Autumn Cottage Diarist

A Month in the Country 31 - Just a Little Thank You

Hanging baskets on Newbury Town Bridge

Well, The end of A Month In The Country once again! This month has flown past - the Cottage is already very gently slipping down into Autumn after the downpours and heat waves of August. There was a circle of leaves beneath the apple tree this morning, and there is a very decided chill in the air tonight.

To all of you who have read these postings during August 2019 - a very sincere thank you; for all the 'likes', for all the Facebook comments, and for all the comments left on the blog,. Thank you to those of you who have said that you are 'working through the prompts' - and thank you to those who have sent personal messages that have made me both laugh and have a little tear.

I hope you have enjoyed some of the stories, some of the pictures, and some of the ideas to try out in your journals (and in your life!). For myself, I have found your responses heart warming; I think everyone who writes a blog would agree that each and every response is appreciated - it lets us know what we are alive and being heard!

 As I ALWAYS intend - I hope to keep in touch with you all through more regular posts. I have one or two adventures coming up, which I will look forward to sharing with you - but for now, I wish you all a beautiful Autumn (or Springtime!) wherever you are - and please... keep in touch, my friends.

Journal Prompt - Have you got any 'thank you's' that you would like to say? Write them out in your journal. They don't have to be sent - if the addressee is far away, out of your life, or deceased you may not be able to send them - but that does not matter. There is value in the saying of it anyway.

A hop-bine through the cottage hedgerow

A Month in the Country 30 - Pick a Theme!

Dying Hosta leaf

To my much beloved Sir Harold Hillier Gardens and Arboretum today; we visit on average every three to four weeks and one would think that I would run out of different subjects to photograph. It's true that I do take photographs of the same items and areas over and over again, but they change so much that it is NEVER boring to photograph them. I also find it enjoyable to 'pick a theme' for a visit… perhaps 'Bark', or 'Leaves' -  sometimes a particular colour. It restricts one's floundering to find images of interest, and becomes an entertaining challenge.

Today I chose 'Brown' which is often regarded as a dull and dreary colour. That was the challenge! My images just had to have some brown in them, somewhere. Well, what do you think of these? Not too boring I think - just use your imagination, look from different angles and GET IN CLOSE!

I took these images on my Fuji Finepix camera as it has a zoom lens to let me get in close to plants at the back of a border…but you could just as easily create a photo essay with your cell phone camera; I often use mine like a visual notebook. (Make it another challenge). No reason why a journal has to be a written one - the 'collage' facility on Google Photos (and I am sure there are many others) is a gift for creating a weekly visual journal which is a real pleasure to look through at the end of the year.

Enjoy the photo essay which follows the journal prompt.

Journal prompt - on your next outing, choose a theme and take up the challenge to create a collage page or a 'grid of nine/sixteen' to print out. If you don't favour writing, make a visual page each week from a selection of 'quick  shots' you have made of your day to day life. It can build up into just as valid a journal as anything that may be written. Annotate your photos if you like. Always remember - your journal can be anything you want it to be - YOU are in charge!

Fallen Magnolia leavesSeedhead of Phlomis russeliana
Woven willow

Bee!

Bark of Prunus serrula

Cardoon seedheads
Seed pods of Arum lilies
Bark of Acer griseum
Peeling Eucalyptus bark

Autumn is coming...

A Month in the Country 29 - Old Friends Returning

My favourite little hen Pheasant is back in the garden again, after being absent for several weeks. Though the Pheasant shooting season does not start until October 1st, one never knows, with wild creatures, whether the absence is ominous or not. In her case, I think she has either been raising little chicks - or just off in the field next door, finding plenty of  seed without resorting to shovelling up mine!

She is particularly recognisable because she is the boldest pheasant I have encountered here. I cannot quite feed her by hand, but she does come within inches of my fingers when I throw the seed down, and shows no fear  when I approach her. She also has squeak-conversations with me - when I talk to her, she responds with her own squeaks - quite different to the raucous squarks of the cock who often accompanies her. The chaps are getting their tail feathers back now - and very glintingly magnificent they look too. He disappears fairly rapidly now when I put in an appearance, but I know that as soon as the weather gets cooler, there will be others who will 'come visiting' to see what the restaurant at Autumn Cottage has to offer.

Journal Prompt - are you noticing any changes around you that signal the increasing speed of change of the season? Are the birds singing a different song? (the Robin's song changes markedly at this time of the year) - Have any leaves started to turn? Are you noticing the days drawing in? Start a bullet list of changes, maybe only minute, you are noticing in your 'neck of the woods'. Add to it daily for a few weeks, dating each entry. (If you do this in a 5-year diary, it can become an interesting tracking of the speed of environmental change: 250 years from the days when Gilbert White tracked daily changes at Selborne, minute observations by individuals can still be invaluable 'citizen science').

