend with last Friday. We are lucky at Autumn Cottage, we live on a little hill, so the water drains away – but on Friday last, the drainage from the fields took the form of a torrent down the road.

Time to switch the sunshine back on now, methinks!

Hidden Corners in the Garden

At last the sun came out in (part of) England this weekend, so I spent most of it in the garden. I took two areas of challenge to attack – a small bed by the side of the top garage, and a corner beside the summerhouse that had become a longer-term-than-expected dumping ground for bags of bark chippings.

I am recreating areas of the garden with the intention of making peaceful corners of surprise for anyone who visits them. Not just for the family, but for anyone who might take a writing or other creative course here at the Cottage, where I hope people can enjoy the whole atmosphere of being somewhere interesting and welcoming, apart form the actual experience of participating in a class. Nothing is nicer than being able to sit by the summer pond, with pen and journal, surrounded by dragonflies and birdsong.

Here are the results of my effort – the garage bed is still being dug, so you can see that at a later date when it is fully "transformed" (along with all the dozens of seedlings that I rescued from amongst the weeds) – but here are the before (above) and after (below)  pictures of the corner beside the summerhouse.

There is still some finishing off to do – juggling a few more pots and plants around, staking the "Buddha post" and putting gravel or pebbles on the earth in the pots, and you can’t hear the wind chimes hanging in the summerhouse porch, but they add even more to the atmosphere, which I admit has turned out exactly as I had hoped. A definite improvement on garden centre packaging, anyway.

The "resident" of the black bags (containing my own bark chippings) - the grass snake, was none too amused, though – sulked in the pond for most of the day. With a rustle and a twitch of the tail, here is s/he inspecting the "improved" corner, before deciding where a suitable new place for basking may be.

And while I was reshaping the landscape, here are the "supervisors". At least Alec helped to lift bags and fetch intermittent cold drinks, – whereas Lissie? All she was good for was overseeing the process from a comfortable cushion.

Nothing changed there, then!

Now who will come sit with me in the summer shade of the garden? Bring your pen and your journal - a nice cool drink will await you under the trees.

Oh, My Sides Hurt!

Taking a mosey around the blogs in an idle moment (or sixty) this evening, surfing awhile, I came across Arse Poetica  (A glorious name - I wish I'd thought of it!) - and have been rocking in my chair holding my sides ever since. I just had to come to tell you all about it (OK, you probably all know about it already, being more savvy than me!).It's a wonderful place - the author has a healthy distain for exactly the same people and institutions as I do - so she MUST be right, RIGHT?!

(icon taken from above blog without permission - so please go visit to absolve me!)

Autumn Cottage Corners

Just a few snippets of life at Autumn Cottage today. Above, some nice old pieces (though battered and chipped) of blue and white Chinese pottery, which look at home on the mahogany clothes press in the corner of the conservatory. The Edwardian painting of autumn fruits and berries behind the bowls is by an amateur hand, and seems almost "painted to order" for our home (it wasn’t!). I couldn't resist the barn owl, bought at a local Garden Centre last year, sitting amongst a selection of air plants. Barn owls are (yet another) passion of ours.

Down by the pond, the acanthus is in full bloom – I love its juxtaposition with the yellow-green/variegated bamboo. Wouldn’t it make a lovely colour scheme for a garden room? (Perhaps I’ll carry the colours inside the summerhouse when I repaint there).

Back inside the conservatory, the barn owl is watching for an early supper – while the White Rabbit is perusing his watch. Oh, my ears and whiskers – is THAT the time? It must be time for a Nice Cup of TEA!!

A Bit of Scrappy Fun

Ploughing on through the big book-sort-out here at Autumn Cottage, I discovered this book of genuine, old Victorian scraps which always attract me. These were immensely popular as a Victorian pastime, being sold as pre-cut sheets, which only needed to be separated from one another. I particularly love the draught screens that one sometimes sees in antique shops, covered with these scraps – how many winter’s evenings did some of those take to make, I would like to know?

For any of you who enjoy playing with old crafts, the image above is high resolution – click on it, then right click on the image to save it, print it out, cut it out and play with it - perhaps even send me an image if you do anything fun with it!). (Tip – the children make lovely dummy boards for dolls houses).

Happy Scrapping!

National Shed Week

I didn’t know it – but my fondness for the summerhouse and the clearing out of the top garage to make a studio seem to make me an unwitting but enthusiastic participant of "National Shed Week", which is apparently in full swing here in the UK this week.

Listening to a feature radio programme on "Woman's Hour" this morning, it was pointed out that sheds have traditionally been thought of as a male refuge – but NO LONGER! Some of the "sheds" featured on the programme were anything-but the traditional "8 x 6" wooden structure at the bottom of the garden – but now anything goes – a shed is whatever you decide it should be. The idea and the ethos you create are more important – "shed-hood" is a state of mind as much as a physical place.

Take a look and listen at some of these delightful domains (especially "The Garden Station") and if you have a shed (in any sense of the word) of your own, write and tell me about it - I'll put pictures up if you send those, too.

Here are some more inspirational refuges - and for more ideas on what to do with the interiors (not strictly sheds, more studio spaces and home offices), take a look here - choose a desk - and enjoy them all!