Autumn Cottage Diarist

More Gardening for the Spirit

I grew this!

When my soul needs to heal, I go back to the soil, to "The Peace of Wild Things".

The garden can bring beauty and produce, but I have long felt that there is also a tremendously healing energy in the garden, something powerful about getting your fingers into the good earth, getting back to nature.

Here is just one author who expresses this so well - Buddhist teacher and organic gardener Wendy Johnson, who has just published a new book  - "Gardening at the Dragon's Gate", and speaks about the themes in it here, at this interesting podcast.

So much to learn - enjoy!

Gardening for the Spirit

Up at 5.30 this morning, as Lissie had decided to rattle the door from the kitchen to my hall. I thought it was a case of "urgent necessity" - went down to let her out...she promptly climbed back up on her chair in the kitchen, curled up and went back to sleep!

The order of the day when this sort of thing happens is - cup of tea, and back to bed with a book and my journal! There is something very blissful about being able to go back to bed - something I don't often do, but just sometimes...aaaah! it is lovely!

 

The favourite book on my bedside table just now is "Soul Gardening", bought for 50 pence ($1.00) from "Sally Anne's" -  the Salvation Army charity shop in Newbury last week, written by ex-priest now gardener and garden designer Terry Hershey. He tries a bit too hard to be clever with the words to begin
with, but once he settles down and just focuses on  gardening, he becomes less self conscious and does express many sympathies that are so in tune with my own.

He has some interesting things to say about how he changed his mind on what can be described as "Everyday Sacred", a sentiment expressed and exemplified every day by my good friend Fran Redondowriter  on her inspirational blog  "Sacred Ordinary". And here he is describing a visit to an English cottage garden, where he had been absorbed for two hours "immersed ...into the mosaic of colour and the jumble of scents"..

"It's not easy, to just sit. I wanted to be productive in my sitting. I wanted to describe what I was seeing, what I was feeling. I wanted to find the right words or take a picture, wanting to find a container for this moment. Before long, the internal manic cadence begins to lose its steam. And your eyes begin to refocus. Off come the shoes and you settle in, to revel in the gift.

And on this afternoon, you pretend to be characters in some Victorian novel, enjoying tea under the pergola, served by butlers, no less, and serenaded with the continuous hum of bees busily absorbed in honeysuckle and delphinium. On this afternoon, you play guessing games with white cloud shapes and relish the buoyant blue  sky and the lavish waste of time.

For there is something about the whole experience that provokes a replay of the lazy summer afternoons of childhood, laying belly-up under the apple tree, grass stem in mouth, a remembrance of the time when one unquestionably expected fantasies would come true and when ordinary wardrobes did indeed lead to the land of Narnia"

This passage rings so true with me, especially after yet another lovely autumn day today, the sort of day that I, like the author, have struggled to describe, to capture evocatively in my journal. The fleeting, ephemeral atmosphere is almost impossible to capture, which is perhaps what makes it so special, and why we should just enjoy it with abandon while we can.

Hershey mentions photography as one way of capturing the moment, and here is just such a moment in the photo below, captured over 100 years ago,from an old photograph album that I am currently scanning. Taken in the late Victorian/early Edwardian period, do you think that the people in the picture have also spent a lazy summer afternoon, listening to the bees and taking tea on the lawn. I rather think they may have done, don't you?

( Click on the image to enlarge it, so that you may enjoy looking at the fascinating detail at your leisure. Email me if you would like an even higher resolution image)

As the Vine Leaves Turn...

The most perfect Autumn day, warm, sunny, golden, calm - and yet filled with the melancholy that autumn days like this instil, with foreknowledge of the dark and wintry days to come - even if they have their own wild glory.
Days like this have been rare and fleeting this year - so to be enjoyed even more when they do occur.

Here are just a few images of the patio at Autumn Cottage today, where I
sat under the vine (replete with purple grapes again), with Pip, to write in
my journal. 

