Contemplating Change

2012-01-27T17:59:00.000Z

Its been a quiet month here on my blog yet a busy one at home, I feel that I haven't really settled into the rhythm of this new year although it is almost the end of January.

Discussions about student housing options for next year with one son and looking at the rather grim graduate work situation that the other will encounter when he finishes university in just a few short months. An unsettling uncertainty about what to do next which at times seems to take over.

Catching time to wander outside with the camera, I find that winter is already starting to move towards spring. So mild this year and not a flake of snow here, the flowers are out and the birds singing loudly.

I'm hoping for a calm weekend to enjoy this gentle move from winter towards spring.

January

2012-01-16T11:03:00.000Z

I started January with such good intentions, to be more organised, show up here and post more frequently, try to go for a walk every day and then just a couple of days into 2012 I came down with a sore throat and cough which left me feeling tired and miserable for two weeks and I've let those good intentions slip already. Add a now unemployed husband to this mix and the start of 2012 has been less than auspicious.

This weekend though I started to feel better, the days were crisp, cold and sunny and the soft winter sunlight made everything seem brighter. These photographs were taken at Henley where we browsed charity shops, strolled by the river and treated ourselves to coffee. The last trip for all four of us as the university terms have now started and the boys are away.

This is the last full term for eldest son who finishes in the summer. This year there will be endings, beginnings and inevitable changes. These photographs can serve to remind me that although things seem unsettled at the moment if I take time to look there will always be some brightness.

First flowers

2012-01-05T17:49:00.000Z

snowdrops

These photographs were taken in my garden on New Years Day. The winter has been so mild that these spring wild flowers have shown their faces at the very start of the year. Looking back at previous years blog posts, the earliest I have photographed the snowdrops and celandines has been the 13th January so this year we seem to be running about two weeks early.

The weather since hasn't been quite so spring-like. We were in the path of some of the high winds sweeping across the country and now have to deal with snapped fence posts and trellis and climbing plants ripped from the side of the house. Luckily no serious damage.

celandine

the woodland through the year

2011-12-31T08:00:00.000Z

woodland through the year

In this last post of the year, I have gathered together some of the pictures from my little project to photograph this woodland near my home each month throughout 2011.

Seeing the photographs together shows the changes in the trees, leaves and plants during the changing seasons. Also the difference in the light from the low slanting sunlight in the winter months to the deep shade when the sun is blocked out by the dense canopy of leaves in summer.

canopy through the year

I love how photography captures moments in time and enables me to look back and notice the changes. I am already thinking about doing something similar in 2012.

The full series of posts are tagged "woodland year"

Happy Christmas

2011-12-24T20:58:00.001Z

Wishing you all a very happy Christmas and a peaceful new year.

Wrapping paper

2011-12-15T18:52:00.000Z

The red and white tablecloth in the picture was embroidered by my great aunt and I use it every Christmas. So much work went into embroidering it, it seems a shame that it has only ever been used for a few days each year.

This year I photocopied a corner of the cloth using my printer and made some very individual wrapping paper. Of course this only works for small presents unless you have access to a larger photocopier but it is fun to do.

My great aunt died about ten years ago when she was over ninety. I don't suppose she could have imagined that I would be photocopying her tablecloth to make my own wrapping paper but her generation were used to make things for themselves and I think she would have approved.

Woodland - December

2011-12-12T22:09:00.000Z

Yesterday was a bright sunny day, amidst all the recent dismal wet and windy weather, so I decided to take photographs of the woodland in December.

Almost all the leaves have fallen now and many of the plants have died back leaving a low covering of brambles.

There is a much more open, airy feel and the sun can reach down to the ground again. The small stream is flowing, sparkling in the sunlight.

Even the moss on fallen tree trunks can catch some sunlight.

Looking up into the canopy, there are few leaves left to fall and the sky is visible once more.

There is one small change since last year, looking closely near the centre of the photograph above there seems to be a nest which was not there when the picture below was taken last January. There must have been a lot of activity in the tree tops over the summer all hidden from view by the foliage.

A quiet December

2011-12-08T17:56:00.000Z

My December is very quiet at the moment. When my family were growing up this was one of the most hectic times of the year, full of baking, end of term activities and Christmas plays and parties.

This year with my husband in America for a couple of weeks and the boys away at University I can hardly believe its December - its so quiet and peaceful. After all the years of hectic "busyness" it makes a nice change. It is lovely that when I come home at the end of the day, I can lock the doors knowing that I am tucked up warm inside and don't have to venture out at all.

In just over a week the whole family will be home and then I will decorate the house and everything will be busier and noisier. Until that time I am able to quietly wait for Christmas. Outside in the garden last years Christmas tree is also patiently waiting for the festivities to begin.

Woodland - November

2011-11-25T21:41:00.001Z

Walking through this little wood in November I was struck by how light and open it felt. Many of the trees have lost their leaves.

This hazel which still has many green leaves is covered with a sprinkling of yellow leaves from the field maple,

while elsewhere in the wood the hazels themselves are a mixture of yellow and green

Autumn is the time for funghi and there were many growing on the woodland floor.

Lastly, looking at the canopy, there are several trees that have lost all their leaves. The last few days since I took these pictures have been very windy so I expect that there are even fewer leaves remaining on the trees now.

November jam making

2011-11-25T20:05:00.001Z

This week I defrosted the juice from the redcurrants picked back in June

and from the crab apples picked at the end of August

combined them and added sugar at the ratio of 1lb sugar to 1pint of juice

and made some very pretty coloured jelly. It was nice to have the smell of summer in my kitchen on a grey November day.

A day in London

2011-11-21T17:11:00.001Z

Saturday was our wedding anniversary and we decided to treat ourselves to a day out in London. We took our book of walks in London and decided it was perfect weather for a stroll around Regents Park and Primrose Hill.

I am always surprised how tame the wild animals and birds are in London, this was the closest I have ever been to a Heron

and this squirrel was happy for me to approach with my camera. At home the squirrels scamper back up the trees as soon as I set foot in the garden.

There was some lovely planting in the formal part of the garden,

then we crossed over the canal

and walked past London Zoo where I got a good view of these two giraffes.

Then up to the viewpoint on Primrose Hill for some hazy views of the city.

After walking in the morning we decided to take it easy in the afternoon with on a boat trip on the Thames.

It was a perfect day for sightseeing, bright sunny and warm enough to sit out on deck but without the crowds of the summer. We passed Traitors Gate and the Tower of London

went under Tower Bridge

passed Canary Wharf

and some very exclusive apartments

until we reached Greenwich. The daylight hours are short now and we didn't have much time to explore Greenwich before the last boat back.

We had time for a cup of coffee before coming back up the river to Westminster just as the light was fading.

The photographs are poor because of low light, boat movement and reflections from the windows (too cold to be outside by then) but they do show how magical it was as the daylight faded and the lights of London appeared.

golden silver birch

2011-11-11T20:05:00.001Z

The woods near us are managed plantations of Scots Pine. In some of the older parts where the trees have been thinned, self seeded silver birch saplings have grown.

A couple of days ago as I drove home past the woods, the birches seemed to be almost glowing golden in the low late afternoon sun.

Once home I grabbed my camera and wandered through the trees trying to capture the magic of the moment

the mix of green and yellow leaves

lit by the setting sun.

The leaves are falling, more every day and soon the yellow will leave the woods for another year.

Supporting Wovember

2011-11-07T10:40:00.000Z

One of my favourite blogs is needled. Kate Davis writes wonderful posts about all aspects of textiles but especially wool and and is a talented designer producing beautiful knitting patterns.

I have been following her recent posts about the meaning of the term "wool". I like to wear natural fibres and I have been frustrated to find that garments labelled as lambswool are not actually 100% wool but a mix of wool and acrylic. What I hadn't realised until I read this post was that some garments are labelled wool when they contain very little or even no wool.

It seems that the term wool is no longer used for yarn produced from the fleece of a sheep but is used to describe any soft yarn that can be knitted or woven and therefore many "wool" garments are not wool at all.

To bring attention to the misleading nature of the term wool and to endeavour to bring back the original meaning of the word, i.e. made from the fleece of the sheep, Kate together with Felicity Ford have launched Wovember. You can read more about the project here

To support Wovember, I have signed the petition and I will be wearing lots of woolly clothes all month. November which can be a bit grey, damp and chilly in the UK is the perfect month to wrap up in wool and I will be choosing from my pile of handknitted wool jumpers and cardigans.

I also have a range of scarves to choose from although not all are 100% wool, there is a little bit of mohair/silk blend and a cotton mix in a couple of them.

I will of course be wearing socks all month but these are all a 75%wool/25%acrylic mix which I find wears much better than pure wool and these particular ones have been through the washing machine many, many times!

