As Ellie heads north and homeward from her travels around the far reaches of Europe we decided on Green for our next Colourboration...
Clockwise from top left...
The wheat has been a constant source of interest for us this year as we have walked up through the fields, along the pathways made by the tractors. We have watched it sprout and then grow and green up until it has finally ripened and been harvested in the last few weeks. I think I like the lush green phase of its youth best, but also the massive straw bales which the machine ejected with a sort of methodical thud as it progressed around the field. They have all been collected up now and the field is ready for ploughing so we had to time our post-harvest gleaning just right as it yields bags and bags of straw for the dog kennels through the winter. The gleaning felt quite biblical as we gathered up some left-overs on a balmy evening and carried them along the lane to home as the sunset.
Last year I decided to over-winter the geraniums and was delighted with myself, not only for getting them in before the first frost but also for keeping them watered and thus flowering right through to spring. It's been a rubbish year for them outside but I will hack them back and try again this winter too. It was all welcome greenery and kitchen window-sill colour when we appreciated it the most. And don't geranium plants have that lovely scent.
These are the knitted and felted Milagros hearts that the Knit Angel made as gifts for Team dovegrey at Port Eliot Festival. I have since been initiated in the art of making them and very satisfying they are to knit and then ruin on a hot wash/fast spin too.
I had to include a picture of the eschallonia hedge if we are talking 'Green' because after those two years of dead twiggy scaffolding with ne're a leaf in sight, this year it has thrived. We have been frightened to cut it for fear of killing it again, but it is going to need some trimming soon.
That little in-between picture is Rocky's Field behind the garden, now under new farm management and so left for grass and silage in the summer, and for homing cattle from high Dartmoor in the winter. Watching the cutting and baling and then being able to walk through it again easily for a while is always a pleasure. This is currently one of Nell's favourite 'fetching' fields.
Lichen apparently grows best where the air is cleanest and clearest and we have a profusion.
I couldn't mention 'Green' without sneaking in a little picture of our Green lane. These are marked on OS maps with large green dots about a centimetre apart, and this one is lovely to walk up in the pouring rain because in the summer it has its own green roof.
I love the commemorative plaque to The Pilgrim Fathers on the Mayflower Steps on Plymouth's Barbican. The salt-laden sea air has given the brass a rich patina of oceanic green. Every time we visit we promise ourselves that next time we will have some paper and the brass rubbing crayons with us...and we always forget.
And now I can't wait to see what Greenery Ellie has been looking at on wherevertheroadgoes and how interesting that Ellie sent me this message too...
Was just looking at your blog and saw the post about the Anouk Markovits book and thought aha! Here we are tucked up close to the Ukrainian border in northern Romania - an area which used to belong to Hungary and we've been to two Jewish/holocaust related museums today - very poignant. I know what you mean about avoiding violence in one's reading too.
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