SEPTEMBER - "...all the time I'se been a-climbin on..."
...all the time
I'se been a-climbin on,
And reachin' landins,
And turnin' corners,
And sometimes goin' in the dark
Where there ain't been no light.
So boy, don't you turn back.
Don't you set down on the steps
'Cause you find it's kinda hard.
Don't you fall now -
For I'se still goin' honey,
I'se still climbin',
And life for me ain't been no crystal stair.
Last Thursday, our weekly shopping trip (supplemented by brave delivery drivers!) was a glorious weather day. It had one of those skies which I often think are peculiar to March and September - a truly clear, honest and heavenly blue. When we came out of the supermarket with our loaded trolley, Ginny and I absolutely knew we should take the north coast road home. This would give us the opportunity to see Ben Hope and Ben Loyal, Ben More in Assynt, Arkle and various assorted Munros and Corbetts - which are often obscured from our view by mist and rain. We love that view. There's generally a downside and that morning's downside was seeing the roadkill - an otter.
Roadkill is something I'll never get used to.
We have been out west many times and seen the mountains up close and personal - never climbed them though. Not a climber at all actually. Munros are over 3000 feet high and Corbetts are a bit shorter at 2500 feet. These give us some protection from the worst of the weather - depending, of course, on where the weather system is coming from.
The beautiful colours of the aspen. It stands close to the pond.
Ben Hope is the most northerly of Scotland's mountains. The strath - Strathnaver - is a place of infinite beauty - but I defy you to go its length and not feel its sadness. The screams, the flames, the wrench from homeland are still lingering in the air there. Its clearances were completed in two parts - in 1814 and in 1819. By 1820 Strathnaver was an eerie, empty place. If you ever wonder why I fiercely promote the welfare of displaced persons through my other media presence, then read about Scotland's clearances - the cruelty, the brutality towards those whose ancestors had lived in the places they called home for hundreds - perhaps thousands - of years. I'm not pointing the finger - I'm merely sharing the pain and asking for compassion.
Our home is not far from The Flows - The Flow Country. Quite a few of our trees are Sitka spruces - planted before we came here. It's a funny thing but I remember driving, from the Scrabster ferry, doon sooth to visit family and friends, and feeling, as we neared The Flows, a deep sinking feeling. It was in the 1980s when the peatlands were being stripped for profit and the sitka spruces were being planted everywhere by already-wealthy people in order to get richer through the tax breaks offered by the government of the time. It was a morbid drive. Today I look out of my window and see the tall sitka spruce sheltering birds from bigger birds and, although I know it needs to come down due to its proximity to the house, I shall be sad to see it go. Especially as Bob Robin has often warbled to me from its branches - making me feel better about things which, at the time, may have concerned me.
Birds on the wire!
The sitkas have been evicted from the Flow Country now - only just in time to save its unique ecosystem from collapse. They had, in their short reign, taken up so much water that mosses, plants, birds and insects - many of them rare - had died. Today "The Flows" is protected. This is just the beginning of an amazing reclamation - claiming the land back for its natives - insect-eating sundews, water voles, golden plovers, freshwater pearl mussels, hen harriers, dragonflies... The list goes on.
A good news story!
Walking home through the long grass. This track is rarely used. Home is the white house in the distance.
September is a month of wonder here in the far north. We hear the rutting of the deer - the roe deer through September and the red deer towards its end. If you have never been surprised by the sound they make then believe me, it's bloomin' scary!!! If you go out into the countryside expecting it - then it's not so bad but when it surprises you - well that's something else! And my goodness, does the sound carry!!!
At this time of year, the deer will move in herds and, when driving - particularly at night - it's wise to be aware of the danger they present on the roads - danger to themselves and to the travellers in vehicles. Many-a-car has been written-off after an encounter with deer on the road. I'm not a fan of motorised vehicles due to the devastation they cause - puthering poison into the air we breathe and causing so much death and suffering to all living creatures. But I'm not a hypocrite - I use them when I need to.
Must control that creepy Virginia!!!
Twenty years ago, in 2005, we were living in North Lincolnshire. The children and I had returned from Orkney ten years earlier while Keith stayed on teaching Maths at Stromness Academy for another year. In 1995, Alexander and Holly started their university courses on the mainland - one in Scotland, one in England.
