Still round the corner there may wait, A new road or a secret gate

I've just realised how long it is since I last blogged.  The whole of May has whizzed past in a frenzy of work it seems.  I have had  time to start to learn to crochet however, wanting to find a craft I could do to keep my hands busy as well as something a little more portable than painting or patchwork.

We've both put a lot of effort and energy into our garden lately when the weather has allowed.  On a pleasant sunny day, it is my sanctuary.  One of the things I loved about the garden when we bought the house was the fact that it wasn't just one long space, the people who lived here before us had put effort into adding fences and large shrubs and of course, the gate in the middle of the garden.  There is always a sense of a journey, of a secret garden beyond a gate....

 Still round the corner there may wait, A new road or a secret gate.

J. R. R. Tolkien

I wait for you at the garden gate

Yes I will patiently wait

Among the wild flowers that bloom

So fragrant and so free

They will wait with me

With lots of room

As I watch the path

Time will pass

That leads to my garden gate

My heart knows to wait

This path that meanders on by

Sometimes it seems to touch the sky

I am not all alone you see

My garden keeps me company

As I patiently wait for you

The sky turns azure blue

It reminds me of your true eyes

Holds no secrets, holds no lies

So my anxious heart yearns

Lingering memories that burn

For my true love to come along

He'll bring me flowers and a song

He'll wander thru my garden gate

My heart knows he was worth the wait

The gate is the focus of our garden all the year round, even in the depths of winter when the snow is deep and even.

 

'Show me your garden, and I shall tell you who you are'
Alfred Austin

Time for tea

Sometimes there is nothing else for it but to have a proper pot of tea and a slice of homemade fruit cake of an afternoon.

We bought our Wood's Beryl ware tea service on our honeymoon and it usually sits on our dresser.  Sometimes however a mug of tea isn't right and you need to get out a teapot and  cups and saucers.

Using the teapot is also an excuse for using a tea cosy.  I love this tea cosy, I didn't make it sadly, its a Cath Kidston design from a few years ago.

'Never trust a man who, when left alone in a room with a tea cosy, doesn't try it on.'

Billy Connolly

I also bought some flowers at a market, which looked so beautiful on our dining room table.  I do love cottage garden flowers like delphiniums and stocks.  As I struggle with growing such flowers due to our massive slug and snail population, I try to buy them often during summer.

“There are few hours in life more agreeable than the ceremony known as afternoon tea”
  Henry James

If you've read this blog often, you will know that I'm a great fan of Jerome K Jerome and his wise and witty writings.  He has this to say about tea;

'“After a cup of tea (two spoonsful for each cup, and don't let it stand more than three minutes,) it says to the brain, "Now, rise, and show your strength. Be eloquent, and deep, and tender; see, with a clear eye, into Nature and into life; spread your white wings of quivering thought, and soar, a god-like spirit, over the whirling world beneath you, up through long lanes of flaming stars to the gates of eternity!”
  Jerome K. Jerome, Three Men in a Boat

Bunting, Granny's bonnets and frogs-a-hiding

I did promise to report back on the open garden day the other week.   We spent days in the garden before the open day digging, cutting back, planting and weeding and planning what we can feed everyone.  On the day itself the weather was rather changeable but it looked like it was staying dry at least!  We visited the Rectory garden, which was first on the list, had some tea, and then raced back home to prettify the house and garden.  We put up some bunting at the back and the front, put out the homemade lemonade, fruit cake and shortbread biscuits on the table, put out some chairs and then waited.

I had lots of excuses in my head to explain why the garden isn't completely devoid of weeds and dead leaves, and why some areas are still a work in progress (honest!).  I was going to explain how the patches of long grass are actually to keep the frogs and birds happy, and the ivy was there to feed birds and insects...And...And..

People were slow to arrive, but they did arrive and I needn't have worried.  Almost without exception they were all gardeners themselves.  They understood that every garden is a work in progress.  More importantly, the garden itself actually looked utterly beautiful.  Although the frogs hid out of the way for a change, the finches and blue tits sang like crazy, the bees and hover flies and wasps buzzed around every flower, the swifts swooped overhead and the garden played its part to perfection.

 

 

As one of the visitors commented, it feels like a haven.  When you stand in the middle of our garden, all you can hear is nature humming and growing around you.  I was quite taken aback with the lovely comments about the peace and the lushness of everything.  After being at Hazel Cottage for almost three years I think the garden is looking at its best so far and we are very proud of it.

The work continues and the slugs still arrive...and we think the birds have managed to get into the netting around the redcurrants as we have about two left.... 

Swereee swereee!

We've been waiting for the swifts to return.  We've heard rumours that they are back and even heard a very faint sound very high in the sky.  Did I imagine that?  Was it a distant finch or a hoarse sparrow?  Sitting in a pub garden a couple of weeks ago, a friend said "Ah the swifts are back again!".  We turned to look but saw nothing.  Spring has taken its time this year and this last week has been rather cold and wet again.  To use a local word, I even felt completely shrammed* the other day and hid under a blanket.

Then, this morning, the sun was out again, the air was warmer and over my head with a swereee swereee, darting low over the houses were the swifts! 

Swifts always signal the start of summer to me.  These remarkable birds migrate between Africa and Europe every year, coming back to us in April or May and leaving again about August.  They have very short feet, as they rarely settle on the ground, mostly flying or clinging to vertical surfaces.  Even into Medieval times, they were drawn as having no feet at all.  They can spend entire days on the wing, only landing to feed their young or to roost. 

The sight of the swifts screaming across the sky really lifted my mood.  The cold grey rainy days will return soon enough no doubt, but because of the swifts in the blue skies this morning the air was full of possibilities and new life.

"It was an ideal spring day, a light blue sky, flecked with little fleecy white clouds drifting across from west to east.  The sun was shining very brightly, and yet there was an exhilarating nip in the air, which set an edge to a man's energy."
-  Sir Arthur Conan Doyle  

"Every spring is the only spring - a perpetual astonishment."
-  Ellis Peters  

*Southern English dialect word for being very very cold

Sweet May hath come to love us

Sweet May hath come to love us,
Flowers, trees, their blossoms don;
And through the blue heavens above us
The very clouds move on.
Heinrich Heine, Book of Songs

At last we have reached the merry month of May.  This is the time when Spring really has sprung in England.  March is usually too cold or wet for anything much other than snowdrops, April has the joys of daffodils, primroses and forsythia and the trees start to bud.  It is in lovely gentle May that sees the trees bursting with new leaves and blossom exploding all around.  It is May Day today and as if on cue, the sky is blue, the sun is warm and clear and the birds are loud and joyful.

Flowering currant, forget-me-not and pansy.  And a hint of my patchwork cushion, as yet unfinished

Now every field is clothed with grass, and every tree with leaves; now the woods put forth their blossoms, and the year assumes its gay attire.
Virgil

 

"When April steps aside for May,
Like diamonds all the rain-drops glisten;
Fresh violets open every day:
To some new bird each hour we listen."
- Lucy Larcom

 

 

 

"Winter is many months of the year
But now at last Maytime is here;
And birds sing from a leafy screen
In the trees and hedgerow freshly green;
And the wood-anemone is out in the shade,
With its blushing petals which too soon fade;
Once more the bracken is unfurling there,
And bluebells gently perfume the damp air."
- Veronica Ann Twells, Maytime

 

It was the month of May, the month when the foliage of herbs and trees is most freshly green, when buds ripened and blossoms appear in their fragrance and loveliness

Sir Thomas Malory, La Morte d'Arthur