It's chilly in the mornings and we've been lighting a fire in the evenings of late. The garden is past its peak and it feels autumnal out there. Cutting back has started in earnest.

But....I must ask my friend Frances why she so looks forward to autumn and see if I can feel less melancholy about it.

The sedum, asters, rudbeckias phlox and helianthus are yet to come, and the spotted foliage of pulmonarias, and pretty shawls of alchemilla, both cut back hard a month or so ago, look fresh and attractive. The tiny apples on malus Golden Hornet have still to turn golden.

The show's not quite over yet - till the fat lady sings!

(What does  that mean, exactly?)

My pots are not as impressive as Harlow Carr's!

I tried to do them in blues this year.

Successful were the lobelia both dark and light, much underrated plants I think. Also a success though a bit thin and weedy at first, were the annual nemophila - baby blue eyes - the flowers are of such a stunning, almost turquoise blue that they are worth having. Succesful too were the delphiniums but they are fragile and do need staking. I painted the canes with blue paint, but it washed off in the rain!

A failure - the 'Sky Blue' petunias. Firstly they are not sky blue but distinctly lilac and they don't stand up to any rain at all, but worse, they die horribly, leaving a sticky grey mess. I won't use them again.

However I'll consider it a trial run for next year, when I will use all but the petunias again, looking out for better performing ones or using lime green ones for a light touch - all blue can be a bit sombre.

I'll start the nemophila menzii early in the greenhouse, and will add some dwarf cornflowers, find a better paint for the canes for the delphiniums, and blue string to tie them up with....



Gardeners are nothing if not optimists, don't you think?

Pots with panache!

Aren't these magnificent?
 
The simplicity and the generous proportions are what makes these look so stunning.

They are at Harlow Carr in North Yorkshire -  so glad you found them inspirational too Lucy. (see comments 27 August).

The new curator and head gardener there is Elizabeth Balmforth, only 34 years old, and the first woman to head an RHS garden. She trained with the National Trust at Beningbrough Hall (I worked there too, but not at the same time.)

                                        White cosmos and cleome. 

                                                           It pays to be bold....         
                  
                                                           And simple.

Amateur Gardening magazine featured our garden this week - a five page spread!

Andrea Jones, who took the photographs for Scotland's Gardens Scheme and for Coast magazine, and who came second in the International Garden Photographer of the Year for 2011(see 6 May 2011) organised this and although it is a bit early, it's good publicity for the Shore Gardens opening under the SGS - 23rd and 24th June 2012.

Preparation starts now ...


I mentioned in the article that I am looking for a tree with very red apples to plant beside the very red gate. Thank you to Daphne from Buckinghamshire who got in touch to suggest 'Red Devil' which I will plant this autumn. 

On my recent trip to York I realised that I got most pleasure from things which were done well. Like noticing someone early in the morning washing and polishing the outside of the jeweller's shop in High Petergate until it sparkled as much as the diamonds in the window, or eating in a simple but spotless cafe, or having tea in Betty's where everything is done to such a high standard, as standard . Having a modest purchase carefully wrapped. Enjoying the beautifully maintained gardens at Harlow Carr.

I've come home with the attitude of giving even the simplest things just a little more effort. This is not to give myself a hard time in a must-try-harder way, but to feel the simple pleasure of a job well done.

I set to in the garden today to finish each job I started, to do it well, and clear up when I had finished.

Strangely satisfying....and very easy really..

Try it today, with just one task. And if you too find it satisfying do it with two tasks tomorrow.

 




I fell in love. With this hat. Waited (im)patiently, and sure enough they reduced the price, from £45 to £12! Hurrah! I am so often lucky in sales.

The brim was huge, and would have looked fabulous on someone 5 foot 10 inches tall, so I started to unpick it, thinking it would take an age - but it unravelled beautifully and I kept going until I felt the brim was more in proportion to my 5 feet 0 inches - looks like spaghetti!

                                          Am now all set for that wedding....

Oops, sorry, I missed yesterday! Too busy getting ready for another short trip. This year has turned out to be the year of catching up with old friends, and I am so enjoying it...cards and phone calls and e mails are great, but as I've said of  music and paintings, there is nothing like the real thing.

I leave you with some more poppies - could one ever tire of such beauty? And a tip for making them last longer in water:-

Burn the ends of the stems with a match as soon as you have picked them. I wonder who thought this up? Notorious for dropping their petals within hours, poppies will last a few days in a vase this way. Until I get back possibly....

