Autumn Cottage Diarist

Blissful Summer Days are Here

Acquilega

Those balmy, blissful summer days have arrived - calling me away from my desk, into the garden, onto the patio...down to the pond...where the white acquilegias - which glow mysteriously in the evenings, are in flower just now

I'm lucky to have a window in my office which opens to overlook the garden, though - a window which I keep open all through the day - so that Lissie and Pip can come and go as they please. Not much coming and going in the warm weather...more a case of "please do not disturb our sleep" and on the warm earth - who can blame them? Here they are..resting, instead of play-fighting - for once :-)

(They also both say how excited they are that Aunty Diana is coming to Winchester - and much more importantly, to visit them, and chide me for not replying to her last message - which I will do over the weekend!)

Treasure Hunting on a Friday Afternoon

Antique glass and inspiring room settings in this £3.00 charity-shop bargain book from Hungerford

I've loved Friday afternoons ever since I was five years old, when it was "paint and clay time" heaven in my infant school. The sense of anticipation and "Play-time" has stayed with me ever since, not even dampened by my later years in my Grammar School, (Newport High School in Monmouthshire),  where Friday afternoons meant double maths and Physics lessons!

Play time for me still calls on a Friday afternoon, when I often drive to Hungerford for just an hour's browsing in the charity shops and Antiques Arcade. I think even I excelled myself in the treasure-economy stakes today - since I acquired ALL the items below for under a total of five UK pounds (approx $8.00). Credit crunch - get thee behind me - there are still hundreds of treasures to be found for a pittance!

These two sadly damaged little characters were a mere 25 pence (50 cents) each - missing arms a plenty, but otherwise of fine quality modelling and painting. They will go at the back of the china cabinet, where their "armless" nature will go unheeded.

This gentleman was more expensive, at one whole UK pound - a nice addition to my collection of Victorian chimney figures which would have been cheaply produced at the time, but I find full of naive folk charm.

No visit to the Arcade is complete without leaving with a couple of books - today I brought a copy of "Spanish Still Life from Velazquez to Goya" - of which, more later...and also this intriguing book detailing "Five Centuries of Women and Gardens"...

No doubt there will be some ideas in there which will inspire me in Autumn Cottage garden over this coming long Bank Holiday weekend. Fingers crossed for good weather - there is a LOT more digging to do out there!

I'll leave you with the most interesting find of all for me - an image of four of the twelve Victorian mourning cards which I discovered in the Junk shop - all 12 for a pound, and very relevant to my present studies

Quite fascinating, for only two of them even mention Death in the flowery verses inside...choosing to make all manner of other allusions, such as "falling asleep", "nipping in the bud" "going to join the happy throng", "Passing Jordan" and "withdrawing to heaven".

Well, I'm withdrawing to heaven right now - but in my case, that means ONLY going downstairs for a cup of tea on the patio - don't worry, I'm not intending to "Join the Happy Throng" just yet - I'll be back sometime very soon!

Procrastination Central!

I want to spend today here...

The veg beds

 When really, I should be here.....

 But it's SO much nicer here...

With Lissie, down by the pond

 Or here...

The herb garden

Or here...

The summerhouse

 Well, wouldn’t you? I take a walk around outside each morning – and though I really should have my head deep in my books, reading papers and writing today, I have found it really difficult to drag myself away from the garden, which is just so very lush and verdant at the moment. It’s a combination of sunshine and heavy showers, but it is making this May an exceptionally abundant one.

Chelsea Flower Show is on at the moment and my suspicions have been confirmed – many of the experts commentating from there have been making the same observation that I have done over the last couple of months – this is also an exceptional year for blossom in the UK.

OK – that is another half an hour of procrastination that I have spent, writing this blog (coming back to blogging has given me another excuse not to work!) – but now I suppose I really must get on. I’ll leave you with two old-fashioned oil heaters that are knocking around in the veg garden

(I use them as plant stands, indoors and out) – time to give them a coat of paint to spruce them up, do you think – or leave them just as they are? (Carolyn – I know you will say “Stay your hand!”)

 Now - shall I take my laptop down to the summerhouse to work? Hmm... the summerhouse is so untidy after the winter....perhaps I ought to spend an hour - or two - tidying up down there before I get down to writing?

Now Remind me What I was Saying...?

Clematis over the front door last week

Oh, I know. Sigh. I have been away for far too long - again. No excuses - except to say, as always - so much to do, so little time. (Actually, there have been one or two reasons - a few health issues and other things to cause delays and distractions...but nothing that is remotely of interest to anyone else...so lets not bother with them, shall we? :-))

I have so appreciated the messages that many of you have sent during my "down time" - and each time I have received a message, I have felt drawn back to blogging, but also been aware that I could not keep it up with any sort of regularity while other things were impinging on my time.

But now the last essay has gone in - and come back, and I am now writing my dissertation - lengthy, but not due until the end of August, and now the days are blissfully longer, so there are more "useable" hours in the day, well, perhaps now is the time to come back to the blog again. Bear with me if I lapse, but I'll see how things go and if I can get here at least once or twice a week to share life here at the cottage with you. I'm not going to even try to recount all that has occurred in the three months since I last posted. Let's just leap in again and start from now, shall we?

Talking of Autumn Cottage - would you like to see the garden? Have any of you who live in the UK noticed just how prolific the blossom has been everywhere this year? Here are just a few pictures of the garden, together with a couple of other "catch-up" images from the last few months.

 March -The first days of spring...daffodils under the old apple tree

 

March - Lissie on patrol around the just-waking pond

 

March - Flowers from others and a gift to myself on Mother's Day

 

April - Abundant blossom on the Magnolia stellata

 

Early May - Setting out a lavender hedge around the veg garden

My dissertation topic (and thief of time!) - "Modern grave ornamentation" - I'd be interested to hear your own opinions on this way of decorating a grave...

And finally for today - who could resist viewing a blog with the enticing title of "On Not Being a Sausage"?...I came across it during research associated with my dissertation...I'll leave you to discover for yourself more of what it has to say.

It's good to be back -  I'll see you all again very soon!