Autumn Cottage Diarist

Digging up the Past at Autumn Cottage

Making a backbreaking gardening job more interesting by looking out for 'treasures'

 

 

Outside/Inside at Autumn Cottage!

Thank you for all the encouragement to make more little videos - here's another brief experiment from the cottage on a cold & windy November day.

 

 

Saved from the Jaws of Destruction!

Every so often I feel the need to 'run away' from the humdrum domestic environment for an hour or two; in my case it is almost always to the little town of Hungerford in West Berkshire, which is about a twenty minute drive from Autumn Cottage. When I arrive, my well trodden pathways usually include a ramble around the Antiques Arcade, which I have been visiting for at least twenty five years.

Through that hallowed portal, my feet always carry me first to 'The Junk Shop' - not far inside the main door and a repository of a complete and mysterious miscellanea. Its contents span a spectrum from 'undiscovered treasures' (until they are discovered my me!) through weird and wonderful 'stuff' right down to the frankly trashy (but keeping in mind *always* that what is my trash will undoubtedly be another person's treasure - so there is a place for all of it).

A recent 'find' in the Junk Shop - watercolour of Wallingford Bridge, late C19th

After a first look in the Junk shop, I then make straight for 'Countryside Books' - the permanent showcase of Martin Smith, the second-hand and antiquarian book dealer from whom I have bought many, many treasures over the last fifteen years - some of which have sent me off on intriguing searches and  wonderful adventures.

Northern Golden Plover (Shorelands Summer Diary, C.T. Tunnicliffe,1952)

I had several happy 'finds' in Martin's unit yesterday - most particularly two books illustrated by Charles Tunnicliffe - whom I consider one of the finest wildlife illustrators of the 20th century.

His watercolours so skilfully capture the intangible but  essential nature of the animals (mostly birds)  which he closely observed over many years from his home on Anglesey - but it is also to his striking wood engravings that I am drawn - I think even more closely than his colour work.

Ruffs (Shorelands Summer Diary, C.T. Tunnicliffe,1952)

I also purchased a translation and printing of a fascinating illustrated journal, originally created by one of Napoleon's offiicers - on the ultimately disastrous Russian campaign. The artwork is talented, capturing the costumes of both invaders and invaded, the landscape and the gradual dawning that victory was about to turn into terrible tragedy of freezing and starvation as the Imperial army retreated through the cruel Russian winter.

Napoleon Outside Viasma, 30 August 1812 (Memoirs of Major Faber du Faur, 1812/2001)

I happily left the Arcade with these 'treasures of the day', making my way back to my car (which I park at a friend's house, some hundreds of yards away) but was distracted on my way by some brightly coloured china in the window of a charity shop on the other side of the road. Did I need more 'stuff'? - no, of course not, but…it was just across the road. No harm in looking!

Having peered into the window and discovered that the items which caught my eye were nothing that I wanted, I turned to go to the car - but the little voice on my shoulder was whispering to me.  'Oh, go ON  - no harm in just taking a look inside, is there?'. I was unable to resist the little voice!

I poked around the shop for a minute or two, but there were no other visible items of any interest, and my bag of books was now getting heavy. I asked to put it down near the counter while I took a VERY last look around, and as I did so, there, beside my bag, was a box of books which looked neglected and in poor condition, but the Inner Radar deemed worthy of taking a look at. All piled in a jumble, and pretty 'tatty' but some old illustrated children's books were included on top - which I have collected for years. So I asked the price - and was told that they were not really for sale, but had been placed there ready to go 'for pulping - they are old and damaged and nobody wants them'. Ahem - at least one person did!

I asked permission to look through the box - which was happily granted, and was excited to find, further down in the box, two old and stained but interestingly covered cookery books (dated 1890) and also a tiny little leatherette bound book with 'Burial Service' embossed on the front. Treasure was mine! and even better - treasure rescued at the last minute from almost certain destruction.

Along with two modern, but original and very nicely framed little watercolours of Venice, I offered ten pounds for the lot. I left the shop with a very happy smile on my face.