 I had one of those 'laugh and go' moments (see 12 July 2011) and went with my after dinner coffee down to the shore....

Is it possible do you think?

On April 19 this year I wrote that I sometimes wondered if all this clearing of stuff was, perhaps subconsciously, preparing me to make changes in my life.

Julie Morgenstern in her book Shed Your Stuff and Change Your Life  asks quite an interesting question - 'Who are you without your stuff?'

Interestingly by 'stuff' she means not just material goods, but unfinished projects, to-do items, and unfulfilled obligations. By shedding a lot of this, she says, you can gain clarity and energy to move forward to a new place in your life. She describes it as freeing, fuelling and liberating. I'm beginning to feel some of that the more I get rid of things.

And Roy Strong's assertion that you should do something completely new every ten years keeps drifting into mind.

I wonder....

Another photo from yesterday's walk. My first thought was 'How beautiful', followed by 'but not yet!'

I always do want summer to last a bit longer, don't you?





I posted a similar sentiment, and leaf, on 11 August last year ....

                                   On my walk today I was reminded of Robert Frost's poem The Road Not Taken.  

                                                             Two roads diverged in a wood, and I..
                                                              I took the one less travelled by

                                                   Are you drawn to the road less travelled? I think I often am...

Our village flower show is very popular. No, I didn't win any prizes! (I'm a judge....).  Love it.

I Googled 'Good Deeds' and found more than 3 million results. A lot of sites with names like Do A Good Deed A Day and Random Acts of Kindness, sites where you can post your good deeds, and, strangely, a chiropractor and numerous dentists offering prizes for doing good deeds!! (A computer and/or free braces..) Chiropractors? Dentists?

And I thought you were meant to expect nothing in return!

Well, that's what I was told..

This is getting too complicated - I think I'll just keep it simple and keep my good deeds to myself.


Charles Lamb 1775 - 1834

'The greatest pleasure I know is to do a good action by stealth, and to have it found out by accident.'

I don't have much under this category, do I? Does this mean I don't do many good deeds?
 
Or does it mean I am modest about them as we were taught to be when we were young!

I pick up litter from the shore path - does that count? But I am actually having difficulty thinking of other recent good deeds. I guess a good deed is something over and above ordinary kindness and neighbourliness. It's going that extra mile - for someone else. Or perhaps being gracious about doing something you don't really want to do. Or putting someone else's need before your own?

I'm not quite sure what a good deed is really....

This is taking 'grow your own' to new lengths for us!

We recently cut down some birch trees and stacked the wood to burn on the stove. (It made us realise how much land we would need if were to try to grow all our own fuel.) We live in a forested area and soft woods are abundant, but the slower growing, better burning hard woods are quite difficult to come by.

There is something very satisfying, both visually and emotionally, about a nice woodpile.

I'm going through Leo Babatua's recommendations on living simply (see 25 March 2011).

He says 'Go car lite. Do things at home or in your neighbourhood much of the time'.

I'm lucky to live somewhere with wonderful walks and wildlife, so it's no hardship to stay at home. I also work from home so don't need to use the car much.

For early 21C living this is quite simple I guess - no commuting, diesel fumes, traffic jams, parking tickets, road rage....(it's also a 30 mile round trip to the shops!)

But I do need a bit of city buzz now and then. We have great public transport with the kind of friendly bus drivers who drop you at your door, not the nearest bus stop. Two buses and a ferry - it's a bit of a trek, but it also provides me with thinking time, and writing time.

To go to a concert in the city we have to use the car, and have still had to leave during an encore occasionally to catch the last ferry....and if the ferry is not running (gale force 8) it's a long dark drive home, over the dramatic and beautifully named 'Rest and Be Thankful' pass.

When I planted the wigwams up with sweet peas, two to each cane, I scattered some Shirley poppy seed in the centre, not sure whether the poppies would get enough light to flower. They've grown to nearly five feet to reach the light and look wonderful with sweet pea Gwendoline, one of the strongest scented I have found. Simply gorgeous..

Looking at www.ted.com is a bit like using a dictionary - you go to look up one word, which leads you to another, which leads you to....

I found Are Mushrooms The New Plastic?   Mushrooms as biodegradable packaging - fascinating See it at www.ted.com/talks/ and look for Eben Bayer - young, bright, enthusiastic and optimistic about the future. Yes! 

