Summer Solstice and seven days seven photos

 Monday

The first day of the new working week layout - volunteers and I worked in a sweltering warm kitchen garden where one of the many daily tasks was to start harvesting the heavenly scented strawberries. Their perfume intensified by the warm air was intoxicating and we kept lifting up a choice morsel and saying ... this one is absolutely perfect.... No this one is even better! .... look at the size of this one! ... 

Tuesday

Today was set aside for private gardens which are a complete contrast to the hot and bustling kitchen garden, these are cooler, greener, and despite the amount of work completed, seem both more calmer and relaxing. Being surrounded by flowers, hedges and meadows is good for the soul!

Wednesday

Another day in the kitchen garden, a constant stream of people popping in to walk around the raised vegetable beds, asking garden advice or just wanting to chat. Thank goodness for the volunteers as they continue working while I feel to be standing and talking and itching to get on with my almost never ending list of 'Do it RIGHT now' tasks that summer seems to trigger.

Thursday

A different day - teaching. This time instructing 12 lovely ladies how to make a midsommerkrans or mid summer crown or wreath. Buckets of fresh flowers collected, foliage, grasses, green flower pods are coaxed into swirling 'nests' to celebrate the richness and bountiful moments of mid summer.

Friday

Back into the kitchen garden - the day is the warmest of the year so we retreat after lunch into the cool and lushness of the young orchard. I have to firmly encourage the volunteers to enjoy the slowness of weeding around the mini meadows beneath each tree and relish the cool breeze. I start summer pruning the young trees and celebrate the surrounding greenness in stark contrast to the formal construction of the kitchen garden. I also discover my favourite 'tree' - a 'tea-tree' !

Saturday

Himself and I wake up over looking Sunderland Point having set off the night before in the van. After a blissful and much needed good night's sleep we collect Youngest's goods and chattels from his uni digs because this particular lanky loon has finished university and bar the final 'extrav' and graduation day is now a free man (until the next step) - where has time gone? We load up the van while Moss sits in the front and 'guards'.

Sunday

Father's day, the boys send Himself some wonderfully disrespectful cards which amuse us both greatly, then we spend the morning pottering in the garden, baking and tinkering with the van before my folks come for afternoon tea and still slightly warm oaty biscuits.

Seven days, seven photos, many stories briefly mentioned and many which have not. My feet seem not to have touched ground for some weeks now however, with the new hours at work, I am hoping that things will be easier - not because I am doing less or doing more - but doing them at a better pace for me.

Happy summer solstice - this may be the half point of the calendar year but it is the beginning of the astrological summer with all the lushness and warmth and sunshine (being positive here seeing I do live in the north of the uk!!!) that summer can bring!

And, I shall leave you with the toast we shared at the midsommerkrans workshop ....

May the flowers in your hair stay fresh and your dance around the maypole be strong....

 skål !

Completing the circle

It could be said that 2021 has been quite a ride - a complete sea change in fact. It was incredibly difficult to choose a photo a month so, rather than trawl up and down until I saw what I wanted, I have chosen at random the first one that catches my eye and have written about that one  .... 

Top left - January : I started a new job, as head gardener in a walled kitchen garden as part as a charity which works to help with people's minds and mental welfare. It has been a steep learning curve, not just how to manage a large vegetable garden so that it produced a steady flow of fruit and vegetables to the cafe and for sale rather than a series of gluts, but how to manage volunteers, meet their needs, teaching them new skills, making use of their existing skills base, form a community and a safety net whilst getting the best from them - I am still learning.

Top Right  - February : I, on a whim, sort of 'sashiko style' stitched my work trousers all down the left leg. Why? Well why not? It does sometimes start a conversation, which when meeting someone new does help break the ice.

Bottom Left - March : Although we walk all through the year, March really kicks off walks that are further afield.  This particular walk resulted in a rather muddy and wet (but very happy) dog,

Bottom Right -April : A good month for walking,  gently balmy days, camping, once again a happy (and usually muddy) dog.

Top Left - May : Wild camping as often as we can, we walk along pathways strewn with cow parsley. The light levels are clear and bright and days are warming while nights remain chilly.

Top Right -June : I'd decided to allow the garden to gentle 're-wild' and for a brief few weeks in June, it was beautiful, romantic, flower filled with birds, insects, frogs and hedgehogs. However, it was not long before it became not so much 're-wild' but down right savage so required a bit of a machete job....

 

Bottom Left - July : Warm and wet. Sunny days that warmed me to the bone and rainy ones that drenched me in equal measure.

Bottom Right - August : Dusky hot days melted into sultry evenings with the most glorious sunsets

Top Left - September : The call of wild camping and walking had us revisiting places we love, sharing them with Moss who delighted in swimming in rivers and the sea, walking in woodlands and along the coast line. May have to take her back!

