Have Gesso, Will Journal

Hello Friends!

Blwyddyn Newydd Dda i chi gyd

Happy New Year one and all

How was your Christmas?  Did you stay up to welcome in the New Year?  I am sure we all found strange and alien ways of marking these days, but we did it, and now, with hope on the horizon, more than ever, diligence and respect for others is so very important if we are to get through this.

In my home, for as long as I can recall, and that's a long, long time, a jigsaw has been part of our Christmas festivities.  Always at least a 1,000 piece, but in truth that is about the largest that is manageable on my coffee table.

This, rather last, year I had two from which to select.  Of course, by "select" I mean which to do first, because finding and placing the pieces does become rather addictive, a truth universally acknowledged by anyone who loves jigsaw puzzling.  If you care not a jot for jigsaws, then look away now!  {or simply scroll by to the next bit}

Here are the two boxes

Both are paintings as opposed to photo images.  I picked Dawn Flight to do first as it's been in the cottage the longest.

I found it truly tried my patience, for it is full of very odd shaped pieces indeed, some curved, some pointy, and even some with straight edges in the centre which caused great frustration during the initial sorting out of the edge pieces! 

I would get them in place, then before I could secure them with proper interlocking pieces, they would slide apart and have to be brought together again.

I persevered and, et voilà, done!  {apologies, image in two parts, due to Instagram formatting}

One of my favourite books that I read this past Christmas was this little gem

It's called "Home For Christmas" and is penned and illustrated by the inspirational American writer and illustrator, Susan Branch.  It is her memoirs of her particular childhood Christmases in the 1950's which  Her muse for the cover image of Santa Claus is her husband, Joe Hall.   I think he makes the most perfect Santa!

I found it to be one of the happiest, joyful, and most uplifting reads I have had in a long time. I laughed, I cried, I shared her pain of suspense, and excitement in her anticipation, and more as she shows us how love and family are the most important gifts of all.  

Now on to 2021.  Wales is back in lockdown and so I am looking for ways to entertain and amuse myself for a few weeks.  I came across this book, a lovely hardcovered almanac I bought in a January sale from 2019 {how long ago that seems now}.  

I have mixed feelings over it, as it is packed with information, but I found some of it wholly irrelevant to me {for example, hard to calculate tide tables information} yet other things, such as recipes, quite useful. Some of the pages are quite beautifully illustrated too.  However you look at it, it's as out of date as last year's chocolates.  So, what to do?  Well, I'm seeing a trend for altered books, so I am jumping on the bandwagon.  Have gesso, will journal!  

There are around 260 sides and I would guess about half of them are now irrelevant so I shall lightly gesso these, one at a time, keeping some of the text visible, and then journal with my own information, whatever I decide, keeping within the general theme of almanac. I might even use it to keep a record of the garden as it progresses through the year.  We'll see how it goes and I will share regular updates on here, Twitter, and Instagram.

Just for fun, here's a picture of my Christmas dinner.  I made nut roast, roast parsnips and potatoes, braised red cabbage, bread sauce, and cranberry relish.  Normally, I also have a mixed root mash and mushy peas, but really didn't feel like a Christmas Day blow out.  As it was, I was too stuffed for pudding.  After snapping this, a red wine vegetarian gravy was added.  I enjoyed it a lot, and the left over nut roast did well for a few days of left overs.  Sometimes, I think left overs are better than the meal!

Until next time

Stay safe and stay well

Deborah xoxo

When Summer Rain and A Treasure Arrive at the Cottage

Hello Friends!

Thank you, and a heartfelt welcome, to several new followers who have found their way here in the last few days. I hope you enjoy my ramblings and photography, and I love it when you join in and leave a comment to say “hello!”

Before I share what’s happening in the garden, you may recall I mentioned that my favourite author, illustrator, and Happy Person, Susan Branch, has so brilliantly and thoughtfully arranged for her beautiful bone china mugs to be made available here in the UK for all her UK followers.  Well, it has since happened, and you can buy them from Nursery Thyme in Devizes {in person or online} and guess what? My Autumn mug arrived in today’s post! I could not be happier with it, it is so perfectly Autumn, and just a darling mug, both in pattern, shape, and to hold ~ as well as to treasure!  Do you see the attention to detail by continuing the pattern down the handle? Can you hear my squeals of utter delight? Although my birthday is not for a few more months, this is my very special birthday gift to me ~~~

Perfect companions! 

