Autumn Colour . . . shame about the sunshine
November 21, 2008
Steve's favourite birches
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Not our oaks but my favourite view in the morning
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Autumn Colour November 2008
I thought I would share a photo of some of the autumn colour the garden produced a few weeks ago. Sadly, the sun has not been out much and so the image is a bit dull looking. Amazing how green the nettles, brambles and weeds stay.
Other news – Hedgelands the house has been passed reasonably sound if a bit in need of a spruce up. Guttering repairs and demolition of a disused chimney stack to be completed but can wait until the new year. Garden restoration will begin with me reclaiming the wood from the propagation ‘beds’ and fighting my way through the brambles to remove glass lights and other hazards. Personally – routine gets easier and life gets harder at the same time. Time is running away and I have no idea where it goes. Apologies!
Lastly, I’m glad that people are still enjoying reading through Steve’s and friends’ conversations and verse. I worry about how best to leave something behind so that Steve is remembered in some way and cob walls and trees seem so fragile – his blog may be ‘forever’ in google cache heaven.
Michele – The undergardener
More pics then!
Steve’s favourite birches
Colour Wheel copperfoil art glass round
Favourite morning view
View from the office today –
November 21, 2008 at 11:35 am
Dear, brave Michele, _thank_ _you_ for going to the trouble over this.
Nothing dull about the colours. It’s November, they are exactly as they should be — lovely, to these eyes — and make me sad that I’m so far away.
I have more to say – but not at the moment.
November 21, 2008 at 6:26 pm
This autumn’s colours have been particularly rich (I think I heard from somewhere that it is a result of a wet summer). Fighting back the march of nature is tough work, like some Greek myth, however much you cut back, seemingly, the more it returns.
Any chance of a winter frost picture for comparison later on? May be the frosts do not bite so hard in Devon.
November 22, 2008 at 12:03 am
I worry about how best to leave something behind so that Steve is remembered in some way and cob walls and trees seem so fragile – his blog may be ‘forever’ in google cache heaven.”"
it has flowered quickly today this garden of blog,
the birds sing small songs of good souls,,
November 22, 2008 at 5:32 pm
Lovely thanks.
oh, the trees are still little (I mean in the comparative sense of mature botany bay/oak relativeness). Imagine the change over the course of a few seasons as they spread. The canopy of leaves will be magnificent. I can see a hammock happening at some point Michele.
November 23, 2008 at 12:57 am
Your garden looks in better shape than mine, which is about a twentieth of the size. I’ve decided that as long as there is enough space to park a deckchair in the summer I’m satisfied.
November 24, 2008 at 1:34 pm
Thank you, Michele.
November 25, 2008 at 9:50 am
Well, just to be difficult, I have a complaint. Why only _one_ picture? . . .
November 25, 2008 at 10:56 am
Some more photos posted at the top. I’m afraid I am not as adept as Steve with wordpress. No lasting frosts so far but it is colder. At least the sun is shining today which is a welcome change.
November 26, 2008 at 6:50 am
When particularly delighted, I borrow from the language of my closest childhood (and teenage) friend — who has something to do with this alternative screen name:
GRAZIE MILLE! . . . BRAVA MICHELE, _BRAVA_!!!
A completely satisfying selection — yes of course, about the birches. From now on, a vital new association for, ‘When I see birches . . . ‘.
November 26, 2008 at 7:32 am
=== who has something to do with this alternative screen name ===
. . . but nothing, I meant to add, to a serious mis-spelling by an exhausted blogger of a WP user name (which, once typed in, can never be changed). It should be: acciaccature. [sigh]
I read optimism, strength and hope in the copper foil circle: _good_.
November 27, 2008 at 3:22 pm
Thanks, Michele, the birches are great; gaunt, netty and pallid as they should be, and I think there’s one little hopeful leaf left on the top left of the middle tree. And to let you know some of us still dip gratefully into the treasure chest Steve left behind, prompted as I was this morning by parallax.
November 30, 2008 at 2:23 pm
feep – ok, thin, boney, and wan I’ll concede for the trees, but netty birches? what’s happening here – are we talking:
1. lots of twiggy offshoots creating a net effect against the sky background? or,
2. nettie, derivative for necessarily like a birch? or,
3.some sort of northumberland dialect for dunny? Oh those trees look like urinals … hello?
December 4, 2008 at 3:57 am
a few quiet voices
holding vigil
sharing a transition
seasons lives circles
colours and visions
December 4, 2008 at 11:54 pm
That’s lovely, @dropin — says it all.
December 6, 2008 at 2:21 am
This is your home Michele, a home that was hit by tragedy for a long time, but the spiritual home is being rebuilt so I add:
To warm a winter day
Spread a little sunshine
Till the garden in peace
Fertilize with delight
Plant a rosy smile
December 10, 2008 at 8:38 am
Thank you drop-in and frances for the poems. Hedgelands has had several hard frosts over the past week and still the brambles grow! : ) Hope everyone is keeping well.
