Sakura

AS you read this post, please listen to this beautiful rendition of Sakura, well-known folk song from Japan, describing the majesty of the Spring Cherry blossoms.  

Last weekend, our Cherry tree (sadly, not one which provides fruit), was at its absolute peak-beauty!

As I stood beneath its bendy branches, enjoying the pale pink hues against the blue, cloudless sky, I reflected on the utter joy of creation! How lucky I am, to see these flowers, feel this beauty and know the joy of these tiny blooms and their fleeting, transient beauty.

I thought it would be only polite to share them with you.

At the weekend, CBC and I went to Colchester.  As usual, we left it too late, we'd been to Maldon to pick up CBC's new glasses and then drove on to Colchester.

It was nice to visit somewhere different.  We ate dinner at a Vietnamese place called Elsa's.

Earlier in the day, CBC and I went to visit our newts.  We only saw a few.  Several were hiding.

Did I say that one turned up on our doorstep the previous week! I wonder what it wanted?

On Sunday, I had a madly busy day as I was covering first flute for two concerts with Orchestra of the City.  The concerts were part of the Amersham music festival.

Alas, there were engineering works on my local line, meaning, I had to use the alternative railway line. I left home at 10.30am and arrived in Amersham at the church at 13.45! 3 hours 15 to get there and to compound matters, the Jubilee line suffered from a critical failure of the signalling system which lasted at least 11 hours!!!

The concerts, one a children's concert and the other an evening concert, both went really well. I enjoyed playing first flute with this orchestra as I usually play 4th or 3rd (usually Alto flute) or even 5th flute with them! It was a real privilege.

As I knew it was going to touch and go whether I'd make it in time to avoid the rail replacement bus doom, I literally undid my shoes and collapsed my music stand as the audience were applauding and virtually knocked people flying as I attempted to leave the church  at 21.05 and cycle the mile or so to the station. A trumpeter and a fellow flautist were both running for the same train as I cycled.  I was amazed that the trumpeter arrived only 3 minutes behind me! Sadly, we missed the fast train, but got the Metropolitan line soon after, which takes double the length of time.  The trumpeter and I spent most of our hour journey feverishly researching the best way for us both to reach our destinations since the Jubilee line was unbelievably STILL not working!  I decided to take the alternative train line as I thought it would still get me home quicker than the rail replacement.  Alas, it would involve a 5 mile cycle at the other end and my bike lights had died!  Luckily, a kind man lent me his charging block and then unexpectedly, despite it being almost midnight, CBC came and picked me up so I didn't have to cycle. I thought he'd be asleep! So I got home 40minutes sooner than via the rail replacement! 

I was unbelievably tired and hungry by the time we got home after 12.  I ate some left over dinner and was in bed by 1.

I was so sleepy on Monday morning!!!!

Tomorrow, my choir have a practice with an accompanist for the choir of the year.  I hope it goes well!

I keep wondering what all the other choirs are doing for their pieces and whether I should have made different choices!  Ah well, too late to change my mind now! 

 Only a few days till the holiday!

xx

The flora and foliage of Warley Place

I shared my pictures of the beautiful daffodils of Warley Place the other day. This is an Essex Wildlife Trust site.  If you want to find it, you will need to travel from Brentwood station. It's a few miles so you can walk for about 50 minutes or drive. A bus will only take you so far.

I got a taxi from Brentwood station that cost me about £8.25 to Warley Place.  There was a volunteer tent asking for a suggested donation of £3 per person. Luckily, I scrabbled around in my purse and found the requisite amount.  

You can do a circular walk which is apparently about a mile (or a km?)

I'll share some pictures

In the rockeries and along a woodland path, there is a lot of Wild Garlic.  I was delighted to see it!

I loved this view with the different greens. You can see the woodland daffodils (not the field ones)

Here are the woodland daffodils.  So beautiful.

I spied some Turkey Fantail fungus. Not the most colourful ones I've seen but very soft and pretty.

Some beautiful Lungwort. I love the spotty leaves, the beautiful hues and the spiky sepals.

Some lingering Hellebores. i wish I had these ones in my garden. My Hellebores are more dull.

The old conservatory.

Delighted to be accompanied by this beautiful Robin.  Made me think of my Grandmother Mamgu as they lived not so far from this place.

Luscious green.

I learnt that this flower is called Scilla.

Not sure what this purple delight is but it is pretty. The leaves a gorgeous too!

Forget-Me-Nots.

Look at all that garlicky goodness!!!

The primroses remain....I think....or are they Primulas??

 Spring is the very best of seasons!

xx

I went for a walk in the rain...

It was dusk and I needed some solitude so I set out up the hill.  It started to rain but this didn't deter me.

I saw so much beauty, a few examples of which I will share.

 

Clematis glory

Last October, I wrote a short post about the wonderful Clematis Tangutica that we inherited when we moved to our house.

I realised that I only shared one picture last year so this year, I thought I'd give it to the glory it deserves.