Pip pretending to be asleep, while attempting to keep one eye on the blackbird eating grapes above his head

 

Ted Bowman - Spreading the Good Words

Jon C. and Ted Bowman at Autumn Cottage

I had the pleasure of the company of Ted Bowman, Author, Educator and a  member of the American National Association for Poetry Therapy yesterday afternoon - and what a pleasure it was for me and my colleague at Cruse Bereavement Care, Jon C.

Ted is in the UK for his annual visit to travel all over the country, giving talks and leading inspirational workshops, focused chiefly in the area of loss, hope and transition. Today, he is here in Newbury, talking to other local educators, and this evening working with us at Cruse to discover how we can practice self-care in the caring professions.

Already familiar with Ted's spoken and written work, I can be sure that there will be emphasis on deep listening and witnessing of our own stories, those of our clients and within our own communities - and the use of poetry and writing as a resource for us, both at times of "Loss of Dreams" and to help in "Finding Hope When Dreams Have Shattered" - the titles of Ted's first two books.

His third book, just recently published, and entitled "Crossroads - Stories at the Intersections" is a collection of musings and reflections on different life issues - birth, marriage, divorce, growing old, dementia, bereavement, lamentation, reconciliation and rejoicing, personal observations in poetry and prose of how Ted has experienced these events and feelings, and  interlaced with  other authors poems which have struck a particular chord with him.

The wonderful poem entitled "The Archbishop Chairs the First Session" (click link then scroll down) by Ingrid de Kok, about Archbishop Desmond Tutu and the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in South Africa pierced me to the core - and there are many other pages that I know  will give readers considerable pause for their own thoughts and reflections.

"Crossroads" is a marvellous resource for anyone who is interested in their own or other's life writing in any form - when Ted arrived yesterday, I already had practically every other page flagged up with sticky markers to ask about various thoughts and reflections of my own! Such rich pickings can be gleaned from all three (very inexpensive) books, which I would suggest should be on the bookshelves of anyone interested in the arts of living and communication. (No affiliation, just enthusiasm!)

Jon and I share a mutual enthusiasm for creative ways of working with clients as fellow human beings, including the use of poetry and  therapeutic writing. It's such  a pleasure to see these ways of seeing and sharing now becoming more incorporated in mainstream therapeutic work here in the UK - and it is thanks to the advocacy of  people like Jon and Ted, two true gentle-men, that information about  the creative therapies is being disseminated and  integrated.
Long may it continue!

(Details of Ted's books and workshops are available from him at
[email protected].)

Turning a Leaf at the Equinox

Cercidophyllum by the summerhouse turning multi-golden hues and smelling like toffee

Sarah Ban Breathnach writes in her entry in "Simple Abundance" for  the beginning of September...."Since ancient times, September has been viewed as the beginning of the new year, a time for reflection and contemplation....when the leaves start turning colours, its time for turning over a personal new leaf so that our lives may be restored"

Glennie Kindred, in "Sacred Celebrations - a sourcebook"  observes  that "Here, at Autumn Equinox, the earth's energy is balanced between the inner and outer worlds. Now, at this point of balance, look back on what you have achieved and plant the seeds of where you wish to go"

Fennel flowering in the herb garden, apples on the tree

Nature's naturally exquisite colour combinations - the green and purple of a milk-thistle

It was this concept that inspired the name of my own counselling and
personal development business, Turnaleaf, in which I encourage my
clients to "turn a leaf in your journal, turn a leaf in your life".

On this day of the Equinox, when nature in the northern hemisphere now
turns to a gathering in, and when we ourselves think of drawing inwards
towards shelter and warmth, will any of you turn your thoughts inwards, to
think about what you yourself want to manifest in your own lives? Will
September be the beginning of a New Year of the Spirit for you?

Harvest! My own sweet red onions, grown in the veggie garden. Simple abundance!

