In the Garden

I don’t know about you, but I’ve been enjoying the cooler wetter September days. I got fed up with watering so it’s a relief not to have to do that everyday.

I mowed the lawn for its last cut of the year and cut back some of the dying and overgrown foliage: the mint, fennel, and ivy which were starting to swallow up everything else. I also harvested the rest of the tomatoes, mostly green unripened ones. I don’t think they’ll ripen much more in the garden now and a couple of them were starting to show signs of the dreaded blight. A week or two on the kitchen windowsill and they’ll soon turn red. If not I’ll make green tomato chutney.

There seem to be more potent fragrances intensifying at this time of year. The sharp tang of tomato leaves. The smoky evenings when the neighbour’s burn their garden waste. It lingers on my clothes and on the cat’s fur. The fragrant herbs – mint, rosemary, chives, marjoram, lavender that I cut and bring inside to dry.  Occasionally, there is the familiar thud of an apple as it falls and hits the soft damp ground. A carpet of mouldering fruit… the air is thick and sweet with it.

There are few garden birds around this time of year. There is a pair of collared doves who live nearby and settle in the trees, and on chimneys and my neighbour’s fruit nets. And the robin has been visiting daily throughout the summer. Sorry for the picture quality taken through the glass window, but I thought he looked photogenic on the lawnmower handle.

I have not done such a great job with the garden this year. The plot has been a bit neglected and I have no worthy excuse other than perhaps laziness and putting other things first. I have grown some vegetables besides the tomatoes, there is kale, beetroot, leeks, lettuce and potatoes. But they are difficult to find between the weeds. I can only hope to do better in the future.

I’m going to scale back a bit next year and plant less. Focus on clearing some of the invasive plants and dividing the larger perennials. It is easy to get enthusiastic about all the plans in the spring – I know next year will be no different – but I shouldn’t make more work for myself than I can sensibly sustain.

I do not want a garden that is too neat and pruned, and soulless. I much prefer the cottage garden style, which seems to be a lot freer way of gardening, but it actually takes a lot of work.

It is a careful balancing act. One person can only do so much. I would like the garden to be a pleasurable space rather than one I’m constantly struggling to keep under control.

I wish you all a peaceful weekend. Weather permitting, I’ll be spending most of it in the garden 🙂

Best-Loved Poems, A Treasury of Verse by Ana Sampson

“Poetry is personal.The poet tells us about love, grief, faith, doubt, fear or courage as they have felt it, and a receptive reader – sometimes centuries later – discovers that the verses strike a chord, and that scraps of the poem catch in their memory for ever.”

I was lucky to receive an advance copy of this poetry anthology, because of a blog post I wrote on another of Ana Sampson books (the wonders of the Internet!). What a pleasure it was to open the package and see the beautiful and striking cover. A cover which reminds me of those aged books I consider treasure when I find them in a second-hand bookshop. It perfectly reflects the timeless quality of the poems inside.

The poems are divided by theme. Chapters include Love, Relationships, Songs of War, Birds and Beasts, Poems Remembered from Childhood, ‘The Dying of the Light: Elegies and Epitaphs’ and many more.

I enjoyed revisiting old favourites like Edward Lear’s ‘The Owl and the Pussy-cat’, Wendell Berry’s ‘The Peace of Wild Things’ and especially those which made me smile like ‘Daddy Fell Into the Pond’ by Alfred Noyes, and ‘Yes, I’ll Marry You My Dear’ by Pam Ayres.  

I also discovered some new ones too, like this tender romantic sonnet by Carol Ann Duffy: 

 

Hour

Love’s time’s beggar, but even a single hour,

bright as a dropped coin, makes love rich.

We find an hour together, spend it not on flowers

or wine, but the whole of the summer sky and a grass ditch.

 

For thousands of seconds we kiss; your hair

like treasure on the ground; the Midas light

turning your limbs to gold. Time slows, for here

we are millionaires, backhanding the night

 

so nothing dark will end our shining hour,

no jewel hold a candle to the cuckoo spit

hung from the blade of grass at your ear,

no chandelier or spotlight see you better lit

 

than here. Now. Time hates love, wants love poor,

but love spins gold, gold, gold from straw.