Below, you can see just how much it has grown this year and how it surrounds (and clings onto) our swing seat.

It spreads quite far.

I'll show you the flowers at various stages

Here you can see the flowers as they have turned into seedheads. If you leave them, they go grey-haired and even more fluffy with distinct seeds attached. I've been cutting and saving these for my work colleague who makes beautiful dried flower arrangements.

Above, you can see the stage before, when the fluff is spiky and growing outwards.

Before this, you can see how they lose their Chinese lanterns revealing the stamens and stigma

Here it is at peak deliciousness for the myriad bees of all kinds who are flocking here in droves. It's wide open.

The stigma or stamens are bright yellow- hadn't seen that before!

Squeezing in that gap.

Here they are at the stage where the bees are itching to get inside but can't quite get in unless they squeeze in those gaps.

And here are the totally closed petals.

Can you see the tiny yellow bud?

It's such joy to see these beauties reach their Autumn Zenith. I am grateful for Mrs Baker (previous owner) and her clever planting!

Have you come across this beautiful before?

From the Archives: Blanchland calling!

I like looking back on past blog posts! I miss the times where I was really good at charting my travels and walks. I find it a bit more exhausting nowadays which is a pity!

I remember the first time I visited Blanchland in October 2015.  CBC and I were staying in Haltwhistle with WOMOTM and we had gone for a walk after a drive to Blanchland to visit a newly refurbished pub/hotel.  Blanchland sits on the Northumberland/Durham border and you pass the Derwent reservoir on your way up there.  We had an hour to kill and we were recommended a walk.  It's now one of my favourite walks which I have done at least twice this year and in the Summer, there's the bonus you can paddle in the river!

Hope you enjoy the Autumnal colour pictures.

Thursday, November 12, 2015

Blanchland calling!

Blanchland is a village around 10 miles or so away from Corbridge in Northumberland.
We ended up going for a walk there because a friend recommended we visit the Lord Crewe Arms hotel there for lunch.
The restaurant/pub was full until an hour after we arrived so we went outside and calling in at the Post Office, CBC asked if the lady could recommend an hour's walk and she instantly gave us directions for a walk. Walking boots on, we set off towards the river.

Because the skies above us were so grey and lugubrious, the colours of the grass and foliage was by contrast, bright and cheering.

It was rather boggy and muddy walking by the river, but just the sound of a river is calming to the soul.

The sight of a path of crisp leaves amidst the mud was a most welcoming carpet, rather like a Sir Walter Raleigh cape to Queen Elizabeth's path.

The path took a right at one point past this dry-stone wall

The canopy of trees above our head was a sea of golden bells in bright harmony.

Even the green moss adorning the walls had the quality of green velvet and rather suggested opulence rather than decay.

Rain upon green blades resembled sequins and beads.

Here, where the branches were much sparser than those we'd seen before, the appearance was pleasing and resembled sparklers on Bonfire night in my mind.

And the tree below with its drapes of yellow made me think of the story we were told in primary school of a poor Christmas tree which the family could not decorate. Some spiders spun their webs all over it in the night and an angel saw it and turned the webs into silver and that's how tinsel came about.

A small pebbled beach appeared by the river side and a whooshing and burbling indicated the presence of a small waterfall or downward stream if one cannot use the word correctly.

Continuing, a pictureseque bridge was our next landmark to tell us to change our path.

Coming onto the bridge, we discovered that we'd hit the border of County Durham which surprised us both!

Turning into towards the woods, the path was drier, crisper and more pleasant. The colours were bright and pleasing.

It was therefore justifiably shocking seconds later when we entered the woods to be hit by the sight of a stark path bereft of any colour other than the dull brown, caused, I presume, by the needles dropping from the pine trees.

It was quite eerie to be struck into sepia mode without any warning and be surrounded by such imposing trees.

If things couldn't get any wierder, this silver birch (?) seemed to be looking at me!

...in more places than one, it seemed.

And apparently the eye of Sauron was there too!

It was rather a relief to find our way out of the enchanted woods and back towards the town, where an old ruin greeted us.

And finally, there we were, back in Blanchland itself, ready to sample the delights of the Lord Crewe Arms.

I hope all is well with you. I had a successful day with many positive moments:

• Teaching a maths lesson in which pretty much everyone got on and did stacks of work!
• Singing assembly- learning a French carol well.
• Recorder Club- totally nailing Hark the Herald Angels sing and Joy to the World.
• The response of the children who were told they'd been picked for KS1 Choir. One after my saying, "Do you mind, are you happy being in choir?" said, "It's my dream."  I cocked my head on one side and she elaborated, "Before you said it, I'd been dreaming and hoping you'd pick me and now my dream's come true."  This from a quiet little mite. I almost cried.
• My 4 year 3's who I picked to play 4 recorder pieces they've been learning in class for Achievement assembly, practising and being totally great and excited at playing.
• Eating Tempeh curry for dinner!

xxx