A Month in the Country 28 - Lost and Found

I buy my (Yorkshire Tea) teabags in boxes of 240 at a time; the boxes are large, my tea caddy will not take all of them at once. So those that are left over go into the 'eBags' jar - to be kept for 'emergencies' - i.e. running out of tea and not able to get to the shops to buy more.

Such an emergency occurred today - made even more serious by the fact that I could not find the eBags!! Jars in my stuffed cupboards get moved around and often get things put in front of them. Forget constitutional or political crises - there are no dramas to match Autumn Cottage in the early morning, with no teabags to be found!

I did go on a hunt - and I did find the eBags (behind a bag of Doves Farm organic flour!)….but the strangest thing. When I came home from lunch out with a friend…there were two other jars of a dozen bags or so, sitting next to them on the work surface. Hmm … I think the teabag fairies are having fun with me!

Journal prompt - What have you lost recently? What have you found? Any mysteries attached to either??

A Month in the Country 27 - On Thresholds and Boundaries and Walks in the Woods

Leaving the house - gate open today

Out for a stroll along 'The Drove' this morning, the road opposite my house which passes through the woods, I noticed just how many thresholds we cross in a day. My bedroom to the bathroom…my house to the garden…through the garden gate onto the road…from the open landscape into the woods. We make the transitions without even noticing that we do so, as we are so familiar with the ordinary pathways through our lives.

From the sunlight into the shade

Does this boundary exist?

But thresholds are also boundaries - demarking contained areas - which can be both physical but also mental and emotional. For emotional wellness, it is important that we learn from an early age, and are familiar with, our own inner boundaries; demarcations between what is right and appropriate for ourselves, wherein we feel safe. It's also important that we learn to *clearly* indicate to others what those boundaries are, and that we also become familiar with recognising and honouring the boundaries that others set, within which they feel safe - and which should be crossed only with their permission.

A breached boundary?

Criteria that are so easily put down on the page, but take the development of many life skills to learn. I'm still practising, and not always getting it right; the hardest part seems to be to be sure in my own mind what my boundaries are - then feel secure in transmitting those thoughts to others, without bowing (whether consciously or not)  to external pressure. We teach people how to treat us - but we need to know how we want to be treated first by learning to treat ourselves with respect - that's how we set a good example! (We must also learn to decide how and when to raise or lower our boundaries, and when take the leaps of faith that DO take us across a boundary or threshold, when we do not know what the rules are and when there is no-one of whom we may ask permission. That way adventures lie - are we confident enough to sometimes take that leap?)

Here, there - and everywhere

Some visitors passing through these beautiful woods seem not to understand the invisible boundary between themselves and the natural world - they violate it by invading - uninvited - the environment with their detritus and unfortunately, Mother Earth's voice speaks quietly. They do not hear - so I'll speak loudly for her…PLEASE TAKE HOME THE RUBBISH THAT YOU HAVE BROUGHT!!!!

Picked up in just a few hundred yards along the roadside...

Easy to 'put it to rest' :-)

It's easy to get depressed as I pick up one more empty 'Red Bull' can and one more MacDonald's discarded cola mug and plastic straw…so I try very hard to find at least One Good Thing to remember that has lifted my spirit each day. My 'good sight' for today - a Speckled Wood butterfly, which loves dappled sunlight. It's a butterfly not often seen in Autumn Cottage garden - but very happy here...

...where  I crossed one of many boundaries today in the nicest way - wandering off the beaten track and into this leafy woodland glade. (For who knows what adventures lie ahead when we DO dare to cross the line and wander off the path? But that is a question for another day...!)

Journal prompt - What physical thresholds do you cross in a day? Make a list of them. Do any of them need maintenance or re-definition? How about your internal ones?

What ARE your most important personal boundaries? How have they changed during the course of your life? How do you enforce them now?

Look out for One Good Thing (or more!) each day - write them down in a Gratitude journal. (You may find that you also need a Grumble Journal as well. I hereby wholeheartedly give you permission to create one!)

The Speckled Wood Butterfly - what a beauty. My spirits restored!

A Month in the Country 26 - What Do You Say When You've Got Nothing to Say?

I can hear voices (particularly of my Yorkshire friends) at this very moment, who would be shouting - 'If you've now't to say - then say that!!'