Some members of my much loved on-line writing group, Collective Journey, have decided to create vision boards over the next few weeks, to visually manifest and affirm changing and new pathways in their own lives. These boards are apparently a "big thing" in the book and film of "The Secret", though I was introduced to the idea several years ago - way before their appearance there,  by Kathleen Adams, in her book "Journal to the Self". Creating my own visual imagery in my training to teach journal writing for self development was a revelation, and I have used it and taught it, and valued it ever since.

Sedum breaking into flower

My new Vision Board goes on my wall tonight, as I "Turn a leaf" in my own thoughts for the future. Will any of you join me? As Sarah b-B comments "September resolutions only ask that we be open to positive change. ...The beauty of Autumn resolutions (manifestations/visualisations) is that
no-one else knows we're making them."...That is, of course, unless you care to share them here  with me!

Photographs are of the glorious autumn day today here at Autumn Cottage - a perfect day to visualise good things for the future.

Stately fronds of pampas grass

A late-flowering rose

Turning inwards to contemplation

On the Boot Sale Trail again!

Royal Copenhagen pin trays

I've been to few car boot sales in the last two years - perhaps four or five - but I have recently been seduced by a new enterprise that has started on a Sunday morning at the local racecourse. I've been very restrained, but my sharpened eye has been lucky enough to find some real treasures - and here are some of the items that I acquired today.

The Royal Copenhagen pin trays are in perfect condition, and a real bargain at just one UK Pound each. They do sometimes come covered in grime though - so here are the "nuts and bolts" of my cleaning box

 
- all sorts of things here, from lemon juice and salt to silver and brass polish - cleaning is sometimes the most fun part of the whole operation - there is nothing like seeing a filthy piece of china or brass cleaned and polished to perfection!

I've given up collecting "dolls" as such, but now do keep an eye open for wooden figures, which are usually much smaller. These are eight fun little Japanese wooden dolls, accompanied by two fabric covered Kimekomi dolls - three pounds for the lot!

And just one more piece of glass for the collection - surely there is room for this?

Finally, I could not resist these items below, again for just one pound - more of a curio than anything else. A pair of Victorian children's wooden and leather clogs - how hard and narrow they are - and how little the child wearing them must have been - nothing of "the good old days" about these!

I've had a fun morning, and now have my younger son conquering the jungle of grass in the garden for me (interspersed with many cups of tea!) - so I have good company as well.

Tell me - what are you doing an this autumn Sunday?

The Librarian as Very Important Person

My virtual friend, the poet, librarian and woman of inspiration Amy Christman, (read more about her here, on another friend Redondowriter's excellent blog) gave me a "heads up" today on this exceptional performance, by poet Jon Goode, extolling the values of the Way of the Librarian.

Watch, listen and inwardly digest these words, dear readers, they are words of wisdom, which we would all do well to heed.

The Duchess

To see the new film "The Duchess" tonight, with Keira Knightley in the eponymous role of the 18th Century Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire. Exquisitely lit, gorgeous costumes, stunning sets (including the glorious scenery of Chatsworth House in Derbyshire) - and the story - particularly the latter part, may well break your heart. It certainly had me in tears.

It is a story of the  British aristocracy - of how the 5th Duke of Devonshire wed Georgiana Spencer when she was but 17, and used her to provide a son and heir, while he philandered elsewhere -  and in his patrician manner, could not fathom why she found it unacceptable. As he comments to her in the film "you can do nothing, I control it all". Was it ever thus.

As an ancestor of Diana, Princess of Wales, the "Diana link" is heavily alluded to (though the Director denies this, it is plain to see...) - even to introducing gestures and poses that became iconically associated with Diana. One scene has the Duchess, Georgiana, swooping down to greet her children, much in the manner of the images of Diana greeting her boys Harry and William on the Royal Yacht. If you see the film, see if you notice  the many other similarities.

Notice also the parallels with the ever disintegrating relationship between Charles and Diana, another loveless marriage between a man fatally emotionally damaged  by his upbringing, and a wife who was not enough for him, however hard she tried. Over two centuries, nothing really changes....does it?