Wovember is not against wool mixes and blends or even against fabrics with no wool content just that the labelling should be accurate and not misleading.

If the label says wool then it should have come from a sheep.

Woodland - October

2011-10-31T11:55:00.000Z

I have seen some beautiful gold and red coloured trees in the countryside and when I went to the woodland last week I hoped to find some autumnal colour. Not really, not yet anyway.

The bracken has changed and is mostly brown now

and there are a few hazel leaves changing colour

giving the wood a pretty mottled lemon green appearance.

I know leaf colour is affected by many factors such as light level and moisture as well as the type of trees so perhaps here in the shady valley there will only be a gentle colour change.

There are plenty of leaves falling onto the ground and in the stream

and it might just be my imagination but I think the canopy is looking a little lighter than last month.

A little holiday

2011-10-27T09:51:00.000+01:00

Last week with both boys settled at their respective universities and my husband in the middle of a three week stay in the US, I took myself away for a holiday of my own. I spent four days in Somerset. I was born and lived in Somerset until I left home at 18 but my parents then moved to Devon and although it is close I haven't really been back much since leaving. Even after all this time I was surprised by how many of the place names I still remember.

My holiday was with WalkingWomen holidays. I love walking but now that the boys have left home I find myself walking on my own and this was an opportunity to walk as part of a group which I really enjoyed.

We walked on Exmoor with views across the Bristol Channel to Wales

and where it was sometimes rather wet under foot.

We walked in wooded coombes

amongst wonderful old oak trees.

This is Culbone Church, apparently the smallest church in England that still holds services.

We saw very pretty cottages.

and we walked along the beach.

It was a very peaceful relaxing holiday, good walks, great company

and I got the opportunity to play on the beach.

Autumn colour

2011-10-14T20:00:00.000+01:00

Photographs taken at Hergest Croft Gardens, Kington, Herefordshire.

The last weekend of the summer

2011-10-11T20:46:00.000+01:00

We decided to go away for a weekend once our sons were both settled into their university terms. The first weekend we have spent away on our own in twenty-one years.

We were so lucky that the dates we picked were the very last days of the Indian summer. The photographs are a clue to where we stayed.....

Hay-on-Wye, the famous town of the festival and of bookshops.

We explored the very pretty town

which has its own castle now housing a bookshop

and walked high in the surrounding countryside

to admire the views in the soft autumn sunshine.

The sheep stopped eating long enough to pose for photographs

and when we were hungry we could buy a wonderful selection of local apples from roadside stalls.

A weekend of exploring and walking, of drinking coffee and eating pub meals, browsing in bookshops and taking photographs - a lovely way to mark the end of summer.

Mixed up seasons

2011-10-06T21:52:00.001+01:00

Following on from the last post about unseasonal weather, I spotted this plant combination.

Red geraniums (summer) and yellow winter flowering Jasmine (winter!) in bloom at the same time. Definitely a little mixing of the seasons here.

Indian Summer

2011-10-01T19:28:00.000+01:00

So this is October, amazing hot and sunny weather, today the car thermometer registered higher than in summer.

Inevitably there has been discussion as to whether this is a manifestation of human impact on the environment, whether global warming is causing this unseasonably warm autumn. There have been autumns this hot before though, just not for a long time. There was a cluster of them around a hundred years ago and then they were just accepted as unusual but part of the natural variation.

Of all the statistics that I have seen quoted regarding this Indian Summer, the most comforting is that in the past a very hot September was rarely followed by a very cold winter. After the last two cold snowy winters a mild one would be very welcome.

At the moment though we are forecast a couple more days of hot sun so I won't be thinking of winter yet, just enjoying the fact that I am able practise yoga in the garden in October!

Woodland - September

2011-09-25T21:24:00.000+01:00

Each month when I photograph this little wood I look for the changes, things that are different from the month before. This month as I walked along the path everything looked very similar to when I last saw it at the end of August. Perhaps a few more pale lemon leaves on the elder,

a little more water in the stream

and the bracken was turning brown

but the trees were still in full leaf providing a canopy as dense as in the summer months.

Then, I came across a big change,

a large ash tree had fallen across the path. Although we escaped the worst of the recent gales, there have been some high winds

and they were too much for this tree, which although it looked sound was rotting away from the inside.

As it fell, it took down other trees leaving a mass of broken branches on the woodland floor.

At the moment this area looks damaged and broken but it is also more open and lighter.

Looking up, the space in the canopy left by the missing tree is clearly visible.

The whole of this wood is very shady in summer but now there is a bright patch of sunlight reaching the ground.

The higher light levels will cause changes to the mix of flowers and plants that grow here. A seed from one of the trees nearby which may have germinated but not had enough space or light to thrive may now grow to fill the space left by the ash.

The falling of a tree, an event that probably lasted only a few seconds will have caused changes in the wood that last for many years.

I have grouped all my monthly woodland posts together here. Just three more months to complete the woodland year.

Settling down

2011-09-20T09:16:00.000+01:00

There has been a bit of a gap in my posting. This whole "going to university" process is very unsettling even if you are the parent not the child, probably even more so if you are the parent.

Youngest son went on Sunday with the whole family accompanying him. He has a lovely room on a very attractive campus sharing with five others and so far all is going well.

When it was time to leave it was hard driving away, just as it was two years ago when his older brother started and now, like then, these first few days feel very odd. Eldest son doesn't start back at university for his third year for another week and then I really will be in an "empty nest".

This time it feels different knowing that the youngest has gone and the period of life where we had a family growing up at home has ended. I know I should feel that it is a new beginning for me as well and I expect after a while it may feel like that but at the moment the house seems empty and I feel a little lost.

knit and natter

2011-09-09T22:00:00.000+01:00

On the last Thursday of each month my local John Lewis store holds a "knit and natter". I work Thursdays and rushing into town after work, I only manage to make the last half hour of the session. It was lovely in the school holidays to have the luxury of a full two hours drinking coffee, knitting and nattering.

The photographs show the Fair Isle waistcoat I am knitting. The pattern comes from "The Traditional Sweater Book" by Madeline Weston. It is a traditional Fair Isle pattern although I have replaced the usual bright colours of red, gold, white and blue with shades of grey white and purple. The wool is 2ply jumper weight from Jamieson and Smith.

I am pleased with the pattern and the way the colours are coming together but not looking forward to having to darn in all the ends once I have finished knitting!

Elderberry Cordial

2011-09-06T09:03:00.000+01:00

Back in June I made elderflower cordial for the first time. It seemed to capture summer in a bottle.

Elderberry cordial which I have been making for years definitely tastes more of autumn and winter.

This is how I make it.

There are just three ingredients, elderberries, cloves and sugar.

I use about 20-30 clean dry elderberry heads. Shake to remove any insects, earwigs seem to hide in mine.
Remove the berries from the stalks using a fork. I wear kitchen gloves for this bit as elderberry juice is a dye and will stain fingers purple! The stalks and any unripened berries can be toxic so it is important to use ripe fruit and to take time over this stage.

Place in a large saucepan and just cover with water.

Bring the mixture to the boil, reduce the heat and simmer for thirty minutes. I use a wooden spoon to squash the berries against the side of the pan to release as much juice as possible.

Strain the juice through a jelly bag.

To each pint of juice add one pound of sugar (454g) and 10 cloves. I obtained three quarters of a pint of juice so added 12 oz of sugar and eight cloves. Warm the mixture slowly, stirring until the sugar is dissolved. Increase the heat and boil the mixture for ten minutes.

The mixture can be allowed to cool and then poured into sterilised bottles or if like me you don't want to spend any more money on fancy bottles you can use jam jars.

I made two jars of cordial from approximately 25 heads of elderberries.

Elderberries are said to have some health benefits, particularly to help the body recover from viral infections. I take a dessert spoonful twice a day if I have a cold or the syrup can be diluted with hot water to make a warming drink.

Woodland - August

2011-09-01T09:22:00.001+01:00

With our holidays and lots going on during August, I didn't get to the little woodland I'm photographing throughout the year until the very end of the month. At first glance it hasn't changed much over the last few weeks and it felt a little dark and gloomy there yesterday.

Also, it was very quiet. In the spring and early summer, it was filled with birdsong but yesterday it was very still and quiet.

The bracken at the edge of the woodland has grown and is just starting to colour.

There have been a few rainstorms (luckily for us, mostly while we were away on holiday) and the stream bed now is damp again although the stream isn't really flowing.

As well as the bracken turning colour, there were a few pale lemon coloured leaves on the hazel trees

and a few willow leaves have already fallen.

Most of the leaves are still green and firmly attached to the trees, the canopy this month was very dense letting very little of the sunlight through.