Top Right - October : The mellowing of the seasons, softened the light, made things feel reflective and contemplative. 

Bottom Left - November : I tentatively dipped my toe into the loom-weaving waters and was dragged off into a delight of weaving. The rhythmic movement and the gentle building of the woven fabric really pleases me - I know I need lots more practise and I have been experimenting with reasonable success - I shall certainly be playing with this a whole lot more!

Bottom Right - December : take today, this misty early morning photo brings the circle around back to January when I started at the walled garden.  I wrote - this year has been quite a ride and a rather good one.

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Don't think you have reached the end of my waffle just yet!

I have just one (or three) more photographs to share with you - December 2021 to me will be forever linked to festive wreath making, the pictures only show about half of what was made .... 87 in total to be precise ... a mixture of wreaths made by myself (44) and the rest made by participants of the wreath making workshops.  

It has been a busy month.

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So, what did I do on Saturday?

Thank you again dear fellow photo hunters, last week's photos and stories were amazing. I loved♥ the variety and the stories accompanying the photos. Please never feel that your stories are not worth reading or that your photos are not good enough - this space is a safe space, we are all experiencing a strange new normal and by supporting each other and keeping in touch by blogging and commenting - it is our strength, our super-power and our bond. Don't ever feel that you are not good enough - we are all good enough, we are who we are and we will work through these strange times. Blogging is one way of holding onto something we did before and it will be something that we will do through this pandemic and come out the other side a whole lot stronger.

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Saturday was a go-to-work day. 

Both Thursday and Friday had been rather unpleasant commutes.

A 'heady' mix  of more cars on the motorway than you would expect seeing we are under another lockdown (and yes I am aware I am one of those cars) as well as multiple roadworks creating chaos and backlog. 

Then there were the blizzards... 

 

Thursday was a complete white out - the snow was sticking to the road and visibility was atrocious.

Friday was rinse and repeat of Thursday's commute, 

so by Saturday,  I decided to go a little earlier. 

Erhm. I was practically the only car on the road! 

But I did still have to drive through driving sleet and snow...... 

However, by the time I landed at the walled kitchen garden, 

the snow had become a light flurry of gentle feathery flakes. 

I was handed a mug of steaming tea and breathing deeply, 

I stepped into Narnia.

As beautiful as it was, I was there to work, and work I do

  I am averaging 4 miles a day whilst I am there .... 

I shall have biceps and triceps to die for!  *chuckle*.  

The morning was filled with barrowing compost and woodchip,

there is a lot of groundwork to do before anything can be planted out. 

In the afternoon I coached new volunteers - a mum and daughter bubble.  

We all wore masks and worked with windows and doors open, 

which made the chilly temperatures even more frisky brrrrrrr!

But it was worth it, when the daughter who was so very reluctant to attend, 

agreed to come back - I call that a win.

The days fly by, Moss and I come home knackered and starving - 😊 

funnily enough, the next day we are keen to get back,

think we might just both like what we are doing !

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New

The second in the January Scavenger Photo Hunt series - New.

My offering for 'New' was not what I had in mind when the list for January's words were selected.  During a walk I'd asked for ideas and Himself suggested it. I'd mulled over it and wondered what I could use, may be by the time it came round there would be snowdrops or the hyacinth flowers were blossoming and I could use them..... then this happened.

I was approached by a small and forward thinking charity and offered a job. As the gardener in their beautiful walled kitchen garden.... erm yes please!

I had the invite to look around with part of the criteria being .... Bring Moss. I am not joking. An important part of the charity's ethos is being dog and family friendly. So, she and I (I was glad of her company) went and had a 'sniff around' - well she did more sniffing that I, and we liked what we saw.

It is early days, but do I like how the universe has created this safe space for Moss and I?  Yes, truly yes.

A new year, a new place to grow - in more ways than one.

 

Simple pleasures

Last weekend was a time for chores at home, the sort of simple jobs I procrastinate over, then once I finally get round to doing - wonder why I took so long to get started ...... 

Time to replace the tired pots of sunflowers, sweetpeas and calendulas which have spent their summer

along the kitchen wall.

I found some very reasonably priced zinc buckets and Himself added drainage holes in their bases.

It didn't take long, and now I have winter colour and planters along the back wall.

They'll soon settle in and fill out while the weather is still 'reasonably' warm.

Mask making - this time with a seasonal twist, I will be posting some of these off as soon as I can.

This must be the easiest and most fool proof pattern yet - this is the one I will be sticking with from now on.

Pattern HERE

Jam making - well, grape jelly really. 

