Autumn Cottage Diarist

Worth Getting Wet For?

In between the downpours at Newbury Racecourse

I had forgotten all about it…but as I drove to the station yesterday morning, I saw the enticing sign announcing an 'Antiques and Collector's Fair' at Newbury Racecourse that very day; so having dropped off my passenger, I did a left and a right, then a left again... finding myself after just a few minutes on the green at the racecourse, on the opposite side of the track to where the outdoor sellers were already set up.

A steady stream of happy purchasers was already coming out of the ground, pushing barrows and supermarket trollies (now where did they get THOSE??) filled with their loot - which seemed to be largely composed of pieces of furniture in varying stages of decomposition, but with immensely attractive patinas developed from what looked like years in outdoor weather. Others carried bashed-up tin baths, watering cans and troughs - which themselves would have been discarded only a few years ago, but are now used to great effect when filled with plants overflowing against their matte grey or rusting surfaces.

Having come a cropper on Saturday thanks to a raised tile in my hallway, I was more than a little uncomfortable as a result of some technicolour bruises most of the way down my thigh. I'd been feeling sorry for myself for 24 hours - but strangely, at the sight of market stalls and mysterious items, I was extraordinarily restored to full health for the hour that it took me to walk around !! (Amazing what a blessed anaesthetic the thrill of the hunt can be - inanimate items only, I hasten to add!!)

Lovely wooden carvings getting very soaking wet...

...and Mr. 'Some Old Geezer' (his business name) who sold them to me for £20.00

The other thing which encouraged me to Get A Move On was, however, more prosaic. It had been drizzling when I arrived; as I reached the market, The Deluge began - more rain than I have been out in for a very long time, and of course, no brolly or hat brought with me. Did I let that deter me? Certainly not!  I kept going, looking more like an Irish Water Spaniel with every step, but also enjoying some lovely chats and laughs with the stall holders, during which we all agreed that the choice between 'braving (and complaining about) the rain' and thinking of various friends we knew who were dealing with tough and scary health issues, or not able to leave their homes for other reasons, was really no choice at all; we were blessed to be able to just be there - we were grateful for the chance to get drenched.

Here are some of the pleasing items I found on my foray - I hope you enjoy looking at them too.

One of the carvings, now dryer and more evenly coloured - lovely, deeply cut work

A beautiful blue and white fruit bowl from De Porceleyne Fles - the Royal Delft factory - a single crack needing restoration...

 ...with a less beautiful addition - I hit the bag carrying the bowl against the car door, causing a shell fracture, so now there is a much bigger restoration job to be done. (Watch this space).

A couple of pounds for an attractive (1920's?) etching of 'St Paul's Cathedral from Bankside'

And as always, a book - this time 'India' - one of the Collins collection  of travel books (this one first published in 1906), illustrated by the watercolourist Mortimer Menpes; here are some of the richly coloured plates -

'A Rajput of Rajgarh'

'Market Women of Ajmir'

'A Popular Stall'

'A Hawksman of Rajgarh'

Teas at the Lock Keepers Cottage

Another visit to another garden in the National Gardens Scheme on Sunday last. You never know quite what you are going to get, as the gardens range from those belonging to grand mansions, to more modest gardens who may well have teamed up with another one close by to give the NGS stipulated 'Three quarters of an hour of interest'. We had some idea of what the location may be like this time - the name gives it away! The venue was an old canal lock keepers cottage on the Kennet and Avon Canal, (close to the Crofton Pumping Station and Wilton Windmill), where the owners live a self sufficient life 'off the grid'.

On the towpath to the Lock Keepers cottage

We entered the gate in the high hedge (useful to stop passers-by on the canal boats peering into windows nowadays I guess - they would probably not have been there when the lock-keeper was active in operating the locks on the working canal). Walking to our right we found a very pretty and colourful cottage garden - which we did, however, walk around in about ten minutes.

A tumble of Hollyhocks, Clematis, daisies and sunflowers in the cottage garden

Teas under the trees

Cardoons and Cow-parsley - looking out to the surrounding fields

I surmised there must have been more - and indeed there was, at the other side of the house, where we found veggie beds, a tinkling pond (fountain solar powered), water butts, huge solar panels, a shepherd's hut, piles of 'useful stuff' stacked up 'around the back' (who could not live without a carved wooden mermaid in their life?).

Practicality - compost bins and solar panels tucked away at the top of the garden

'Useful stuff' stacked up, along with a dear old rocking horse that had seen better days

A wanton Mermaid, basking in the sun

Toys, puppets and seedheads - inspirational items in the Artists studio

Clematis on the studio wall

We also discovered the gallery of the artist owner (I love how many NGS gardens have artist-owners, who come complete with a gallery for me to browse) and the most delightful and happy bunch of chickens; we spent the rest of our visit drinking tea, eating cake (a most important 'NGS afternoon out' tradition) and talking to the hens - who were far too busy drinking, scratching and pecking to talk to us.

