Summer

A Fruitful Summer

/ fgrtommo / 2 Comments

Summer this year has been consistently sunny and warm.  We have been able to plan on the assumption of good weather.  Day after day, with only the briefest of interruptions, we have appreciated our gorgeous local landscape in clear air and sunlight.  Although keeping the vegetables anywhere near watered enough has been a challenge, the fruit harvest – both cultivated and wild – has been huge.

On A Local Walk To The Shops In The Sun
On A Local Walk To The Shops In The Sun

Of course, we now know that it has been the hottest summer in the United Kingdom on record.  It has also been one of the driest and, for the first time in local living memory, the stream running through our hamlet has run dry for weeks on end.  That is a huge concern since we also know that climate chaos is here and only going to get worse.  Increasing wildfires, floods, oppressive heat and difficulties in growing food are all inevitable.  But even while knowing of this impending crisis, we have loved the summer weather and, almost as much, the recent rain showers that have started to indicate the onset of Autumn and started to refill the stream.

I picked and used or froze all the gooseberries and blackcurrants.  We also managed to consume, or give to friends, a rich harvest of gorgeous plums and damsons.  However, the wild bullaces (like small damsons) will stay on the trees this year and we have only picked a small fraction of our apples so far. 

Fruit Everywhere
Fruit Everywhere

Walking the local paths and roads, I have seen lots of buckets of apples offered up to passers-by by those with apple trees heaving with fruit.  And all those walks have tended to take a little longer than usual as I stop to pick and eat the blackberries along the way.  The familiarity with the local hedgerows I have gained since retirement, means I know where the best blackberries are as the summer progresses.  It’s wonderful how many varieties of wild blackberries there are, each bearing different tasting fruit at different times.

The only downside from all this fruit is that I’m gaining a few pounds of weight as I turn the fruit I pick into delicious but calorie filled crumbles.  Still, it’s only for a few months that I have this fresh fruit glut and then I will retreat to more parsimonious use of the harvest we have frozen.  I have time to get my weight back to target by year end.

There have been many other aspects of the summer that I have enjoyed.  In recent weeks we attended a lovely wedding of one of Jane’s nephews and his wife.  Of course, like so many days, this was bathed in warm sun.  That helped to make the event memorable and lovely.  During and around it, we got to see our sons, their partners and our grandchildren – all chatting and playing together.  That was an enormous treat. 

Looking For Grasshoppers With First Grandchild
Looking For Grasshoppers With First Grandchild

Another recent event that was enhanced by the great weather was an 11-mile charity pub crawl around 11 nearby pubs.  This started at our village pub (The Hog) mid-morning and, for the hardiest (not including me), ended late at night in a curry house or back at The Hog.  I managed half the stops (and pints) but had the excuse of wanting to divert up to Forest Green Rovers to see my team’s game mid-afternoon (we won!) before rejoining the increasingly noisy crawl crowd.  There was much merriment, new relationship making and well over £1,000 in fundraising for the MND Association during the day.  I look forward already to next year’s occurrence.

Pub Crawl!
Charity Pub Crawl!

Jane and I have been out and about a few times too.  We went to Frome to wander the pretty streets before heading on to Bruton and the Hauser & Wirth gallery there.  Frome is comparable to our local town of Stroud but is a little wealthier, has a few more independent shops and is a little more upmarket.  Stroud is moving gradually to that benchmark I believe.

Views Of Frome
Views Of Frome

At the Hauser & Wirth gallery we saw an exhibition of works by Jean Tinguely and his partner Niki de Saint Phalle.  We had come across Tinguely for the first time earlier this year when we visited Basel.  It was good to make the connection with that short trip and the mechanical sculptures we had seen in one of the parks there.  A neat touch at Hauser & Wirth was that, as in Basel, the sculptures were powered to show their intended movements.

Jean Tinguely And Niki De Saint Phalle at Hauser & Wirth
Jean Tinguely And Niki De Saint Phalle at Hauser & Wirth

The Hauser & Wirth gardens, by Piet Oudolf, are always worth visiting.  The planting is dense and constantly changing with the seasons.  Whilst many of the plants were still in full flower, others remained interesting because of their seed heads and textures.  The only strangeness is the building at the far end which looks like an elevated spot from which to view the flat garden space, but just isn’t. 

