Autumn Cottage Diarist

New Year's Eve 2020 - a Wander in the Winter Gardens

A relaxing (I hope!) ten minutes in the Winter Gardens of the Sir Harold Hillier Gardens and Arboretum.

This has been a bit of a year, hasn't it? Wishing you all a much happier 2021!

 

A Strange Sort of Solstice

It's a strange year right to the end. Here are some thoughts on these particular 2020 Solstice days - and (as always!) a look around the garden as She rests and the year turns.

 

 

"I have walked myself into my best thoughts..."

At the margin of the woods, where the Roe deer hide and play

An unpleasant dawning this morning - I had fallen asleep last night with the radio on and woke to the sound of a vicious apologist for a disgraceful politician spewing forth his words of bile over the airwaves (on a usually well respected daily radio programme that should have known better).

In truth it was the worst start to a day - I felt depressed and unclean - those words had seeped into my ear and my mind while I wasn't watching - my soul needed something of a rinse.

So on with my jacket, my camera and mobile phone - out through the door and into the woods. Within a few hundred yards, it is no exaggeration to say that I felt calm and soothed. As I walked, I could not but help whisper to myself... 'I feel healed'.

This is what healed me. Gaia has given forth of her balm once more.

Any broken fence  equals a deer run into and out of the woods

Back in the heights of summer, I watched the Demoiselles play here

Tracery in my Cathedral of the Trees

Andy Goldsworthy-esque swathe of pine needles, washed by downhill rain

Its that fungi time of year again

One of my pathways of peace

Always some blot on the landscape - this came home to the bin with me.

On the road home again...

Autumn sunshine and an uplifted heart - I'm not the only one going home happy!

 

 

Autumn Restoration

The River Tywi at Pentrecwn Farm, near Llandeilo, Carmarthenshire - our home for five days

Just a week back from five extremely restorative days in West Wales - the Land of my Fathers. I didn't expect - when we left the glorious colours of autumn in bright sunshine there - that I would be hoping, this morning, that the effects of ex-Hurricane Ophelia does not batter that green and pleasant land too much today.

We will see - we cannot stand against Her when Mother Nature comes rushing through.

Lots of tales of enchantment and adventure to tell in the days to come - but for now, just a few samples of the rather magical places we visited and things we saw…

The Gazebo at Duffryn Gardens - just outside Cardiff

Down on the Farm! That's our window in the converted barn 'Hafan Tywi'...looking out over this landscape -

Not bad, eh?!

Our closest neighbours (we had some interesting chats...)

Bright sunshine at Aberglasney gardens (there were Red Kites as well!)

Ideas for colour combinations around every corner

On the greyest day - Inside the Dome at the National Botanical Garden of Wales

Brightening up the grey day...A Quilt Challenge at the Welsh Quilt Museum in Lampeter

...and then the sun came out again! The 12th century Castle at Laugharne

...and the ice-cream coloured houses of Tenby...

...with its pretty little harbour -

- and blissful beachcombing to while away the time. No finer way to feel restored!

 

 

Root and Branch, Rock and Pot

It's been quite a week for parts of the Western World, hasn't it? and not one I have relished. Polarised opinions, anger and anxiety and that feeling - as I look into the future - of wondering what exactly will happen next?

When the pressures of the world weigh heavily on my shoulders, I turn to the natural world, and so it was today; I turned my back on the whole gamut of social media and the world of so many words which seem to ricochet around and sting right now, and took off - with my camera - to one of the places which truly does restore my soul.

The ancient ceremonial pathways and stone circle of Avebury henge have received humans for thousands of years - all seeking their own spiritual restoration and affirmation in one way or another. Today I walked those paths of the ancestors and they received me - on a dark, drizzling day with few other people around.

The stones were massive, lowering and grey - quite different to walking with them on a sunny summer's day - but they were good company. They just stood and listened - and I was restored, ready to face forward again, towards February 1st and Imbolc, the first festival of the Celtic year, a celebration of the first hopeful signs of spring.

Bring on the milk and fire of Brigid - the stones have got my back!

Exquisite decoration on a clay beaker - which may have been made like this....

In life...the tools used by Neolithic housekeepers

In death - fragmented bone cremains in a decorated urn

3000 years between them - two foci of spiritual sustenance - the Stone Circle and the Church

Facing forward towards Springtime - the lovely volunteers of the National Trust, grubbing out blighted Box Balls in preparation for the Mid-February re-opening of Avebury Manor. Doesn't that lovely smile cheer up the dreariest day?

 

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Again the Wheel Turns

It All Started with the Angels ...