At the start of the year there was little change in the wood between my monthly visits and then in spring everything started growing and it seemed to look different every few days. Now during summer the changes have slowed and it has looked very similar for several weeks. With autumn on its way I expect the changes to happen more rapidly as the trees turn colour and shed their leaves at varying times over the next couple of months.

I wonder if the changes are related to daylight with the fastest changes occurring around the equinoxes when the day lengths are changing most and the changes slowing down during the midwinter and the summer when there is little difference between the days.

I will watch and see, just four more visits to complete my year of pictures of the woodland.

holiday - week two

2011-08-30T10:55:00.000+01:00

It is taking me a while to go through my holiday photographs but here are a few from our second week. We stayed on the Lleyn peninsular in North Wales and the week was a mixture of coast and mountains.

The beaches looked particularly stunning in the evening sunshine

and we enjoyed golden sunsets.

I visited the fairytale like village of Portmerion and despite the damp weather enjoyed wandering around the streets, gardens

and woodland.

For me a trip to North Wales wouldn't be complete without a walk to the summit of Snowdon, highest mountain in England and Wales. Snowdon is the triangular peak in the picture below

and here with the beautiful deep blue lake, Glaslyn in the foreground.

It was a particularly clear day and the views were spectacular.

For those that know Snowdon, my eldest son did the complete Snowdon horseshoe. I walked the Crib Goch ridge many years ago and didn't feel up to that so I walked the Pyg track with younger son and we met at the summit and completed the second half of the horseshoe together. I was very much the slowest but they were very patient, waiting for their ageing mother! I found I was much more fearful of the steep cliffs and loose scree than I used to be while the boys had all the confidence of youth.

It was a perfect day and one that we will all remember for years to come.

Holiday - week one

2011-08-25T09:18:00.000+01:00

We booked our holiday late which meant that we stayed where we could find accommodation rather than finding somewhere to stay where we wanted to be. This was good in that we visited places we might not have otherwise have done, but less good because there were so few cottages still available and those that were left were not located to suit all members of the family! So, not our best holiday but some good days out all the same.

The first week we stayed near the coast on the southern edge of the Lake District. We marvelled at just how far the tide goes out in Morecombe Bay,

too far out to even see the sea. It looks like miles of sand but it is sticky mud and dangerous to wander onto without local knowledge.

The lake district itself was busy

but an early morning walk left the crowds behind.

Of course it rains a lot in the Lake District and we had plenty, but even on a grey rainy day, it is very beautiful.

back home

2011-08-24T08:38:00.000+01:00

I am back home after two weeks holiday. In those two weeks the seasons have shifted and it feels as if I left in mid-summer,

and returned as we move towards autumn.

Changes in the garden too and I returned to a plum tree laden with ripe fruit - time to get the Kilner jars out.

Photos of the holiday to follow.

ripening crops

2011-08-02T10:01:00.000+01:00

The weather here has been dry and warm

and the wheat in the fields is a beautiful soft gold colour.

Woodland - July

2011-07-31T22:06:00.000+01:00

Some photographs from my walk in the woodland today. It was shady and cool with dappled sunlight. There trees looked very similar to last month but there seemed to be less vegetation on the woodland floor. The footpath was almost overgrown last month but some of the plants have died back leaving the path clear again.

We have had very little rain lately and the stream running down the valley had dried up and although the stream bed was still damp, it was beginning to crack and dry out.

Only one new flower this month, the tiny flowered Enchanter's Nightshade.

I also noticed a lot of cobwebs, particularly in the holly bushes.

The view looking up shows the canopy to be even more dense than last month casting deeper shade on the plants below.

knitting at the sea-side

2011-07-29T21:38:00.001+01:00

Some more photographs from my trip to the south coast, this time sea-side knitting, decorating the esplanade.

I have seen photographs of "yarn bombing" or "guerilla knitting" but this was the first time I'd seen the real thing.

Back home, a quick google search revealed that yarn bombing is prevalent throughout Portsmouth and Southsea - pictures here.

More pictures of "yarn bombing" from around the world here.

at the coast

2011-07-28T11:37:00.001+01:00

An early morning visit to the coast. An empty beach,

just the plants for company.

This is Eastney beach near Portsmouth. It is a conservation area because of these plants, areas of vegetated shingle are rare and home to many rare species.

sea cabbage

sea radish

sea bindweed

yellow horned poppy.

.Over 100 different species of plants grow here which is amazing given the harsh environment. There is more information about the beach and plants here.

A meadow full of summer flowers

2011-07-25T21:41:00.000+01:00

Summer lawn

2011-07-23T20:29:00.000+01:00

A lawn full of "weeds" but I like seeing wild flowers amongst the grass and watching the bees in the garden.

I cut the lawn this afternoon so now it looks neat and tidy but in a couple of days the flowers will be back.

Photographing summer

2011-07-22T21:44:00.000+01:00

sweet peas from the garden

Today is the last day of summer term. One of the main advantages of working in a school is the long summer holidays and I now have six weeks to spend as I like.

Each summer I find the weeks race by and at the start of September when the academic year starts again, I wonder where the time has gone. This year in an effort to slow down and notice the details of each day, I want to photograph my summer. So often it is just the big important dates that we record and remember so this year I'm photographing the everyday things as well.

To start with, sweet peas picked from the garden this evening and now filling my bedroom with their scent.

In my garden

2011-07-17T20:26:00.000+01:00

This is the first summer for years that I haven't had my allotment to grow fruit and vegetables so I have been trying to squeeze some into our garden at home.

The photograph above shows the extent of the garden, rather dominated by my rotary clothes drier which I usually remove and put away in the shed when visitors see the garden! The picture is taken from an upstairs window which faces west, so the border alongside the right hand fence faces south and is sunny when the sun is high in the sky but along the south and west boundary are trees and shrubs in neighbouring gardens that block a lot of the light. The house shades the garden in the early morning.

Despite this I have had some success fitting in a few crops, trying out several to see which works.

There is a grape vine growing up trellis on the back of the house producing small black grapes, the bunches are starting to develop.

Alpine strawberries are dotted throughout the garden but do better where they get some sun.

Everything is mixed together, here are broad beans next to chard with the blueberry bush in the background.

The beans haven't been very prolific but at least we have had a few. Next year I am thinking of autumn planting so that the plants can get established when there is less competition from surrounding plants to see if this increases the yield.

I have just two courgette plants.

My raspberries which grow in the sun up against the fence are autumn fruiting ones which seem to do well and are very easy to look after. I just leave them alone until February when I cut them down to a few inches above ground, all the fruit is produced on the current seasons growth.

This year I have grown kale for the first time, black kale

and curly kale

which is doing surprisingly well since it is tucked behind the beans.

Here is another picture of the beans, the ones on the left are purple climbing french beans grown from seed saved from last year and there are runner beans on the right.

In the small border alongside the shed I have a few strawberries which are over now, kale and lettuce. At the far end is a dwarf apple tree, Discovery which however I try to stake it insists on growing towards the light.

I have two bigger trees in the garden. This is a crab apple, John Downie, which looks lovely covered with white blossom in the spring and the bright orange fruits at the end of the summer (some photographs here). It looks like it will be a good crop this year.

The second is a Bramley apple which is very vigorous and rapidly out growing its space and and is also laden with fruit.

Trying to keep a succession of plants growing is proving difficult as I run out of space to put things, here are a few young chard plants growing under the redcurrant bushes

and a few lettuces planted amongst the spring flowering plants underneath a self seeded elder bush.

I've picked two pounds of red-currants this year from two bushes, not a great yield but the plants are in shade for almost the entire day.

Last but not least, salad leaves growing in pots, all at different stages of growth, this one still protected from the local cats!

So far I am most pleased with the pots of salad leaves, the red-currants and the chard. The strawberries have been disappointing but some of the plants were new this year and they spend most of the day in shade which isn't ideal.

Overall though I feel that the garden has been quite successful and taking these photographs has made me realise just how much produce can be grown in a relatively small garden.

Birthday weekend

2011-07-12T20:31:00.000+01:00

Last weekend our eldest turned 21. Three years ago he celebrated his 18th birthday, the big important birthday, legally an adult, able to vote, drink and buy alcohol and so on, which left us wondering how to mark his 21st.

He is working long hours at the moment but last week managed to get both Saturday and Sunday off and decided on a weekend away. This is what he chose to do.

Firstly Bristol to visit a particular record shop, followed by coffee in this coffee shop with a lovely secluded courtyard garden.

Then up to the downs at Clifton to admire the views of the Avon gorge

and take a stroll over the famous Suspension Bridge.

