Autumn Cottage Diarist

Such Sweet Peas!

Okay, so I know may of you will have been harvesting buckets of veggies from your gardens already - but (apart from a few not very exciting potatoes last week) these are MY "first fruits" (veggies) from the new veg  garden  - and I am thrilled with them. They are mange tout peas - no shelling required, you steam and EAT THE LOT!!!

They actually don't even need steaming - newly picked, they are just delicious tossed in oil into a salad - or, er - if you are greedy, (like me) - eaten straight off the plant. Nothing quite like picking your own!

More action down at the pond today as well - the dragonflies are emerging in quick succession. Here is another one drying its wings, with exoskeleton behind it - in this photo, you can actually see the tiny hole - about 5 mm across, on the back of the thorax, (just above the lower abdomen) through which the adult dragonfly has emerged.

It's a miracle.

The Exceptional Glitter of a Dragonfly's Wing

On a writing list I belong to, Ellen Moore of New Life Stories quoted the lines from Henry James "Summer afternoon - Summer afternoon... the two most beautiful words in the English language....".

I misread them as "English summer afternoon" - and though I got the quotation wrong, it was pertinent serendipity - and the reason why I have not been showing up here - again - very often. I have been seduced by English summer afternoons - and mornings - in the garden, where I have been spending my time from (almost) dawn to dusk on many days.

We had very heavy rain last night - but this morning, everything is washed fresh and clean. The pond, which has been gravitating towards a congested puddle, has filled up again, as I discovered when I went to check it just now. Peering into the depths, I noticed how murky it still was under the surface - and then, in front of my eyes, a pair of glittering wings sped past. 

The first big dragonfly of the year - and from the iridescence of the wings I suspected that it was newly emerged from its nymphal exoskeleton. I inspected the foliage around the pond - and there, amongst the rushes, was another - just emerged (you can see the exoskeleton from which it has emerged just behind it - and that of the first dragonfly that I saw just below), sunning itself in order to allow its wings to expand and dry out. Is it not an exquisite sight?

There is a lot of work to be done out in the garden - but another reason why I am spending time in the garden is to dance with the music of nature - for as my  dear on-line friend Carolyn  whose husband Arnie is very seriously ill exhorts us on her own blog - "Dance while you have the chance". Fran Redondowriter tells you more of their story and offers her own thoughts and prayers here

Carolyn and Arnie have been an inspiration to me and many others on the two writing communities we mutually belong to for several years now. Carolyn's family motto is (or should be) "When Life hands you lemons, make lemonade" - but right now, even Carolyn is lost for words as she sits with Arnie in his battle for life.

And for me - when I feel pretty hopeless and not able to do much other than listen and witness to others tough times? I go into my garden - (as I know Carolyn so often does) and I sink my fingers into the earth, to
reconnect with what is important.

I inhale the scents of the herbs, I watch the buzzards flying overhead, soaring on thermals and hoping that those who struggle at this time are lifted up on Eagles Wings. I listen to the crickets in the field next door, I watch the tadpoles in the pond as they metamorphose into little froglets and strike out with their tiny little new-frog legs to swim from one side of the pond to the other.

When I struggle with my own emotions and the emotions of others, when I am looking for glimpses of hope in a seeming sea of difficulty, I go back to nature. Wendell Berry says it more perfectly than I ever could....I may have posted this before - but it easily bears repeating...

The Peace of Wild Things

When despair in the world grows in me
and I wake in the night at the least sound
in fear of what my life and my
children's lives may be,
I go and lie down where the wood drake
rests in his beauty on the water and the
great heron feeds.
I come into the peace of wild things
who do not tax their lives with
forethought of grief.
I come into the presence of
still water.
And I feel above me the day-blind stars
waiting their light.
For a time I rest in the grace of the world
and am free.

Wendell Berry

Keep Carolyn and Arnie in your thoughts, good readers - Dance while you have the chance, and take time to notice the glitter of a dragonfly's wing.

Garden Open Today

A yellow sign declaring "Garden Open" is what gardening enthusiasts in
the UK look out for on a Sunday  afternoon (and less numerously, on a
Wednesday). It points the way to a garden open under the National
Gardens Scheme, an organisation which has been operating now for over
80 years, listing all the gardens participating each week in the ubiquitous
"Yellow Book", which comes out at the beginning of the year.

