My Kind of Weekend

Unbelievable that the weekend is almost over already. They go so fast!

It's been a good-un, despite my not spending a penny. Here's what I want to remember...

It began with a good friend, log fire, hummus and bottle(s!) of red wine, chatting long into the night.

Then a glorious walk in the woods with our dogs the next morning. So autumnal, amazing smells and a nip in the air, so that the breath of the cows in the fields hung in the air for a moment.

Harley won't stay still long enough to take a decent shot!

 Then, a blissful afternoon spent working on my quilt in front of the BBC iPlayer. This is a long, fiddly project, so chipping away at it in little bursts is fine. It was very satisfying to press ten more squares flat and add them to the pile. I am using some gorgeous Scandinavian fabric - I adore anything Scandinavian and so it is a total joy to work with.

And then a short 3.5 mile evening run. Lovely running as the darkness drew in - the bright white hedgerow asters and Snowberry bushes stood out in the twilight. I didn't take many photos, but I run through some beautiful and remote Wiltshire villages, with houses dotted down windy lanes with hedgerows you can barely see over.

As I ran, people were just turning on lights, pulling curtains and settling down for the evening in their cottages. As time went on, the smell of wood smoke began to linger in the air, so I assume as it was a chilly evening, they were lighting their fires as well. Beautiful - lots of bright red leaves and birds  noisily chattering in the trees, bickering over their chosen branches as they settled down for the night. I came back totally invigorated and once again, reminded myself that I love running because otherwise, I would miss these precious moments.

 

Sadly though, not every day can be spent doing whatever I fancy. After a leisurely lie-in, today has been spent catching up on University work, with a moral support from my canine study buddy.

 

 

I do enjoy my course (I am doing a Business Masters with the Open University) but at this time of year, I would rather be outside. Still, here I am blogging instead of working, so I must return to the books.

 

 

I hope whatever you are doing, you have had a wonderful weekend.

Five Things Friday

Today I am joining in with the lovely Amy for Five on Friday.

Here are five things that made my week:

1. Getting the Slow Cooker Back in Action

 As the nights have started to get chilly, I have been craving warming casseroles and stews. On Monday, I popped a couple of free range chicken breasts in the slow cooker with some balsamic vinegar, garlic, onion, chilli flakes and stock. By the time we got home it was all soft and tender. I used forks to 'pull' it as you would with pork, and added chick peas and peppers. It was delicious with a sweet potato and some kale. We had enough for lunch the next day too, so it was economical as well.

2. Misty Mornings

Walking the dog in the morning is not my favourite thing - I am not a morning person. But this morning, the landscape was transformed by moody autumn mist - beautiful. With the fog came a jewelling on the leaves of the plants and cobwebs were transformed into strings of minute beads. Lovely!

3. Candles

The nights draw in and the candles come out in our house. I am never without candles in autumn/winter. Flame is such a human pleasure.

 

4. My Quilt

It is all wonky and full of mistakes, but I love this quilt that I made over several years using leftover scraps from work shirts, nighties and curtains. I reserve it for my favourite visitors, and I enjoyed using it to make my spare bed cosy for a good friend staying this weekend.

5. Sunsets

This beautiful sunset from my run earlier this week blew me away.

 

Very much an ordinary week of living and working, but wonderful in its own way.

World Poetry Day

By far the most romantic love poem I have ever read - love 'gets real' in this sonnet by Shakespeare:

Sonnet 130

My mistress’ eyes are nothing like the sun;
Coral is far more red than her lips’ red;
If snow be white, why then her breasts are dun;
If hairs be wires, black wires grow on her head.
I have seen roses damasked, red and white,
But no such roses see I in her cheeks;
And in some perfumes is there more delight
Than in the breath that from my mistress reeks.
I love to hear her speak, yet well I know
That music hath a far more pleasing sound;
I grant I never saw a goddess go;
My mistress when she walks treads on the ground.
     And yet, by heaven, I think my love as rare
     As any she belied with false compare.

Yarn Along 7th October 2015

 

 

I am joining the wonderful Ginny of Small Things for Yarn Along this Wednesday, sharing what I am knitting and reading.

 

There is a bit of a theme as you can see! I don't like to tempt fate by starting the baby knits already - but I wanted something quick and easy and neutral. If it isn't to be for us, this may end up as a gift for another newborn some day.

The book is a bit gruesome and graphic, and I have lost count of the number of baby-related cheesy puns. But fairly informative stuff nonetheless!

Back to Running...

Today was the first day I went for a run for at least a month. Being on the Cambridge Diet meant no exercise (that does sound a little crazy in hindsight) and I just got out of the swing.

Something has been missing in me lately and it took me until today to click that it was running. I just felt...miserable. Sad, not as well equipped to cope with life. Weak, physically and mentally.

And tonight was a perfect reminder to me of what I 'get' from running. That is, time to think, time in nature, time out to appreciate life. I took the dog and as I began my run, I was entranced by how lovely the clouds looked after what has been a wet, wet day.