Having had his fill of the city, we headed over the Severn Bridge into Wales for some quiet countryside and walking. We camped in the Brecon Beacons.

The following day we were woken early by the dawn chorus and after breakfast and mugs of tea we drove to a car park north of Pen-y-fan. We started walking at 7:00am and by 8:30 the younger members of the party were at the top although it took their parents just that little bit longer!

We were rewarded for our early morning walk by perfect conditions, bright sunshine and clear views.

There was no-one else around as we followed the path upwards, just the sound of birds and sheep.

Pen-y-fan and Corn Du

Pen-y-fan is the highest mountain in South Wales at 896 metres.

The views were slightly hazy but we could still see for miles.

Looking across to Corn Du, 873 metres

On the way back down I took pictures of the patchwork of fields and woodland

and also of the twisted hawthorn trees, the only trees growing on the mountain side.

We were soon back down to pack up the tents and enjoy a picnic before reluctantly leaving Wales behind and returning home.

Just a short weekend away from home but we packed a lot in and it was exactly what the "birthday boy' wanted, so a complete success.

Evening sunshine

2011-06-30T22:13:00.000+01:00

We have passed the longest day now so little by little the evenings are getting shorter. We have been making the most of the longer daylight with some late evening walks.

I have been taking my camera, trying to capture the golden light.

We have had several very calm still evenings with no breeze and cloudless skies.

These photographs were taken at the Silchester, as we walked along the walls which once surrounded a busy roman town.

It is strange to think that hundreds of years ago people could well have stood watching the sunset at this very spot.

Now there is no visible sign of the town and inside the circle of the walls there is just one house and the church in the photograph below. However aerial photographs, particularly if taken during dry summers show the grid pattern of the buildings and streets that were here all that time ago.

There is a good photograph in this guide.

Today it is a very peaceful place to watch the sunset.

Woodland - June

2011-06-27T20:47:00.000+01:00

Over a month since I last took some photographs of the woodland and even on a very sunny afternoon it was shadier and felt more closed in than last month.

The path is almost overgrown.

The remains of the bluebells can still be seen in places

but many other plants have grown up in their place.

Lots of brambles

nettles

and ferns. So many different shades of green on the woodland floor

and looking up to the trees overhead.

Elderflower cordial recipe

2011-06-23T20:57:00.000+01:00

For Heather who asked about the recipe for elderflower cordial.

I followed this recipe in Red magazine. I made half the quantity as it contains a lot of sugar and is very sweet - not a very healthy drink but a lovely summer treat.

A photo catch-up

2011-06-21T21:25:00.000+01:00

I haven't posted in a while so here is a pictorial record of life around here recently. We've had rain but before that the dry summer weather seemed to suit the elderflowers, there were masses of fragrant flowers this year. This is the first time I've made elderflower cordial, the smell of the flowers soaking with lemon slices in the sugar syrup filled the kitchen.

I took the opportunity to buy these rather smart bottles instead of using old jam jars. The flavour of the finished cordial was lovely and there are only two bottles left now!

Before the grey and the rain we had some lovely still summer evenings.

I've taken lots of pictures of the wild flowers,

daisies and vetch

wild orchids

and more daisies.

Lastly, a visit to the little lake,

a peaceful walk,

we weren't the only ones enjoying the sunshine,

such an amazing bright blue.

Fields of Linseed

2011-06-09T22:08:00.000+01:00

A few of the fields around the village are looking very pretty at the moment. This is linseed and the flowers are a very pale blue. They don't seem to photograph very well and taking pictures in the sun makes them appear white.

The flowers open fully only when the sun is out, at the end of the day the fields turn green again. The flowers face the sun and follow it through the day.

They look pretty from underneath as the sun shines through the petals

but the blue colour and veining on the petals is seen when they are viewed face on.

Linseed is also known as flax but the varieties grown here are grown for the oil in the seeds and so are more commonly called linseed. Older varieties which were taller (1 - 1.2 metres) and known as flax were grown for their fibre which was processed to produce linen. Flax is no longer grown for fibre in the UK on a commercial scale.

I found a little history of flax growing here and a timeline of flax through history here.

The amount of flax grown for fibre in the UK increased during both World Wars when Britain needed to be more self sufficient, I wonder if as the price of oil rises and transport costs increase, flax will be grown again in Britain for fibre as well as growing linseed for oil.

A London walk

2011-06-04T17:43:00.000+01:00

I bought this book, Walk London, as a little birthday present to myself back in March. I am really a country girl at heart but I enjoy an occasional visit to our capital city. However as I don't know my way around we can often wander aimlessly not sure where to go and then we end up tired of walking around and not seeing much outside the main tourist attractions.

This book has 15 short walks and seemed a good way to explore new-to-me parts of the city. Each walk starts and finishes at an underground station, useful for a country bumpkin like myself! Walk no. 14 caught my eye - A Pirates Path to Docklands - starting at Tower Hill and ending at Canary Wharf.

We walked under Tower Bridge and enjoyed coffee in the luxurious surroundings of St Katherines Docks.

Luxury and money were themes throughout the day as the Thames Path passes some very exclusive apartments between Tower Bridge

and Canary Wharf.

I had seen these buildings from afar

but this was the first time I'd seen them close up. The whole area around Canary Wharf was very smart and extremely clean.

These trees had been tidied up with some very severe pruning

interesting to see shadows of almost leafless trees in midsummer.

We wandered around the smart streets and then went below ground to see all the shops. I hadn't realised that there were streets of shops and restaurants all underground. It felt a little claustrophobic, not somewhere I would want to stay too long and I felt sorry for the people working in the shops completely cut off from daylight for the whole working day.

At the end of the day I was glad to leave the city behind and return home but I look forward to trying out a few more of the walks in the book.

Puffin cam

2011-05-31T20:34:00.001+01:00

Last May I wrote about "puffin cam", a camera placed inside a puffin burrow on Shetland and I have been watching the activity inside the burrow again this year. There is a single egg that was laid on May 7th and the incubation time is 35-45 days so it will be mid-June before the chick hatches.

You can see pictures from the puffin cam here. The camera is sponsored by the ferry company so there is a short advert (11 seconds) before the puffin pictures load but it is worth the wait, puffins are such cute looking birds.

I have also put a link to the camera on the sidebar.

This year the puffin egg in the puffin cam burrow did not hatch successfully. There is more information here. I hope that sandeels, the puffins main food source, are plentiful enough to allow other chicks to thrive and fledge.

roof garden

2011-05-22T08:30:00.001+01:00

Last weekend I visited another garden open under the National Gardens Scheme - gardens open for charity. This is the roof garden at risc (Reading International Solidarity Centre).

This garden is just 200 square metres and is on the top of building right in the centre of the town. Walking up the iron staircase to the building we left the town behind and found ourselves in a very peaceful and green space. The garden planting was completed in 2002 and I was surprised by how mature the garden looked, the plants obviously thrive in their elevated location.

All the plants are growing in just twelve inches of soil. There are over 200 hundred different species including several large trees far taller than me. The garden was cleverly laid out with paths snaking back and forth making it feel much bigger.

roof lights in the garden let natural light into the building below

The garden was designed as a forest garden, based on a natural woodland ecosystem, with different layers of planting from trees, through bushes and shrubs and smaller plants at ground level. There were also climbers planted against the railings so no space was wasted. All the plants grown have uses such as food, medicine, scent, natural dyes.

The green roof provides insulation for the building keeping it warmer in winter and cooler in summer and also acts as a giant sponge absorbing rainwater and reducing runoff, an important feature in towns which have mostly impermeable surfaces leading to flash floods when the rain water cannot drain away. This intensively planted roof can absorb up to 80% of the rain that falls on it.

Although this roof garden is very different from normal domestic gardens, the principles of the planting can be applied to any garden and I came away with lots of ideas to try at home. Now I no longer have an allotment I am growing a few vegetables at home in amongst the existing flowers and shrubs, this garden showed me how much can be squeezed into a small plot.

In the garden this evening

2011-05-20T21:21:00.000+01:00

chives and bees

the first poppy of the year

young lettuce and salad leaves

elderflowers

Woodland - May

2011-05-17T09:58:00.001+01:00

It has been a busy couple of weeks but I did take time to visit the little woodland near home. The top photograph is the lane leading to it. Here in southern England the warm weather and lack of rain means that the cow parsley is already fading, the roadsides have been full of its fluffy cream flowers.

The woodland is shady and the leaves are a darker green than last month. All the bluebells have finished flowering leaving the stalks and seed capsules.

There are fewer flowers as the lower light level is lower. I spotted a single foxglove,

holly flowers attracting lots of attention from bees and other insects

and down on the woodland floor a covering of goosegrass with it small white star-like flowers.