My smile got bigger when I came home. Looking through the little 'burial book' I discovered both the full name and date of burial of the person (Captain John Wright Westby - 03 May 1912) for whom it had been used. The name was printed inside the front covers of what seems to be a pro-forma book produced by the undertakers, Hanningtons of Brighton). Inside one of the other books was inscribed a woman's name (Constance Westby) with the same surname as that of the deceased in the Funeral Service. Ten minutes of an internet search has already furnished details of his marriage, (to Charlotte Sarah Constance Westby) his military career and - sadly - the death of their son on the Somme. What more of their story can I now discover? This treasure hunt is waiting for me to begin.

This is the delight of these finds to me - the books themselves are worth almost nothing as saleable books - but to me, the details inscribed incidentally inside their pages both tell a story in itself and offer the possibility of further searches and revelations  which may take me to visit places and meet people who are as yet unknown to me..

The second 'cookery' book is intriguing in its own right. It is actually a manual for bakers and confectioners - filled with advertisements for bakers supplies and recipes for all areas of the profession.

Interesting in itself, it is much more so to me, as it is exactly the sort of book my grandfather - also a baker and confectioner - would have consulted. More story telling - more 'filling in the gaps' - more many happy hours spent discovering the bigger picture.

Not a bad outcome for an afternoon of running away!

 

Thursday, Thursday...

The Victorian Town Hall

Each week I take a walk though the old Market Square in Newbury, on my way to work as a volunteer counsellor. I love the work that I do there, but I'm also fortunate to have a pleasant route to walk which takes me there and back.

I thought you may also like to see some parts of the town walk with me - and you can see a number of other historical images here (which you can keep open in another window to compare) - It's fascinating to see just how little things have changed!

The medieval cloth hall - now the Museum and Tourist Information centre.

The wonderful 'garlic man'

- a produce seller from the Isle of Wight who comes up each week to sell honey, pickles, organic flour and several sorts of superb garlic. What's more, he is ALWAYS in a good humour, through fair weather and foul, so it's a pleasure to chat to him whenever I pass - he's happy to pass on knowledge and advice, even if I am not purchasing that day. (a rare event!). Those are the sorts of little incident that brighten the day and make it just a little bit better.

Looking from the other side of the garlic man towards the Old Corn Exchange

- now a wonderful theatre, cinema and arts venue - lots of old views of this building on the forum website above, and if you'd like to see what's happening there now, here's a webcam link of the Market Place for you to view.

And finally my last port of call for the day - the good old village hall, where I got to place my mark to elect our new government here in the UK - at both National and Local levels. It's General Election Polling Day here in the United Kingdom.

It only took me five minutes, but those few minutes  gave me pause - to think about how I got to place my mark in peace and quiet and absolute secrecy...without threats of having my fingers or ears cut off, my children butchered or my home burned - experiences which all too many people, in all too many places, suffer, still. People have died in the past to give me this right...which is why I don't joke when I said this morning 'I'm off to do my duty'. it's an old fashioned concept, but I reckon  it's little enough to ask that I at least use my vote, when it has been paid for so hard and can be taken for granted so easily. It is my right - and it is my duty - and I am both proud and fortunate that I live in a nation of freedom where this is so.

Sermon over. Just saying...

More Tombs, Antiques - and a Skateboarding Dog!

 Salvage yard, Dunster
The third day of  five in Somerset, a day upon which I met The Truly Amazing Skateboarding Dog!    I kid you not, gentle readers - There I was, quietly wandering around a salvage yard, imagining what the dear old fireplaces must have looked like in their heydays, still installed in Edwardian houses, polished up with love and care, instead of here, gently rusting away until someone came to rescue them.
Heard a barking and a rushing, and feared the worst. A German Shepherd hurtling towards me - was I in a forbidden part of the yard? Did he think I was an intruder? Then I saw why he was approaching so fast...the blessed beast was skateboarding!!!
It was obviously his toy, and the fuss and noise were merely meant to tell me to get out of the way as he stepped on one corner, did an excellent three point turn, and sped off in another direction. The things you see in a salvage yard!!!

This was a day in the medieval market town of Dunster, and yes, you have guessed it, it was raining. The most moist day of all the week, and myself considerably under the weather, so not so many photos to choose from...but here are a few images of how I spent my time.

