Autumn is in evidence but so too other seasons in the buds, flowers and new growth aplenty. So far we have had a few chilly days and a deal of rain but as to the usual autumn storms and constant grey cloud days, no. In fact the night time temperatures have often been higher than the day time norm which is very strange.
The garden is bursting forth with the kind of gusto that seems to ignore the fact of the probablility of frost and worse and I wonder what life will be damaged beyond repair in what must come but for the time being I am thankful for the interludes of dry moments and even though the garden is still very much a mud bath at best and a quagmire in many instances I have been enjoying beginning the work on the new design of the garden or should I say I am pleased to have at last made a start but will admit that the ability to actually move after I stop working is somewhat of a puzzle to a skeleton that is so focused on shouting very loudly its distatse of the activity that it kind of refuses to move from any position taken for more than a few minutes but all hail the combination of coffe ad medication, the effect doesn't last very long but gives me a small opportunity to manage to get work clothes off and wash muddy body before finding myself stuck in the armchair again:0)
The round bed is now based more on an eliptical shape with dissections which I hope will eventually give it a sense of something organic like flower petals but a long way to go yet. However, come spring I am committed to have walls built, pathways made and planting schedule worked out....note I have not actually said which spring:0) The design is evolving as I work, slide and land unceremoniously on my bottom in the mud, much to the delight of RnB, and that seems a good process as each step and slip feed into the reality and the possibility that I am designing the 'new' garden for.
I want my garden to continue to be a place to sit and think to catch my breath, to laugh eat and share conversation and to offer gifts of sight, sound, scent and touch but know that the level I will be able to work out there over coming days will diminish as certainly as the sun rises each morning so wish what I am able to offer to be as positive, to the Earth that has given it to me, as possible.
The Earth shares its bounty so freely that this is my map and guidbook so I work towards the garden being more a place that offers me possibility of bottling, baking, drying and cooking the ingredients it helps me harvest and sharing them with others.
A few hundred steps to take before I get to that point but first steps have been made with the shape of the new bed marked out and posts begun to be hammered into their place along this marked boundary. Using whatever I have around the garden and cottage as materials means that the design will certainly be all my own:0) The glass tiles will be joined by a variety of other found and given elements plus a few actually bought ones but they are definitely in the minority so should be fun if I can just stop my wellies filling up with mud! I have this picture in my head and even some sketches on paper just the small matter of transforming them into walls, beds and paths.
As this month trundles on and November's New Year fast approaches it feels good to find myself in a place both personally and environmentally where I feel I am at a beginning supported by much that has been in place through infinity which in moments I feel the graze of on my heart and impetus on my heart.
Certainly a time of moving forward but also a time for moving further within to find reflection of the meaning I discover as my hands touch the Earth and endeavour to honour the discovery by creating a garden that smiles with the suns rising and rests gently in the moons light.
A garden of rays of sun beams of moon and a human heart often perplexed always seeking and terminally hopeful. Of beacons, benches, blessings, beauty, bounty, beginnings what more could I hope for except wish to fulfil the promise offered by making my own garden a gift to the Earth even as it gifts it to me.
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