The bracken has grown fast

and the little footpath is now narrow as the plants grow fast and few people walk along this route.

Many shades of green as the sun shines through the overlapping hazel leaves

and looking up, more leaves than sky.

Englefield Garden

2011-05-03T21:18:00.000+01:00

The fine sunny weather continues and spring gardens are looking at their best. The garden at Englefield is my favourite garden and as it is only a few miles away I can visit often.

At this time of the year, the woodland garden is full of brightly coloured azaleas

and the softer colours of the acers.

The woodland part of the garden has a very natural feel.

There is also a formal terrace area, full of spring colour.

In the village of Englefield there is a small traditional garden centre. Most of the plants on sale are grown on site, a much nicer shopping experience than large impersonal garden centres. I bought some summer bedding plants but I am not planting them out yet. It has been so warm that it would be easy to forget that we sometimes get frost up until the end of May, I'll keep them safe and warm for another couple of weeks.

2011-04-28T20:00:00.001+01:00

I realise that I have been a bit obsessed with bluebells this month and playing on Wordle confirms this. The words photographs and bluebells stand out, also beginning and finished which sounds as if I am achieving something!

I like the way the word cloud gives me a summary of my past few posts, a snapshot of what is happening in my life.

You can create a Wordle word cloud here.

Woodland - late April

2011-04-27T12:37:00.001+01:00

This is the third set of pictures of the woodland I have posted in April but each time I go I take more photographs. The bluebells are perfect at the moment.

Other plants are growing too and everything fits together like a well designed garden, bluebells with yellow archangel

and bluebells with greater stitchwort.

Its much shadier along the path now

as the taller trees come into leaf.

Easter holidays

2011-04-22T22:24:00.000+01:00

Its Good Friday today but the Easter holidays are almost over. In the last two weeks eldest son has come home form university and now gone back again to revise for his exams at the beginning of May. We've had a great couple of weeks enjoying the lovely weather. The photographs that I'm sharing today are from a short trip to south Wales at the beginning of the holidays.

This is Oxwich Bay on the Gower peninsular which is a perfect beach for strolling along the waters edge.

The weather was so warm it seemed like summer rather than April.

On our second day we walked on Sugar Loaf hill near Abergavenny, same clear blue skies

although a bit cooler and windy at the top.

Signs of spring growth all around, bilberries just beginning to form,

leaves appearing on the trees in the valleys

and everywhere very cute welsh lambs.

Woodland - mid April

2011-04-14T17:00:00.002+01:00

What a difference a week makes at this time of year. A week ago the bluebells were just starting to show, now there is a carpet of blue and the wood is filled with their scent.

The yellow archangel is flowering

and there is more leaf growth on the hazel trees.

finished sewing and knitting

2011-04-14T16:23:00.000+01:00

A quick catch up with two finished items. First this bag which was the second project in Alice and Ginnys' sewing classes. Lots of different sewing techniques were introduced while making this including my first attempt at machine applique.

The course I took was "kick start to sewing" and it seems to have done just that, now that the bag is finished I have bought some material to make two more cushions.

Next on to knitting and I have finished my waistcoat.

The yarn is Twilleys "freedom spirit" in a blue/purple colourway. It is knitted in reverse stocking stitch which softens the colour changes.

Having finished this waistcoat I have now cast on for another one, this time in fairisle knitting - photographs to come when I have done a few rows of the pattern.

Woodland - early April

2011-04-08T19:46:00.001+01:00

We have had beautifully warm spring weather here this week and everything is growing. After work yesterday I wandered to the woodland, an oasis of calm after a busy day.

It was lovely to see that the spring sunshine had brought out the first few bluebells, just a sprinkling of blue amongst the green leaves.

The woodland floor is now covered with fresh growth,

wood anemones,

violets

and the first shoots of bracken.

Some of the trees are now starting to come into leaf but in April the sun still reaches into the woodland producing soft shadows across the path.

A visit to Hatfield House

2011-04-05T11:53:00.000+01:00

Hatfield House is the residence of Lord and lady Salisbury and the gardens were open for the NGS charity at the end of March. We had planned to meet up with our eldest son for lunch and I managed to persuade the rest of the family that this would be a good place to spend an hour in the afternoon. I am the only gardener in the family but I think they were all impressed with the scale of the house and grounds.

We wandered through the daffodils

and I looked at the hellebores in this formal garden.

Not all parts of the garden were open but we could admire the knot garden from afar

and think about the amount of work that must go into keeping this garden immaculate.

This year there is an exhibition of Henry Moore Sculptures at Hatfield and many pieces were already in place. I thought these two looked a little chilly on a cold March day.

For me the flowers were the stars, from perfect camelias

to banks of wild primroses.

A very small vegetable plot

2011-04-02T21:12:00.000+01:00

This is the patch of garden that will be my vegetable plot this year. I will move the hyacinths and forget-me-nots once I start planting! I think the area is about four square yards which is very different from my allotment plot which was over 100 square yards although that included my compost bins and all the paths between the beds.

I'm thinking about what to grow in such a small space, so far I've started dwarf french beans and swiss chard. I've decided not to sow direct since we have so many slugs ready to nibble young seedlings and more established plants will stand a better chance of survival. The chard will be planted out in a few weeks but the beans will have to wait until the chance of a late frost has passed.

I also have some curly kale plants growing which will take up quite a lot of space but I am trying to include more dark green vegetables in my diet and want to grow some.

I've have planted strawberry plants in a strip of land alongside the garden shed. They are planted closer together than is recommended but this part of the garden was a favourite with the chickens so I'm hoping the soil is quite well manured and the plants will do well.

I'll also be growing in pots, this is salad leaves protected from the neighbouring cats who seem to like to use my pots as litter trays.

It will be interesting to see just how much produce I will be able to get from this small space this summer.

March woodland

2011-03-27T07:42:00.001+01:00

Some more photographs of this little patch of woodland near home. The ground is now green with bluebell woods growing on the banks of the stream.

The warmth and sunshine has brought out more flowers, this month there are celandines amongst the bluebell leaves

and in the damp ground near the stream, golden saxifrage.

The buds are just starting to open on the hazel

but looking up the trees in the canopy are still bare.

Vegan month update

2011-03-17T21:37:00.000Z

vegan packed lunch

I am now a third of the way through the "30 Day Vegan" workshop so time for an update. This workshop is excellent and the course materials are very well presented. Already I have lots of new recipes to try as well as nutritional information and ideas for taking care of yourself.

I don't eat meat often but still I am surprised at how easy it has been to stop eating both meat and dairy produce. I have also chosen to cut down on caffeine, replacing tea and coffee with Redbush tea. After ten days the main change I have noticed is that I seem to have more energy through the day and I don't have a slump in energy levels in the afternoon.

I have been eating mainly vegetables, grains and beans so far which might sound boring but with sauces and dressings everything tastes really good. I am cooking vegan just for me (couldn't persuade the rest of the family to join in) but I usually cook enough for two meals so I have something already prepared for lunch the next day. Many of the meals taste just as good cold so I have packed lunches for work all sorted the night before . Eating properly at lunchtime rather than just grabbing a snack may be the reason my energy levels seem to be more constant throughout the day.

I am looking forward to the next batch of recipes to try out this weekend.

sewing

2011-03-15T21:16:00.000Z

Sewing is not a word that crops up very frequently on this blog. I have made clothes before but my sewing machine has not had much use lately.

This year I wanted to start sewing again and I have been taking a class called "Kick Start to Sewing" with Alice and Ginny. We are making two items in the four week course and the first one was this cushion..

I used fabric from IKEA and now have a new cushion which matches my yoga mat.

I am enjoying sewing again and might even be confident to think about making some clothes but for now I have my class homework to do - to cut out the fabric to make a bag in the next class.

Vegan for a month

2011-03-08T14:00:00.001Z

This month I am taking part in the "30 Day Vegan" workshop run by Heather from "beauty that moves". It is described as a cleansing wholefood workshop - a month of clean living and clear thinking, which seems just perfect for this time of year.

I have been interested in eating a mainly plant based diet for a while particularly since reading The China Study and this is a good opportunity to give it a try with lots of information, encouragement and some brilliant recipes.

My family have decided not to join me in this so I am cooking two different meals each evening but it does mean that I can choose to eat exactly what I want! My husband and sons like a meat based diet and I rarely eat meat so usually I cook a meal that they will like and then I just eat the vegetables with some cheese or houmous. For the next month I am going to try to cook myself balanced vegan meals and from the recipes that I've tried so far I think its going to be a good month!

Moss

2011-03-03T22:25:00.000Z

A few photographs of moss growing on a brick bridge that I often pass while out walking.