Always counting our blessings

attention to detail!

I’ll take a moment to gather myself before moving on!

~~~~~

Summer rain, sweet, soft, gentle summer rain has fallen for days across the garden, and sometimes it has been not so soft, sliding sideways like needles in horizontal torrents with a rare summer gale blustering in from the Atlantic Ocean.  There’s not much to be done when the weather misbehaves other than hunker down inside and wait for the gales to blow over and make yourself comfy and cosy indoors with a big pile of books and plenty of hot tea and cakes ~~~

Once the winds and rains have passed, it is time to nip out quickly between the showers with my camera to see what is happening. Some of you know me well enough by now to know that rain on plants is one of my favourite subjects, so this morning was another such excursion ~~~

There was a little damage, my poor Verbena Bonariensis were lying down and having a rest across the path as their whippy stems failed to keep up with the lashing winds, but they are now snugly tied back up using the hydrangeas as support. The Alchemilla Mollis is also flat, but once the sun comes out and dries it, it will perk up and be resplendent as ever. It is one of my favourite plants: it fills gaps in borders well; is very tolerant of both lack of care and too much fussing; its acid yellow makes everything around it come alive with colour; and it makes a pretty addition to any small arrangement of flowers. A most appreciated plant indeed.

Everything looks pristine, freshly showered and still sprinkled with raindrops, and yes, some raindrops on roses, but no kittens, not today, I think the rain has driven them away!

The Musk Mallow is looking very pretty indeed as it wraps around my ‘corgi’ which was a gift from a corgi loving friend.   The Monkshood {which is not doing so well this year} is one of my favourite colour schemes as it has a Bindweed {Morning Glory} twined up its spike, and I just love the striking contrast of purple, green and white in combination.

"IGRAINE"

The succulents, despite the rain and cloud cover seem to be preparing a few more blooms in the cluster ~ I am looking forward to this!

And in a rare moment of sunshine, a beautiful butterfly settles on a raspberry leaf to warm its wings while opportunity strikes ~~~

Until next time ~~~

~~~Deborah xoxo

Autumn Whispers on the Morning Air ~~~

Hello Friends!

“There are two times of year: waiting for Autumn, and Autumn”

As we slide, softly, sometimes scorchingly, into mid summer, and July is over half way spent, my mind turns more and more to that most delicious season of them all ~ Autumn ~ when nature's paintbox goes into overdrive with one last Hurrah! of colour, fruits, and harvest.

I can wait no longer to sing out everything autumn! My Pinterest boards are burgeoning once more with many themed pins!  Hygge tugs at my heart, and the nights are already coming earlier with promises of cosy nights, curled up in front of the fire, candles burning, stacks of books and magazines waiting to be read, and handmade quilts made just for snuggling under ~~~

To make Autumn even more delicious this year, my favourite author and illustrator, Susan Branch announced on her Twitter feed, just this very week, that her new range of art illustrated mugs will soon be available in the UK! Did you hear me squeaking with excitement and delight? Saving of pennies commences!  I want them all, of course, but I have a particular favourite ~ can you guess?

There is a certain feeling in the air that my heart searches out in earnest every year, that day when the air quietly whispers that autumn is on her blissful way ~~~ and this magical morning I felt those first gentle words on the west wind as it whispers across my garden from the salt laden ocean ~~~

The wild field poppies are giving one final burst of summer colour ~~~

The apples are swelling with the sweet summer rainfall and ripening in the warmth of the summer sun ~~~

Rosehips which will feed the birds in the winter, encouraging them to continue foraging instead of pecking at the supplementary feeders ~~~

The blackberries on my two hundred year old stone wall are preparing for a generous pick, and soon there will be Blackberry and Apple Pie, a Cobbler or two, and jam ~ always jam for a sweet reminder of the summer and autumn months gone by, and a dose of Vitamin C!