Piet Oudolf Designed Garden At Hauser & Wirth
Piet Oudolf Designed Garden At Hauser & Wirth

Even more recently we visited Edward Jenner’s house in Berkeley just a few miles away from us.  Jenner created the smallpox vaccine which has since saved millions of lives and eradicated the disease worldwide.  His house and garden are not particularly remarkable but his life was and it is well told through the exhibits on show. 

For me, perhaps the most interesting aspect of the displays was how they showed the vehemence of opposition to compulsory smallpox vaccination in the 19th century.  Scepticism about, and opposition, to vaccination was, it seems, as strong then as it has become again now despite all the health gains in the meantime.

Edward Jenner's House And Garden, Berkeley, Gloucestershire
Edward Jenner’s House And Garden, Berkeley, Gloucestershire

It’s been a very good summer.  We haven’t done any a big holidays but the weather at home has helped my retirement feel like a big, comfortable holiday at home.  Waking up to clear sunshine, wandering into town for the newspaper and daily shopping, pottering around the thirsty vegetables in the garden, indulging in the burgeoning fruit harvest and relaxing in the evening sun has all been very pleasant.  Now, as Autumn approaches, maybe we will think about getting away for a bit…..

Sleepy Sheep In The Summer Sun
Sleepy Sheep In The Summer Heat

Summer’s Slow Demise

/ fgrtommo / 1 Comment

The weather during most of September has been excellent.  Now, though, summer has gradually drawn to a close.  There are still warm and sunny intervals but rain clouds are more prevalent, the tiring trees are dripping brown, and the streams are filling up.  Autumn is here.

The new walled garden still looks full of colour – Long-Suffering Wife (LSW) has done a great job of maintaining its life throughout the summer and now on into Autumn.  The dahlias, which she has tried growing for the first time, largely succumbed to the slugs early on, but those that survived now look magnificent.  The scabious, salvia, cosmos (my small contribution), gaura and ever-resilient verbena bonariensis still look great and the last of the bee activity of the season continues to feed on these.

Last, Fading Colour In The Walled Garden

Last, Fading Colour In The Walled Garden

The badgers took all the sweetcorn – they didn’t leave one for us! But there are still vegetables to harvest – leeks, beetroot, potatoes and chard – plus one last elephantine courgette.  However, thoughts are now moving on to clearing away the vegetable beds, planting bulbs for next year and putting in a couple more trees.  We have ordered loads of alliums which I (and the bees) love and some more narcissuses for the field.  I have gathered some wildflower, hollyhock and foxglove seed and now need to do something with it!

We can see a lot of the ash trees in the vicinity are diseased.  We have a very impressive, large ash at the edge of our property.  It looks appears to be thriving but must surely be threatened by the surrounding ash die-back disease despite its current good health.  We need to get ahead of the damage and start planting to fill potential gaps.  We have just ordered a cherry and a whitebeam to offset the cutting back we did earlier in the year, and to augment the little orchard we have established over the last few years.  However, more tree-planting may be required.

I attended my Parish Council meeting for the village we now live in last week.  This was one of a series of meetings I attended related to carbon footprint reduction in the village, local sustainability initiatives and climate change.  At the Parish Council meeting I supported a move towards our village becoming carbon neutral and one of the first steps is to plant a 1,000 trees in the Parish.  It’s a start and we’ll offer to take three or four more in our field.  But I’m aware that other trees will die or need to come down because they obstruct power lines adjacent to our land, so all we are likely to manage is a rough equilibrium.  I hope others with space do better.

Local Tree Planting Scheme To Reduce Flooding

Local Tree Planting Scheme In Kingscote Woods To Reduce Flooding

As we have become increasingly aware of the climate change and sustainability issues, so LSW and I have suffered increasing angst about air travel which has such a big carbon emission impact.  Our trips to Canada, Australia (twice!), South Africa and cities in Europe in recent years have magnified our carbon footprint.  We haven’t looked to offset these trips up to now but are certainly planning to do so in the future.

Fortunately for the planet, our prevarication in the face of Middle Son’s accident, and then my mother’s recent falls, have given us excuses to shelve our summer and autumn holiday plans to burn up more exhaust in the upper atmosphere.  Maybe we will train-ride to Lyon for a few days in October…..

