Barleycorn In The Dead Of Winter

My previous post was the last I was able to squeeze in before the few remaining, hectic days leading up to Christmas.
I knew my time would be more than occupied in preparing bedrooms, writing menus for the holiday period and buying sufficient food to fill the fridge and freezer.
To be fair, judging by the quantity, anyone could be forgiven for thinking we were expecting to feed the Five Thousand.
All the while we looked forward in anticipation to our family coming home to stay over the festive season.
Whenever our family are here at Barleycorn, my whole world revolves around them.

Occasionally, I am able to snatch a few moments during the day to reply to emails or comments from friends on my website.

More often than not, however, the days are spent in a frenzy of restless creativity.
Each meal is prepared with loving kindness, for the time we spend around the family table, sharing all the latest developments in each of our children’s lives, is more precious to me than words can say.
Our house is surrounded by the garden, which greets each member with a different view as we draw open the curtains from our own individual bedroom windows each morning.
The changing mood of the garden over the festive days was a wonder to behold.

Camera at the ready, we walked around the garden, marvelling at the feeling of seclusion it afforded when it was encompassed one day by freezing fog.
For several days, temperatures below zero created a Winter wonderland of frost crystals on the bare bones of the garden.
Sleepy silhouettes of trees whose branches had been dark brown the previous day, became stiff overnight, as if standing to attention, transformed to a pristine white.
Glaucous blue needles on the cedar glittered and shone, as if Jack Frost had scattered a dusting of icing sugar, with a wave of his magic wand.
Otherwise watery ponds turned to ice - below which one could make out the leaves of waterlilies frozen in time for the duration of the cold spell - across which, much to our amusement, the cats enjoyed a spot of skating.
From the frosted window panes of the barn hung frosted strands of silk, highlighting the intricacies and skills of amazing spiders’ webs.
Outside the patio windows the bird table groaned with nuts and seeds, sultanas and raisins, crusty breads and dried cat food, so beloved by our two broods of blackbirds.
On days when the temperature rose and became milder we awoke to a fine scattering of snow, making pretty Christmas card scenes around the garden.

Depending on how cold the temperature and how heavy the hoar frost, the colour of the sky across the field adjacent to the back garden changed from cerulean blue to one sporting a shade of violet tinged with a band of pink.
Though I was busy reclaiming my role as Head Chef for the holiday period, from my vantage point in the kitchen, I can look out of the back door across to the barn and across the garden to the frozen pond and the field beyond.
Each day, the changing moods of the garden here at Barleycorn never failed to lift my spirits and feed my soul, so much so, that my joy was complete, both from within and without my home.
xxxxxxx
Click on each photo to enlarge...and feel the chill!
xxxxxxx

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'Getting To know You...'

A few weeks ago I was tagged by Ewa to reveal eight random facts about myself. I promised her I would do the post when I felt able to, so here goes.
The rules when you are tagged are that you must…

1. Link to the person who tagged you.
2. Write your post.
3. Choose eight more people to tag.
I am at my happiest when I am being creative. Whether it is within the home or in the garden, or, previously in my profession as a primary, then nursery teacher, my life has been full of restless creativity.
1. As a young child at school I was introduced to the art of embroidery. I remember my teacher drawing a set of traffic lights and showing me how to do stem stitches, which I did in the shape of a circle to represent each traffic light, in shades of red, amber and green. It was to adorn a cover for my reading book. The edges were sewn together using blanket stitch. I loved that cover and used it for years.

2. Also, at school, we were taught how to knit a little scarf which had a loop where one end slipped through the other. It sat neatly around the neck, rather like a cravat. I remember choosing Angora wool as I loved the feel of it. Besides, the lady in the shop had intrigued me when she said it came from Angora rabbits, and, as I loved my pet rabbit, that was more than enough reason to have it.

3. For Christmas, when I was five years old, I received a little blackboard and easel and a packet of coloured chalks. My brother drew me little bunches of green holly with red berries around the edges. Then he drew a huge Santa on his sleigh in the middle. We spent countless happy hours taking turns to draw pictures on that blackboard. By watching my brother I learned how to sketch.
4. As well cooking scrumptious meals for her family every day, my mother also enjoyed baking several times a week. These skills were more like hobbies rather than duties, as she perfected them to an art form. When I left home to begin my first teaching post in London, my flatmate and I were at that stage in our lives - late teens - where we always felt hungry enough after work to eat a horse. That’s when my interest in baking and cooking really took off, and the rest, as they say, is history.
5. A few years ago, when I retired, I decided to learn how to do watercolour painting. I began by painting flowers growing in our garden at Barleycorn. That way I felt I was completing the circle, from the planting of the seed which germinated and grew into beautiful flowers, to their final representation in my painting.

