Autumn Cottage Diarist

Gilded Chairs and Fairytale Turrets

Oh, how these enchanted, golden early autumn days set one to idle dreaming!

For the last few days, I've been intermittently watching 'The Chateau Diaries' on YouTube - weekly blogs from Stephanie Jarvis, the Chatelaine  of  Chateau La Lande - one of the Brit-owned Chateaux featured in a couple of series of 'Escape to the Chateau - DIY'. The original 'Escape to the Chateau' series - I think there have now been four of them - was based upon the renovation of Chateau de la Motte Husson by Dick Strawbridge (previously seen in the series 'It's Not Easy Being Green') and his wife, Angela (Angel) Adoree.

I've avidly watched all series over the last four years and - seemingly like half of the UK - fallen in love with the week by week details of the restoration of their chateau; but I find the couple themselves strong medicine - a bit of a love/not so much relationship of being somewhat overwhelmed by their 'full on' personalities and total and utter admiration for the amount of sheer hard work that they very clearly put in to the renovation - they deserve all the success they get in that respect.

But the 'follow on' series that has transpired out of their success is - for me - more of a pleasure to watch. The 'DIY' programmes feature a number of different chateau owners - and both the owners and their properties are diverse; in some cases clueless idealists and in others, deep pocketed, experienced  business men and women. Inbetween, a large number of ordinary people who have decided to live extraordinary lives, and all of them having a vision of the possibility of  life lived with a little more grace and beauty, whatever we believe that to be. For many of them, it is, like myself, to find - and to restore to life and renewed pleasure - the hidden charms of the old, the faded, the long time used, the long time loved. You can catch a glimpse of all the DIY chateaux featured - and their owners - here

I believe there is another series with 'Dick and Angela' coming up - and my fingers are even more enthusiastically crossed for another series of 'EttC - DIY'. Until then, I'll be watching more of Stephanie's weekly Vlogs - a fantasy escape (for now - who knows what the future may bring ?!!), but she is also an inspiration to love what I already have and make the best of the particular and unique features of my own home and life, right here and right now. (I'm also now sharing these on Instagram, so I do hope you might consider joining me there for more frequent daily images of life in and around Autumn Cottage).

The 'Mediterranean terrace' -Tender plants & china chickens; no chateau sophistication here!

 

And so the Festivals of Light are Come

…Winter Solstice..Yule…Christmas.- all over the Northern Hemisphere, in places where the darkness rules at this time of the year, grew the Festivals of Light, to lighten the darkness of an otherwise mysterious and fearsome world. Though I am not now a Christian, I grew up in a Christian home, so my earliest experiences were of the beautiful Christian story and its artefacts - the Nativity, The Gifts, animals everywhere, an abundance of stars (and one in particular!). A story combined, in my house as in so many others, with the older Pagan traditions of marking the Winter Solstice by bringing in greenery from outdoors; always a decorated Christmas tree (Thank you, Prince Albert!) but rarely a Yule Log - except in the form of a chocolate cake with robins, Father Christmas and tobogganing Snowmen, all added with abandon!

When I had my own family, I continued the old traditions and added some of our own - each year I buy and make one or two 'special' ornaments to hang on the tree, to join the obligatory toilet-roll Santa, made by Tim at nursery when he was three, and cross-stitched, bamboo chomping Panda, crafted by Hugh around seven years old. Both of those are non-negotiable. They go on first, in pride of place.

I also made Advent Calendars for the boys for three decades - covering a cereal packet in Chrismassy paper, attaching the annual gift of a religious ('proper') Advent calendar from their paternal grandmother, and filling the box with tiny, individually wrapped little gifts that I had collected through the year. For several years, these included the eternal egg laying plastic chicken from Hawkins Bazaar, which was an absolute treasury of ideas - the arrival of 'The Box of Stuff' from Hawkins was an event in itself each December..

Well, Tim had his last calendar when he was 30 - and now I have decided that Stockings are also no longer appropriate for the moment. Finding 'stuff' to put into them got harder and harder…I know that there was a groan  when the apple, tangerine and banana were retrieved, (but, I suspect, never eaten) and one more can of car de-icer would be one can too far this year!

So  this year, Baskets will take over - now for both boys and their partners - and material gifts will include more creative items than in the past… (can't give away TOO many secrets…) - but the tree is still up, the Naff Gnomes and Nut Crackers will still make an appearance, The Santas will once again convene on the desk in my hall.

The Ancestors will still get their bits of tinsel on their heads (whether they like it or not, though I think Sir Henry, as Queen Elizabeth 1st's Champion was more than used to a bit of glitter and bling) and I will still worry about the abundance of The Banquet (Who can eat what?, will there be ENOUGH? and will the roast potatoes be DONE??)

All will be as it should be - including last minute anxieties and panics. There will, of course, be more than enough…and we will all be, and have, more than enough, because we will have what I value more than anything material these days.  All around me, I will have my dearly loved ones. I need nothing else.

Enough!!

If you want to know what my own childhood Christmases of the 1950's were like - listen to this - Dylan Thomas reading his own 'Child's Christmas in Wales'. It is a blueprint for the way working class family festivities in Wales played out for decades, probably centuries, and a Transport of Delight for me each time I listen to it.

Make time to sit with your families and friends this Midwinter festival time, dear readers. Tell the stories…happy and sad. Write them down…remember them. Remember those no longer with us…for in your remembering, you make them immortal. Remember and love, as best you can,  those who are with us in the Here and Now - for in the end, love is all that is necessary, all we need and all that will remain, when the tinsel and trees are down and disintegrated into dust. 