 

This book comes out today, a week before National Poetry Day on the 28th September. I can’t think of a nicer way to celebrate it than putting my feet up and reading some poetry along with a cup of tea to restore my sanity. I’d love to know – what would be your favourite poem to include in a treasury of verse?

The Secrets of Pistoulet

An enchanting fable of food, magic and love…

“Far away in the remote, untraveled southwestern French countryside, en route from the enchanting old city with an ancient cathedral to the mystical Pyrenees which appear like a mirage at the most unanticipated moments, there is a small village which contains two homes, an eleventh-century church, and a very special farm known as Pistoulet.

Hidden from most everything, Pistoulet is an unknown paradise with magical powers. There are unusual creatures inside and out. Everyone who passes through Pistoulet has a story which unfolds during their visit to the farm. All who spend time at Pistoulet leave with their hearts transformed.”

… and so begins a magical tale of transformation.

Not a children’s book, but rather an exploration into a children’s way of seeing the world. It is delightfully full of hope and healing through fiction and food, beautiful hand-drawn illustrations, letters, mysterious maps and diary entries.

The recipes are on little pull-out cards with titles like ‘Potage of Spirit’, and  ‘Potage of Strength’.

Because we all need a little extra courage sometimes, and Borage flowers are plentiful at least in this area of the world right now, here is a recipe for you:

TEA OF COURAGE

For those shy souls who are afraid of their own potential

When the summer sun rises high in the sky and the star-shaped borage flowers turn from pink to blue remove the flowers and the youngest leaves. Acquire water from the clearest spring which has traveled many miles from the tallest mountains. Bring the mountain water to a boil and place the borage flowers and leaves in the bubbling water. Cover and let steep until the magical power of the flower has infused with the spirit and strength of the water.

CAUTION: Serve only to those who are truly in need. This infusion has been known to turn the meekest souls into BRAVE HEARTS. Be prepared for a complete transformation of personality.

This a stop off in France on my journey ‘Around the world in 80 Books’. Published way back in 1996, this book must have been a real joy to create for Jana Kolpen and Mary Tiegreen. It is a feast for the imagination, and I defy anyone not to feel at least a little bit better about the world after reading it.

Raindrops on Roses

The weather is so changeable at the moment it’s hard to keep up – from the deepest blue sky with flecks of cloud, to the darkest grey, thunderclaps and torrential downpours. I have been doing a kind of rain dance with the laundry – peg it out, run to bring it all in, peg it out once again – on repeat all day long.

Besides the raindrops on roses, a few other favourite things right now:

• sifting through old photographs
• a bundle of reserved books collected from the library
• planning and packing for a trip to Brighton
• juicy ripe yellow tomatoes picked from the garden
• summer walks
• a flurry of blue butterflies on the common (apparently the collective noun for butterflies is ‘swarm’, though I think I prefer flurry)
• listening to J. S. Bach’s Goldberg Variations: “a miniature study in elegance and other-worldly serenity” and trying to absorb some of that serenity via osmosis.

Have a lovely week. xx

Dubliners ~ James Joyce

My ‘Around the world in 80 books’ is taking its leisurely course. This stop is in the city of Dublin, Ireland. A place I’ve long wanted to visit, and the setting for one of my course texts, James Joyce’s Dubliners.

The fifteen short stories close in on the ordinary lives of Irish people in varying stages of their lives in an early twentieth-century city that is being both pulled back by its past and forward by the future. The people are all stuck in some way, held back by their individual and collective histories, their environments and their own personal limitations.

This is my first encounter with Joyce, and having heard that much of his other works are not easy reads, I was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed these short stories. Even though there is a pervasive sense of melancholy throughout the collection, there is also this sense that things could change at any moment.

Favourite stories include – Eveline, Araby and A Little Cloud. The latter about a man ‘Little Chandler’ who dreams of becoming a poet:

‘The glow of a late autumn sunset covered the grass plots and walks. It cast a shower of kindly golden dust on the untidy nurses and decrepit old men who drowsed on the benches; it flickered upon all the moving figures — on the children who ran screaming along the gravel paths and on everyone who passed through the gardens. He watched the scene and thought of life; and (as always happened when he thought of life) he became sad. A gentle melancholy took possession of him. He felt how useless it was to struggle against fortune, this being the burden of wisdom which the ages had bequeathed to him.