Walking in (stone) circles: my modern-day pilgrimage to Stonehenge

Are You Ready??

Test

Ahem. Oh, dear me - my ears and whiskers!! Now where was I before I so rudely interrupted myself ? Ah, yes - I was in the garden, wasn't I? and that is where you find me once again, dear readers. I have not 'gone to ground' completely, just scurrying around, doing other life-stuff things…which have included a return to University studies, and the piloting of some new writing workshops.

These days, I do communicate online mostly via my Facebook friends network, but the essence of those 'instantaneous' posts - however well thought through they may be, is that they are - by being instantaneous - also scrolled away in an instant. I have pondered this, and decided that - though the Blog format seems to be waning in popularity in some quarters, it is also a format through which I can get to know a poster more, by having an easy, public archive, compiled over a period of time, though which I can browse and learn.

So I have decided that there might still be a place for 'Autumn Cottage Diarist' to post here on this blog - hopefully with the same result - that we can become longer term, rather than only instantaneous acquaintances - and maybe friends. So here I am, flawed but hopefully honest and real, ready to dive into 2015 with enthusiasm. I hope you will come along for the ride…or maybe just walk, stroll or ride? Whatever your means of transport, I will once again welcome you on the journey.

But yes, it is to the garden here at Autumn Cottage - and to other gardens and places in the natural world, that I return at the beginning of this year, to return me to the Real, after the pleasant but somewhat artificial trappings of Christmas; trappings that I enjoy when I am in control of them, but despise when they become more in control of me. Such a fine balancing act to ensure that the two states do not tip over, one into the other, wouldn't you say?

We've been blessed in the UK with some first-class wintery days over Christmas -  of frost and freezing nights but clear, brilliant days when all colours have seemed to sing. The images below are some of the places I've been fortunate enough to visit this past week.

But while I am 'hunkered down' in the dark depths of winter, I am also finding my own spiritual nourishment by partaking of a year-long writing and otherwise creative course (both through exciting packages through the post and online) based on the Celtic festivals which occur around the Wheel of the Year, and incorporating story, memoir, myth, fairytale, ritual and an exceptionally interesting community of women living diverse lives in many countries on the planet. All with an interest in the interconnectivity between all human and non-human beings and the lands which we inhabit. The course is called 'Singing Over the Bones'  - I cannot recommend it too highly - and you can, if you wish, find more about it here.

Now - are you all ready to leap into 2015?? Here we go, then…hold hands and hearts, hang on to those around you… and - all together…..JUMP!!!

 

Last writing group of the year

Making the kitchen door garland - pheasant feathers, holly and a pine-cone scale heart...

Finding a cosy place by the fire

...and in the conservatory...

Whilst outside...

The frozen pond at the Sir Harold Hillier Gardens, near Romsey

The Winter Garden - all decked in snowflakes as part of 'The Nutcracker' trail

A serene late afternoon walk along the river...

...as the sun sets on the face of the Abbey

Pip is keeping watch over the open spaces

...while the Old Man of the Woods guards the woodland walk here at the cottage

A light shines to welcome friends in the darkness of the Old year...while we wait for the light  of the New one to return.

A year full of light to you in 2015, my friends!

A Peaceful Wild Place on The First Day of Spring

How many times have you realised that something wonderful is just under your nose, so close that you don't even notice it? That is the case with the Thatcham Discovery Centre, one of our local wildlife reserves, just on the other side of town to where I live, just outside Newbury.

It's not one of the places I did not know about - it has been there certainly since my boys were small - we used to walk there, feeding the birds and taking my Mother for picnics. But I hardly remember visiting since she died, nearly 14 years ago - I guess I had just forgotten about it in some vague way. Now, with the spring air blowing the cobwebs away from my mind, all I want to do at the moment is be out and about, savouring the time of the year. So what better thing to do on the 'official' first day of Spring than take a walk around the lake with my camera, breathe in the air, sit peacefully with the birds? I can't really think of anything more enjoyable - and free! - so take that walk with me...this is what I saw...

Canada geese swimming in formation

The Dipping Pool - part of the educational facilities at the centre - notice the seating amphitheatre and tables for investigating what comes out of the water

Wild daffodils down the bank to one of the peaceful viewing points

A sandbank with canada geese and Mallard poking about

Goldeneye

Alder catkins, some 12-15 cms long

A pair of courting Great Crested Grebe

Dog Violets

Black-cap gull

Pochard

The willow stand alongside the centre, already almost fully green

The elegant courting dance of the Great Crested Grebes

Visit the website of the Discovery Centre here

The Day that the Robin Sang to Me

  Narcissus 'Jetfire'

It would have been a special day, yesterday, (as days wandering the Sir Harold Hillier Arboretum and Gardens always are for me), if it had only been for the explosion of springtime colour through the wintering brown earth. The bursting gold of the daffodils and narcissi, the yellow clouds of blossom on the Hammamelis, the pink airbrushing of the early cherry blossom. The appearance of different plants, alone, always gives me an infusion of joy, an immediate reconnection, though primarily my visual sense (though also though olfactory scents) with the totality of the natural world, of which I am just a tiny part.