6. When I began courses on portraiture, it was only a matter of time before I fancied trying my skills at sculpture. I went to a seminar where I was shown how to make a clay head which I later sprayed with bronze paint and placed in the garden. He was meant to represent the Eastern Sun God, as he faced east and took on a golden appearance as the sun glistened on him early in the morning. But, during one very cold spell in Winter, parts of his face fell off, which means I will need to make another one sometime.
7. Two years ago I was delighted to learn that I would be able to participate in a silk painting class. Many of the skills I learned in my watercolour classes are transferrable to silk painting, though the latter is an art form in its own right. After dabbling for a little while, I painted a design with two Chinese dragons on a square of silk, which became a pretty little scarf.
8. Though as a child I never enjoyed posing in front of the camera, as an adult I became very interested in photography. When our boys were small I used to have the camera ‘at the ready’ to capture those ‘first moments’ in their lives. This September, when we were in China to celebrate the Tea Ceremony and Banquet of our elder son and his wife, I took a video using a camcorder, bought especially for their Oriental wedding. It was the first time I had ever used one. Though there was very little skill attached, basically a question of pointing it in the right direction, it is still a record of the happy occasion.
The beauty of learning these skills over a lifetime is passing them on to others, whether they be adults or children. The old adage rings true every time. If we don’t use our skills, we lose our skills, so we are duty-bound to share them.
The beauty of all things lives in the soul of the person who observes them.
xxxxxxx

Since everyone is so busy with preparations for the Christmas Season, I will refrain from naming eight people to be tagged, and open it up to anyone who would like to participate.

xxxxxxx

For the latest Barleycorn photos click here

Barleycorn - Paradise For This Snail!

This is one of many stories
told by St. Francis to his followers
and it goes something like this . . .
The very first animal to appear
at the gates of heaven
was the snail.
St. Peter bent forward
tapping the snail with his staff,
and asked,
"What are you looking for here
my fine little snail?"
"Immortality" the snail answered politely.

Peter howled with laughter.
"Immortality! And just what
do you plan to do with immortality?"
''Don't laugh,' the snail countered.
"Aren't I one of God's creatures?
"Aren't I a son of God just like the Archangel Michael?
Archangel Snail,
that's who I am"
"Where are your wings of gold,
your scimitar,
the scarlet sandals
betokening your regality?"
Peter replied.
''Inside me,
asleep and waiting."
"Waiting for what?"
"Waiting for the Great Moment,"
replied the snail.
"What Great Moment?"
"This one now!"
said the snail.
And before he had finished saying 'Now'
he took a great leap as though
he had sprouted wings,
and he entered paradise. . .
St. Francis finished
by saying to his followers
"Do you understand?
We are just like Brother Snail.
Within us are the wings,
the scimitar and the royal sandals.
If we want to enter Paradise
we can at any moment.
We must simply want it
more than anything else
and we must be willing to take the leap . . . jump!"

*******

To view the latest blooms at Barleycorn, click here.

To view the latest painting, click here.

I Garden, Therefore I Am

Ode To Autumn
Seasons of mists and mellow fruitfulness,
Close bosom-friend of the maturing sun;
Conspiring with him how to load and bless
With fruit the vines that round the thatch-eaves run
John Keats
Autumn is a second spring when every leaf is a flower.
Albert Camus
Autumn, the year’s last, loveliest smile.
William Cullen Bryant
Every leaf speaks bliss to me,
fluttering from the autumn tree.
Emily Bronte
Almost any garden, if you see it at just the right moment, can be confused with paradise. Henry Mitchell
There can be no other occupation like gardening in which, if you were to creep up behind someone at their work, you would find them smiling. Mirabel Osler
The lesson I have thoroughly learnt, and wish to pass on to others, is to know the enduring happiness that the love of a garden gives. Gertrude Jekyll
He who is born with a silver spoon in his mouth is generally considered a fortunate person, but his good fortune is small compared to that of the happy mortal who enters this world with a passion for flowers in his soul. Celia Thaxter
The love of gardening is a seed once sown that never dies. Gertrude Jekyll
Nature is painting for us, day after day, pictures of infinite beauty if only we have the eyes to see them. John Ruskin

In my garden there is a large place for sentiment. My garden of flowers is also my garden of thoughts and dreams. The thoughts grow as freely as the flowers, and the dreams are as beautiful. Abram L. Urban
I believe that gardens themselves are very healing. To be surrounded by the exquisite beauty of nature is to experience a healing of the soul. author unknown
Yes, in the poor man's garden grow
Far more than herbs and flowers-
Kind thoughts, contentment, peace of mind,
And joy for weary hours. author unknown
We come from the earth, we return to the earth, and in between we garden.
The garden is a mirror of the heart.