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Exotica. 

When the Midlands Textile Forum decided on this title for an exhibition to be staged at the Botanical Gardens in Birmingham, (on from now until 30th September), I had to smile!  I could just imagine certain men of my acquaintance brightening up with the titivating thought of what they might see!!  But they would be disappointed.

Not in terms of the quality of work on show, but in the subject matter. 

Exotica refers to the plants that can be found at the Botanical Gardens which, although not large (15 acres), is perfectly formed!  Just like the exhibition.  22 works are shown by 17 artists in a long thin gallery with good lighting and plenty of space around the exhibits. 

Themes are good for exhibitions.  One study day at the Gardens led to different interpretations from each artist, and the range of textile techniques used, the different approaches, the different subject matter taken from the Gardens worked well together.

Themes are also good for individual artists developing their work.  I used to be a total scatterbrain, tempted by a myriad of techniques, a wealth of subject matter and influenced by everything.  (Some would say that I still am but I suspect they don’t know what I was like before!!!) 

For me, finding weaving was a turning point in my life.  From living the life of a musician, I found myself pulled to weaving.  It stimulated my brain cells, helped me to look at life with the eyes of a visual artist, and challenged me in many different ways.  Then, in 2006, I got the book Above The Earth.  Casually flicking through this lovely coffee table book, I was taken over by a total certainty that I had now found my genre in weaving - a total expression through weaving of what I am about.  I still have that feeling today, and am aware that this will probably be with me all my life.  Satellite and aerial images of the unpopulated areas of the world, away from the obvious visual physical damage that humans have perpetrated on this lovely planet, inspire me with thoughts of how to affect people’s perception of their world through weaving. 

The limitations of having a theme can be a positive thing - a jumping off point for delving deeper.  Limits are good for stimulating creative thought and lateral thinking.  As a child, how often can boredom develop into imaginative ideas for play, for making something out of materials close at hand.  I know for me as a child that I developed some crazy ideas that sometimes worked and sometimes didn’t, but I always had fun finding out. 

Now I have found my theme for weaving, my world is opening up in ways unimaginable to me before. 

Do you have something that inspires you in a similar way?  Do you want one?  Sometimes just thinking about it can help address that overwhelming feeling that can come from too much choice.  Perhaps this week might be a good time to ponder what you want to be your special theme…..

Over the last few weeks, I’ve indulged in some creative downtime!  After the hectic scheduling of Complex Weavers and Convergence, Agnes and I headed off for a road trip (aka Thelma and Louise - without the dramatic ending!!).  Agnes was in charge of itinerary, and we headed out to Arizona, aiming for Page, via the Painted Desert and Petrified Forest.  We took two days to get there, so we could take in unscheduled photo-call stops along the way.  Once at Page, after a day to get our bearings, drive around and see what was available, stopping in for quite a while at the lovely little Powell Museum in Page, each day we scheduled somewhere to visit in the morning, and then chilled out for the remainder of the day.  It worked well with the weather (thunder storms most days in the late afternoon and evening), and gave us some downtime to process everything we saw and experienced.  We both journal to help that filtering process, and we both took loads of photos, sometimes of the same shot, sometimes completely different things. 

Over the 10 days we had, we visited the Grand Canyon twice - the north rim was amazing both in sunlight and in cloud and rain - Bryce Canyon (which was simply amazing!), Antelope Canyon, took a ride down Glen Canyon, and came back to New Mexico via Monument Valley.  I haven’t got round to sorting out my photos yet as I’m teaching non-stop until September, but as and when I do, I’ll post a few with my Sunday blog. 

People had told me previously that these places are not appreciated until they are experienced, and I can wholeheartedly endorse that view.  The feeling you get when you are standing near the edge of any big canyon, especially when it is shrouded in mist and rain and you can’t see the edge (!), and suddenly the mist rolls back, the rain lifts and a peak is illuminated by a shaft of sunlight and glows a rich red is breathtaking.  This is when you appreciate the wonders of nature firsthand, and realise your place in the big scheme of things and acknowledge deep in your soul how small you are and yet how integral a part of the whole shebang.  It is a salutary experience and worth remembering when back in the hum-drum of everyday routine.  What food for the brain and visual stimulation for the eyes. 