On the vertical surfaces, it seems to prefer the mortar rather than the brick producing rectangular patterns.

On the top, flat surfaces the little cushions of moss look so delicate.

Where the moss is growing thickly, other plants get a foothold as well, what a perfect miniature garden

February woodland

2011-02-26T17:00:00.002Z

Almost a month since I last posted photographs of this little wood near home. The biggest difference since the end of January was how much greener it looked, so much plant growth on the woodland floor.

I searched to find some early bluebell leaves last month but now they are everywhere.

Also bright green, this patch of Dog's Mercury,

the only plant I found in flower this month.

Lots of signs of flowers to come, leaves of celandine

and yellow archangel amongst the grass.

Its still too early for any signs of leaf on the trees yet so plenty of sunshine in this little valley at this time of year.

a blue phase

2011-02-24T13:52:00.000Z

My usual choice of colours for clothes or around the home could be described as neutrals, brown, beige, cream, sometimes green but without realising I seem to be choosing blue at the moment.

The fabrics in the photo above are from IKEA for a small sewing project.

Then there is my current knitting, a reverse stocking stitch waistcoat in Twilleys "freedom spirit". I bought this yarn from Hobbycraft greatly reduced so I wonder if it is being discontinued. The wool is a random mixture of blues and purples.

I always have a small portable knitting project and at the moment I'm knitting socks - blue socks.

I wonder how long this phase will last or whether I will soon find myself drawn to another colour.

Still on a blue theme, I took this picture this morning, maybe more mauve than blue but a very welcome sight in the garden on a dull morning.

A grey day in London

2011-02-21T09:24:00.000Z

Considering how easy it is for us to get to London, we don't go very often. My husband had been given tickets to the Ancient Egyptian Book of the Dead Exhibition at the British Museum so off we went. Eldest son came in from university by train and we met up outside the museum on a very damp chilly day.

It was the first time I had been to this museum and it was brilliant. The exhibition was good too although it was very crowded and I felt quite claustrophobic amongst so many people - a wet Sunday morning was probably not the best time to go.

The rest of the day was spent wandering around the area taking photographs and visiting bookshops with plenty of stops for coffee, lunch and hot chocolate to warm us up.

The buildings in the area around the museum are very impressive.

I like the mixture of old and new all jumbled together, this shop selling umbrellas established in 1830

and then these very bright modern buildings.

We walked around Chinatown, more colour brightening up a grey day

although some of the decorations were being dismantled, the end of the New Year celebrations I suppose.

After a late afternoon hot chocolate to warm us, we went our separate ways. London was looking very grey as we left

and then just as we drove past Harrods all the lights were switched on. A last bit of brightness to end the day.

Spring wild flowers

2011-02-08T17:32:00.000Z

The first celandine of the year with its shiny petals bright against the dark green leaves. It is one of my favourite wild flowers because it is so bright and bold at this time of the year. Just the one flower but it is still a bit early for them.

I also spotted some very early primroses amongst the celandine leaves

and the snowdrops are still in flower. This year all the flowers seem to blooming at the same time.

Flowers and trees

2011-02-02T10:45:00.001Z

Indoors my hyacinths are just coming into bloom. They are on the kitchen windowsill, something to look at while washing up and more interesting than the rather damp washing hopefully drying outside in the garden.

Outdoors, I walked to the little woodland near home. We call this the bluebell wood and only really visit in April and May. This year I want to take photographs of it throughout the year and on Monday I realised I had almost missed out on January. So here are some photographs from the last day of the month.

I did find some bluebells pushing their shoots up through last years fallen leaves

but the star performer in January was the hazel with masses of yellow catkins catching the low winter sun.

Before I left I took a picture looking up. I love these photographs looking up through the trees and have taken many since seeing Diana's lovely photographs of trees silhouettes against the sky.

Morning walk

2011-01-18T12:15:00.000Z

After all the rain yesterday everything is a bit wet and muddy around here. The sunshine enticed me out of the house, unfortunately the housework was still there when I came back!

Last year's bramble leaves, bright in the sun

and the first of this years leaves. This is honeysuckle, usually one of the first to brave the cold with fresh green leaves.

The sun didn't stay for long but I managed to capture its reflection before it disappeared behind the clouds again.

I hope they aren't rain clouds, I have so much washing hanging on the line today.

Sunshine and steroids

2011-01-04T21:07:00.000Z

We have had just a single day of sunshine in what feels like weeks of grey skies. It was on Sunday and we decided to go to the coast.

It was one of those perfect, not too cold, calm days, perfect for crunching over pebbles and feeling the gentle warmth of the winter sun.

So thats the sunshine part of the post title, now on to the steroids.

I now have a name for the mysterious aches, pains and stiffness that I've been moaning about since late spring. It turns out I have polymyalgia rheumatica which is an auto immune disease that causes stiffness and soreness in the muscles of hips, shoulders, arms. The treatment, a steroid drug, prednisolone.

As you can imagine I don't feel very sunny about this diagnosis or the treatment and have been scaring myself silly reading about the side effects of taking steroid drugs over time. It seems that it is a condition that can disappear after a year or so but I have also read of people who have it for years. If anyone has any experience of this, I would welcome any advice.

On the plus side, within a couple of days of taking the tablets, my aches and pains just faded away. In the summer I could only walk very short distances and at the weekend I managed two or three miles, a big improvement and one that I must remember to be grateful for.

New Year's Day

2011-01-01T17:02:00.000Z

New Year's Day and time for a walk. Last month was the coldest December since 1890 with an average temperature of -0.4C but today was +5C and virtually all the snow had melted. How nice to be walking on green grass once again.

We chose a path which followed high ground but the day was grey, the views misty

and the colours muted.

Still good to spend part of the first day of the new year out in the fresh air, taking photographs of some of my favourite trees.

Season's Greetings

2010-12-22T21:10:00.000Z

Outside the temperature has risen to just above freezing and the melting snow on my neighbours roof has slowly dripped down creating these very Christmassy icicles on the holly bush.

Inside I have holly and ivy decorating all the picture frames and at last we have the tree. Its a very tiny tree from the village shop since the weather prevented us from venturing out to the Christmas tree farm.

It was the winter solstice yesterday and I like to follow the tradition of having lots of evergreens in the house.

Now the grocery shopping is done and the house decorated we are all ready for Christmas.

Season's Greetings to everyone, have a really lovely holiday time.

Snowed in

2010-12-19T16:03:00.000Z

It was bound to happen really, we have missed out on the snow so far this winter but on Saturday it snowed.

A pity that it was the day I was picking up eldest son from university. It was just starting to snow very gently as we loaded the car with blankets and thermos just in case things turned nasty. They did, at just the moment I set off. The snow fell so fast and froze on the windscreen and that together with the freezing fog soon led to the decision to turn back.

Thank goodness for trains, there were delays but they were running.

The student is home. He repacked, bringing home just the minimum. Then walk, train, tube, train, train and he was here. His brother walked down to meet him with an empty rucksack so that they could share the load on the walk up the hill from station to home.

These photographs were taken on the walk down to the station to meet him. Once I knew he was back safely I could begin to appreciate how pretty everything looked.

Starting to decorate

2010-12-13T20:58:00.000Z

We won't be choosing the tree until eldest son is back from university at the weekend but the wreath is on the front door and the holly tree in the garden is covered in berries this year.

I picked this a little early before the birds could eat all the berries. They won't go hungry though, there were still plenty of berries left on the branches that I couldn't reach.

Frosty

2010-12-07T21:37:00.000Z

We have been lucky to escape the snow here again but it is very cold and foggy and the hedges this morning were covered in ice crystals.

Very pretty,

nature's seasonal decorations.

Blue skies and sunshine

2010-12-06T12:21:00.000Z

Its been so grey here lately that the single day of sunshine we had yesterday seems to warrant a post.

The sun shone on the few remaining leaves, picking out a wide range of colours that I just don't seem to have been noticing during the grey days.

It continued to shine all day and I ventured out again, this time to walk around a still frozen lake. It was mid- afternoon and the sun was setting. The reeds and lakeside trees glowed in its light.

It was very cold but calm and still and we stayed until the sun finally disappeared.

We are back to freezing fog and greyness today but even one day of sunshine helps to dispel the winter blues.

Cold and quiet

2010-12-01T09:26:00.000Z

From the television news I learn that nearly the whole of Britain from Cornwall to the Northern Isles is covered in a blanket of snow. Here in the south we have the frosts and the cold temperatures but no snow.

Monday was very calm, not even the slightest breeze and the winter trees were perfectly reflected in the mirror like river Thames. So still and quiet it seemed as if the earth was sleeping through the winter day.