By 2005 I was recording my thoughts, on our garden, in a journal which Lydia had given to me. I'd like to share a little excerpt with you here. It was written on 30th September:
"Ann and Vern came on Wednesday to view the garden and the plants which they gave us earlier in the year. They are, without exception, doing very well. I have recently planted out one of those plants - a cotoneaster - between us and Jason - to cover the wall there and maybe, if I can coax it, climb up a homemade trellis which I have a mind to build with branches cut from our trees.
The ivy on the wall between us and Elder House was an insect paradise last Saturday - literally covered with butterflies, other flies and bees etc.. It must have been the pollen which attracted them as there is no colour to speak of.
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Fluttering by
The swedes seem to be doing alright after the initial scare when caterpillars denuded them of their leaves - they have grown more leaves and look quite healthy - I wonder what is happening underneath the soil though - if anything!!
The beans are over now and I shall hopefully have some seed from the big ones remaining. The tomatoes continue to produce fruit but look most sickly in the process.
The cherry tree in the new lawn is doing very well and looking particularly healthy. The pear trees planted at the same time are growing too.
Evening primrose and beautiful dahlia have given early autumn colour to the new border and are very striking in their full glory. Colours just never clash in the natural world!!
Moonrise
I have broken the tree shears so am unable to remove the willow which is beginning to choke the apple again. The shrubbery is well established now and almost looks after itself.
Montbretia which I planted by the little pond for ground cover has done its job but it's also started to suffocate other plants so I mean to send it packing with a sincere thank you for its early co-operation.
The grass is growing around the eucalyptus trees and I have finished tidying that little entrance to the "wood". Found a newt there while I was doing the job. Thought I'd killed it, accidentally of course, as it lay there with its tummy exposed to the elements - but then I turned away briefly and when I looked again it had gone.
Planted a Portuguese laurel next to the eucalyptus at the part where the area narrows - close to the concrete path.
We've started the rotation of our composting process. Now the garden refuse is going at the bottom of the hedge in the centre of the "wood". The brambles act as a deterrent by the wall - so people don't trample our garden as a short-cut! It isn't that I'm selfish - it's just that other people will not necessarily know where things are growing - especially when it's dark!
The large pond is in dire need of hard labour and TLC. Ann suggested gravel around it but I'm not a fan of gravel in a garden so I don't think I will use it. I think we will sow more grass seed there instead. (Gravel can be awkward if it gets onto the grass and flies up from the mower.)
The herbaceous border is also ready for a change - that will need careful thought as some of the things growing there will not move readily. I shall leave the roses where they are as well as the evergreen-with-a-holly-look-to-it. No idea what it's called! The mountain ashes will stay but will need some lower branches taking off so that they grow out above the wall.
The Tree of Heaven - taken from between flagstones outside Auntie Shirley's house in Corby - and the Virginia Creeper are both in full autumn glory now - the colours are breathtaking."
September sixty one years ago - me in the garden at Aston House, High Street, Epworth, before catching the school bus for my first day at Frederick Gough Grammar School, Bottesford.
Fast forward twenty years and northward 500 miles and September has been a month of contrasts. This lunchtime Keith and I finished off the last of the summer ice cream. I'll get more in around Christmas for a treat and perhaps when the grandchildren visit but I tend not to buy in ice cream from now until springtime. Then I go a bit over the top and buy all manner of ices - lollies and ready made cornets as well as boxes of our favourite vanilla! These are bought dreaming of warm spring afternoons sitting in the garden and doing little else but soak up the sunshine! Does that ever happen? Answer is rarely!!!
So now the freezer is filling up with blackberries foraged from the edge of the windfarm, soup made by Judith for freezing and various assorted boxes and bags with cooler weather in mind. I'm storing apples too and I would be storing plums if I could stop myself from eating them. Recently I've been buying Victorias "ripened on the tree" for the sheer pleasure of being transported back to my grandparents' orchard and our own North Lincolnshire garden too. We have some plum trees here in our developing orchard but they haven't produced fruit yet.
Poor Little Dog Jess started the month with a bit of a shock! Somehow she found her way into the wood - the lower part of the gate has since been given the chicken-wire treatment - and she must have investigated the beehive as Judith and Clemency took out several bee stings from around her ears. She recovered from her trauma and we hope she will leave bees alone from now on!!!