Back to the salvage yard. O Happy Day when I have the chance to wander around a place like this. I am sure there are good homes waiting for all these items, but it is such fun to just see them in their 'raw' state and hope that they are soon taken away, cleaned up and installed somewhere to enhance a house or garden. Old stone sinks, a wrought iron fire-basket, several eel-traps, a dove-cote, coal hods, an ancient washing machine -(the barrel shaped item) and a trio of windows that would grace any renovation once they had been cleaned up and painted. All the items somewhat overpriced, I thought...but if you are looking for just exactly one of those items, who is to say what the 'right' price really is, apart from what you are prepared to pay for it?

Took refuge in Dunster church during the worst of the downpours - where I discovered this very grand Luttrell tomb -look at trouble taken to show the detailing of the woman's petticoats... 

and a 'Memento Mori' triptych, bearing all the reminders of time and mortality - the sand-timers, the skull and crossed-bones, and the cherubic little ascending souls, carved somewhat naievely into the black slate slab.

 

Lunch in the cosy old kitchens of the 15th century Lutrell Arms, just visible on the right, behind the old Yarn Market here in the centre of Dunster,

and then back to Porlock, to visit the church of St Dubricius with its distinctive truncated tower. Inside, the early 15th Century tomb of Lord Harington - who fought with Henry the Fifth in France, and his Lady, her hair coiffured in an elegant embroidered head-dress, her head upon a pillow supported by two angels.

 

It was only a short walk back from the church to the apartment, passing another 15th century building, the Ship Inn, at the bottom of the notorious 1 in 4 Porlock Hill, before I was able to get warm and dry again.

I feel I have hurried you through this blog-post in rather the same way that I hurried through the day in Dunster...but once again, wasn't it worth braving the weather for all the interesting things I managed to see?

Avebury Interlude on an Autumn Afternoon

An old stone cottage on the edge of the village

Spent a delightful afternoon with a dear friend and five of her friends, thoughtful women all, celebrating her 'big 0' birthday with lunch and walk around the prehistoric stone circle of Avebury in Wiltshire. One of those unplanned days when everything turns out well - you meet people that make a real connection with you, the conversation is good, the weather was a benign gift, there was a bookshop selling esoteric books which cannot, of course, be resisted. And as always at Avebury, the atmosphere engendered by the landscape itself is so very, very special.
Take another walk with me, along the earthworks surrounding the stone circles. More about Avebury here....

Click on this extra large image to experience being right in amongst these magnificent beech tree roots

The track along the top of the earthworks surrounding the village and stone circles

Leaves falling just enough to start to see the underlying framework of branches..one of the benefits of autumn and winter

Autumn tree colour amongst the inner stone circle - the parish church in the background. Christianity once again following in the path of Pagan ancestors. 

Late afternoon and dusk ensues - a welcoming glow from some of the windows

The sun falls behind the old cottages and the church...time to wander home again.

Tabletop Snapshot of a Moment in Today

Sitting in the open doorway of the garden room this afternoon, proofreading an essay, drinking tea, talking to the cats, who love to stroll in and out, listening to the birds (who are more than happy that the 24 hour downpour has now stopped). Here is the "stuff" on my  oval mahogany pedestal table, (which I love), right now.....

• A Japanese Imari bowl - holding the remote control for the CD player
• Printoffs of academic papers
• A draft of my essay - which I will be glad to see the back of, now.
• My journal - to keep me company and provide an escape!
• Black gel pens
• Highlighter pens in an old pottery mug with the handle broken off
• My reading glasses - which I hate to admit I need nowadays.
• Sunglasses - we live in hope!
• A half-drunk cup of Assam tea
• Endless books - including Simon Jenkin's "1000 Best Churches" (an 'engine primer' for weekend church crawling),  "Leaving a Trace" by Alexandra Johnson (more ideas for journal keeping)..and Dorothy Wordsworth's Illustrated  Lakeland Journals.

Spanish classical guitar on the player, to remind me of the Castelo de Sao Jorge in Lisbon

Tell me about your desk or table - what does it say about you today?

Do You Have a Larder (Pantry?)

Dear Friends of Autumn Cottage Diary 

Its been a long time since I checked in with you all – the beginning of October 2007 seems so far away in many respects (and Lily and Pippin have grown even more!). Even the New Year has been slow in kicking into action here at Autumn Cottage. But I’ve finally been prompted to put finger to keyboard  after mentions of the Slow Food Movement by Britt-Arnhild and Chel of the Yahoo Armchair Travelling group .
 