At the shepherd's hut; drink tea - eat cake - watch hens - (check iPhone!)

Happy hens scratching about - stacked logs forming ledges for chooky-apples in the background

We're used to watching but being ignored by the local creatures, though; with flowers, paintings tea and cake to also occupy us, it's still a blissfully happy way to spend an afternoon.

 

A Truly Price-less Treasure

Amongst my more peculiar traits, (of which my friends know there are many!), is a propensity to 'rescue' old prayer books and bibles. They are hardly wanted and rarely seen in secondhand bookshops these days - but I always feel so strongly that at one time, they all would have been precious to someone - a cornerstone of a faith which may have sustained those individuals though all manner of life's ups and downs. Such artifacts are not, to me, to be sniffed at, but to be respected and retained.

So when I spotted this little Book of Common Prayer in the Sue Ryder charity shop in Newbury this morning, I felt sorry for it and picked it up to purchase it. I showed it to the assistant, who somewhat hesitantly said - 'er - it's a prayer book...'. I said I understood that - and how much was it, please? To which she gave a rather lovely reply.

She told me that the Founder, Sue Ryder, had stipulated that no Bible or prayer book was ever to be charged for - so if I would like to take it, please to do so - for free. I was very moved by this philosophy, but also felt that I could not take it and pay nothing - so I popped a pound in their collecting box - and we were both very happy.

Then - as I put it in my bag, this dropped out…

…a tiny, tattered photo, it adds a whole other dimension to my find.

Apart from knowing that this book of Common Prayer and hymns Ancient and Modern was given from 'Jack' to 'Gertie' in October 1913, I know nothing of who possessed this little book. But my imagination likes to think that the donor and the owner are perhaps both in the picture; maybe Gertie is even the woman close to the centre of the photo, her head is graced by the particularly magnificent beribboned hat? And oh, would that the colours of the ribbons were visible…which my imagination sees in green, purple and white - but in the realms of my imagination that conjecture has to stay. I have no concrete evidence of anything or anyone. (My imagination does not care about that...)

All I can say is that today, I honour whoever those people may be - all someone's daughters and sons, many of them ancestors, and all living in a world that was about to change out of all recognition.

Your little book will be cared for, Gertie and Jack - and my imagination will continue to have a creative feast on what you have left behind.I give you both my thanks.

Is Autumn Already Knocking at the Door?

An item in the creamy neutral palette this Autumn at Matelan*; Cushion - £8.00 UK pounds

Yesterday was the sort of summer's day that I long for - Sunday quiet, not unbearably hot, but balmy enough to encourage a delicious languidity. It made it a pleasure to eat lunch of globe artichokes, paella and nectarines out on the patio, under the vine, then potter about afterwards, doing a bit of desultory weeding in the herb garden.

But I feel that Autumn is definitely approaching - far out on the margins of the month and in just the tiniest of signs; heavy mist rolling down the hill at 5 am, seedheads setting on so many plants, leaves turning and falling in the wind which blows up from nowhere.

There is always a partial sadness - to me - in the distant sight of Autumn, with the promise of nights drawing in and the likelihood of cold or wet days to be endured, but the pleasures are there too, one of which is to be able once again to bring the colours of autumn into the house.

In my weekly foray to the local retail park today, (yes, on one of my 'Orange Label' plant hunts!), I also noticed that autumn colours are creeping into the Interiors stores' displays. So here are just a few images from what just one of those stores - inexpensive but imaginative Matelan - has to offer for the coming months. By carefully choosing just one or two items, you can create a very charming and welcoming interior for minimal expenditure - always something close to my heart!

The Stag - a popular and even more ubiquitous theme this year

Purchased as an addition to the Hearts collection in the summerhouse - £4.00

Inexpensive (£5.00) and (I can vouch) extremely cosy throws, also with a Stag theme. Keep several in different rooms for unexpectedly chilly evenings, maybe?

For rooms needing a lighter autumnal touch, perhaps a palette of 'fading hydrangea' colours? candle lamps £12.00 each

A striking, machine embroidered Kookaburra & butterflies cushion - just one of these in a small room would make a statement and set a colour theme; £10.00

A whole range of neutral shades...

...which will harmonise so beautifully with these rich rusty reds - the colours that I wait for which  make Autumn so special.

(*no affiliation)

(1 UK pound = $1.56 at today's rates)