It's difficult to find something to say here that I think might be of interest to even one other person on a daily basis - for the fact is that most people that I know  (very much including myself) lead mostly uneventful lives, most of the time. Our personas on social media would have the world think otherwise - aren't we all just having the adventures of our lives, every single minute, in the company of other glamorous and  entertaining characters? I wonder sometimes how we even have the time to sleep!!

But of course, we are not  really like that, are we?  Many of my days are similar to others, the same routines, the same little rituals - and there is often a neglected satisfaction and comfort in that. Perhaps in allowing ourselves to recognise the similarly mundane life that most of us, by and large, live, we give ourselves the freedom to relate in a simple but effective way to others. When I was training as a counsellor, we discussed the fact that we may, on occasion, be perceived as 'the expert' in someone else's life…to which our wise Tutor advised us to not pretend to be that Expert, but 'just be ordinary' - stay humble and relate purely on a person to person basis - with what you have in common ordinary-ness. This sometimes includes just sitting - and  saying nothing.

So today - a simple toast: to the mundane, the predictable, the ordinary; to appreciating the value and even luxury of lives lived without waiting for the next drama, fear or threat on the horizon that many other citizens of the planet live with on a daily basis…and to trusting that you WILL find something to say if you just put your fingers to the keyboard and start to write, not always knowing where it will lead you!

Journal prompt. Keep a notebook by your side for the waking hours of one day:  write down what you are doing at hourly intervals. Notice how ordinary you have been - reflect on what it feels like to be 'just ordinary'

Right now, set a timer for ten minutes and just write - a reflection of what I have commented upon in this post or on the first thoughts that come into your head. Did you surprise yourself with what ended up on paper or the screen??

A Month in the Country 25 - Take a Note, Ms. Cawley!

Hot sun...hard shadows

The hottest Late Summer Bank Holiday on record here in the UK, apparently…it certainly felt like it this afternoon. 31C.  We've had a very lazy day - a bit of pottering in the potting shed, followed by a large lunch; we utterly greedily over-indulged on the runner beans, which we now have growing here in abundance, just because we could - and ate them along with some delicious roast peppers and a linguine pasta bake (with loads of added garlic!)

After that lot there was not much more that could be done, other than wilt... and repair to the summerhouse with my 'survival basket',  where I spent a couple of hours alternating between reading and snoozing and writing.

Book, journal, pen, camera, drinks, phone

Too happily drowsy to even do much writing - so I just captured thoughts and images as notes, without really trying to make sensible sentences. Surprising, though, how I still ended up with a snapshot of a hot summer's day that really seems to have captured the essence for me. Here are some of the images that settled in my eyes and ears this afternoon

• Blue-tits landing in the trees around the pond
• Filling up the St Francis bird bath
• Tinkling laughter of children playing tennis across the road
• Two groups of twittering birds in the hedgerow
• The hollow 'Tock, tock' of the Woodpecker on the old tree stump in the ditch
• Much more metallic 'Tak, TAK' of a Thrush, hammering a snail shell to bits
• Wind through the Japanese wind chimes
• A faint rustle from the bamboo around the pond
• Sunlight filtering through white Hydrangeas
• Background hum of the Newbury bypass - wind in the wrong direction
• A lovely, dippy-into book (''The Canary Coloured Cart' - Christina Hardyment)
• Snoozing and snoring!
• Flash of white butterfly over the pond
• Bumble bee into the summer house. Did a Circuit - out again, and off  across the garden to the Buddleia
• Beginning to think of Coffee &Tea break
• Squealing call of a young Red Kite to mother in woods.
• Little spider just ran up my arm
• Souped up motorbikes roaring past again.
• No more snoozing!

Journal prompt - Capture the next  scene or event in your journal by making a word picture out of glimpses and phrases of what you are experiencing, rather than elegant full sentences. What can you see? Hear? Taste? Touch? Smell? (This journal technique is so useful when travelling - you can always expand the images into fuller stories later).

White 'Annabelle' Hydrangeas in the Sophia garden

 

A Month in the Country 24 - Holding on to Summer

It's the August Bank Holiday weekend - three days of R&R for many (though not all) and the last National holiday break before Christmas. 'Bank Holiday weekends' are often something of a Joke in the UK, as the weather is frequently benevolent before and after - but seems to save particularly disappointing days for the holiday period itself.

Not so this year - 29C yesterday - 30C today - and promised to be a degree or two hotter tomorrow. It has been glorious and the hot colours of the late summer garden are glowing. It was sultry mid afternoon (so the cool, shady areas down by the pond and summerhouse were particularly welcome) - but the nights are not oppressive; the cool breezes blow and sleeping is not difficult.