Just the other day, I shared with you my excitement over the unexpected flowering of two of my succulents here.  Each new day now brings a change, and here are the photographs I took yesterday as the sun started to slip into the evening and they are opening beautifully ~~~

There's not a lot of change this morning, but I'm hoping there will be some movement during the day, once the sun comes around and warms them up, maybe they'll open up some more, revealing their gorgeousness and contrasting colours ~~~

Until next time ~~~
~~~Deborah xo

My Christmas Wish to You

Hello Friends!

I had a rude awakening this morning around 5:30 a.m. when Mum came to my bedroom door. I was awake and out of bed in an instant to find out what was wrong, but it was only Mum, bless her, wanting to know if I was asleep or not. Is the irony of this lost on anyone?

So, tucking Mum back in her bed for a few more hours, back to bed I went ~~~ although the bed was warm and comforting I found I was failing miserably at regaining the cosy dream through which I was previously wandering, that was when the words started to bat around in my head.  A Christmas wish from me to you. I tried to compose it but at 5:30 a.m. words trundle merrily along the route~less thoroughfare of my brain and leave at the nearest junction never to be seen again ~~~

Eventually, the alarm sounded and I shivered in the cold of my unheated room, a cold that I had not noticed in the urgency of my early wake up call. As my day began, sitting, sipping my coffee, I found a little gift in my reading list, a new entry by Susan Branch {my happy place} and there I read a lovely verse that she had shared which pretty much sums up, succinctly, what I was trying to compose in lengthy prose,

1 Corinthians 13:13 “And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love”

Later, an email arrived in my inbox with a very similar message, taken from an early 16th century writing by Fra Giovanni Giocondo (c.1435–1515) a Franciscan friar.  I quote:

“I salute you. I am your friend, and my love for you goes deep.  There is nothing I can give you which you have not. But there is much, very much, that, while I cannot give it, you can take. No heaven can come to us unless our hearts find rest in it today. Take heaven! No peace lies in the future which is not hidden in this present little instant.

Take peace! The gloom of the world is but a shadow. Behind it, yet within our reach, is joy. There is radiance and glory in darkness, could we but see.  And to see, we have only to look. I beseech you to look!

Life is so generous a giver. But we, judging its gifts by their covering, cast them away as ugly or heavy or hard. Remove the covering, and you will find beneath it a living splendor, woven of love by wisdom, with power. Welcome it, grasp it, and you touch the angel’s hand that brings it to you.

Everything we call a trial, a sorrow or a duty, believe me, that angel’s hand is there. The gift is there and the wonder of an overshadowing presence. Your joys, too, be not content with them as joys. They, too, conceal diviner gifts.

Life is so full of meaning and purpose, so full of beauty beneath its covering, that you will find earth but cloaks your heaven. Courage then to claim it; that is all! But courage you have, and the knowledge that we are pilgrims together, wending through unknown country home.”

So, my friends, whether you celebrate Christmas or any of the other number of feasts at this time of year, these words are my Christmas gift to you, to keep and to hold in your hearts all year long, to live and abide by the true meaning of Christmas all year long.  The times in which we live are bleak so we must hold faith and hope dear, and remember that LOVE is the greatest gift of all ~~~

Nadolig Llawen
Deborah xoxo

White Picket Fences, Garlic and Onions, and Future Thoughts

Gentle Reader ~~~ if there is one thing my heart yearns to see in my garden it is a white picket fence ~~~ and soon I hope to have one!  Plans are afoot but I am a classic Libran so it often takes me a long time to make up my mind, in this case to find the answer to the question "Where shall I put my white picket fence?" but I think, at last, the answer has arrived! Hurrah!

My love of white picket fences came long before I had even seen one when, as a child, I read books that transported me to faraway places where each house in the neighbourhood had these wonderful white picket fences.  No home was complete without a white picket fence. Even though no one had a white picket fence in my neighbourhood, I felt my childhood was incomplete without one of these magical things. I was obviously deprived and living in the wrong world. Of course, I never told anyone about this deprivation, this void in my formative years, for I would appear ungrateful as there was a wonderful, large garden in which I could play and ramble, with a swing, and an apple tree to climb, hens to pester, flowers to pick, and vast space in which to have as many adventures as I wanted to invent. Just no white picket fence to make my childhood complete.  Later, I saw them in films, or in television adaptations of the books I read as a child; then, when living in America, I'd sometimes see them in villages and towns as I travelled, and then I came across Susan Branch's vegetable garden, and if you click here you will see Susan and Joe building their very own white picket fenced vegetable garden.

You can read a little potted History of White Picket Fences.

You can also see a really pretty, thoughtfully considered, and useful white picket fenced garden over at Petals Paper Simple Thymes, where my friend Dawn has a sweet and heart warming tale to tell how her fragrant Tea Garden came in to being.  You just might notice a Susan Branch theme developing ~~~ Do stop by and take a peek ~ not only is it a such a dear story, she has added some truly special touches of her own.  Dawn will make you really welcome there ~~~

So, my hankering to own a white picket fence grows; long have I pondered and long have I wondered ~ for my garden is surrounded by stone walls, and there is not much I can do about that, nor is there a space to cordon off a special area as Susan and Dawn have done. Thoughts passed through my brain. Ideas are batted around and fall by the wayside. Then, it came to me ~ in a rare light bulb moment ~ that if I can't knock down the stone walls, if I can't have a whole fenced off area, I can have a white picket fence as the fourth side to my vegetable plot! It is too open and needs something to make it an enclosed area.  Perfect! Finally, an idea to run with that has real promise!

This is the main vegetable plot taken a few years back but it is pretty much the same today, bounded by three stone walls. The fence will go along the edge closest, or I shall make a rectangle across the foreground and enclosing the area up to the edge of the yellow weed suppressing sheet and over to the small bin ~~~ oh! and I want a row of lavender plants edging and falling over on to the paved area {where I am standing to take the photograph} ~~~
{don't look at how untidy it is, I've been using it as a holding bay for flowering plants for the borders}

They will be white and purple long stemmed lavender plants to contrast against the fence and to provide stems for lavender wands, which I love to make in the lazy summer evenings, sitting in my deck chair ~~~

If I make an enclosed space there must be just enough space over on the left where there is a small path {hidden under the ever~expanding osteospermum and sage plants} to push Wilbur Wheelbarrow on to the plot. As soon as the weather is a little warmer, I will go out and measure things up!  

Goodness, I am quite excited about this.