Agnes and I had a ball!  We are both still friends <G> and found we have more than weaving in common.  We think in a similar way, so we appreciated the wonders of everything we saw, in both nature and in the people we met along the way.  We now have brains full of inspirational images and ideas that will, at some point, find their way into our different forms of weaving.  We’re now waiting with baited breath to find out where the next Convergence and Complex Weavers Seminars will be - so we can plan our next road trip in the US!!

Like many other weavers, my blog this week is about old friends and new friends.  After visiting New Mexico for the Complex Weavers Seminars and HGA’s Convergence 2010, in Albequerque, many of us are buzzing with new techniques and information that we’ve learnt, and ideas from seeing others’ work and the surrounding areas in New Mexico.  The art galleries that have been visited, the different approach in cultural terms that we have absorbed, and the camaraderie that we’ve shared are all food for our brains, our eyes and our souls.

On stepping out of my taxi at 11pm after a very long day travelling the first person I saw was my room-mate for 3 weeks, Agnes Hauptli from New Zealand.  Agnes and I first met at the last Convergence in Ruby Leslie’s workshop, the 3Ds of 3D.  Then last year, Agnes came to me on a bursary to study jacquard weaving on my old card-driven jacquard sample looms, and then we met up a week or so later for the European Textile Network’s conference which was held in Haslach, Austria with the theme of jacquard weaving.  On the strength of getting on well together, we decided to be room-mates at the two Albuquerque conferences and then to go on a road trip together (more of that another time). 

The next day it was wonderful to meet up with lots of Complex Weavers I’d met before, and lots of laughter and hugs abounded!  The fashion show was good fun, although I didn’t really get to take a close look at the wonderful garments and scarves that were paraded round as I had to read out all the technical information on each item, but this has to be one of the great parts of the Seminars.  The work is outstanding and the reception of each item was warm and admiring.  The weavers’ handshake (going up and feeling someone’s handwoven item) was very evident and this is one of the few occasions when you know you aren’t going to get funny looks at the mildest, and a slap on the face as the most extreme reaction! 

At each meal-time, we try to sit at a table which has people we’ve never met before and have a chat, and the atmosphere is so congenial.  Every meal is a time to enlarge our friendship pool and find more soul-sisters (and brothers!!) 

The seminars are all given by the knowledgeable CW members and what a variety!  From historical techniques to cutting edge techniques, from kumihimo to shibori, and everything in between, it is a feast of knowledge, experience and enthusiasm!  Also I just have to mention the Lillian Whipple Retrospective and the wonderful surprise event of an animated weaving movie created by Alice Schlein with the woven help of many of our most respected weavers!  It was awesome!! 

There’s loads more I could say but I’ll run out of room to talk about Convergence if I don’t move on now.  Convergence had a wide range of classes of various lengths, from 1 1/2 hours to 3 days, some practical hands-on, some lectures.  The vendors hall was busy and there seemed to be more booths there this year than on the previous occasion, at least to my eyes.  There were so many wonderful, delicious yarns and gadgets to drool over, and looms to try out and covet!!  There were lots of events going on in several places and it is my one regret that I didn’t have the time or the energy to go to them! 

My heartfelt thanks and congratulations go out to both the organising teams for their wonderful skills in pulling off two excellent conferences.  Meg Wilson and her team at Complex Weavers broke new ground in setting up this Seminar, and Candy Burbag and her team had a huge task (usually thankless!) in putting on Convergence.  Thanks guys for a wonderful, inspirational, heart-warming, friendship-enhancing time in Albuquerque!

