Autumn Cottage Diarist

Henry Moore at Kew

I’ve never been much of a fan of Henry Moore, if I’m honest. I guess that for me, he fell into the "Damien Hurst" category of being somewhat obtuse and doing things for effect – for "shock value" only.

But on Friday, I had my view changed almost instantly – not by looking at his sculptures outdoors in Kew Gardens, (Where 30 or so of his major works or on display) but in the small indoor display of his sketchbook ideas and working drawings.

Alongside some of the small maquettes of his work were some of the natural items from which he took his inspiration – a box of small flints and a larger chunk, a couple of pieces of driftwood, tree roots, a ram's horn, a shell, sheep's tooth. Suddenly, the scales fell from my eyes and all became clear – he created his forms from the natural artefacts all around him. Especially connected for me were the female figures, which seem to metamorphose from and back to the flints – Earth Goddesses of the most literal kind, drawn from the earth and merging back into the landscape again.

I walked back out into the Gardens and suddenly, transformationally, I was looking with different eyes at the pieces which half an hour before had meant little to me. Not for the first time, the sketchbooks and the natural inspirations for works of art brought the works themselves to life. After absorbing their meaning, after following the pathway that the creator took himself, I was able to appreciate something of what the sculptures were all about and what he was trying to communicate with them.

Edit the above as pretentious rubbish if you like! But enjoy the sculptures themselves in the images here. I was able to gain more by being able to see them "in the round" and with the light changing on their surface as the day passed – and we will visit again, in the winter, to see how the changed landscape around changes our perception of the sculptures. But tell me what you gain from these photographs that I might have not seen – I am willing to go on even more of a journey through your own observations.

I see a seedpod here - what is it that you see?

All the King's Gardens

Spent a wonderful day yesterday at the Royal Botanical Gardens at Kew in London – which now has another enchanting glimpse into the garden’s history, with the opening, after its recent renovation, of Kew Palace, where King George III lived the country life with his Queen Charlotte and their 15 children. (Any of you who have seen the engrossing film "The Madness of King George" will know of whom I speak).

The interior has been so sensitively restored, and, most interestingly, is only partially finished. In some of the upper rooms the restoration is still in progress – so that the construction of the fabric of the building is visible. Layers of paint are also only partially removed in places, showing how the original colour schemes were re-discovered. Projected images of previous inhabitants were particularly haunting.

Unfortunately, I was not allowed to take photographs inside, but here is a site giving an excellent tour of the Palace – either through a static picture gallery, or through panoramic views of each room. Look out for the baby house!

After the visit to the Palace, we spent the rest of the day in the gardens – first in the Palace Garden and then in the other areas of the Botanical gardens. Inspiration around every corner – one of the reasons why I took 230 photographs!

Here are some more images of the Palace gardens – next time I will share with you a sculpture tour of some of the creations of Henry Moore – an important exhibition of some of his major pieces of work starts in the Botanical Gardens from today.

The formal parterre from the upper window of the Palace

The Herb Garden

Uses of just two of the herbs - taken from old herbals!

The parterre fountain

The Bee Garden

Hercules - loitering!

More tomorrow...

The Turning of the Year

The last rose of summer

Just a brief visit to Autumn Cottage garden this morning, to capture the colours for which previous owners renamed the house. The change is rapid during these warm days and cold nights - but still there are those soft pleasures of the autumn garden combined with pangs of regret and sadness for another year starting to wind down. I find this a most poignant time of the year.

A drift of schitzostylus amongst the variegated bamboo

One thing which gives me anticipatory pleasure - I have installed a heater in the summerhouse, so will spend more time in there in the colder months than I have up until now. All my gardening magazines and journals have been re-homed there as part of the great household clear-up through the summer - so what other excuse do I need to visit with a hot cup of tea on a winter's day? But for now, enjoy its green and golden frame of early autumn.

Walk in Beauty

A memory of blue for when the grey days come

"Walk in Beauty" - those were the words with which the poet Rose Flint closed the 11^th 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...

Fungus 1 - can you identify it?

Blackberries

A lichen covered tree stump

Fungus 2?

Fungus 3?

The leafy pathway home

Collected Earth Medicine

Now why not take your own Medicine Walk today?

Autumn Blues

Look inside before you leave...

Five days into September already – and where did the summer go? – for, though warm, autumn is undoubtedly here. In the UK, where WAS the summer? We enjoyed about two weeks warm weather at the end of August, but apart from that, we didn’t really have the extremely dry, hot summer that had been forecast. Instead we had the wettest summer since records began.

I’m feeling sorry that I have not been posting here on the blog more regularly – in my defence, I was caught up in a four week whirlwind of unexpected landscaping, which resulted in an enticing little veg and herb garden being carved out for me at Autumn Cottage. No planting yet, of course – the soil was compacted into a pan through the wet weather and is still weedy, so there is much work to do on it before plants and seeds go in.

But I do have a nice new boundary and picket fence, the untidy working area ("the dump") screened off, and eight "vegbed boxes" constructed, waiting for me to paint them. The boundary fence and fence screening off the "dump" area were painted in a marathon session over two days a week ago – whereas the picket fence still awaits the paintbrush. (A nasty summertime virus knocked me over at the end of last week, so this weekend was, I’m afraid, spent flaked out most of the time, just recovering.)

Lily and Pippin are now approximately half as big again as when they arrived – and getting naughtier and more adventurous by the day. here is "His Majesty"  agreeing with the sentiment on the bag ;-)

They are being accepted – SLOWLY by Lissie, who now gives only the feeblest of token "hisses" at them if they come too close. Even that is abating – I caught her actually licking Lily’s face last night – the fact that Lily had just eaten her supper may have had something to do with it, but hey, who cares, as long as they become friends – or at least, tolerated acquaintances.

Please, can we come and sit beside you?

I do rather feel that Lissie is probably raising her eyes to heaven and muttering "Kids!" under her breath on many occasions during the day, though – bless her, she is immensely tolerant – but grateful to have a potting shed into which she can retire, at the grand old age of 2 and a quarter, to get a bit of peace and quiet!

Tolerated - for now

"Been there - done that - now what's over there to play with?"

Off, on Friday, to Leicester University and the Lapidus Annual Conference – which this year is on the theme of "Footprints – the marks we leave". I am so looking forward to this three day wordfest, and particularly to meeting up with other writing friends and hearing keynote speeches by Roselle Angwin and Satish Kumar. Roselle runs an annual writing retreat on the beautiful isle of Iona in Scotland – is it possible that I may escape to partake next year? I will investigate the possibilities.......

Satish Kumar is the founder and Editor of Resurgence magazine – which I first read in the 1980’s as a humble magazine sold in the local health food store and is now a much respected journal. Satish himself is an extraordinary person.... Read more about him and the magazine here.

And after Leicestershire – Derbyshire for two days, to visit old friends and more writing acquaintances, Chatsworth House and farm shop and the beautiful Derbyshire Dales. I’ll see you all – and bring pictures and travellers tales – when I return!