Tim goes back to college tomorrow, and I had promised him that before he did, I would make and freeze a batch of home made soup for him. These soups are something of a tradition in our family – they are very much “slow food” in their preparation, but fast in the effect that they have of bringing people from the far end of the house to the kitchen, enticed by the herby, garlic-y fragrance which floats abroad when the soup is simmering on the cooker. 

So this afternoon was already designated “soup time”, but mentions of  the interest that others have in Slow Food inspired me to take a few photographs to show just how simple the making of this root vegetable soup really is. Here’s a little gallery of images to show how it progresses – and here is the recipe. You won’t find many weights and measures in it – this is cooking the way that my (our?) mother/s did it – with plenty of tasting along the way to make sure that the things which count are there!
 

We start with this - easy!

Autumn Cottage Root Veg Slow Soup

2 large onions

½ head of celery

¼ Swede

2 large potatoes

8 medium carrots

At least 4 large cloves of garlic

A bunch of sage, rosemary and oregano

About 2 tbsp olive oil

About 1 tbsp butter

2 tsp salt

1 tsp freshly ground black pepper

 

One of the most important additions - a bunch of herbs - can you smell it yet?
 

Put the olive oil, butter and chopped or crushed garlic into a large pan and allow to sweat on a very low heat for 5 minutes – (infusion rather than immolation!). 

Peel and roughly dice all the vegetables, then add to the oil and garlic. Give all a good stir, put the lid on the pan, and allow to sweat for 15 minutes. Meanwhile, boil a kettle of water. 

Add the magic ingredients – the bunch of herbs (add any that you have – fresh are better than dried, but if dried is all you have, Italian herb mixes work well – I imagine about a tbsp would do). 

Pour boiling water over to just cover the vegetables. Lid back on, bring back to the boil, then turn down the heat and allow to simmer for an hour. 

Add 1½ cups of red lentils; continue to simmer until all the water has been absorbed. A little more water may be needed as you go along if it gets too thick – different lentils absorb different amounts of water. 

Allow to cool, removing the bunch of twigs which will be all that is left of the herbs! 

Either eat “chunky” with good granary bread, or whizz in a blender for a smoother soup. Season to taste.

(Throw nothing away! Peelings  can happily be added to the compost heap - where they will miraculously turn into Black Gold for the garden over the space of a few  months - all for FREE!)

The contents of the compost bin - greens, peelings, old paper and cardboard. Magic!

My question in the title was inspired by opening the door to the larder to find the lentils (which I then dropped all over the floor when returning them to their shelf, but that is another story – Lily and Pippin have offered to clear them up – I don’t know if I should believe them?). Every time I look in that cupboard, I have a little thrill of pleasure, to see the shelves lined with packets, pots and jars - all manner of good things. 

I was determined to keep the larder when we bought “part 2” of Autumn Cottage (then called “Myrtle Cottage”) in 1995. So many people rip them out, in favour of “integrated” storage in a fitted kitchen, but, though small (what I really long for is the bliss of a walk-in Victorian larder, complete with slate and marble shelving), it is my cool repository of magical ingredients, which will transform a pot of water and humble vegetables into wholesome soups, purees, olives and pasta which will transport me back to Italy, powders and potions which will take me travelling to the Middle East and India., What a treasure nook it is! So, do you long for or have a larder? If you do, what do you keep in it? If not, what would your ideal larder be?

[I thought that these links may be of interest, noticing that several comments to this blog have noted the use of "Pantry" for what I have termed "Larder". I've certainly learned something myself - especially that there is even a website dedicated to "Everything Pantry"!]
 

Though we have travelled three months through the fallow part of the year, dear readers, there have been many changes at Autumn Cottage – and the coming year promises to see many more. Change is often difficult, and without burdening you with tedious personal details, I have found some of the changes more challenging than I expected. Looking back, I am now trying to do what I sometimes encourage my clients to do, to find the learning in all the events that have, and continue to occur. (I am SO much better at telling other people how to live their lives than I am at living my own!) 