He remembered the books of poetry upon his shelves at home. He had bought them in his bachelor days and many an evening, as he sat in the little room off the hall, he had been tempted to take one down from the bookshelf and read out something to his wife. But shyness had always held him back; and so the books had remained on their shelves. At times he repeated lines to himself and this consoled him.’

The familiar stereotype of the Irish, who love to drink and to laugh, is here too, but this is portrayed as an escape valve from the claustrophobia of their everyday lives. Chandler goes to a public house to meet an old friend who has long since moved away from Dublin. As he walks to meet his old friend Chandler is filled with the hope and possibility of escape:

‘Every step brought him nearer to London, farther from his own inartistic life. A light began to tremble on the horizon of his mind. He was not so old – thirty-two. His temperament might be said to be just at the point of maturity. There were so many different moods and impressions that he wished to express in verse. He felt them within him. He tried to weigh his soul to see if it was a poet’s soul. Melancholy was the dominant note of his temperament, he thought, but it was a melancholy tempered by recurrences of faith and resignation and simple joy.’

Sadly, the stories do not end on a positive note. Joyce himself found his creative freedom, not in his beloved university city of Dublin, but instead once he had moved away from Ireland. Yet it seems Dublin held a special place in his heart as all his work is set in and around this city. He says:

‘For myself, I always write about Dublin, because if I can get to the heart of Dublin I can get to the heart of all the cities of the world. In the particular is contained the universal’.

For me, this goes not only for the city itself, but for the people in it, whose lives I became particularly attached to the more I read Joyce’s beautiful prose.

Time to Breathe… and Paint… and Read

Spiral Spun – Watercolour on Paper

Each season brings its own wonders, and there is much to enjoy at this time of year. The weather has been changeable here, but often warm enough to work in the garden or just sit with a cup of tea and enjoy the peonies and celandines that are flowering right now.

Today is my daughter’s 15th birthday, so we had a special breakfast of warm bagels, frothy coffee and cloudy apple juice while she opened her presents this morning. She received a lot of books as she reads almost as much as I do, and I have planned a trip to Brighton this summer – our first time away for several years.

Then my youngest son’s birthday is on Saturday and he will be 18! I can barely believe that I will have 2 adult children. (I’m still struggling to be a grown up myself).

I am relieved to have finished my last assignment of this school year. Apart from an exam in a couple of weeks (best not think about that), there are no more essays until October. I do, strangely perhaps, enjoy writing essays. But at the same time, they do tend to take over your life, so I am glad of the break. I will have more time to paint and do other non-course related things for a few months.

Has anyone watched the new Netflix series ‘Anne with an E’? Emily and I have finished all the episodes and thought it was absolutely wonderful – the cast and writing is superb and the opening credit sequence is one of my most favourite ever. I do wish there were more uplifting films and shows like this available. As evident in the unspeakable events in Manchester last night, there is enough horrific violence and heartache in the world without being constantly bombarded with it in our entertainment.

I just wanted to say thank you, dear readers, for continuing to stop by here and for your kind comments. My posting has been erratic lately due to many obligations, but I hope to settle into a better rhythm over the summer months and I do appreciate every single word from you. Have a lovely week x

Darling Buds

Snow and hail in late April – I stand outside to feel the white flecks of ice fall and watch the tulips nod their forlorn heads at the onslaught.

High above them, the apple blossom is juxtaposed on the darkest grey of storm filled sky. Just those particular shades of pink and grey that complement each other perfectly.

Then, just a few days later, it is May, and with it comes the sun, and the lawnmowers, and the laughter of the neighbours’ children on their scooters.

The tulips pose regally, charming all who take the time to admire their velvet buds and blooms.

Noticing these small doses – healing doses – of reality. To capture a shape, or a sound, or a colour that lifts the spirit, if only for a moment.