~~~ Let's Talk Onions!~~~

Onions are probably my most favourite and most used vegetable. A day does not go by where I do not use onions in some way in at least one meal, whether it be as part of the trinity that forms the base of most home made soups, in a vegetarian chilli or a rich tomato pasta sauce, caramelised as a pizza topping, in a lentil stew, raw with a salad, or in a cheese sandwich.  I could go on, and I know you are mentally adding your own personal favourites to this list as you read ~~~ unless you don't like them ~~~ 

Do you know that onions are one of the most widely grown and widely used crops on the entire planet? Every culture grows and uses onions in cooking, and they have numerous health benefits as well as being versatile and tasty. If I have onions in the fridge I have the foundation of a meal. Just think about how many times in the week you use onions ~ but did you know that they aren't just the spherical brown, white, or red ones in the shops ~ their cousins include shallots, banana shallots, leeks, garlic, spring onions {salad onions or scallions} and the tinier pickling onions too?

I recently read an interesting article, which will help you get to know your onions too. It tells you a little about the history of onions, and even how they are found in the first known recipe book that is four thousand years old ~ yes, you read that correctly!  I find that so amazing ~~~

Despite being a favourite, I don't actually grow onions {or potatoes} for the simple reason that they are inexpensive, readily available, and I do not have a huge vegetable plot that I can turn over a lot of space to growing when they are so readily available.

However, this winter, rather than leave the garden to rest, I sought advice and planted a small area with an assortment of onions, and a couple of tubs of garlic; if you click here and scroll all the way down you will see what they looked like about four weeks after I planted them in November, and below is what they look like now.  I am thrilled at their progress, and am probably quite unreasonably excited over them, but then as a novice gardener I always get excited when things do well ~ and the reward of nurturing anything from a tiny bulb or seed to a full grown plant that gives so much pleasure when it ends up on the plate, when you know the complete provenance of what you are eating, is something you cannot describe, or buy!

First, the two bins of garlic ~~~ the first one had rather a nasty accident three weeks ago, but from the looks of things was caught and rectified in time!  We'd had a lot of rain, and one day I noticed the bin was full to the brim with water! Panic strikes! The holes in the bottom somehow clogged up, so I pierced around the base of the bin to let the water drain out, which it did very slowly. I was afraid the crop was waterlogged and spoiled, but new, green shoots are growing from the middle of each plant so I'm hoping all is well below the soil ~~~

If growing in these bins is a success, I can move them on to the paved areas where there is nothing at the moment, so I will increase my growing space!