'Our earth produces enough resources to meet all of our needs, but it does not produce enough resources to meet all of our wants.' says Joshua Becker in his blog post '10 reasons to escape excessive consumption' at www.becomingminimalist.com

Apparently Ed Miliband's holiday reading includes Prosperity Without Growth  by Tim Jackson  - I think I'll join him. I've always wanted to understand how/if we can deal with what Keynes called 'the paradox of thrift'. I wonder if there are any answers here....


Tim Jackson's 20 minute TED talk is interesting. More philosophy than hard economics.  Click here www.ted.com/talks/ and look for Tim Jackson's Economic Reality Check. 

The photo of the delphiniums in front of the painting looks like a painting itself....must find a new canvas..

I browsed some websites about modern food last night - there is some scaaary stuff out there, and it doesn't do to believe all you read on the internet!

I like to eat mainly meat, fish, eggs, vegetables, yoghurt, olive oil, butter, brown rice, wine and chocolate.

To eat better, and safely, I plan to tip the balance towards grass fed meat, wild fish, free range eggs, organic vegetables, live yoghurt, virgin olive oil, butter from grass fed cows, brown rice, red wine, and 80% cocoa solid chocolate. (With the odd bit of Cadbury's Dairy Milk, let's not be too purist here....)

Shopping still isn't simple, is it? I won't manage all of these all of the time, but I'll get them when I can and keep looking.

Nor is it cheap. But what price health? I'd rather eat moderate amounts of real, good food and forego the rubbish..

Zoe Harcombe says Eat less and move more is the cause of the obesity epidemic. Her advice is to Eat better and do whatever you like.


What do you think?

Two days of happy eating - all the best things. I can't be doing with eating plans which make me feel deprived, and remind myself that the last time I used the Harcombe 5 day eating plan I lost weight while eating more than usual! Click here for the website www.theharcombediet.com

The author's thesis is that it is insulin that causes our bodies to store fat. We must therefore discourage our bodies from over-producing insulin.

'The key thing to take away from this book is that it is insulin, not calories, which makes you fat.'

'You drink apple juice, your body thinks it has eaten 20 apples, and so releases the amount of insulin to mop up the 20 apples.'  Much better, she suggests, to just eat an apple.

It is a fascinating read, and I think she makes a very convincing case.

But basically I just want to be eating real, wholesome, unadulterated food, and plenty of it.

Simpler.


..I wrote a bit about it under Simply Eat 28 March 2010....

                                                Fruit is so beautiful and plentiful just now - why must I eat cake!


Another aspect of holidays is my tendency to indulge in cake, with a 'Well, I am on holiday'' attitude.

I am re-reading Zoe Harcombe, Michael Pollan and Dr David Servan Schreiber on food and trying to get a different mindset on it. (See posts under Simply Eat on the right of this page.)

Being on holiday isn't really a good reason to mistreat my body!

'You deserve it' and 'Naughty but nice' are not intelligent approaches to food, but advertising slogans!!   Thought up by some bright spark in an advertising agency with the sole purpose of selling us more fat and sugar.

Have you fallen for it too?

I am moving more and better, I have lots more energy  than I used to have, and I've learnt a lot about modern food, but I have slowly regained the few pounds I lost so easily last year, and with a wedding coming up and a pretty frock which doesn't quite  fit hanging in the wardrobe....vanity, vanity (but it does motivate me, I have to admit it).

They say, don't they, that if you tell people your plans you are more likely to follow through - so I'm announcing here:

I will use Zoe Harcombe's Five Day Eating Plan, starting NOW. Are you going to join me? Merle?

Do you find that a holiday gives you a new perspective on your life - briefly. Then you have to catch up on all the things which accumulated while you were away, and that fresh angle, that new clarity you were so sure you had, gets lost.

So how can I overcome this, and keep the clarity of the new outlook, the new objectivity, make the fresh start on..whatever, which seemed so easy on the journey home?

One way might be to catch up quickly.  To deal with the backlog of phone messages, e mails and paper fast. To unpack immediately and get all the clothes in the wash straight away. To write the thank you cards, return the books borrowed, send the information promised....

What is the simplest way to do this? For me the simplest thing is to start with the 'onceover'. (See 26 Sept 2010...and glad you love it Jill!) That sees to the basics, the absolute minimum.

Then the catch up, as soon and as efficiently as possible.

Then with some physical and mental space cleared, a look at my many projects and a bit of prioritising - look at the calendar, do a little bit of planning....but how not to lose sight of the new ideas, the new ways of looking at things which occurred to me while I was away? Talking them over with a sympathetic friend should work..and as I contact friends again to say I'm back would be a good time to do this, would it not?

Any ideas, thoughts, suggestions most gratefully received....