I long to cling on to this time of the year - a time of abundant growth and deep, rich colours - but I know that 'all things shall pass' and in a few weeks the beauties of the autumn will be upon us. But the leaves will also fall, frosts will arrive and the winter winds will start to blow. We are fortunate in the UK, though - we do at least HAVE four seasons, when things do change; we are able to experience the variety that those in more equatorial countries are not so fortunate to enjoy.

So I am grateful for the changing seasons in the garden - but in order to satisfy my longing to 'hang on' I have been wandering about, capturing images which say 'August' and 'High Summer'  to me - enough to get me through the dark, bleak days ahead - before the springtime bursts forth once again!

Journal prompt - Do you have any particularly favourite time(s) of the year?... Photographs? Video? Painting? Writing? - How do you 'hang on' to them?

A Month in the Country 23 - The Heart of the Community

I encountered a shop that I just could not pass by during my visit to town yesterday. Wait for it - a FREE BOOK shop!! You have permission to swoon. Yes, they really do exist. Members of the public donate books  and you - as a customer - are able to walk right in and just take books home FREE, gratis, costing nothing. I still have not recovered from the excitement, though I was magnificently restrained and only brought one book back with me ('Gardens by the Sea').

But the important fact hidden in the jolly description is that this place could not survive without volunteers to run it. The two lovely women in the photographs are just such facilitators. They are, in fact, holding up the newsletter of Fair Close Day Centre - our local Elder 'hub' where people can meet for a  hot meal and a chat, and attend different workshops, outings and other events for a very reasonable fee. These two women - who are keeping the bookshop open - are also volunteers there, ensuring that those seniors who may otherwise sit at home, living and eating alone and waiting for the hours to slowly tick past have somewhere where they can find sustenance (of body and soul), companionship and understanding. How vitally important this is!

Our communities would not function without volunteers; they keep the wheels rolling and the engines oiled, for no return other than companionship and the knowledge that they are putting something really good and worthwhile into the world (though they would probably modestly deny it).

I don't think most volunteers get anything like the recognition that they deserve - so from this individual citizen, on behalf of all of us who benefit from your given time and effort - thank you. You are valued and deeply appreciated.

Journal prompt - Write about volunteering. Do you give your time and effort to a cause or enterprise? What do you put in? What do you get out?  If you don't volunteer at the moment - have you ever thought of doing so? There are local volunteer bureaux in most towns - might now be a good time to take a look and see how the talents that you undoubtedly have may be given in the service of others?

A Month in the Country 22- Spin, Dye, Weave, Knit

A view from the bridge...opposite the Opticians.

The view ON the bridge - good woman!

Into town this morning for a mundane eye check, a much nicer coffee break with my son, and then on to our local Museum, where I was looking forward to seeing - and sharing here - the much advertised 'Knitted Newbury' project. I walked up to the desk to declare my interest  and ask the way, only to be told 'oh, sorry - that exhibition is over, but there's another one on now…'.

Picking my smile up off the floor, where it had fallen, I asked what the new exhibition was about? They did not know…so I plodded upwards to the exhibition gallery - only to make the happiest of discoveries. The new exhibition displays the accomplished work of many members of the Kennet Valley Guild of Spinners, Weavers and Dyers* - an organisation  whose lectures I attended more (a lot more!) than a couple of decades ago.

Spinning the raw material

Some lovely examples of tie-dyeing

It was a total delight to look at all the examples of crafts which utilise materials and techniques which were foundational in the growth of Newbury as a market town - this town was built on Wool, and here were the textile crafts which would always have played an important part in the processing of that product. Yet another connection with the long thread of the past into which my own story is woven.

Woven pictures from multi-source inspirations

Some fine examples of beautiful knits

I was also able to acquire the programme for the next year of talks and events with the Guild - it is exciting to read, and even more exciting to contemplate re-visiting. The women demonstrating their craft were so very willing to talk about their enthusiasm and were most inviting and encouraging to me to partake again. My hands have been craftily idle for too long…now serendipity has presented me with a pathway to getting them occupied once more!

(*contact via [email protected] )

Journal Prompt (s) - Write about a coincidence, a serendipity or a synchronicity which has happened to you in the past…causing you to perhaps take another - unexpected - path to the one that you thought you were on.

Do you engage with a craft that you enjoy? What is it, do you think, that makes it such a pleasure for you?

How did your village, town or city grow? Go to the local museum and discover more about its foundation; consider it now - Improvement or decline?