Dried Miscanthus stems

Iris reticulata

Euphorbia chariacas 'wulfenii'

All this would have been enough...but I also had the pleasure of sitting in the warmth of the garden Pavilion restaurant, able to tuck into delicious Thai lentil cakes and green curry, drinking Elderflower presse and savouring what the gardens had to offer (swathes of wild daffodils spreading down the hill, the Winter garden full of colour and already beckoning me) before we made our foray out into the wild.

The heather beds in the Winter Garden

These two pleasures would have been enough...but I also had the most wonderful encounter with another species. We had walked down to the Great Pond, past the Gunneras still wearing their winter hats and for all the world looking completely dead (before they make their own grand entrance out into the world again in a month or two). We were walking up to Jermyn's House, past the Himalayan gardens and Ghurka Memorial, climbing up though the valley of burgeoning camellias, azaleas, and early rhododendrons. gazing upwards at the new blooms.

Camellia japonica

Magnolia grandiflora buds opening

Rhododendron

Distracted enough, that I almost stepped on a little Robin, bobbing about around my feet. I sidestepped, warned Alec to ‘take care!’ and fully expected the little bird (it was a vividly red-breasted cock Robin) to flutter off into the undergrowth, where a hen Blackbird was also bobbing about, fossicking in the bark chippings for insects, happily unafraid of us, but keeping her distance.

The friendly Robin

But the Robin did not keep his distance. He reduced it, hop by hop, bob by bob. He quite clearly fixed his gaze upon me, looked up at me, cocked his head from side to side, hopped closer and closer - and sang to me. He did not just sing. He sang to me. He connected his gaze with my eye, and addressed me as clearly as I have ever been addressed - by dog, by cat, by human.

He attempted to communicate with me - I did not understand what his message was - but a message he was quite clearly, and quite fearlessly, sending. It was not accompanied by any aggressive gestures; he came closer and closer, (about 30 cms away at my shoulder, when I sat on a bench) still fixing his eye constantly with mine. He warbled softly and most beautifully, directly to me, and I was immensely moved.

 I suspected that he had possibly been hand fed, though when I asked one of the staff exiting the building if that was the case, he said, no, nobody there had been doing that to his knowledge, and so wasn't I lucky to be having that encounter anyway? I  found it  almost impossible to respond to him, because I was, quite simply, choked and overcome. Words are inadequate to describe the emotion I felt, I just know that there are many of you reading this that will know just exactly what touched my heart. One day, we will understand Them.

Helleborus orientalis - the 'Lenten Rose' - under the still-bare trees

All these things would have added up to a most delightful day - but even then, there were more special things in store. There is always an exhibition of some artistic nature in the Pavilion; yesterday, three artists were setting up their wildlife paintings in preparation for today's opening of the exhibition entitled 'Inspired by Nature'. I felt particularly deeply engaged with the art of one of the exhibitors, Daphne Ellman, who works mostly in acrylics and had produced a captivating series of paintings depicting various animals and plants present during each month of the year in the UK.

These monthly 'portraits' have been turned into a calendar, which was a lot more affordable than the originals, but still fell into my 'well, I *could' afford it, but *should' I?’ category. While I pondered, Alec stepped in, generously purchasing the calendar as my Mother's Day gift for today from him. The calendar is set for 2013, but before then, it will most certainly be dissected and framed (though where in the world I am going to find the wall space, I really don’t know!)

All these things would be more bounty that anyone could expect on one day - but the final treat was presented when I asked the artist if she did any teaching at all? One of my 'goals for the year' has been to get back to some creative activity, which I have always needed, and for a long time now have not really pursued. She answered affirmatively, and said she had a two day workshop coming up in April. I have a 30th Wedding Anniversary coming up in May, and once more, before I could do any pondering at all, Alec leapt into the breach and paired the two together!

The Birch Grove

Narcissi with Pulmonaria - a planting idea...

...and another idea - wild planting along the rustic hurdle fence to the Children's gardens

Now I have the happy anticipation of the upcoming weekend, as well as the actual pleasure of taking part. How’s that for a long-lasting gift – and don't you think my cup more than ran over yesterday??

