Full of Promise

At the end of last year we moved house from our little country cottage to a big country cottage! It's been exhausting getting everything sorted with the house and settling the children into their new schools. I've been rather daunted by the epic proportions of our new garden which hasn't been helped by the long, dark, cold winter.

It's amazing what a bit of sunshine does for the spirit, though and yesterday morning I wandered round our garden in my pyjamas, with a steaming cup of tea, in a delirious state of happiness! The blue sky was the perfect back drop for buds just waiting to burst and the trees were full of birds singing their hearts out.

Swathes of Snowdrops carpet the woodland floor which is damp and woody smelling. With the risk of sounding like a bit of a ponce, it reminds me of the first verse of the 'Promise of Spring' poem by Edith Nesbit.

'JUST a whisper, half-heard, But our heart knows the word; Caresses that seem Like love's lips in a dream; Yet we know she is here, The desirèd, the dear, The love of the year! 

In the murmur of boughs, In the softening of skies, In the sun on the house, In the daffodil's green (Half an inch, half-unseen Mid the mournful brown mould, Where the rotten leaf lies) Her story is told.'

I love that bit 'Just a whisper, half heard...' it is so true for this time of year when there are only glimses of promise. ..

Ok, so the ponds currently look like The Somme, but we do have lots of green daffs in our mini orchard...and a lot of mouldy, brown leaves...

This is the wonderful view of the Kilcott Valley which runs along the length of our garden.

Hedgehog Rescue!

 

 Above is a little bunch of roses from our garden to thank the lovely Mary for all her good work helping our one eyed, resident hedgehog, Nelson. My neighbour and I kept spotting him wandering around in the day which is a sure sign that things are not good. I spoke to Mary and she said that it can mean that the hedgehog can't consume enough through the night. Nelson looked very thin and small and had a rather nasty looking lump in his eye. We managed to catch him and, with the help of three excitable children, took him to the hedgehog hospital!

He's been there of six weeks, had his eye treated and was fed up (with food, not bored!). He he is on his return!!

Isn't he beautiful? We put him in the hedgehog house with a mountain of mealworms... Sometimes we hear him snuffling about in the evening if we wander about in our garden which is nice. Just call me Kate Humble.

Nelson's bijoux residence....

Walking in Avebury

Our lives have been incredibly busy lately. A combination of this and a substandard internet connection have resulted in a forced stay-cation from Blogsville. However, I'm now back with a camera full of creativity just waiting to be uploaded...

Our work load over the last few months has been relentless. Mr Inky and myself are exhausted both physically and mentally from all the stuff we've had going on. More about that in another post...this one is all about a lovely, rejuvenating day out yesterday at the neolithic stone circle, Avebury.

We come here a lot as it's not too far from where we live. We don't profess to be druids but you really can feel a wondrous sense of calm and well being here even when there are masses of people (and sheep) wandering and wondering along side you. We come here when we are unsettled and facing change and the solid, ancientness of these stones seem to ground us.

The undulating landscape is lovely and very inspiring for an arty bod like myself. I love the colours in this picture...the yellow cornfield against the blue sky and green grass...

The stones form huge circles and inner circles which are enclosed by deep ditches and high, chalky banks which are great for running along, the only risk is sustaining an embarassing injury from slipping on a fresh sheep poo (there is rather a lot).

 
This path leads to a monumental collection of 'Lord of the Rings' type trees which were very mythical looking.

When we arrived there we saw a lady chanting a spell by one of the trees and a mother and son whispering words of prayer. We felt that we needed to be quiet and respectful here like when we visit a church or stately home. These beautiful trees certainly commanded the same respect. The ribbons hanging from the branches are peoples wishes...

Under the trees was a man playing the billabong. It was a welcome a soundtrack.

The little girl tied a ribbon onto one of the roots...

...and wished that she would grow fairy wings.

I wonder what these wishes are?

 This one is my secret, yellow wish..

Some wishes were more permanent...The, somewhat, raging Pagan in me tells me that this is tree abuse, the typographer, however, says it could be art...

...talking of art, these knarly roots are are a joy to behold, never ending, interlocking...

Imagine seeing huge, protruding stones when you open your bedroom curtains!

Not a rain cloud in sight... we enter another week fully refreshed!

Weekend Sunshine

The sun shone all weekend and gave me a little spring in my step...boing!

It seems, as I'm getting older, that the change in seasons affects me more intensely. I do love the change from autumn into winter, relishing a crackling fire and a dark evening, as much as when spring bursts forth. However lovely it is, though, warming my toes by the fire and all that, there is a low point at the end of February when I've really have had enough. I'm so fed up with wet, dark, grey weekends and a house full of children who don't want to go outside because it's too wet or cold or....dark!