It has been quiet on this blog recently as well. Life is busy with many things occupying my mind and I don't seem to find the words for a blog post. Like the river I need time to be still and reflective.

My camera is always with me though, and so for a while there may be more pictures than words in this space.

Hope everybody is keeping safe and warm.

the last of the leaves

2010-11-19T19:47:00.000Z

With frost, wind and rain the leaves are fast leaving the trees. I took a few pictures of the last of the autumn colour, shades of brown, gold and yellow.

Crisp, dry bracken

pale bleached grasses

the acid yellow of silver birch

and my favourite, the sun shining through translucent beech leaves.

Half-term catching up

2010-10-28T11:00:00.000+01:00

Half-term this week and last weekend I was in Devon visiting my parents. Two of the three days I spent with them were filled with glorious sunny weather. We walked at Exmouth and I was able to walk further than I have in months, over two miles. I was very pleased although I think my parents, in their late seventies, were slowing down to make it easier for me! Never mind, it has lifted my spirits to realise that although its taking longer than my impatient self would like, I am recovering.

As always I come home wishing that I did not live so far away. My parents are in good health and very active at the moment but if that was to change, it would be easier if I were nearer. Coming home in rainy conditions and encountering traffic problems, the journey was a tiring four and a half hours - not the sort of distance where I could just drop in to see that they are ok.

Next weekend I am travelling in the other direction visiting eldest son at university. I have booked cheap hotel rooms and I am treating him to a night away. The one thing he seems to be looking forward to is being able to have a soak in a pristine clean bath! This year he is sharing a house with four other lads, cleaning isn't top of their priority list!

Chutney

2010-10-19T19:44:00.000+01:00

The green tomato chutney is now made and the jars are waiting in the cool of the garage for a couple of months for the flavours to mellow, though I'm already looking forward to eating some.

In my preserving year, bottling rhubarb is always the first task and making chutney is the last. Next year will be different as I think I will be giving up my allotment. It is a hard decision to make after having it for 14 years but I haven't been able to do much over the last few months and although I hope to be recovered soon I don't want to risk hurting myself again next year. I will miss the rhubarb, and the soft fruit most.

I have a smallish garden and won't be able to grow many vegetables but I do have an apple tree and can grow tomatoes in pots on the patio so even without the allotment I will be able to preserve some home-grown food, as chutney.

spider webs

2010-10-14T20:04:00.001+01:00

There are some perfect spider webs in the garden, beautifully jewelled in the early mornings.

Finished knitting

2010-10-12T12:20:00.000+01:00

I've just finished this little shawl/scarf, les Abeilles, from Anne Hanson at Knitspot. This is a lovely pattern in three sizes, this is the smallest. I knitted it in double knitting baby alpaca and it is very soft and cosy.

Its sometimes difficult to know how to photograph a shawl so here it is being modelled by a clipped shrub in the garden!

A little look at the detail of the pattern.

We've been having unseasonably warm weather here but I know soon that this will be just what I need for chilly mornings.

October Tomatoes

2010-10-04T21:07:00.000+01:00

After getting off to a slow start my tomatoes have been very prolific over the past weeks. Yesterday I picked five pounds which at the moment are in the oven with olive oil, onion and black pepper, slowly reducing down to a delicious tomato sauce.
I think these may be the last of the tomatoes to ripen in the garden, it is October after all, but there will still be a few green ones left to make some chutney. Time to preserve a little bit of late summer goodness before the cold weather starts.

Autumn

2010-09-23T19:47:00.000+01:00

The autumnal equinox occurred this morning at 4.09am. Day and night are of equal length today, the first day of autumn. From now on the days are shorter than the nights as the year moves through autumn towards winter.

Autumn is a time of endings, the end of summer and warm weather, the end of the growing season for many plants as they produce seeds and berries before settling down to the relative dormancy of winter. However, perhaps because the new school year begins at the end of summer, it also feels like a time of beginnings, a time for new crisp exercise books and freshly sharpened pencils.

I will be taking eldest son back to university on Saturday to start his second year. The end of the long summer break and the start of a new term.

Endings and beginnings, the berries in the hedgerows marking the end of one season but the seeds inside those berries containing all the information needed to start a new plant next year. The end of a summer of long days and the start of a winter of short daylight and longer darkness.

The equinox, a moment of balance between day and night, between summer and winter, and now the cycle of the year continues.

Bath

2010-09-14T21:42:00.000+01:00

A last family day trip this summer before the start of the university term. We took the train to Bath and had a gentle meander around the centre of the city.

Bath is such an elegant place and there is something to photograph round every corner. The bridge is Pultney Bridge with its little shops lining each side.

It is such a lovely place to visit. Apart from when I was at university and for a few years afterwards, I've always lived in the country but as I wandered round the streets of Bath I wondered what it would be like to live in a city.

There would be plenty of interesting streets to explore

and flowers to admire in the immaculate parks.

For the moment I'm quite happy to live in the country but sometimes when visiting a different place its fun to imagine what it would be like to live there.

Plums and tomatoes

2010-09-12T09:04:00.000+01:00

I haven't been able to do much gardening this summer but I still have something to harvest. At the moment it is plums and tomatoes.

Four years ago I planted a small plum tree "Marjorie's Seedling" in the front garden. I have picked a few plums each year but this year the tree was very productive and I harvested almost 10 pounds of fruit. These have a lovely flavour fresh or stewed. Plums are now thought to be a "superfood" so as well as tasting good they have health benefits too.

My tomatoes have suffered from blossom end rot this year and many of the fruits have been affected but some plants have yielded perfect fruits. I have nine plants in pots on the patio. They get only a few hours sun a day and so ripen fairly late in the summer but in the last week many have ripened. As well as enjoying them raw I have made a tomato "sauce" in the oven.

I mixed chopped tomatoes and shallots with olive oil and black pepper and then baked the mixture in a medium oven for about an hour. Cooking tomatoes increases the bioavailability of some of the nutrients so this simple pasta sauce tastes good and has health benefits

I have been getting a bit grumpy about not being able to garden this summer, I am still very stiff and unable to bend enough to reach the soil, but this harvest from the garden has made me feel a lot better

Holiday photographs

2010-09-06T19:53:00.000+01:00

It is raining this evening and feeling distinctly autumnal, yet it was only just over a week ago we were spending sunny days on the beach.

This was my first time to the Northumbrian coast and it really was beautiful.

We had a very gentle sort of holiday, strolling, taking photographs, noticing the details

and making the most of the sunshine.

The beaches were lovely,

vast swathes of sand

and endless sea and sky.

Calm, subdued colours by day

and then bright and golden in the evening.

A wonderful holiday.

Slow summer

2010-08-20T10:02:00.000+01:00

Its been a slow summer here for me. Aches and pains from over-enthusiastic gardening both at home and at the allotment were ignored. Stiffness was ignored in the hope that I could finish all I wanted to do and then rest. After a few weeks my body responded to this mistreatment by increasing the level of pain and stiffness and forcing me to seek help.

Over the past month or so I have been having physiotherapy and acupuncture and just now after the latest session I am beginning to sense some improvement. It is taking so long I am told because I didn't listen to my body and slow down.

I have now been forced to slow down, walking only very slowly, very short distances and only on level ground. For someone who loves walking and gardening it has been hard but I have had no option. I've had to accept that when I feel pain, I have to stop.

As we move towards the end of the summer, I haven't done many of the things I'd planned but I have learned to slow down. Many of my usual household chores have been left undone (the lawn hasn't been cut for weeks - missing those chickens!) and its all looking a bit untidy, but its not the end of the world.

I'm hoping I've learnt a few lessons from my slow summer and when I am recovered I will perhaps fit less into my day and stop when things are getting too much.

For some good news, youngest son got his A2 results yesterday and has his place confirmed at university. Like his brother he will be working for a year before going to help with the finances. I am pleased and relieved that he now has both his university place and a job for his gap year. Its not easy for these young people in the current economic climate.

Lastly, I am off on holiday for a week. My husband didn't want a holiday this year so its just me and the boys off to Northumberland. It was supposed to be an exploring, walking, active sort of holiday but for me this year it will be a gentle strolling holiday with much reading and knitting - doesn't sound too bad though, does it?

Slow-worm

2010-08-10T20:27:00.000+01:00

Early morning, a slow-worm in the garden.

Quietly lying in the sun, absorbing the warmth before moving away.

What a gentle way to start the day.

Tomatoes

2010-08-07T16:30:00.000+01:00

It was all going so well. My 29p packet of seeds planted in compost from the compost bin (free) had grown into large healthy looking plants with plenty of fruit. I was looking forward to lots of inexpensive tomatoes.

