Sunday 10 April 2011

A Picture Book Week in Spring



Do you sometimes have a run of really good days?

As weeks go, I wish last week could last a little longer, or come back for a repeat performance. Lots of inviting sunshine made for a happy disposition and tempted me to spend lots of time walking and gardening; several pleasant social and cultural occasions  added a little spice to my usually quite humdrum existence and blogging became a pleasure again.

It all started with another birthday party, a celebration of 90 years of music and adventure. This is Bert, a bassist and tuba player, who even now, at 90, performs with local amateur groups. Bert's always been a bit of a ladies' man; he still has his groupies who collect him at home, carry his instruments for him and take him to the venue in their cars. Several ladies at the party were having a good-natured discussion about their relative rank in the pecking order of Bert's affections.  If this is what 90 can be like, why would anyone be afraid of getting old?



The subject for last week's poetry group meeting was 'Quodlibet',  i.e. bring your favourite poems. I always find it difficult to choose a favourite anything, be it film, poem, music, etc. I'm one of these unimaginative people who need to be 'told', who need instructions, guide-lines; given free rein, I dither and find it very hard to make up my mind.




On the gloriously sunny morning of the day of the poetry meeting, Benno and I went up into Sowdley Woods, a wild area full of fallen trees, a brook and the small lake it forms at the bottom of the hill, overgrown rhododendron thickets, and an incongruous plantation of giant redwood in the snowdrop wood, which a long dead owner of the small manor house, where John Osborne used to live and which is now owned by the Arvon Foundation, must have thought a suitable addition to an English wood. The manor is used as a writers' retreat and residential  creative writing centre. I'd still not made up my mind  which poems to take in the evening when I found several of the birches in the same plantation above 'The Hurst' (the name of the house) had white sheets of paper attached to them. Surely not warnings that "Trespassers will be prosecuted" ? I thought. Far from it. I had found poems pinned to trees! Answers to my prayers! Could anything have been more serendipitous?

Gerald Manley Hopkins' 'Inversnaid'. was one of them:

It starts:

This darksome burn, horseback brown,
His rollrock high road roaring down,
In coop and in comb the fleece of his foam
Flutes and low to the lake falls home.

suitable for the place and suitable for me.


A last minute concert added to the week's  stand-out nature. Beloved met a friend on his way to fetch the newspaper who asked if we we were going to the concert given by the Mid Wales Chamber Orchestra Soloists in Newtown, over in Wales. We hadn't even heard of it. Tickets were still available, the friend very kindly gave us a lift and we enjoyed a varied and excellently played performance.










All that and a wonderful day's gardening to end the week.  Gardener came yesterday and we dug up, divided and replanted many of the overgrown clumps of herbaceous plants like phlox, campanulas, geraniums and several grasses.



This morning I took my second cup of breakfast tea out into the garden and admired the fruits of yesterday's labour.  These neat, small clumps of plants will soon shoot up and fill the tidy brown earth around them, lean into each other and jostle for space. I can't wait.



"Spring's messenger in every spot
Smiling on all - Forget-me not"

John Clare


These patches of forget-me-nots appear all over the garden at this time of year. Some people barely tolerate them for being self-seeded and slightly vulgar, but I welcome them. They are such friendly and accommodating little plants, their modest pale blue flowers light up dark and bright corners alike and when their day has gone, they give in very graciously and leave without complaint.

36 comments:

  1. friko - this is a post i'll come back to for a while. rich and luscious worlds within worlds and the most extraordinary pictures of those little worlds. i laughed at the forget-me-nots. i let anything with the courage and grace that wishes to grow and flower in my little part of the world have its way also!!! thanks for this. i wish you many more lovely weeks like this one just past. steven

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  2. Oh, those fields! What a perfect "English countryside" photo!

    Forget-me-nots: I don't know how anybody could dislike a plant that takes care of itself!

    How'd you like splitting up that phlox? Did you need an axe?

    Your garden is so beautiful . . . it makes me think of Berkshire Botanical Garden!
    http://www.berkshirebotanical.org/

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  3. If that first picture is where you live, you're certainly in a gorgeous space and I am duly envious.

    I like plants that take care of themselves since I don't seem too capable in that department. Forget me nots are pretty whether or not they self-seed. Anyway, that seems a silly way to gauge the worth of a plant.