Meanwhile, I continue to enjoy the local walks.  The wildlife on the way to the local town each day is constantly shifting in character and behaviour.  Seeing it every day allows observation of the slightest changes – the loneliness of the swan, the arrival of little egrets, and the growing snuffling aloofness of the increasingly porky pigs.

Local Wildlife - New Chicks, Lonely Swan, Foraging Old Spot Pigs And, If You Look Carefully, Little Egrets

Local Wildlife – New Chicks, Lonely Swan, Foraging Old Spot Pigs And (If You Look Carefully) Little Egrets

This fascination has been augmented by the joy of being able to pick and eat the blackberries on the way.  Even better, there are enough – it has been a truly wonderful year for hedgerow blackberries – for cooking and for freezing for breakfasts and puddings during the forthcoming winter.

Masses Of Wild Blackberries Picked In Less Than 30 Minutes

Masses Of Wild Blackberries Picked In Less Than 30 Minutes

I shall miss the summer as it creeps away.  I shall miss the casualness of not having to worry too much about whether it is going to rain or the need for a coat.  I shall miss the sun and sitting and walking in it.  But Autumn will have its splendours too, and we are lucky enough to have a house that can withstand the winter cold.  In those circumstances, even winter can be attractive.  Goodbye summer.

Gettin’ Jiggy Wit It

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Will Smith’s ‘Gettin’ Jiggy Wit It’ was hardly the sort of music that was available at the Cambridge Folk Festival and so is a slightly misleading title for this.  But, during my visit to part of the festival last weekend, there were a lot of jigs and I did do a lot of foot-tapping and unobtrusive swaying to the sounds on offer.  They were primarily various forms of folk music but also blues, soul and Americana.  The sun shone, the atmosphere was relaxed, the festival facilities were first rate, and the music – while not entirely my favourite genre – was very easy on the ear and some was excellent.

Cambridge Festival, Stage 1 With Kate Rusby

Cambridge Festival, Stage 1 With Kate Rusby, A Laid Back Audience (So Many Folding Chairs!) And A Big Sky

I went with an old friend of mine – my Best Man (BM) at my wedding just over 33 years ago.  I was able to stay with at his house, a 30 minute taxi ride away from the festival, for the weekend.  We chatted, caught up on our respective lives and plans, ate and drank well, and enjoyed both the folk festival and the surrounding countryside (which, in a refreshing contrast to the deeply incised valleys around our Gloucestershire home, is open and undulating).  It was, as hoped for, a wonderful change from my routine.

Once again, my retirement meant that, for me at least, the weekend was more relaxed than would have been the case a few years, or even a few months, ago.  I was able to drive to and from Cambridgeshire in a measured way outside of peak traffic hours, there was no rush to do anything and we got the gentle pace of our activities about right.

On the Saturday of the folk festival we arrived when it opened but realised that an 11 hour stint of listening to the array of bands across several stages would exhaust us physically and mentally, especially given the hot and sunny weather.  We saw about 15 bands/performers over about 8 hours that day.  The best of these, for me, were The East Pointers (Americana) and Eric Bibb (blues) but the majority were traditional and rather basic folk bands.  We left early for a curry dinner, thereby missing a couple of headline acts, but, frankly, we were sated.

Cambridge Festival: The Shee, Eric Bibb And Alison Russell From The Birds Of Chicago

Cambridge Festival: The Shee, Eric Bibb And Alison Russell From The Birds Of Chicago

On the Sunday we decided to only attend the festival towards the end of the day. That enabled us to fit in a visit to Ely.  The town was gorgeous in the sunlight and history oozed from every turn.  Ely’s cathedral is terrific; it dominates the town and also the flat, fenland countryside for many miles around it.  It lost much of its ornamentation during the 16th century Reformation and then during Oliver Cromwell’s Puritan reign (he lived in Ely after all!).  But the grandeur and sheer engineering feat of its towers, nave and Lady Chapel remain.

Ely Cathedral, The Ouse And Oliver Cromwell's House

Ely Cathedral, The Ouse And Oliver Cromwell’s House

Ely Cathedral

Ely Cathedral

After tucking into a craft beer and lunch we walked around the town and down the Ouse River before popping into Anglesea Abbey on the way to Cambridge; another weather-enhanced treat.