Michele
December 14, 2008 at 5:18 pm
Hello Michele, I just wanted to wish you well over Christmas – a tad early I know, but I’m heading away from the city and off to a slower and quieter place, to catch up with extended family and friends for a while, where virtual is real and the internet is unreal
Catch you in the new year, take care.
December 23, 2008 at 1:21 pm
Happy Christmas, Michele, and good things for 2009.
December 23, 2008 at 11:35 pm
Within the last month, where I’ve been: (1) Skunks, extra-smelly for mating season, got beneath the house and parked themselves on the other side of a walk-in cupboard not perfectly sealed, because the whole structure is old and a bit rickety. . . Ammonia had to be poured into the foundation as a gentle hint to black-and-white striped beasts about the advantages of moving on. . . Then a special de-skunking (odour-remover) had to be ordered from far away to rid clothes of rather intense backwoods perfume. (2) A woodpecker has made a hole in the peak of the roof. I heard this before I saw it. Was lying in bed with my head beneath the point of entry when I heard prolonged squeezing sounds – and something like, I could almost swear, groans. An effortful sound, anyway. This was followed by flapping noises inside the attic . . . What’s interesting is that Woody’s new front door is less than six inches above and behind a fake owl that stopped the maddening pecking for eight years . . . Clearly, an Einstein of the woodpecker world had to come along to laugh at the others.
Who would enjoy these stories more than anyone I know? The person painfully missed by _all_ of us, I don’t doubt. We last discussed feral pigs – and he once had a magnificent story in which the dramatis personae were Michele, a courteous bat that wandered inside Hedgelands to pay her a visit, and a . . . doggerelist.
I don’t dare say any more.
. . . HAPPY CHRISTMAS, Michele. Even when I don’t write, I am thinking of you.
December 23, 2008 at 11:37 pm
Sorry, that should have been:
a special de-skunker (odour-remover)
x, wd7
December 24, 2008 at 9:45 am
A special thought this Christmas
Last year a few days after Christmas on 30th Dec. at 12.51am, Steve commented on tpow
“You’ll have to excuse me; I’m having an epiphany”
A little later at 1.45am he remarked to dropin
“dib:just the first one they made now that is KC”
‘Do you know their last one?
“The Power to Believe….;->
Well the words can be found on http:www.lyricstime.com/king-crimson-the-power-to-believe-lyrics.html
two lines I quote here:
“She carries me through days of apathy
………….
………….
When she gave me back the power to believe”
…..
I note Steve’s grin but I also note his next comment on tpow
I think there is a message for you there Michele, Happy Christmas
December 24, 2008 at 10:28 am
Wishing you all happy festivities however you celebrate it. I know Steve would want us all to enjoy the delights of the season especially meeting up with loved ones and dear friends.
wordnerd – : ) I am rather pleased this time that Hedgelands is unlikely to ever host a pair of randy skunks. I’m fairly certain though that Hedgelands does host a wide variety of birds in all sorts of places most of which I don’t wish to know just at the minute. The blue tit under the floorboards was enough for me. So far I don’t think the woodpeckers are too interested in lodging in the roofspace just yet.
francis – thank you for rescuing that snippet of domestic life on Poem of the Week. It was nice to read/hear Steve enjoying himself. I miss him.
Roll on longer days and some sunshine!
Michele
December 24, 2008 at 8:36 pm
Dear Michele, if you ever feel like telling us the long version of The Blue Tit Under the Floorboards, you’ll have my undivided attention. We only had a few very funny scraps from the dgg.
I have been dragging my (mental) feet about telling you that you are mentioned here, on WordPress http://acacciatura.wordpress.com/2008/12/12/a-fanfare-for-the-makers-in-this-spot/ . . . — where, if it wasn’t for Steve’s excellent tutorial, encouragement, and promise of unlimited help from both of you, I doubt I would ever have put down stakes. . . No, it’s not the training wheels site I began with, but . . . little did you two know what a spectacular early Christmas present you were giving me.
The pictures you pasted into this blog entry continue to please . . . and please . . .. _Thank you_ . . . and hello Iant!
. . . x
December 24, 2008 at 8:58 pm
there is only one place
where i choose to feel
i am in a chapel
there is one place
where i choose
to light a
candle
there is one place
where i am moved
by small words
there are three places,
in my head,my heart
and here
the virtual lamppost
where the small words
are dividends on
steves investment,,
what wealth
ars longa vita brevis
December 24, 2008 at 9:01 pm
oops forgot the name,,Michelle,, 3p4 is dropin
January 2, 2009 at 10:26 am
Best wishes for the new year Michele and thanks for continuing to add to Steve’s blog. It is appreciated.