For many years some of the crow family have felt very much at home in our garden and on top of the roof, eating from the bird table and nesting in an old empty chimney. When seen in detail they are all very beautiful birds. The rooks have a bluish shine on their very finely preened feathers, they shine. The hooded crows have both black and grey feathers and they only venture on to the patio from time to time, they mostly feed on carrion somewhere else. The jackdaws, also belonging to the crow family feed side to side with the rooks, they are not afraid of these black birds with huge beaks. One of the rooks, we call him Charlie, is very noisy and demonstrates his superior voice quality whenever there is something happening that he does not like around the place. Rooks are very sociable and we see them in groups of about a dozen, intermixed with jackdaws. They are said to hide food into a hole but I have never seen them do that around here. I have seen them play catch in the skies above the garden here, while being very vocal they fly after each other creating great manoeuvres. At times when I go into the garden, one of them, sitting on the roof will give out being very vocal and goodness knows what he is communicating to the others, they know I feed them every day in winter (mainly seeds and peanuts, sometimes table leftovers).
It is a pleasure to have them around, though in a way I might be fonder of the little birds with highly coloured feathers. The crow family are very welcome in our garden, and quite interesting to observe.
GLOW OF THE EVENING SUN
What a most beautiful day it has been, full sun and quite warm for the time of year. This evening I happen to be in the garden getting in the washing and noticed what beautiful light surrounded me, and how the evening sun was bringing out all the colours of vegetables and herbs alike. Magnificent especially as not long after that the moon came up, large and beautiful.
I feel so blessed with all the beauty that surrounds me. Really good to counter balance all the sadness and strife that is going on in our earth.
Feeling grateful.
LIVE IN SILENCE
“Be empty of worrying. Think of who created thought! Why do you stay in prison when the door is so wide open? Move outside the tangle of fear-thinking. Live in silence. Flow down and down in always widening rings of being.”
Rumi, The Essential Rumi
KINDNESS
I have just come off the phone from my sister Josefine in Belgium, and what we do not hear about in the news here I will tell.
The fact that in Mechelen, a town in Belgium, there has been a large gathering the other day of people of the Muslim, Jewish, and Christian faiths, all together in brotherly love, praying for peace.
If you just look at the news there is a lot of scare mongering going on, but it is not the way it is. The feeling is not that we should be scared of our neighbours, but that we should show them extra consideration and kindness, and in this way evil is not winning, but goodness is.
Just thought I would share this.
A WINDY NOVEMBER EVENING
While it has been windy for the past week, today was wilder still. It has been drying out the garden which is good as the heavy rains have made it so sodden that doing any work in there is just impossible. This wild weather has brought with it some amazing views of a watery sun this evening. Birds have had their feathers ruffled big time, and they must have been very seasick from sitting on the swinging branches of the trees! So far we still have electricity but a lot of the country are without it, I would not mind as I love candle light and we always have candles handy during winter time just to be prepared. Right now the stove is roaring as the draft is strong, a lovely cosy evening with my partner, after a day making the kitchen ‘mouse’ proof, something that has to be done at the beginning of every winter, there should be nothing in paper or plastic, everything should be in strong glass containers, and now it is 🙂 it feels good to have done this, something I had on my list and can scratch out.
PREDAWN KIND OF CLARITY
“Outside, there was that predawn kind of clarity, where the momentum of living has not quite captured the day. The air was not filled with conversation or thought bubbles or laughter or sidelong glances. Everyone was sleeping, all of their ideas and hopes and hidden agendas entangled in the dream world, leaving this world clear and crisp and cold as a bottle of milk in the fridge. ”
Reif Larsen, from The Selected Works of T.S.Spivet
“Do you ever get the feeling like you already know the entire contents of the universe somewhere inside of your head, as if you were born with a complete map of this world already grafted onto the folds of your cerebellum and you are just spending your entire life figuring out how to access this map?”
Reif Larsen, The Selected Works of T.S.Spivet
A BLESSED SUNDAY IN RURAL IRELAND
Harry Clarke is well known for his use of the most beautiful colours, deep blues especially delight the eye. This is one of the stained glass windows in St.Barrahane’s Church in Castletownshend, Ireland, there are three windows designed by Harry Clarke in this little church. We spent some time here last Sunday as my latest grandchild was being christened. Because of the week that was in it there was not much work done in the garden, apart from the hedge cutting. I went on an outing with my daughter and grandchildren one of the days, we did some shopping but also walked along the estuary and bird sanctuary at Timoleague and saw the ruins of an old abbey there (http://www.timoleague.ie/abbey/default.html). And on Friday we had a crafts day with the two oldest girls, we made a treasure box from scrap items which they thought was great fun! Then on Sunday there was yet another outing to the christening, and a stroll along the country road where the starlings were making a racket but otherwise all was very peaceful.
Meanwhile it is the second of November and still the weather is mild and a golden sun burnt away the grey skies this morning. So far we have been really blessed with the weather here which we gratefully accept after a rather cool and sunless summer.
Sts Louis IX and Martin of Tours – stained glass window by Harry Clarke.
Sunday stroll around the old pub where we had lunch, an old farm door took my interest.
Magically recreated soap powder boxes. And deep pink hydrangeas along the Irish country roads.
Starlings gathering in the trees, and autumn leaves all along the hedgerows.
THE HEDGE GOT CUT TODAY
Well, believe it or not but today the hedge got cut, and it wasn’t me that did it 🙂 I tried, and did not manage it, so I got someone else to do it, he was a nice and precise guy and he worked real hard. My little helper was here too, and he had so much fun watching and even trying to help a bit with clearing up.
I just had to do something about the height and thickness of that hedge, as discussed in an earlier blog post. Half of the height was cut down, this means that we can see some of the neighbour houses, and some of the town below, but it does not matter, around here all the people are real nice, and down the little town there is no industry at all. All we can see are things such as warehouses and building suppliers, or hardware stores and some other residential areas. Further along we see a wooded hill (the Atlantic Ocean is beyond that), and flowing pastoral scenes sometimes with sheep in the fields, how much better can it get if you live urban. Now that the hedges are lower the sun today was illuminating and warming the soggy, wooden, raised beds, all is wet and sad enough looking, all the raised beds badly need attention. I am hoping that the garden will become dryer now that the wind can reach everything better, yes it is more exposed now so I will have to take that into account during the winter months.
A brilliant day had by all, and much work done, now I feel more motivated to work on my raised beds again.
A hole in the hedge waiting for tender loving care (new plants in other words) And my elderberry sapling.
My little helper having fun, and afterwards inside we were preparing garlic for planting.
AUTUMN MIRTH
“To-day I think
Only with scents, – scents dead leaves yield,
And bracken, and wild carrot’s seed,
And the square mustard field;
Odours that rise
When the spade wounds the root of tree,
Rose, currant, raspberry, or goutweed,
Rhubarb or celery;
The smoke’s smell, too,
Flowing from where a bonfire burns
The dead, the waste, the dangerous,
And all to sweetness turns.
It is enough
To smell, to crumble the dark earth,
While the robin sings over again
Sad songs of Autumn mirth.”
From a poem called DIGGING.”
Edward Thomas, Collected Poems