 

Since I last ran, the trees have started to turn. The Ashes are now a bright, luminous yellow.

 

 

Shamefully, I don't know what this tree is, but just the tips of the branches in the hedgerows are turning a beautiful fiery orange;

 

 

 

the sloes were bright but deep blue;

and the hips bright scarlet.

As I turned to come back, I was rewarded with this beautiful, breath-taking sunset. The most stunning pinks, purples and yellows, which came almost out of nowhere.

 

 

Part of the reason I have picked up blogging again is this - focussing my mind on appreciating things in life I might have missed. I have been reading a book about mindfulness lately and I really see the value in appreciating what you have, rather than looking out at what you don't.

 

So in the mindfulness spirit, I stood for a while in the field, just watching as the little dog sniffed about the trees. Birds were chattering in the hedgerows, settling down for the night, and a train slipped past in the distance. It was a lovely moment. And to think - I cold have been cooped up indoors, watching Eastenders!

 

Although it was only a couple of miles, it was a great re-introduction to running again - it felt good to be moving in that rhythm that my body just knows so well. It felt great to be hot, to be smelling the tang of wet leaves and the beginnings of decay in the air. I loved it!

 

Bulbs and Soreness and Acts of Faith

I spent a backbreaking day yesterday in the garden, planting hundreds of bulbs.

I ummed and ahhhed over what to buy for ages. Did I want the traditional, garish yellow daffodil, or to go all delicate white narcissus instead? I agonised over whether to fork out for clashing pink and orange parrot tulips, to go all-white (boring or pure and elegant?) and various other combinations.

But I decided that the most important thing was just to get on with it - the season is charging ahead, and time to plant bulbs is running out. One thing is for sure - the only thing that looks worse than some tulips, is no tulips.

So, I went for six kilos of mixed daffs, and some cheap pink/white tulips, with 60 alliums 'Purple Sensation' They were there, they were cheap and they were in the ground three hours later!

I have gone for groups of twelve tulips, spaced around the borders, daffs dotted about in drifts of 3-7 and have under-planted the lavender with alliums, so that they hover above like floating pompoms.

It is such an act of faith, planting bulbs. Like orchestrating the slowest firework display ever. But come spring, I will be so glad I did. Knowing they are in the ground, slowly doing their thing as we go about our winter, is a lovely feeling. Who knows what life will hold in store for the spring?

And to keep me going while I wait...

Distinctly Pedestrian Garden Overhall

A year ago, if you’d have said to me that I would be ripping out cottage garden perennials, and replacing them with ‘low maintenance shrubs’ I would have laughed in your face or broken down in tears.

 

But, after a soul-destroying, non-stop summer watching the weeds grow and the perennials die, I succumbed and did the ‘sensible’ thing – created a front garden that may have a chance of staying tidy (we don’t have a back garden).

I have this bohemian hang-up that it’s OK to have a messy garden as long as it is pretty – plants not staked properly, but rustically spilling over each other in a riot of colour etc… However, it is not pretty or tidy when those perennials are choked by bindweed and other weeds, starved of nutrients and dying of thirst, because you don’t have time to a) weed or b) water. It is just a bit sad.

So, I spent the weekend setting up a garden that looks smart, if not riveting. I dug the borders, removing the cottage garden perennials, which will be temporarily re-homed in a spare patch at my parents.

 

 

 

 

 

 

I took my credit card to the local garden centre, and came away with some shrubs - nothing exciting but selected so they at least contrast in leaf shape, texture or colour. Most are evergreen, because I will be relying on them to form the main structure/interest in this otherwise featureless garden. I came away with Cotinus ‘Grace’; Escallonia; Choysia Ternata ‘Sundance’ (two either side of the gate so the scent catches you as you walk past in the spring); Ecuba Japonica and Euonymous, a Dogwood and a Weigela. I can’t say I love them –they are the sort of shrubs you find in a carpark in Swindon (apart from the Cotinus – I have always loved them). However, they will do the job. If I really can’t live without colour, the perennials can be planted back in the summer, in-between the shrubs.

I tackled the raised beds in between us and our neighbour –which had gotten overgrown with tough ivy and weeds, and replanted with lavender, for summer colour and generally good weed control.

I then tackled the lawn. A long tenancy with a huge dog before us had left bare, scorched patches, there was a moss issue and vast swathes covered in weeds.
 

 

I dug out the worst weed patches, and firmed/raked the topsoil to form a seedbed. I raked all of the moss out of the lawn with a spring rake – my poor abdominals! And lastly, after a good soaking with the hose, I re-seeded with a tough grass seed mix.
 

 

It looks terrible now, I appreciate. But give it a fortnight, and there should be a carpet of fresh green shoots. A nice, neat lawn with sharp edges, weed free beds with nicely shaped shrubs and the finishing touch…my lovely box planters (a birthday present). If nothing else, it will be sharp and easy on the eye and most importantly I won’t want to die of shame every time I enter the house.