Make Merry and Make Memories, my friends -  and the heartiest Greetings of the Season, however you celebrate it, to you all, from all of us at Autumn Cottage!

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)

Refuge from the Rain

'Come inside...' - the inviting interior of the potting shed at Mottisfont

In the middle of summer, this is the sort of day that holidaymakers hate and gardeners love. It is pouring down with rain, has been since 8 am and is well settled in to go on for the rest of the day.

It can be miserable to be away from home and all that is familiar in this sort of weather, trying to find something to do with the children - or without - that is under cover. But if you are a gardener, you can always retire - to the greenhouse, the potting shed or the summerhouse!

Here are some images - from home and away - of the cosy pleasures that can be gained when taking shelter from the rain. The first are from the walled garden at Mottisfont Abbey, where the National Trust have called in theatrical designers to reconstruct a potting shed; it is part of their 'Storyscape Project' and  many of the articles in there allude to the accomplished horticulturalist and rose-grower Graham Stuart Thomas, who set up the collection of Old Roses in the walled garden at Mottisfont in the 1970's.

Notebooks and illustrations of Old Roses

Terracotta pots and tins for seeds...essential minutiae in old gardens

The second are much closer to home - the latest incarnation of the summerhouse here at the cottage - also, in its own way, a Storyscape; a place where my friends sit with me, tell me their own stories and conjure up new ones from the inspiration they (and I) get there, surrounded by peace, quiet, harp music, wildlife and books.

Some new pictures added to the wildlife collection

'Spring Spirit' - Hares by Jane Keay - a two pound greeting card in a one pound frame...

A place for fairies and fancy - but don't be late for a very important date!

Twinkly lights and candleholders - (new ones bought for pennies, bearing images of my favoured dragonflies)

It's just a tiny space, but I do have such fun creating a place for pondering and creativity. If you also have a much loved little refuge - do tell me something about it!

The most important furnishings in any room...

 

 

 

 

A Quiet Haven by a Peaceful Pond

We called it 'Stephen's Summerhouse'. Named after Alec's dad, as it had been bought with a small inheritance that came after Stephen's death. He was a kind, placid, peaceful person and we could both imagine that he would approve of such a quiet haven, under the oak tree and by the pond, so 'Stephen's summerhouse' it became.

I've spent many hours in there over the last eighteen years, with journal and laptop, watching the wildlife at the water's edge and listening to the birdsong from the trees, but in the last three or four years it has become something of a dumping ground for garden furniture, deteriorated more when the roof felting was ripped off in a storm last autumn and was finally invaded by ivy growing in through decaying wood corners which needed serious attention.

The Dumping Ground

The roof - on the floor - after a winter storm - not great for keeoping the rain out!

Invading ivy & mouldering desk

Something needed to be done - and so it was that I resolved to spend the last few weeks on a period of renovation there - both to return the little room to use for our own pleasure, but also to give a writing point in the garden where attendees to my therapeutic writing courses may, in future, squirrel themselves away if they choose.

Half done is well begun

I painted the interior to begin with, and alongside that I've also painted the motley collection of furniture in there to give some semblance of unity. I've chosen a vaguely Scandinavian 'Gustavian' colour palette to create a tranquil atmosphere, and set out with the intention of spending as little as possible on the project, attempting to use junk furniture, old pots of paint, off-cuts of flooring and old textiles where I can find them.

The following series of photographs catalogue some of the steps I have taken so far - almost there, but there is always something else to add. (Oh, goodness me! Does this mean I am going to have to visit even *more* antique and curio shops, street markets and boot sales? How will I ever cope? Watch this space!)

Outside still to be done - but inside now welcomes rather than repels

Temporary lamps - to be replaced by small shaded candle lamps when found - or made!

Pictures of a fieldmouse and a hare from the loft; cross-stitched runner draped over the desk until it is stencilled; the old curtains previously installed looking even nicer because they had faded and also been bleached to remove damp mould.

My sentiments to anyone who visits here.

An old wollen travel blanket in lovely, heather-y shades thrown over a scruffy (but original 1930's) bedroom chair

OK - I bought this cushion! just a few pounds though...too pretty to resist

Another favourite - a cobalt colourwashed cabinet adding a touch of Mediterranean blue (the missing drawer had a defunct wasps nest inside, so is still being cleaned in the kitchen)

So who's for tea with me in the summerhouse??

Simple Pleasures on a Winter's Afternoon

No matter how hard I try to imagine that I see Springtime unfurling around every corner, it has to be admitted that most days are still pretty wintery here - especially at the moment, with only just above freezing temperatures, bitter winds and sleeting rain. At times like this, I take more than a little pleasure in browsing through photographs of my visits to the many antique shops and emporia that I am lucky enough to enjoy in my area. I enjoy my visits twice, once in the visiting, and once more in the remembering.

For anyone else who is moderately fed up with the cold and the dark at the moment, here are a few images from my visit to Marlborough and Hungerford last week. Click on any picture to enlarge and peek more closely at all these pretty (and peculiar!) items - I hope they both entertain you and inspire you, ready for those days of spring cleaning and decorating that cannot, surely, now be that far off!

The pretty - decorative cow creamers, jugs and teacups in Marlborough

The somewhat unexpected - one wonders just where this has been an object of devotion and why it has been abandoned?

The downright irresistable - here in the Hungerford Arcade. I am constantly enchanted by the everlasting charm of beautiful Blue and White decor - glass, ceramics, interior design - and I know I am not alone.

How to do it beautifully - so many ideas in the the OKA showrooms at Froxfield

Serenity...

...and simplicity - all on a winter's afternoon.