June Evening

I'm sitting in the summerhouse in the garden and have had to put on one of my padded winter shirts. The evenings and nights are still chilly and my tomatoes and courgettes aren't growing as much as I would like them to. I've started to harvest the new potatoes and I seem to have a glut of lettuces. I bought a pack of mixed lettuces back in the spring and the dark red ones have been a runaway success. They have thrived in the drought in the both the garden and the allotment whereas normal green ones have struggled to get going. We had a good bit of rain last weekend which has been a thankful relief and the weather is now a bit unsettled but it was probably too late to make much of an impact on struggling arable crops which are well down on yields.

I am reading 'Wildwood - A journey through trees' by Roger Deakin and thoroughly enjoying it. Most of my reading has been a bit heavy over the years and this is a good easy read and very interesting. Some people have the very fortunate ability to relate to and write about nature in very deep ways. For me it is always a struggle. I think mainly because I am not in a rural environment and life and work just doesn't revolve around countryside ways in the way it does with others. My garden and allotment are an integral part of my life but often in a very functional way. I can take time out to go and enjoy the countryside - I don't have to attend to it or manage it, that is someone else's responsibility. Thus I can appreciate it from a different perspective.

This evening I have forced myself to sit outside as dusk approaches and do a bit of painting and writing. The air is cool and fresh. A blackbird sings atop a neighbours television arial and the honeysuckle is just beginning to flower. Its fragrance is superb.The longest day will be in only a couple of weeks and summer doesn't feel it has arrived yet. The long warm spell we have just had did have a bite to it. The nights were cold and it seemed a foreigner in a strange place at this time of year.

We had couple of days in Derbyshire last week and visited Ilam, Dovedale, Hardwick Hall and cycled along the Tissington Trail. Two beautiful days were given to us and it was a superb mini holiday.

It feels an odd year this year in some ways. I haven't drummed much. Life seems to be revolving around work, home, redoing the kitchen, the allotment and just keeping up with day to day things. A lack of inspiration and external input has put my philosophical and spiritual exploration on hold it seems. And the weeks whiz by....

Mid May

Life is busy and the inspiration to blog is weak at the moment. This is a very brief catch-up.

The long dry warm weather continues. Oilseed rape and bluebells have finished flowering, cow parsley and wild roses are in all the hedgerows, and wheat is well in ear. I'm not spending much time out in the countryside at the moment as my energy is directed elsewhere.

The allotment hasn't seen any significant rain since I dug it over in March and the soil hasn't weathered much. Too many large rock hard clayey lumps remain. Potatoes are well up and those in the garden have flower buds on. I'm starting to harvest lettuces and herbs are doing well. Chives are covered in their beautiful lilac flowers and there is mint, thyme, marjoram, sage and rosemary to add to salads and sandwiches. The onions and garlic are doing well and I've planted out red cabbages and broccoli. Seeds of carrot, leek, parsnip and beetroot have germinated but seem to be a bit slow to progress. Days have been warm and sunny but the evenings have been chilly at times. I'm watering where necessary. I've planted many things on the allotment and have almost run out of space there - likewise in the garden too. I've got tomatoes and more courgettes to plant out soon. One of the problems with the allotment is the poor quality of the soil. It needs stuff growing on it to break up the clay lumps and a decent amount of organic matter to improve soil structure. I water with care so as to try and avoid a hard surface crust but I'm going to break up the soil more shortly and try and introduce  selective deep watering.

I have been busy re-doing our kitchen. In true permaculture style I am repairing, cleaning, sanding and rebuilding the kitchen units where possible using contiboard. It isn't the neatest of materials to cut but for ease, cost and flexibility it is ideal. It has is hard work and quite exhausting but with the good weather at least I have been able to work outside on the patio. I have bought a new hand saw and electric sander which have made life so much easier. I will paint over all the units and get new doors when we see ones we like on offer at a local diy store. Then we will get new worktop, new sink and new tiling, all of which I hope I can install myself. I'm not aiming for perfection, but it will certainly end up much more pleasing than what we have had and for a fraction of the cost. The cost of everything seems so high nowadays and we are trying to cut down on expenses where possible.

Work is going incredibly well and I am enjoying the creativity of what I have to do. I have no vision for the future and I am not sure how to progress this.

My spiritual life seems to be a bit on the back burner for the moment mainly due to just having to get on with so many other things. I'm feeling so much healthier though - possibly because it is warmer and I am being so active in and around the house and the allotment.

From Creator to being in The Created

In mid-April I took a short break to my usual haunts in Herefordshire. I left work one Wednesday evening and travelled up to Hopton Titterhill where I camped out in the car for a night. I then went on a long bike ride before going to stay with my mother and doing some gardening work for her. It is now over a week a later and I am only now writing up my notes and reflecting on my travels.
The light is disappearing beneath the grey skies. I have had an easy journey here and at around 8.30pm there is still just enough light to enable me to absorb some of the landscape and cook a light meal. Then I go for a walk.

I saw a woodcock 'roding'. It made a very distinctive "craw, craw, squeek" sound as it flew with rapid wing beats between the trees. I hadn't seen one display like this before and I had to look it up when I got home to check what I had observed.