You have to be a special garden to get into the book - there have been a
couple of series of programmes on TV, called "Open Garden", showing just
what sort of an ordeal owners have to sometimes go through to be
accepted into the Scheme - the County Organisers, who come to inspect,
seem to be uniformly terrifying!

They require "at least 45 minutes worth of interest", for which one pays a
small fee (it was £3.00 UK pounds this afternoon) - with most of the
entrance fee going to charity - often split between local good causes and
"national nursing, caring and gardening charities." (Often the wonderfully
practical Macmillan Cancer Care) - and for that, you get to see the garden,
buy often very unusual plants - and of course, in the best traditions of
British visiting, you get the chance of a piece of home-made cake and a
Nice Cup of Tea!

For those who are accepted - and the gardens range from tiny cottage
gardens to grand country houses - it is an achievement which other
gardeners  recognise as being of particular merit. If you have managed to
banish every last weed and have all your flowers on glorious display with
not a petal out of place, if your garden finally gets to be in "The Yellow
Book" then you have made it - and can bask in the glory for ever more!

Today's garden - Sandleford Place, just five minutes from Autumn Cottage, was of the Country House variety - so come for a wander around with me, and see how lovely June in England was today.

Discover more about the NGS here

The herbaceous border - I love the yellow-gold spirea with the blue hardy geraniums

Pink and white paeonies

The foxglove border leading to the vegetable garden

Looks like a newly laid out veg garden, with box edging and a beautiful new greenhouse

Potting corner heaven in the greenhouse (a little larger - ahem - than my own beloved potting shed!)

Follow me, through this mysterious doorway!

Choice treasures (and one or two choice prices!)

More plants for sale, arranged around the "sprinkling tree" water feature

Another important doorway - leading to the TEAS!

"Lollipop" pruned box and the bird table

Dramatic cloudscape keeping everyone guessing - will it rain or not?

A last look at the rose border

Rosa Gallica Versicolor the Rosa Mundi - thanks to Brigitte for pointing out my error! (amended 21 June 08)

Thank You, Tesco! (or - recycling in the garden)

These are the croissants for weekend breakfast, direct from the bakery at our local food superstore, Tesco - but look what they have very kindly used to package them...very nice plastic trays, complete with lid - that make the most excellent little propagators. Here is one holding a seed tray - but they will be used for propagating all sorts of plants throughout this month

Here are some other ideas for recycled items...

Use the brown mushroom packages as seed trays - excellent with a few holes punched in the bottom - and the individual caramel pots have holes in them already! (May need to make them a bit bigger with the twist of a knife) - here are some propagated miniature sedums in the individual pots

Remember the old terracotta pots, that I was wondering how to use? Well, look at what i have done with some broken pots - no need to throw them away...

Even the smallest can take one or two sempervivums (house-leeks) - and look what you can do with bigger pots...

While we're talking sempervivums, look how many "babies" I split from one £4.00 pot yesterday - and look how many are still left to gather...

All these pots make lovely nook and cranny hideyholes for our garden inhabitants - here is one who was being pursued by Lily, so was transported down to the bog garden for a bit of peace and quiet

The veg and herb garden are flourishing - here are some of the veg boxes in the evening light

And the greenhouse corner, with all the tools of the trade

Here's the old stone sink, planted up with alpines

 And of course, the Naughty Squad, who keep me company there...Here's Lissie giving Pip a not-so-gentle wash, while Lily looks on from her usual, upside down position

And all three of them, zonked on Catmint, and sitting quietly (i.e. stoned!) for once!  Just another quiet week at Autumn Cottage :-)

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?

A Fascinating Life - and a Love Story

If anyone could be said to have lived a full life, it is Jan Morris, who is the
guest on this month's Book Club on BBC Radio 4, talking about her
delicious book "Venice" which captures the Spirit of Place like few other
books can. As a confirmed Venetophile, the programme was a delight to
listen to  for me - you can hear it again on Radio 4 on Thursday 5th June 2008 at
4 pm or "Listen again"  after Thursday by following the links on the Book
Club page - hopefully you can do this outside the UK as well!

 

But besides the pleasure of listening to someone with a true love of Venice
talk about their passion for half an hour, there was a delightful revelation at
the end of the programme. For those of you who don't listen to the whole
show, Jan alludes to the fact that she was born as James Morris, already
an accomplished journalist when he scooped  the news, which was
announced on Coronation Day, of the successful attempt by Edmund
Hilary and Sherpa Tenzing on the ascent of Everest.