The greenhouse grapes yielded over 2 kilograms of fruits - added to about 500gm red currents...

boiled together with 710gms of pectin enriched sugars....

gave me five full jars and a half-ish one (presently sitting in the fridge) They are now labelled up and ready to eat. A soft rose coloured jelly with a delicious tangy fresh taste - perfect on toast and scones - can't see this lot lasting long :)

 Simple jobs that once done bring pleasure - there are more that needs doing but - pah - not just yet!

Are you a procrastinator? Do you have jobs waiting to be done? Go on, tell me, reassure me I am not the only one (I am procrastinating now - should be showering and getting ready for a morning stint of volunteering at the community store - but ... phfff, still sitting chatting to you!)

Have a lovely Tuesday xxxxxx

38 of 52 *

 Another week in 2020 has slipped by, a gentle mix of busy and quiet, sorrow and joy, sunshine and rain.

Monday while I worked up in the moorland garden I was surrounded by the sounds of a warm and gentle autumnal breeze rustling through the hedge leaves with the occasional distant lowing of a dairy shorthorn checking on her calf. The herd were high up on the hill and had left all their young asleep in the sun against the garden wall. Over the course of ten minutes or so, the calves awoke, stood up, stretched and bawled back at their mothers. I unintentionally startled them and as one they cantered off in an untidy wobbly blob up to the main herd. Each calf finding their dam, latching on and suckling.

Moss was with me, watching my every move with intense brown eyes. She is good company.

Tuesday was volunteering-at-the-community-shop day and I was fully aware that we would be understaffed - we are usually a group of three but today we were only the two. My volunteering buddy and I worked out a strategy and hoped it worked... and it did - we had a lovely day and enjoyed the 'busy-ness' of it. The afternoon was filled with mask making and slow-sow stitching whilst listening to the rain on the window and drinking coffee.

Wednesday brought hot tears - I worked in a lovely mature garden higher up the village. It is tucked behind an beautiful old farm house and is a multi-layered space completely enclosed by mature hedges and trees. I already knew that the cat ,who usually 'supervises' me as I work in 'her' garden, had died unexpectedly the night before so was expecting a saddened owner, and she was. We shed a tear with a mutual friend, who had been on hand helping with vets and heartbreak the night before, arrived to bury the cat. A special place was selected in the garden - one the cat liked to rest in during the warmth of a summer's day - and a hole duly dug. We were all affected by the loss of one rather small and fat furry cat. The garden seemed thinner that day.

Thursday was rather more joyous. I was part of a small (and correctly numbered and socially distanced) group who walked from a picturesque village over rolling fields, lead by a community outreach officer (a walk leader/ranger in old terms.... why do they change titles??). 

We ended up at a newly acquired space the outreach group had obtained complete with wonderfully old and beautifully maintained barns and shippon and a huge blank space with the remains of a walled garden and raised beds. The long term plan is to have the gardens up and running giving the outreach group a safe space to share with groups of folk who need help with mental and physical health, gently guiding and helping to reintegrate with people, learn new skills and find a place where they can feel safe. There is a long way to go, the site is raw and has been neglected for a long time but with a bit of hard work (ok - a lot) and the right sort of leadership and guidance - I think it could be an amazing place in the future.

While we were there, a dear friend of mine (he introduced me to this group and invited me on their walks) reached a phenomianal milestone.... at the grand old age of 81 years young and post major cancer surgery and a stroke .... had reached his goal of #walk1000miles in 2020 and had beaten me by 150 miles (I am still plodding on ha!) So, I presented him with a specially designed medal and the rest of the group cheered and took photos. He was delighted and kept his medal on for the rest of the day :)

The gardens must have been some one's pride and joy once as the soil is good, the construction strong and the layout well designed and the thick layer of moss and nettle roots has prevented the soil from drying out while the shear quantity of earthworms was fantastic.  

We worked in the garden for most of the day and managed clear one bed completely and made serious inroads in another two. It was most gratifying to plant up the bed with native wildflower plug-plants before we left - a job well done. This space, if taken forward with the enthusiasm that was shared yesterday - will be a lovely one to be in.

Moss was invited too - of course, she makes so many friends as she goes along and as they day warmed up she found her own way to cool off.  Then, at the end of the day, we walked back through the fields and sat on the village green with locally made ice cream cones and just appreciated the day, the weather, friendship and silly wet dogs......

Now, today being Friday - is the 'start' of the weekend. Himself will be home by lunch and the sun is shining with a blue sky and softly grey pink clouds scudding through. It is definitely feeling and tasting like autumn and I am most definitely trying to see the beauty of it. 

Last days of summer .... holding on .... letting go .... cool days and chilly evenings.

Have a lovely weekend where ever you are - hope you find precious moments in your day despite what's going on around us.  xxx

*and the 38 of 52? it is the number of this week..... the 38th week of 2020. Not so many left - wonder how things will turn?