This bin was planted about a month after the first one and has nearly caught up! ~~~

and here are the onions, with weeds still growing so I shall have to clear them in a week or two ~~~

They are still quite small, but looking sturdy and strong, so I hope they will start to increase in bulb size as the weather warms up ~~~

{I had to zig zag the frames with string to keep off the birds and cats that might do a lot of damage if they are able to get on to the planted area}

If you want to know more about planting onion sets, garlic, or anything else garden~related for that matter, then the RHS has good information and guidelines.

While looking around the garden earlier, I also noticed my clematis is putting on a lot of shoots already.  Do you remember the dead clematis that suddenly came back to life after many years?  It now seems to be doing all right for itself, so it is time to look for a permanent structure and maybe take some cuttings when the time is right!

Thinking and planning forward into Spring and planting vegetables, I have bought some raised beds with suitable liners to retain the soil, on a spare piece of land adjacent to the cottage. These will hold my simple salad crops of lettuce, leaves, Spring onions, baby beetroot etc., thus freeing up space on my small plot for other things. Photographs and ideas will follow!

For now, though, I am still browsing the seed catalogues ~ for remember, I am a typical Libran and cannot make up my mind what to plant in my precious small spaces!  Top of my list this year will be seeds for growing outdoor tomatoes ~~~ I've already selected two varieties, and must think carefully as to what else will be grown this Summer ~~~ in the meantime, while I peruse the seed catalogues in front of a warm fire, with a mug of hot tea, remember that ~~~

~~~A Gardener's Work is Never Done~~~

January is Here!

Happy New Year 2015

Gentle Reader ~~~ is it not hard to believe that January 2015 is here already? Where did the last year fly to?  I've put up my Susan Branch calendar and if you hurry, there may still be some left.  

The wind of Winter is blowing from the East, so maybe Mary Poppins will drift by one day soon?

Cold and chill, no longer fragrant with the faded flowers of last Summer, whip and whistle through branches stripped of leaves long fallen to the forest floor.  Time to reflect on a year gone, and wonder, ponder what the New Year will bring ~~~

Here are some of my favourite pictures that I took towards the end of 2014 ~~~ some late Autumn colours, like a sprinkling of confetti, a remnant of a memory, scattered over the barest branches ~~~

A mossy wall and ivy clothed trees bring green to the muddy brown landscape ~~~ 

This particular bridge has always fascinated me ~~~ there is no vestige of path leading up to it, it is surrounded by fields on both sides of the bank, and it is quite a clamber to the top ~~~ it just sits there, the endless waters running underneath ~~~ my lovely, lonely bridge to nowhere ~~~

The newly refurbished clock faces on the cathedral tower ~~~ my, how lovely they do look, indeed, marking time and ever marching to the future ~~~

The wild and wintery looking sky of late afternoon across the Shire ~~~

Some amazing fungi ~ do you remember the secret fairy doorway? Well, it was hiding a great secret indeed ~~~ just look at what sprung up in the doorway ~~~

Here is a short musical interlude ~~~ the Tower Bells peal out across the gardens and the meadows of the Shire ~~~

Now Autumn is gone and the Winter sun sits low in the sky preparing for the long, slow climb ahead, and makes a nearby outcrop look quite spectacular in the late afternoon sunshine at Christmas ~~~ do I espy some people who have climbed all the way to the top?

There is a new tapestry, custom made to fit an alcove in the north transept of the cathedral ~~~ 

It is dedicated to Saint Caradog ~~~

The tree is lit in the village, on the Square ~~~

My hand shook taking this one, but I do love how each tiny light looks like a jolly jingling note of music, strung across the Square ~~~

Here is a picture of one of my favourite breakfasts during the Winter, when warm and filling food is called for to stave off the biting winds that blow ~~~ porridge made with almond milk, and topped off with a sprinkling of muscavado sugar and a generous helping of my home made Cranberry Relish with some whole almonds ~~~

The wind is whipping wildly about my cottage tonight and I am glad to be indoors and sitting by the fireside.  There are gardening catalogues by my chair and I peruse their pages often through the day as I plan what will be planted in the garden in the Spring ~~~ but in the meantime, remember that ~~~

~~~ A Gardener's Work is Never Done ~~~