Make haste to see this film - take your tissues with you, buy the more comprehensive biography by Amanda Foreman to read and learn more later, and be ready to swoon over  the delectable Ralph Fiennes, who makes up for in physique what his character lacks in empathy!

(Oh, and watch all the video clips on the film link above - they really are very  informative)

Diana, Lily - and Jane

Diana Birchall
(Image courtesy http://lightbrightandsparkling.blogspot.com)

I am fortunate to have made many "virtual" friends via this blog and several e-mail lists to which I have belonged  for many years. The longest of all those associations is with the "Collective Journey" private writing group, which has become more like a family to me, and with whom I have written for at least ten years, and my own "Autumn Cottage Journalers", another small, closed group of strong and generous women who support each other and share many aspects of our life stories.

But I have also greatly enjoyed the company of members of "Armchair Travelling" - a group founded by Britt Arnhild Lindland, the fine woman who introduced me to the owner of the apartment in Venice where I have stayed on two occasions - so far! Now I would like to introduce you all to another member of that list, the author and literary critic Diana Birchall, an authority on Jane Austen, who has a passion for Venice - but, for the last year, has also had a passion for Lily and Pip.

Diana  became a surrogate Aunty to the babies, and shared the distress at Lily's passing. In a deeply generous gesture, she has penned a poetic eulogy to darling Lily - which she has given me permission to share with you. This will go straight into Lily's memory book.

A Tribute to Lily

The most beautiful cats in the world, those two.
And lucky Roz!  They lived with you.
Gold and silver statues that danced
From far away I watched, entranced.

How sad that this perfect, purry pair,
So sly and gentle, soft and fair
By sudden death were torn apart
Breaking an admirer's cat loving heart.

Sometimes this happens with people, too.
Loving with love that's deep and true
But cruelly, one goes before the other
And that is life.  We must recover.

It's tragic that lovely Lily left so early.
With her eyes like jewels, and fur so pearly.
Our golden Pippin's a bereft little beast
Please give him some pats from me, at least.

And love.

Diana Birchall

Thank you, Dear Diana, for such a gift.

And as I have been reminded of Jane A - here are just a few images from Steventon,  near to where I live, and where Jane Austen was born, for Diana and any other Austen admirers who read these pages.

The little church at Steventon, birthplace of Jane Austen

Interior of the church - notice Victorian stencilling on the choir screen

Kneelers depicting a silhouette of Miss A

The last resting place of Jane's brother

Mother Nature has a breakdown!

If you go down to the woods today...as I did, partially to collect resource
material for a future writing workshop, partially to re-connect with the
places that give my soul peace, you would have seen that Mother Nature
has started to orchestrate her own Autumnal breakdown, which is as much
in the scheme of things as the bright explosion into life of Springtime.
Though the pathway looks gloomy, much minute treasure lies hidden.

Common puffball

We have had heavy rainfall for the past two days (a respite today and then
more to come later in the week, according to forecasts), but it is still warm
- perfect conditions for the breakdown to start.

A puffball in a later stage of decay - a multiplicity of textures, beautiful in their own way

Here are some photographs
of the ephemeral beauty that can burst forth from the earth as active
components in the mechanism of breakdown - the fungi that weave their
mycelia underground and beneath the bark of trees, only to show
themselves to our gaze, sometimes flamboyantly, as fruiting bodies. (No
scientific names are attached to these images as yet - I wanted to show
you their diversity straight away - the words can come later!)

And if you live in the Northern hemisphere, is there anything surprisingly
bursting forth in your own life, in contrast to the closing down of Autumn?

The inocuous mycelial threads beneath a stump that do all the work out of sight

Mother Nature is abused by Something Nasty in the woodpiles - the"excrement" left behind by local Yokels.

Tiny jewels - each only 1 cm across. Mother triumphs again.