Share a sip from my cup by listening to that Robin's song, welcoming Springtime, as well as myself!

 

Beech, Birch, Elder, Maple...apple, whitebeam, sycamore, oak

A once-upon-a-time-hedge...Field maples at the bottom of the garden

It has been a day for gathering up the leaves at Autumn Cottage - another free harvest from Mother Nature if we care to collect. I have been 'bagging up' leaves for a few years now - piling them into black refuse bags with a few holes at the bottom and stacking them behind the sheds and fences, hidden away to break down into brown gold - leafmould, which acts as a wonderful soil conditioner and fertiliser. But there is such an abundance of leaves here each year that I rapidly run out of bags and places to hide them.

Two old fire-guards = 1 excellent new leaf cage!

This year I have had a brainwave and utilised two old safety fire guards that have been knocking around the garden for a long time. (I can't remember how I acquired them - but do remember thinking that they would come in handy for something one day). I dragged one from the bottom of the garden to join the other one that has been languishing behind the greenhouse - upended them and lashed them together very simply with some gardening wire, and lo - a large open mesh leaf-bin, some 48 inches (1.2 metres) square, into which I have been able to pile springy-sack after springy sack (collapsible garden refuse bins stiffened with a spring coil to keep them open) - 21 loads in all so far. Nearly ALL the garden leaves for this year are now piled up in there, and still there is room to spare.

A carpet of delicate maple leaves ready to be gathered into the springy-sack

There were two main carpets of leaves in the garden - those - light and delicate - at the bottom of the garden, from the field maple, and a carpet of much tougher, ligneous leaves under the apple tree. I alternated loads from each, as they all break down better if they are mixed - now all I have to do is leave them (leave them - get it? :-)) - For a year, and then add to the veg and flower beds as yet another way of returning nutrients and texturisers instead of piling them on a heap and setting fire to them. What a waste - and I do love free stuff in the garden!

I've had plenty of company as well - as the days grow much shorter, Lissie stays closer to the cottage (she apparently spends longer days with my neighbours across the road). This is why Pip appears so much more often here than Liss - but just for the record, here they are together, valiantly holding down the scraps of old carpet that are suppressing weeds prior to me digging over the beds. (Not beautiful, but very, very effective).

'Am I Not Beautiful?'

Pip then put in a solo appearance high up in the Acer branches, just to let me know that pussycats can do such things as run vertically up a tree, while Humans really can't. He enjoys looking down on me...(though there was a blue-tit flitting around some much higher branches, demonstrating to Pip that dicky birds can fly - whilst cats - er - very much can't. Oh, the humiliation!

A blue-tit enjoying the last apples, left on the tree precisely for that purpose

A (rather tatty) Red Admiral, soaking up the last rays of the sun on a blackcurrant leaf in the veg garden

Looking closely in Autumn Cottage garden reveals that Nature only *seems* to  close down for the winter. Though the leaves of the Cotinus, about to fall, are truly going out in a blaze of glory, the jasmine (along with the hellebores) is bursting into full flower now, demonstrating that there is actually always something interesting and full of vitality going on in the garden - if only we open our eyes to see and appreciate it.

Purple Cotinus leaves, decaying in a dramatically decorative manner

Winter Jasmine bursting forth - always something beautiful to enjoy

For the Beauty of the Earth...and the Sustenance of the Spirit

Once again I invite you to stroll with me along the woodland road and into the woods near here on the walk I took two days ago into Great Pen Wood. I am so grateful to have easy access to such beauty - everyone should be able to touch and be touched by it - so you can imagine why I am especially horrified at this latest threat to some of the woodlands of the UK.

The possibility of the sale of Forestry Commission land into private hands probably heralds the possible loss of public access to much of it, with consequential deprivation of contact with nature which I believe we all need for the nourishment of the Spirit. Humans indeed cannot live by bread alone. In these economically difficult and stressful times, it seems that there is a death-wish intention by some political bodies to remove access to stress reduction and healing through this free source of immersion in the natural world, rather than increase it. One more short and narrow sighted political move with grasping financial considerations the only ones in sight. Then, as stress increases, the overburdened NHS will be called upon to hand out the antidepressants - I would prescribe a walk in the woods! I am angry and protest vehemently at this short sightedness.

But for now, I immerse myself again in nature through these images and once again find peace, as I hope you are also able to do.

 

Beauty in pots at the Penwood Nursery - I'll have the red one!

Down into the woods...

  Abundant fungi of all descriptions

  Crunching through a carpet of beech leaves

Bark stripped by badgers on the hunt for insects

Bracket fungi

Home again to the Burning Bush!