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  4. This post gave me such pleasure to read and absorb, not to mention the wonderful pictures to feast on. Can you feel my smile? You are responsible for it, with this I begin my Sunday, and it's so much better for having had YOU to help me have the right approach! Wishes for many more weeks like this to you, dear Friko.

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  5. You have described the life that so many covet: English countryside, a brook, a lake, a walk with a beloved companion, poems hanging off trees!!!, concerts, social connections, productive work in the garden, a gardner to help with the work in the garden, aged examples, a second morning cup of tea, and the dear forget-me-nots who in demonstrating to us how to live, are not forgotten.

    Thank you Friko. You have lifted my spirits!

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  6. Your life is warm and generous, filled with green hills, chamber music, prickly pines with notes attached, spring growth and friendship. It's delightful to read your posts.

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  7. Now that was a lovely week, for sure. Finding poems pinned to trees was a lovely surprise!

    And your garden is beautiful!

    I'm putting in an order for an equally beautiful week ahead for you, Friko! :)

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  8. well, I had a long comment written up and blogger whisked it away to never never land.

    your garden looks wonderful. I love forget-me-nots and have tried several times to get them established. I guess our summers are too hot and dry. after nearly four years (well just one year of full residence really, the other three we spent going back and forth, half the week here, half the week there) I'm finally starting to transform the country yard. I've put in four new areas and am finally starting to bring my gingers and other plants from the city house. the former owners had gardens of roses, yellow bells and day lilies which I am also working on.

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  9. If this is what 90 can be like, why would anyone be afraid of getting old? I'm going to try to remember this.

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  10. What a week this has been for you. Little wonder you're calling Encore! Encore!

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  11. i am green with envy...what a wonderful couple days you are having...and so beautiful...

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  12. I enjoyed reading your post and looking at your beautiful flowers, but at the same time it made me sad. I see that you live in this small town and you have opportunities to walk in woods ”with overgrown rhododendron thickets, and an incongruous plantation of giant redwood” which have been kept for people to enjoy. There were some woods we went to but we just found out that the land has been sold to build another subdivision – here in the US money has always been more important than woods and rhododendrons… more important than the arts too. For example the greater Atlanta area has 5.5 million people and in Atlanta there is only one art museum and it is not that big. We are cutting aid to the art as not being of much value (views endorsed by the public by their votes.) I just watched news on television and saw that most of the talks were on money. Now I see there are even several blogs who use their blogs to sell items, services or crafts. I am demoralized and need another trip to get away from all this… away where I can hear more about flowers and art and less about money.

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  13. We continue to be inspired by your posts! Thanks! Love from Penticton...

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  14. I hope your wonderful week spills over and continues into the next.

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  15. A perfect English spring - absolutely delightful:-)
    Our forget-me-nots are slowly increasing year by year but they have a long way to go to catch up with the violets that are everywhere, to my great delight!

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  16. Forget-me-nots -Dad's favourite and I love them too. A lovely cheerful post - glad you had a good week. This sunshine just lifts everyone's spirits doesn't it.

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  17. Lovely photos and your last paragraph brought tears to me eyes.

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  18. Hi Friko beautiful spring garden and woods shots: I am consumed with envy. Come across to Living in Exile where you will see my little garden and the er, landscape ...

    A lovely post.

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  19. What a satisfying post for your readers - at least for this one.
    I wouldn't know what to say if asked for a favorite poem. I'd be likely to choose one and then quickly change my mind on hearing the choices of others.
    Your garden is looking very pretty. I like the forget-me-nots. I allow them to run rampant for their short lives, as their exuberant blooms are so satisfying after a long, grey and brown winter.

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  20. Friko, what a wonderful uplifting post. Where to start? My mom always had 'forget-me-nots' in her garden. Every year she would walk along the path and say, "Now what is that flower, I forgot" After a while (several years, ) we began to grow suspiciaous that she was teasing us. To this day, when I see them, I think of her.

    Isn't it wonderful to get out into the garden with a cup of tea in the morning, and admire yesterday's work? Thanks for the photos of your garden. I love garden photos. My helper is a 16-year old granddaughter named Hosanna Joy, and she is a true Joy.