He then went on to have gender re-assignment - but not before he had
fathered five children with his wife Elizabeth. As a result of his re-
assignment, they divorced (seems to have been a legal requirement - I'm
not sure of the details) - but he and Elizabeth continued to live happily
together until the present day. The happy news on the programme was
that, just a week ago, as a result of the highly civilised law which now
pertains in the UK, Jan and Elizabeth were legally (re)-joined in a Civil
Union.

Seems that their hearts have been joined for nearly 60 years - the law just
took a little time to catch up - isn't it a pleasing story?

Read everything of Jan Morris's that you can lay your hands on - for history, travel, erudition, scene setting and story-telling, you will not be disappointed.

(Image of JM taken from Paul Greenhill's book on Jan Morris from the "Writers of Wales" series - no affiliation)

A Drive Around the Leafy Lanes

Grazing sheep and lambs on the road into Faccombe

A quieter weekend than I had expected at home, so I took the opportunity to escape from academic writing, to go "church crawling" around some little country churches close to home. Enjoy this brief photo essay of just a few of the images I captured yesterday.

The gate into the 800 year old church at Ashmansworth, hidden deep in the countryside

Faccombe Church

The beautiful engraved Millennium Window by Tracey Sheppard, in the church at Hurstbourne Tarrant

A cottage next to the church at St Mary Bourne

The Tudor (1574) tomb of Sir Robert Oxenbridge and his wife at Hurstbourne Priors

The Oxenbridge children a-weeping around the base of the tomb

A cheery name-plate in St Mary Bourne

Blooming England - with roses round the door - and window!

So THAT'S who's Been Eating my Roses!

I wondered why Lily & Pippin were teetering on the back of the sofa, peering out of the window in the conservatory, when I came down this morning. Not interested in their breakfasts, they could not wait to get outside.

I looked towards the bottom of the garden and saw this  cheeky character, a young roe deer, reposing calmly in the flower bed. Reposing calmly after munching his way through all the roses that I have planted this year - most of them now have no tops, and no buds. Where's my (pop) gun? !

More later, I suspect - said invader was last seen in my veg garden - shooed out, but I draw the line at my new herb beds. I need to block off the only access, to make it completely secure.

This means war!

Paper Crowns for Purity

I went "church crawling" today with my Reverend friend D, a fellow student
on my course at Winchester. Torrential rain, but what a good time we had!

It was a follow-up from a chance remark by my Tutor that the church at
Abbott's Ann, just south of Andover, held a large number of "Maiden's
Garlands" or Crants - tributes built on hazel wood spars in the shape of a
crown, decorated with paper rosette flowers, that were traditionally carried
at the funeral of "an unmarried member of the parish of unblemished
character" (usually female, though there are several male at Abbott's Ann)
since medieval times.

I had seen a few examples over the last ten years in Derbyshire, (for
example, at the Church in Ashford in the Water) - but did not know that
there were some in my own home county - and that there were so many
(49) in one place

 Many of them are now in a state of decay, though the last one, placed
there in 1973, is still bright and sharp - all the verses written on the paper
gauntlets (emblematic "challenges" to those who would contest the purity
of the deceased) can still be read.

These are a wonderful example of a folk tradition which has all but died out
in the UK now. Another tradition associated with them is that they are
hung in the church until they decay - but it seems such a dreadful pity to

let the last of these artifacts disintegrate in this way. Yet another example

of the extraordinary wealth of both modest and magnificent works of art
that are gathered in so many of our tucked away and sometimes
neglected, strapped-for-cash parish churches - surely now is the time for
them to be funded from central government?

For the present, they seem to be one more example of our embarras de
richesses - historical items that will be ignored because, well, we have so
many of them, don't we? Until they are all lost or in dreadful condition.
THEN someone will sit up and take notice - but by then, it will be too late.

Stateside readers, can you transport some of your reverence for history
over to these shores, please, and plonk it at the feet of our Treasury? ;-)

In the Night Garden

Taken at about 9 pm, down by the pond - a perfect example of why it is worthwhile to plant white flowers. these are aquilegias (Grannies Bonnets, Columbines) - and I didn't plant them - they just seeded themselves there. Don't they just glow in the twilight?

By the way - sorry about the "Chelsea Flower Show" letdown, if you were outside the UK and tried to view the show garden videos last night. Stingy old BBC were only allowing UK viewers to see them. Poor show, I say!