Little Dog Jess recovering from her bee sting trauma.
The following day one of the baby quail died. It had never really thrived like its sibling and cousins. We were all sad. If you live in a love of the natural world then you have to deal with death often. It really doesn't ever get easy though! The other day I watched a toad walk across the road as we were driving up to our house. Slowly, slowly it went, not in any hurry at all. It occurred to me then that, if a delivery man was driving past us to the farm, then he wouldn't necessarily have seen it. And that is why, at certain times of the year, we see so many toady casualties.
Frogs are a bit more speedy. They manage to dodge out of the way quite efficiently when we spot them in the garden - hence very few photos!
If you've been following the purslane, I can tell you that it is in fact quite tasty - avoid it if you have kidney problems though. I have put it outside now - it's probably past its best. I'm really pleased I managed to grow it this year. It's something I had never eaten before. It failed last year. I grew it in solidarity with the Palestinian people - at times, over the years, it has been all they have had to survive on.
A week into September brought us dozens of red admiral butterflies. They were everywhere - stepping outside was like opening a tin of paints and letting lots of colours escape! So striking!
Autumn hedgerow
This year is the first year since we came that the thrush family has done well here. There has always been at least one fatality from the broods. Jess murdered one poor wee soul. But this year the thrush family has done well and it's already obvious in the daily birdsong. Day and night!
We have heard the woodpecker numerous times and thought we saw it flying across our path just once - but this month Ginny and I saw it at the feeding station - very clearly. It's a great spotted woodpecker - a super specimen! It seemed to be eating the nuts that were hanging in the forsythia. I didn't know they ate nuts.
On one dog walk this month we had a surprise when a total of thirteen pheasants flew up together from the same spot in the undergrowth. Such a kerfuffle! The dogs were as shocked as we were. It was altogether quite comical really!
Old dog new tricks! Orlando is never happy when we turn back! He's a forward-looking chap!
The busy little vole which lives under the octagonal planter thinks I don't know he's there. He goes so quickly from the trough of very faded nasturtiums to his home, where he is claiming squatter's rights, that he thinks I don't see him!
The mice have come indoors earlier this year. Poor Keith is doing regular drives to the other side of the river to give them a fresh start!! You can't stop them coming in - especially in an old house like this one - but we can make sure they don't stay long!
There have been some lovely sunrises and sunsets this month. On 17th the sunrise was glorious - comforting this mad, crazy world with its shades of warm and soothing pink. It was something beyond sorrow - something of hope.
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Sunset
The hedgehogs continue to visit. There is a remarkable difference in size between them. We don't know how many come but there are at least two as one is normal in size and the other might be a porcupine! Not really! But you knew that didn't you!
Walking up towards the windfarm last week I noticed thousands of dead red clover heads - and a few still flowering in that delightful deep mauve-pink shade that is characteristic of red clover.
Looking through the pantry window towards the windfarm.
Pinks and peachy pinks, mauvy pinks and rosy pinks are all very much in evidence just now - in the remaining flowers, in the skies at daybreak, in the orchards... and silvery pink at sunset with seams of grey and apricot. We all have favourite colours and, for Judith, it's pink. I'm a shades person myself - there's a shade of every colour which appeals to me. I would struggle to find a favourite amongst the many shades I find myself drawn to - but now, as autumn is in full swing, there is colour everywhere and the intensity is so powerful that it thrills me just to stand and stare. Judith's aspen is such a particular delight with its mottled leaves. I shall soak it all up until the trees are completely bare and the garden has been put to bed for winter. We've a long way to go until then!
Just can't get enough of these leaf pictures
There are exciting night skies to come - Hallowe'en, Bonfire Night too.
I've been watching Saturn rise in the south east - it's quite something creeping through the silhouettes of trees - as if it's making a statement about the light always shining through the darkness maybe...
A garden is a lovesome thing,
God wot!
Rose plot,
Fringed pool,
Ferned grot -
The veriest school
of peace; and yet the fool
Contends that God is not -
Not God! in gardens!
When the eve is cool?
Nay, but I have a sign;
'Tis very sure God walks in mine.
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