    I showed David your photo of Bert. As D. is almost 82, he has something to aspire to. Bert looks like my granddad who lived to 94. Oh to be in England. I love to make pilgrimages to author's homes, here or there. Dianne

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  21. Oh this post. Every photo is delicious. The first and last are like the best wine, brought to the guests at the start of the visit, and another great one saved for the end. And redwoods! I had no idea you had them there. Well someone had an interesting thought.

    Bert can add me to his litany of admirers. I wonder where I rank?

    This page is so full of spring warmth and joy. It is a mighty fine start to my week.

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  22. Friko, your last paragraph is heart touching. I love those little blue forget-me-nots. I love their tenacity, the joyful sparkle of starlike color they share. I pray that when my Day has gone, I give in very graciously and leave without complaint. Friko, you are a wonder to me. Such lushness in you beautiful photography.

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  23. Put the tea on because I am packing my bags. YOu had me at photo #1!

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  24. What a lovely week you've had. I would say, would you please send some of that sunshine over here, but I know that you don't get so much of it, so I won't ask. Instead, I'm grateful to get the glow of it vicariously through your cheering post!

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  25. You have a wonderful garden. How pleasant it must be to have completed the work and to see such grand results! My garden is in need of a gardener too. Soon and very soon I'm hoping to have accomplished the same! Have a grand week! Cathy

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  26. Your first image of the fields - so beautifully balanced - in harmony with the balanced days you have described...

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  27. You have just described the England that I was brought up to believe happened all the time ...spring, beauty, great gatherings, interesting, family and friends. You have had a wonderful week and I always love seeing photos of your part of the world.

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  28. Hello Friko!

    Thank you so much for popping over to my blog and for the lovely comment you left. Always much appreciated :)

    I am very impressed by your blog. So much thought and creativity here and such delightful photographs, poetry, quotes and little peeks into your life. Your garden looks truly beautiful! I absolutely love blue flowers in a garden and wish I, too, could have swathes of forget-me-nots, but my garden is too densely committed after 28 years in the making. Too many roots and tangled ground covers, so I rely on pots to add new interest and colour.

    I am looking forward to visiting you regularly!
    Lovely to have met you!

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  29. wahrlich, das scheint ein schönes Wochenende gewesen zu sein! Du wirst Dich jeden Tag freuen, wenn Du Deinen Garten anblickst?! Er ist wunderschön!!!

    Dir einen schönen sonnigen Tag, liebe Friko!

    Renée

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  30. Friko, I have been more than remiss in checking out your blog, but all in is proper time, I suppose. I am enamored of all you share here, that opening photo is simply beautiful. I could live inside it. Your words, after reading several posts, reach me where I'm at right now. I cannot simply segregate a few sentences or even paragraphs. They all speak to me. I have to say, the poems on the trees is my favorite part, the Universe in action when we are open to hearing what it has to say, seeing what it has to show us. You are obviously very open to Life in all its beauty. What a treat this has been. I will be back, often.

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  31. Gently rolling hills are such a treat to see . Wherever I cycle here , it's the same vivid green but flat , flat , flat .Not nearly so cheering .
    Your week sounds very satisfying !

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  32. SO glad the sprite of Spring is afoot in your precincts, dear Friko. You show & tell the soul's beauty and endear yourself deeper, my friend.


    Bert should be our model as well.


    Warm Aloha from Waikiki


    Comfort Spiral

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  33. I thoroughly enjoyed this post; it was like being able to share, just a little, in your perfect week. Lucky Bert, to be so alive at age 90, and I must add that your garden is beautiful!

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  34. Glorious! It is only Tuesday here and with your help I have already had a wonderful week, too. Beautiful countryside, garden, plus words and sound for the soul And to top all my enjoyment off, learning that such a gifted writer in such a beautiful setting can still be a ditherer.

    I have always called myself FIRMLY wishy-washy. But after reading your post, perhaps it is that we ditherers enjoy so many things so intensely that having one favorite seems unappreciative. . . except in the category of the beloved one, of course!

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  35. Your very first photo is breathtaking, a dream. What a wonderfully charming post - I really enjoyed it.

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  36. Wonderful photos, full of light. Lovely forget-me-knots..... how I love them too.

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