Some were beginning to ripen. I don't really get enough sun in my garden for tomatoes, this spot under the kitchen window is the sunniest but it gets only four to five hours of sunlight each day so they are always late ripening.

Then I noticed this.

After some internet research I think it is blossom end rot. This is caused by a lack of calcium, too much nitrogen and fluctuations in soil moisture. Since the compost contained much nitrogenous chicken poop and the plants are in pots which are prone to drying out I can see how it occurred but it is disappointing.

All I can do now is to pick the affected fruit, be careful to water thoroughly and hope for the best. If it looks as if more dark spots are developing, I might pick all the tomatoes and make green tomato chutney much earlier than usual!

Rain

2010-08-05T09:17:00.000+01:00

Yesterday, it rained.

Not so exciting for those in parts of the country where summer has been cool and damp but here we've had no real rain for weeks. Yesterday we had thunder and lightening and a real downpour which I hoped would soak the garden.

It didn't last long though and within a few minutes the water was evaporating in the strong sunlight and wind.

Not much good for the garden but the steaming shed roof was impressive.

A corner of my garden

2010-08-02T21:40:00.000+01:00

My garden this morning...

This battered old bench could do with a tidy and a fresh coat of paint but I like it just as it is, faded, worn and scratched by chickens.

Purple podded climbing french beans which look stunning raw but sadly lose their colour when steamed

A mixture of flowers and vegetables growing happily together, petunias, swiss chard and some more french beans.

The West Country

2010-07-29T10:01:00.000+01:00

I've just spent a few days back "home" visiting my parents.

Lots of sea and very blue skies,

boats bobbing in the river,

Devon teas to be enjoyed,

space and peaceful surroundings,

and beautiful sunsets.

I have come back recharged, refreshed and with a rekindled longing to return to the area I grew up and/or to live nearer to the coast.

Summer thoughts

2010-07-21T21:18:00.000+01:00

Just a few days left until the start of the summer holidays but this year it all feels a little different. Usually at this time I am full of ideas, things to do and places to visit as well as planning plenty of time to read, packing lots into the summer holidays before the start of the next school year.

This time though there will be no return to school. My eldest will return to University for his second year and the youngest will be working during his gap year. That just leaves me. I will return to my part time job in September, the job I have done for years to fit in with the school day and the school holidays but now there are no more school days to fit in with. It all feels slightly odd, I have been helping my sons think through their choices and their plans and I have forgotten to think about what I am going to do now.

Do I stay in my part time job or do I think of getting something more challenging? Would I find anything having last worked full time over twenty years ago?

My husband doesn't feel this change in our routines as the children move on with their lives. He carried on with his career and is now busier than ever with many trips abroad and an active work social life. I was the one who gave up my career to be at home and then chose to work part time to fit in with their schooling.

Now I feel that I have been left behind (hence the photo above - on a walk with my sons at the weekend, both were so deep in conversation and striding out so fast, they failed to notice that their mother was getting further and further behind!).

So what will I do now? - something to think about during the summer break.

Hello

2010-07-13T21:06:00.000+01:00

Hello to anyone who is still there! Its been ages since I last posted, I'm fine, it has just been a busy time. Exams and end of school for youngest son, staff shortages at work meaning extra hours for me and of course the busiest time of year in the garden and allotment.

Yesterday after weeks of dry weather we got our first real rain, so this evening I have time to sit at the computer rather than water the allotment. It is raining again now so I hope that the water will soak the soil and refresh the rather thirsty plants. I have been harvesting broad beans, peas, courgettes, swiss chard, courgettes, shallots and rhubarb and this week picked the first french beans.

The crops are ripening in the fields as well. The first two photos show cornflowers in a field of wheat, such a lovely show of blue, part of the field was full of them and they were full of bees, unusual to hear the sound of bees in a crop of cereals.

The school holidays occur at the time of year when traditionally the school children were needed at home to help gather in the harvest. These days with so few people working the land and mechanisation meaning even fewer people are needed for harvest, I don't suppose many children will be working in the fields. The timing is still the same though, the fields are turning golden and school holidays are just over a week away.

Calendar - June

2010-06-27T19:50:00.000+01:00

This is the photograph on my calendar for June. It was taken at the top of Ronas Hill in Shetland last summer.

Ronas Hill is the highest point on Shetland at 450 metres. The day we walked up was a bright sunny day but even so it was cool and windy at the top. There is no clear path, we parked near the masts in the photo below and walked up towards the summit passing a cairn which marked the route.

The rocks are granite, large boulders and smaller pieces broken off by repeated freezing and thawing of the water in the rocks. The repeated freeze/thaw cycle can cause patches of earth to creep down hill, these are known as sliding terraces.

The plants at the front edge of the terrace are gradually smothered while those towards the back can then colonise the bare ground.

Amongst the plants that are able to survive on the hill are alpine species. This is Alpine Lady's Mantle

and two more that I haven't been able to identify.

Its amazing that the plants can grow in such a hostile environment with so little soil.

The views from the top were stunning.

Most of the countryside around us has been changed by man's activity and this is no exception, crofters have lived here and their sheep have grazed these hills, peat has been cut for fuel and there are ancient tracks across the moors but the views from the summit still show an unspoilt wildness despite the sight of the huge Sulham Voe oil terminal in the next photo!

Two manmade structures do exist right on the top of the hill, a bronze age burial cairn and a trigonometrical point. The trig point is protected by a wall and in a box beside it is a visitors book and pen! We read through the entries and wrote our names, the most unusual and unexpected place I have ever signed a visitors book.

It has been so very hot here today, I wish I was back in Shetland right now but at least I can look at these photos and feel a bit cooler.

Give way to nature

2010-06-11T20:52:00.000+01:00

So often when we erect new roads and buildings we move or destroy nature to make way for our new man-made constructions, somehow implying that our creations are the more important.

I was pleased to see that care was taken to ensure that this new fence fitted around the existing trees - after all the tree was here first!

At a corner by a road junction, where the fence was shaped to fit against the trunk of an oak tree, was a "give way" road sign - which seemed appropriate.

No chickens

2010-06-03T22:01:00.000+01:00

During Monday night our second hen, Onion, died. Although she had been off colour a few weeks earlier we thought she had recovered but after Sage died she seemed to suffer a relapse and died just three weeks later.

We have decided not to replace them and so for the moment we have no chickens. It feels a bit strange and I find myself looking for them when I glance out of the kitchen window. I have taken down the wire fence that kept them to half of the garden and we are probably going to put the chicken coop on freecycle.

I will miss "the girls". Although they were a birthday present for my husband because he works long hours and spends an increasing amount of time abroad, it fell to me to look after them from day to day. Most fine days, summer or winter I carried a mug of coffee outside and sat down to drink it with one chicken on my lap and another sitting beside me.

The downside was that as we let them range freely in the garden, they did destroy a lot of my plants and the lawn was almost bare during the winter months. As much as I will miss them it will be nice to be able to hang out my washing without a chicken hopping up onto the bowl of washing, to be able to fill the gaps in the garden with plants that won't be scratched away and to watch the lawn recover.

Onion was quite shy, easily startled and didn't like the camera so I don't have many pictures but the one below shows her a week after she arrived exploring the garden for the first time.

and this one taken just a month ago is the last one I took of Sage and Onion together, both chasing after the same piece of bread as they often did.

Green

2010-05-30T21:46:00.000+01:00

It rained all day yesterday - well, it is a Bank Holiday weekend. Without the rain though we wouldn't have such lush green growth in the countryside.

In a few weeks, the leaves will be older, drier, darker in colour but now the growth is young and fresh and the colours bright and clear.

During May the plants are growing fast and the landscape seems to change almost daily. Amazing to think that all this growth is energy from the sun, trapped in plant form.

Summer weather

2010-05-25T17:54:00.000+01:00

We are having lovely early summer weather here and I am spending as much time as I can outside and consequently less time at the computer.

The allotment is keeping me busy, I have planted out some courgette plants today so hope that we don't have any cold frosty nights. The latest I have lost plants due to frost at my allotment is the first week in June so I'll be keeping my fingers crossed for mild weather for a couple of weeks yet. I also only planted out half of the plants, keeping some at home just in case.

Everything seems to be growing well in the warm weather.

At home its a bit of a waiting time just now, with eldest son finished at Uni and now waiting for his summer ball before packing up and coming home and A2 exams looming for youngest son. He finished school a week ago, almost five weeks before his first exam which at the moment is feeling like a particularly long wait. We will all be relieved when they are done.

It seems such a shame that exams are held in midsummer and thousands of youngsters are indoors worrying about revision when the weather is perfect for being out in the fresh air. Perhaps the academic year should be changed to correspond to the calendar year and then all the revision could be done in the dark days of November!