There were a couple of deer on the edge of a field and only a slight breeze in the trees.

Walked out onto a dry flat cultivated field that was showing initial signs of spring barley growth. It probably hadn't rained since the seed was sown. Darkness is all round me and the mooing of cows in a valley farmyard echo around the hillsides overlooking Hopton Castle. In the stillness the loudness of the cows seems rather eerie as they must be quite a distance away. I hear a few sheep also. There are few lights in the landscape and shape of the hills merge into the evening haze/mist.

The field gives a deep sense of space and openness after the enclosure of the office where I work; the drive here, and the conifers that surround the car park.

At work I am the creator - a place where I form ideas and colours into shapes, patterns and images. It has been a bust few days where demands are made, deadlines created and the need for me to be a creator are expected. The Mac is my tool - taking my thoughts and creating tangible structure. Now I am sitting in my car surrounded by the tall conifers, the gathering darkness and a gentle hush in the trees. Silence, stillness and timelessness are my companions. Now I am in The Created - the creative playful springtime energy of nature. I am now an observer, treading quietly and absorbing the sense of space and creation - within The Created.

I am looking for inspiration, for a language, for a sense of belonging. Thoughts of 'dark' and uncertainty gather but I chase them away. The night can seem scary but yet my mind is slowly adapting to this new place. Tomorrow I will walk out into creation and receive, explore and learn.

Spring 2011

11 April 2011:

• Bees and Bumblebees
• Ladybirds
• Bluebells beginning to flower in woods
• Tulips in the garden, daffodils just past their best
• Parsnips, beetroot, carrots, leeks sown in allotment
• Spring cabbage and lettuce plants bought and planted
• Potatoes in ground a couple of weeks ago
• Tomato, courgette, squash, red cabbage, purple sprouting, lettuce and herb seeds sown under cover
• White blossom everywhere
• Occasional butterflies
• Sunburn and hot sunshine
• No rain for many weeks
• Watering wilting plants and germinating seeds
• Meals in garden
• Summerhouse too hot
• Nettle and bean soup last weekend
• Amelanchier in blossom
• Need rain to break up soil on allotment

Rocket Stove Casserole

After a good month or more of dry weather, the past few days have been very warm and sunny. Just right for a bit of garden cooking. I have been wanting to make a Rocket Stove for ages and yesterday was an ideal day. My supplies of waste wood around the garden were dry and a good supply of old bricks was all I needed. The web is awash with images and principles of rocket stoves, so I won't expand here,  but basically it was a matter of building a brick 'chimney' with a opening at the base into which wood is fed. The fire draws air though this hole and supposedly burns very efficiently.

Using an old wok I cooked a pork in cider casserole and the stove worked surprisingly well, considering I had never made one or seen one in action before. Keeping it constantly fed meant I had to make quick dashes to the kitchen to prepare the food. Once the bricks had warmed up it seemed to generate quite a reasonable amount of heat and the casserole bubbled away nicely, though I did cover the wok with foil to ensure the meat did cook properly. The design could be made more efficient by sealing in the gaps between the bricks and creating more of a space for ash to accumulate.

Spring Equinox

Sage smoke, wafted from glowing embers invites and welcomes. Within the awaiting firelight, in silence we sit, the only voice comes from the pulse of a single drum beat. Beside me are vases of tulips. Although the flower heads have closed in the cold dark air, their presence is a symbol of the energy of spring that is now evident in nature outside. My attention is drawn to the altar beside me and the still sculptured forms of the wood branches with adorning objects that hold intentions and desires. Behind, a weaving of fine artificial blossoms reminds me of oriental art and carries my thoughts to the suffering in Japan.

We await, around fifteen of us, amongst the stones, cushions, flickering light of the burning logs and candles beneath a clear bright moonlit sky that opens out beyond the skylight.

We are a microcosm of hope, peace, community and belonging in a seemingly present troubled world. The energy of spring brings hope and release, but also despair at the news that bites into our lives with tragedy.

As we begin to drum the energy that is released is a sign of our frustration, a need for change and a desire to send intention and prayer.

***

Do I treasure the magic or do I let it go?

The Power Nature

The two earthquakes that have struck recently, the first in New Zealand and the second, yesterday, in Japan, are a stark reminder of the energy of creation that exists on our planet. Our lives are too short to fully comprehend the great forces that are at work over the lifespan of the universe. We may ask "Why now?", but when we remember that records may only have been begun to be collected over the past 1-200 years, that timescale is so insignificant when we look at the greater picture. Also, natural disasters are brought more immediately and significantly to our attention these days through the availability of instant global news and personal communication networks.

The fact that the timescales that nature works to and the one we live by day to day are so widely different is probably the reason why so much devastation occurs. Humanity just can't fully realise the greater picture of the energy within the earth at work because it manifests itself outside time of our existence and modern lifestyle expectations. We can easily forget the fragility of life. We have dominance over buildings, technology, computers, energy creation, and food production etc, but yet often fail to see this bigger picture of nature at work