Hope you are all well, and enjoy some healing moments this coming weekend.

Kim x

 

Nature’s Art

Years ago when I first started blogging, I did so because I had started to learn to draw and paint and I wanted to share my attempts as a way to encourage myself to keep going as well as sharing some of the beauty of nature as much as my beginning efforts allowed.

I’ve kind of veered away from making art over the last year, and I’ve noticed my life is the lesser for it. I miss collecting small treasures of leaves, acorns and stones from the garden or while walking and trying to present what I see with paper, line, shape, colour. Lately I’ve been returning to the practice. I have some beautiful books on botanical and natural history illustration by Rosie Martin that I am working through. It takes continual effort to not get frustrated with my lack of skill and to focus on the process, but I’m getting there.

I intend to return to sharing more of my drawings and paintings here, along with a few words in the form of a nature journal or a poem or short story. I’d like to keep notes on the weather, wildlife, flora, and other aspects of the natural world. There is so much happening that we miss if we don’t pay attention. And life’s too short not to pay attention.

Thank you!

Happy February morning to you, and a belated happy new year as well!

I’ve had a long break, done a lot of soul-searching, or soul-dredging more like, and made a decision to put confusion and despair behind me. Not because I am burying my head in the proverbial sand, but because I am most useful in my everyday life when I am positive, calm and clear.

Like many people, I am overwhelmed with the state of things. I care. I care so very much about things that matter and have been feeling overwhelmed at my helplessness. There is so much anger, fear and hate about right now. It’s like an epidemic. I do think it has the effect of a disease by infecting anyone who gets too close too often. And this disease is spreading everywhere. I can feel it when I’ve spent too long on a news site or social media. It’s like a car crash that you can’t look away from. I’m rubbernecking so as not to miss anything, and I get swept up in the mocking, nasty, to and fro of snark and condescension. So I’m stepping away from all of that for the most part. Focus on where I can make a difference and thinking about what that might be.

When I think about the people that have had the most influence on my life, it is those who are living in a way that I want to live. Those people who are wise, kind, gentle, creative, care about the natural world, are contented with their life but at the same time stretch themselves to grow and improve their own lives and the lives of others. People who compose a life on their own terms, whatever that may be. I do want to know the facts about important issues, but I’m rarely influenced by those who shout the loudest, retort the wittiest, or debate the smartest.

There is a quote by Socrates that I read years ago on the Internet (in the days before it became saturated with inspirational snippets), that has always stuck with me. It reads:

‘ The secret of change is to focus all of your energy, not on fighting the old, but on building the new’

I think he was on to something. And although, of course, the world needs activists and people to speak out for what they believe in, I think that we especially need people who are focusing on building a better world in whatever small way they can. And it is doubly difficult because it does seem like a small and ordinary thing. There are no Nobel prizes for it. But to live the best life you can is an immense inspiration and incentive to others to do the same.

There are so many wonderful bloggers, writers, artists, film-makers, cooks, musicians and more… who have unknowingly encouraged me to lift myself out of depression and begin again, and again, and again. To persevere. There are too many to name, but I just wanted to say thank you to all the creative people of the Internet and wider world. I think you are building a new world within the one that is burning. At the very least, you are giving people like me hope… in goodness and in beauty, and that is what’s sorely needed at the moment. So Thank you. xx

Winter Project ~ December

It is that time of year, when cosying up on the sofa with yarn and needles is the perfect activity for increasingly frosty days. The cream-coloured socks were a request from Emily, and will be added to her Christmas stocking in a few weeks. I can’t believe that time is creeping up already! I thought I would still be knitting them at the last minute, but because they’re made of a thicker wool they were a lot quicker to knit up than I anticipated.

I do enjoy knitting socks. I like using the double-pointed needles. I like that you can watch them forming completely before your eyes as you knit, with no fussy making-up to do afterwards. I’ve already started on this bright multi-coloured self-striping pair… this time for myself.

I am linking this post with Jenny from Thistlebear, who is hosting a Winter Project Link Party. Do pop along to her blog to see her beautiful rainbow  of crochet butterflies, and maybe join in too.

x