Anglesea Abbey

Anglesea Abbey

We then returned to the folk festival and timed our arrival to see Kate Rusby (lovely voice) and, my BMs favourite, Birds of Chicago (excellent, radiant harmonies with a vibrant and emotional – almost tearful – female lead).  We also saw a clearly famous and popular John Prine but we looked at each other during his set and it was clear we had both had enough folk music for one weekend.

We left the music, sandals, tattoos and occasional whiffs of pot at the festival for a snack and a final bottle of wine back at my BM’s comfortable house and listened to some of his vast collection of CDs.  We congratulated ourselves on getting the pace of the weekend right.  As we looked back on a very good time, my BM prepared for a new working week and I considered the prospect of the leisure of another episode of relaxed retirement.

And so it is…..

A Year On….

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This day a year ago was the day I went over my personal ‘cliff edge’ by leaving London and starting my retirement in the country.

There were no half-measures as far as work was concerned. Indeed I have hardly thought about work since I left; I simply stopped.  Leaving London was less precipitate since the family home has been in Gloucestershire for about 20 years and I spent most weekends there over that time.  Critically too, I have retained a foothold in London in that I can stay with Eldest Son in the Barbican flat while he lives there.

It’s been a great year – maybe the best, despite my deep concerns for what is going on in the World beyond my daily sphere of influence.  I don’t regret the retirement decision, or the way I did it, a bit.

Six months into retirement, last December, I set out the lessons I thought I had learnt about my retirement up to that point (here and here).  To recap, the main personal lessons, in summary, were:

  • Work didn’t and doesn’t define me and I don’t miss it
  • There is plenty to do in retirement
  • There is still need for structure
  • Holidays (trips away from home) are more relaxing now
  • I miss London, but not as much as I expected
  • Summer Is A Good Time To Retire
  • Remember That Retirement Affects One’s Partner Too
  • Spend Time Getting To Know One’s (New) Neighbourhood
  • Don’t Rush Into Any New Big Time Commitments
  • Health, As Always, Is Critical.

I don’t think I would change those much a further six months into retirement.

I worry a bit that I’m still not feeling ready to commit time to some project, voluntary exercise or local organisation.  Most of my reticence in getting involved in something like that stems from the difficulties we already have in getting away for holidays without disrupting Long-Suffering Wife’s (LSWs) work and course commitments.  We have enjoyed our holidays in Australia, South Africa and, most recently, in Paris so much.  I don’t want to put further obstacles in the way of scheduling more.

In any case, the point that there is plenty to do in retirement and that I feel busy already remains true.  The last few weeks have felt particularly full. In addition to our trip to Paris, there have been outings to gardens, pubs and friends.  Also, the football World Cup has been an increasingly enjoyable time-suck as we have moved into the knockout stages and given that the England team still have a chance to impress.  Most enjoyably, we had a lovely visit from Youngest Son (YS) on his way from Australia to a video shoot he has been selected for in Croatia during their Yacht Week.

Face Time and Whatsapp communication from Australia, plus pictures on Instagram, provide an inadequate substitute for seeing YS in the flesh so it was tremendous to have him staying with us for a few days.  Unlike his last visit at Christmas, we had time to chat with him at some length.  It was great to hear how he is doing what he wants – travelling and filming – and he is in his element in Australia where so much of life is spent outdoors, energetically, in wonderful weather.

Of course, the weather here, too, has been magnificent.  We were encouraged by it to make an early morning trip with YS to see dawn at Cheddar Gorge.

Cheddar Gorge Just After Dawn

The sunlight on the gorge sides was gorgeous and the early start meant we could squeeze in a recuperative snooze and a canal-side walk all before a pub lunch.

LSW and YS

LSW and YS Walking Near Frampton Mansell, Gloucestershire

Of course there are downsides with the dry, sunny weather – the inevitable water shortages, the moor fires in the north of the country and the drying out of the garden – and the languorous periods lounging in the garden have had the unfortunate side effect of depressing my non-alcohol day count in June (I only managed four).  However, I say, bring on some more sun and warmth now I’m retired and can enjoy it fully.  Summer is a great time to be retired!