A Snapshot in Time

This image keeps popping back into my head even though I took it well over a year ago.

We were on a camping trip with my son, Luke and his family to Clapton-on-the-Hill, Gloucestershire.  The campsite, owned and run by an elderly lady, was dominated along one side by a big, old, dark brown barn.  Some of the slats were slipping,  leaving just enough space for an iPhone to take aim.  It was late evening, the sun was sinking and a blackbird sang.  It was as though each object in the barn had been specifically placed in order to create this composition. 

A look through a peephole into an old barn

I can tell you know more, it is just a snapshot in time.  Another moment to savour, it reminded me of:

Adlestrop  by Edward Thomas (about a Gloucestershire village station):

Yes. I remember Adlestrop

The name, because one afternoon

Of heat, the express-train drew up there

Unwontedly. It was late June.

The steam hissed. Someone cleared his throat.

No one left and no one came

On the bare platform. What I saw

Was Adlestrop—only the name

And willows, willow-herb, and grass,

And meadowsweet, and haycocks dry,

No whit less still and lonely fair

Than the high cloudlets in the sky.

And for that minute a blackbird sang

Close by, and round him, mistier,

Farther and farther, all the birds

Of Oxfordshire and Gloucestershire.

 

Open Gardens!

Eight brave neighbours of mine got together to stage an ‘Open Gardens’ day this weekend.  The day could not have been more glorious – a typical English summer day,  bright and warm from the off.

The route through the village provided a peep behind the gates into some of the most amazing spaces.  Some filled with quintessential blooms of delphiniums, foxgloves, hollyhocks, clematis, roses and the rest.  And others were tranquil areas of trees providing an uplifting dappled light.

The event brought the community together, my husband was on ticket and car park duty whilst I made teas and coffees and sold cakes in the village hall with many others who had rolled up their sleeves.  It was hard work but well-worth it, as £1600 was raised towards the Memorial Hall refurbishment fund.  And for many, it was a grand day out – especially as The Brewer’s Arms http://www.brewersarmsclayworth.co.uk/ and the The Blacksmiths https://www.blacksmithsclayworth.com/    were both open for business and offering a discount.  What more could you want?

My own garden is very small but I endeavour to fill it with colour- and perhaps, when it’s time for the next ‘Open Gardens’ day in a couple of years’ time, I will be brave enough to open the gate to it too.