My barren garden looks quite lovely in the winter as it's full of teasles and birds but it looks even more beautiful in the summer when it burst with flowers...and nettles, brambles, ground elder etc!

Two beautiful crisp days this weekend lifted everyone in our household and reminded us that the most wonderful thing about living in the countryside is being outside and the freedom of all the outside space we have by our house.

We have two huge gardens which wrap themselves around our home, doubley enclosed with a network of ancient yew trees...like a big hug. In the winter the garden seems to turn into a huge muddy moat, a defence between our house and the car park, calling small children to muddy their lovely clean school clothes. In the summer it is like entering a secret, magical place which calls kids to climb it's trees, make dens and have and adventure. It makes adults stop, smile, relax, wander and feel a whole lot better about their own gardens (because they have a lot less weeds!)

Wandering around our sunny, winter garden, stripped back to it's bare bones, made me realise what I love about living where I do and what I'll miss when we move away....

I love the bubbled stain glass of my front door against the rough oak pillars of the porch, the washed out distressed iron water butt against the cream cotswold stone walls and the woven willow....

I love all the textures, contrasts between rough and smooth, old and new, man made and natural.

Old enamel lettering, partly rusted looks lovely and provides an interesting contrast to the plants and trees.

I love the colour of rust...I bought this piece of iron from a car boot sale when I was very heavily pregnant and then dragged it back to my car!

Roll on spring!

Geocaching Adventure

Every Sunday Mr Wild Ink and I suggest to the children that we go on a lovely, long, rambling walk. It's a great thing to do as a family because we talk, giggle, jump in a few muddy puddles and get back home feeling like we truly deserve a hot chocolate/cup of tea/biccy/DVD etc. Recently our suggestion of a Sunday ramble has been met, not with enthusiasm, but a whole load of moans and groans. The whining continues throughout the WHOLE walk making it not a thing of pleasure but a miserable chore for everyone.

I felt that our local walks needed an injection of something new and exciting and I'd read about 'geocaching' in a newspaper article a few years ago. It's basically an international treasure hunt with a huge following. All round the world 'caches' have been hidden ready and waiting to be found.

After logging on to the site and registering for free we were delighted to find that loads of caches were hidden along the footpaths near where we live. We downloaded the app on my phone and followed the GPS reading which helped to navigate us to the caches.

After a longish walk, our GPS told us that we had indeed hit the spot so the children began searching high and low. We looked under big stones, piles of sticks and then the big boy spotted this in a rotten old gate post.....

It was a 'nano' cache!!!! The children were so excited (as were the adults!!). 

We unscrewed the lid and wrote our details on the log ......then replaced it where we found it ready for the next geocacher to discover.

We marked it on the app as having found it then searched online for the next nearest cache which we found in no time. This proved to be even more exciting as it have little things to swap in it (the website has suggested you bring with you a few nic-nacs). The kids chose a badge, we left some marbles for the next intrepid explorer, logged it as found then searched for the next one...

...and found it! This was an even bigger cache and the children were quite beside themselves with excitment. The brilliant thing is that all these exciting boxes are all over the place but unless you're 'in the know' you would never be able to find them. We felt like we were part of a secret and elite club!

Loads of interesting things in this one!

We logged it and left feeling very excited and quite addicted!!

Fortified by some chewy sweets found in my ancient raincoat (no GPS required), we set off home feeling like we'd had a proper adventure and had, without a doubt, earned our hot chocolates! x

Halloween Pumpkins

The newest addition to our leaf and bike strewn garden are these fetching fellows. I'm a bit 'bah humbug' about the over commercialisation of 'events' like halloween but there's a little bit of pagan deep in my soul which loves the celebration of a season change. We visit The National Arboretum at Westonbirt a couple of times a week and the smell of the muddy, wet leaves as well as the astounding colours at the moment are a wonderful assault on the senses!
Our Halloween this year was spent wandering, several times, around our little village with a small, half-naked pumpkin (she refused to wear the matching tights), an SAS soldier-come-schoolboy, and a 'dead' school girl who had real pencils sticking out of her face stuck on with special FX wax and fake blood!!!! We have no street lighting where we live so it is always exciting and we usually come across a few other ghouls and ghosties! I do love seeing all the carved pumpkins, they make me smile.

Autumness

There's that lovely whiff of autumn in the air. A damp, golden chilliness which is so beautiful until it turns muddy and wet (incidentally the muddy wetness ends up being dragged across our kitchen floor when a child crosses the threshold).
This half term we fully intend to mark it with pumpkin soup, spooky cakes, kite flying and general chaos.
So far we have enjoyed visiting the Arboretum at Westonbirt and collected acorns and pinecones and bags full of leaves. The children have been digging up lost potaoes and carrots in the veg patch and cooking them on homemade campfires.

Pictures from Italy