Alec is seeking horizons new, after leaving the work he has done for 29 years. I, in turn, am now also open to the possibility of new things in my life, new directions, new adventures, new challenges – which I hope I shall continue to meet here at Autumn Cottage. 

I still continue to study at Winchester for the moment, though the openness to new challenges may include suspending those studies for a while, while I continue to build my counselling and psychotherapy practice, which will be extending more into on-line work in the next year, and also to offer many more day classes and courses here at the cottage. The new herb garden will be another place for my lovely workshop attendees to sit,contemplate, and write. here it is, in the depths of winter. Watch this space as it develops over the year.

In fact, I am returning to some of the things that first brought me to writing “Autumn Cottage Diary” on the Internet, some 12 years ago. I still want to share life here in an English country cottage with those of you who love such things – I want to return to sharing the changing seasons of the beautiful countryside with which I am surrounded, the old buildings in the interesting towns and villages which still exist – if you know where to look for them – the old bookshops, the antiques, the crafts, the good food and drink that can also still be found. 

Not every town has been completely taken over by plate glass-windowed emporia, clones of their brother and sister shops in every other town – all lookalike “Next”, Debenhams, Homebase and Tesco. The interesting and the downright eccentric still exist! (The superstores are also great – in their own way – but often very unlovely). 

So join me through 2008, as I bring the pleasures that I enjoy daily – here in the garden and house at Autumn Cottage, and when I travel in the towns and villages of England and abroad. I’ve missed you all – thank you, so many of you, for writing and telling me how much you have missed me. Your sincere concern has been heart warming to me. 

To bow out for today, who else could I leave you with other than Pippin, Lily, and Lissie (who decided to feast a day early at Christmas, ending up on the veterinary operating table the day after Boxing Day – but that, too, is another story!)

Who's bigger now? Lissie, thin and fragile but OK after surgery.

Another computer geek in the house!

 

A belated Happy New Year to you all!

Treading Quietly in January

January! By mid-day, it had hardly got light. It was blustery, blowy, misty-
drizzly - but oh, so mild. My hair looked like a birds nest - my cheeks
looked - healthy!

I have taken a walk through the woods - and it was wonderful. I felt as if all the cobwebs from the last month of hibernation have been blown away. I actually NEED to get out into Nature, to keep me from "Cabin Fever".

Here is the result of days of lashing rain - ditches and water drains overflowing. surely there can be no "hosepipe ban" THIS year?

Here are just a few images taken along the road through the woods, from
around mid-day. This is where the first of my "WoodWalks" writing day workshops will take place in February (local readers - mail me for details!)

These are some of the features of the natural world that I am privileged to have all around me here. Come for a walk along "The Drove" with me.

As you can see, I love the old, gnarled tree trunks, deeply cleft and covered with mosses and lichen, bent and  twisted into what I think is a magnificent expression of their age.

But look also how green and lush everything is already - this is not the frozen midwinter, but unseasonally warm weather - the yellow furze here is flowering months before its usual appearance. Yet one more indicator of global warming?

Then the light began to fall once again, and the misty drizzle covered the fields, but still - it was silently beautiful, peaceful and calm. Blissful to be walking in it  - the soft rain, the best skin treatment ever.

Enjoy your own winter evening..........

The Remnants of Christmas

Christmas and New Year have come and (nearly) gone – here are just a few remaining fragments. All I wait for now are the signs that springtime is on its way. The pond and the summerhouse wait for the sound of frogs and the song of the birds. The pots on the patio are waiting to be filled with waterfalls of colour again – and I wait as well for the warm sunshine to return.

Very few photographs of Christmas time here at Autumn Cottage (after I left my camera out in the rain overnight) – the sparseness of which rather parallels the paucity of Christmas cheer here this year – for several reasons, the ball never really did get rolling properly.

But at least I’m now lucky enough to have a new mobile phone (after no updates for five years!) – which came with an onboard camera with nearly as many pixels as the one left out in the rain – so now I can capture the early part of the year and share it with you here. Losing the use of a camera was like losing part of my anatomy!

I’m hoping that at least one of my online friends, Rose, will be taking tea with me in this summerhouse in a few months time – I have the tea (sent from another ACJ friend, Dora) - I’m already getting ready the table linen, and where are the china cups?