Friday, December 13, 2013

Decommissioning

Waking up this morning to the green without fog, it has been foggy three days running, it curls round in late afternoon, a light mistiness under the tall trees, figures becoming shadows as they walk along the path.
In Winter we stay in, darkness in the morning and glorious sunsets late afternoon the sky magnificently coloured with deep hues of blue and red - the sun a fiery ball as it descends below the horizon.
Thoughts turn to gardening next year, here maybe or somewhere in Cornwall, too late to start another garden watching fruit trees grow but perhaps one with wild flowers. The hemp agrimony comes to mind, tall pink fluffy heads loved by bees and butterflies, it spread happily round the old garden.  Tall stems of golden rod, the spicy scent of tansy, evening primroses which opens its flower with a shiver of golden delight in the evening.  Watching Monty Don vigorously raking old turf to sprinkle wild flower seed yesterday made me realise that we should fight back against the increasing monotonous growth of grass.
Things that I love in these flowers of the countryside, are the meadowsweets as they fill a glade of trees with their soft haze of white, I see this plant here in Essex alongside the road side verge, and there is that other cloudy white that will fill the lanes and that of course is cow parsley, refusing to die down under the continuous onset of herbicides.  Things I have noticed here are the yellow of ladies bedstraw, clumps of starwort and of course woods of bluebells, the little wood anemone as well.
Cornwall will of course have its own ecosystem of wild plants, thickly clustered in the tall banks of the lanes, looking at houses down there I don't see much in the way of wild flower gardening, so it will be an interesting experiment.
The studio is being 'decommissioned', so my heart starts to believe that we will really be moving, for example the long 12 foot work bench has been put into the garage, also the drying boards, the books have been sorted to what to keep and what to give away.
Uploading photos last night to Flickr, amongst them was the German trip to take six scrolls to the museum there last January,  this was one of the last jobs to be finished with, my love has retired with a sense of relief that he will never have to kneel at the work bench again or ruin his sight with the detailed work of restoration.


Books for sorting

Stacks of Japanese papers!

Silks are kept in canvas bags up above

A proper table to work on


Bietigheimer Museum
Town hall?

Inside the beautifully painted museum

This was of course the replica Hochdorg burial chariot


Replica Hochdorg burial mound

It must be the thought of the coming snow that brings the town of Bietigheimer to mind, it was very cold when we there but everyone was so friendly.  Regina the museum's curator looked after us so well, a translator for the lecture, a guide for us through the town so that there was always something for us to do. We even met the mayor in the coffee shop just in front of the museum he took us round his domain with great civic pride though LS thought him a bit of a rogue!


And if you ever get cynical at Christmas, this advert will make you smile

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