Marchpane Cake and Crochet Snowflakes

Since my last post we've been busy with Christmassy plans and trips.  We went to Devon to see the family and spent a lovely day at Buckland Abbey.  It is one of our very favourite places, the great barn was filled with a wonderful flower display based on the Twelve Days of Christmas.

Nine Ladies Dancing

Ten lords a'leaping

 We also spent a lot of time wandering around their beautiful kitchen.  This year the theme was a Tudor Christmas and I was enchanted with the spices and herbs and food displayed.

The open fire made it rather special and made us hope and yearn for cooler days so we can light our fire at home more often!  The next weekend we spent a day in Brighton, having a wonderful lunch in the Blackbird Tea Rooms which was beautifully decorated in 1930s and 40s décor.

 

 

We hadn't come to drink tea however, but to see Kate Rusby.  For those of you who aren't aware, she is a folk singer from Yorkshire and every December she does special Christmas concerts, singing Yorkshire Christmas carols - to the tunes that are sung in the pubs in South Yorkshire.  We just love her voice and I'm sure my description doesn't do her justice.  I also loved her huge crocheted stage decorations!

 

 

And to continue our busy weekends before Christmas, we also popped to Hinton Ampner in the north of Hampshire.  They had a lovely Victorian Christmas wedding theme to their decorations. 

 

Wedding breakfast

 

 

 

Now we are back home again and looking forward to the festivities.  We've even found time to put up our own tree.

 

As usual we've covered it in our motley collection of hand made, Germanic, Victorian and folksy decorations.

 

Tomorrow is the Candlelight Carol service at the church and then the last couple of days at work before Christmas begins.  We do really hope the weather will cool down soon, it's been rather warm for the time of year.

Hedgerow in spring

I always find hedgerows fascinating.  When you come across a proper English hedgerow, six foot high and three foot wide, it is a thing of real beauty.  We explored such a hedge last weekend in Devon, it was mainly made up of hawthorn, hazel, holly and oak. 

At this time of year, the trees and shrubs are growing very rapidly, the ferns and bracken are starting to unfurl and a huge number of wild flowers are scattered through the hedge.

Red campion

Stitchwort

Bluebells

Everything is sweet and fresh and so very very green.  The birds are chattering in the hedges and trees and all seems new.  I am still trying to improve my knowledge of wild flowers...

Unfurling fern

Primrose

Cow parsley

Wood spurge

In amongst all the flowers are a huge variety of insects.  Even in our own garden, we are constantly amazed at the variation, you can never keep up with it all.  In a hedge, it is its own ecosystem, everything is here.

Some kind of fly

A caterpillar?

To see a World in a Grain of Sand
And a Heaven in a Wild Flower,
Hold Infinity in the palm of your hand
And Eternity in an hour.

William Blake

A wet weekend in Devon

We are just back from a rather soggy weekend in Devon seeing the family.  I don't think the sun came out at all but nature carries on regardless and spring is indeed springing everywhere.  Every hedgerow was an intense green and resplendant with primroses and these lovely white flowers - does anyone know what these are?  They look a bit like snowdrops but are obviously too late in the year for those.

There is something special about primroses.  So gentle and simple and just so much part of our countryside. AE Housmann mentioned the primrose in his poem to the Lenten Lily

'Tis spring; come out to ramble

The hilly brakes around,

For under thorn and bramble

About the hollow ground

The primroses are found.

  This poem was rather sweet, meant to be a children's song:

Ring-ting! I wish I were a primrose,
A bright yellow primrose blowing in the spring!
The stooping boughs above me,
The wandering bee to love me,
The fern and moss to creep across,
 And the elm-tree for our king!
Wm. Allingham—Wishing. A Child’s Song.

If it wasn't for the fog you would be able to see that the farmland actually stretches further than the veg patch.  The veg patch has been dug over ready for planting, some cabbages are just in (out of view).

Some newly purchased sheep mowing the front lawn.  You can see the grass they've been eating on the left, and the lush new grass they have just been moved onto...

I believe the breed is a Dorset sheep.  They were very woolley, even having woolly legs!

We wondered whether this was the home of some rabbits or something else?

A hedgerow always seems to remind me of a Pre-Raphaelite painting and it always makes me wish I could paint this scene in detail.

The glory of the English countryside

It's beautiful the Summer month of June
When all of God's own wildflowers are in bloom
And sun shines brightly most part of the day
And butterflies o'er lush green meadows play.

Francis Duggan, June

 Those wonderful wildflowers in the English countryside grace the hedgerows so beautifully at this time of year.  On a walk in Devon at the weekend, walking along the lane we saw the last of the late bluebells mixed with buttercups, ox-eye daisies, herb robert, lesser stitchwort, and other flowers we couldn't identify.

The sun was so bright it caused my photograph to glow!

Does anyone recognise this?  Sorry about the blurry photo!

Cow parsley and sweet cicely, we think we saw hogweed as well.

Foxgloves were everywhere we went and were still coming out.  I think everything is a little late this year.

 

The ransoms or wild garlic were everywhere along the route - especially in the shaded areas near the steam.

Looking back downhill along the lane.

 

“In June as many as a dozen species may burst their buds on a single day"

Aldo Leopold   

The butterflies and birds flew about our heads and I took a lot of photographs and we stood and gazed at the view. We saw at least three buzzards over the weekend and on the walk also saw an owl fly past.   On a June day when the sun is blazing and the hedgerows are alive with life, the English countryside is just the best place in the world.

"A bird in the boughs sang “June,”
And “June” hummed a bee
In a Bacchic glee
As he tumbled over and over
Drunk with the honey-dew."
  Clinton Scollard (1860–1932) 

January in Devon

A Friday evening's motoring down to Devon to see the family. Heading down on a winter's night usually means quieter roads although you miss out on the beautiful Dorset countryside.

Saturday morning and to Modbury. A lovely village with lots of splendid shops. Modbury has a super St Luke's Hospice charity shop that is brimming with old bits and pieces. Last time we were here we came away with a framed portrait of Edward VIII. This time, a 1935 jubilee mug (yes, we're Royalists in case it's not obvious) and a 1926 Arthur Rackham print.



Sunday dawned grey and overcast but didn't put us off a wander around the farm and off down the country lanes.

Pigs expecting food! (they'd only just been fed of course)

A quiet Devon lane.  We only saw one car in about two hours, it was very peaceful.  We wandered and stopped to notice the hedgerows and banks along the roads.  It is easy to think that because it is winter that everything is dormant and colourless, but looking closely we found some beautiful plants, fungi and lichen that were very much alive and full of colour.


Scarlet Elf Cap

Lichen growing on dead twigs and branches