On my last day in Kuwait, we visited the Al Hashemi II dhow which stands proudly on the waterline below the Radison SAS hotel.  Although the Maritime Museum was closed for a conference, we were able to wander over the dhow and take photographs.  It is a truly impressive structure.  You will get lots of information about the building of the dhow, and its two sister ships, through the web link at the top of the blog. 

As you can see, I like to take more unusual angles and this one through the deck canopy to the mast and rigging really appealed. 

There were some amazing ropes and coils of ropes.  I won’t bore you by putting all my images up but this will give you an idea of the size and complexity of the ropes.

This is the view from the top deck towards the stern.  The dhow reminds me strongly of the galleons of Elizabethan times, and is the sort of image that comes to mind for pirate ships in old stories, and the vessel in The Voyage of the Dawn Treader by CS Lewis, an old favourite of mine and one of the Chronicles of Narnia - a wonderful series of children’s books that I read and re-read even now!  I didn’t know that there was a film version of the book until very recently, so will have to watch it now! 

The wheel which you can just see on the left foreground here is huge - larger than me and I’m 5′ 8″.  It might help you to get an idea of the scale of the vessel.  There are men working on the deck caulking on the mid-deck to the right.

The attention to detail on board this vessel is meticulous.  These are the cabin roof joists in the stern below decks.  They are hand-gilded. 

The rooflights in the main cabin are beautiful, standing proud of the top deck. 

I couldn’t get my images of the ballroom, which is located in the belly of the boat, to do justice to the space, so I hope you will find images on the hotel website which will compensate.  However, these are the doors leading from the lobby into the ballroom and to me they have an Egyptian feel to them.  Beautiful and elegant.

Here’s a closeup so you can see the detailing.

Well, that’s all I had time for.  I hope to go back one day, if I’m invited, and would encourage you to visit if ever you are in that part of the world.  I had a wonderful time and met some wonderful women.  The Kuwait Textile Art Association is a diverse group of people and very welcoming.

Welcome to part 2 of my photos of Kuwait. 

I was only there for a few days, and a few of the museums Patricia and I went to visit were shut.  The one I’m really sorry about was the Tareq Rajab Museum.  If I ever get back to Kuwait, which I sincerely hope I will, then that is at the top of my visit list!! 

The first of my images today is of the Liberation Tower.  A communications tower which was started before the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait, but remained remarkably undamaged.  It was completed after the liberation of Kuwait and is a landmark in the city.  A Google search will bring up some lovely images, but here is mine!

The next image is a minaret that is just outside Sadu House and I thought it was rather attractive!

The next stop was the Museum of Modern Art.  An unassuming place, situated in what looks like a derelict area, with the new Maritime Museum (only just opening) across the way, it was previously a boys’ school, and later a girls’ school before it acquired its current status.  It had an exhibition of a Norwegian artist’s work which was very vibrant, as well as its own purchased works of Arabic and figurative art, and many sculptures in the courtyard.  I wasn’t sure if it was permitted to photograph the paintings, so I took the safe option and didn’t.  However, the sculptures were ok….

 This inner sculpture courtyard had some lovely pieces in it, which are shown below.

I loved this piece, with its hands as molars set into a huge bottom mandible!

This was one of several pieces exploring the tension of trying to escape from confined boxes.   Very powerful images.

This was one of several sculptures in both bronze and wood, of Arab figures with no features but which convey the nature of the Bedouin and their timelessness.  Very contemplative.

This is the outer courtyard where the administration offices and the guest suite is located. 

Then it was off to Kuwait Towers, the iconic water towers that are always shown whenever Kuwait features in the news. 

These two water towers dominate the sea front at this part of the coastline.  Kuwait sweeps round pretty much a 90 degree angle at this point, and the Towers are on the edge of the corner, so they have a big vantage point.  The pinnacle houses the lighting system for the two towers. 

This angle made me reflect on Mandelbrot’s fractal of the Gingerbread Man.  If you don’t have a clue what I’m talking about, google Mandelbrot, or fractals and you’ll come up with some stunning images!  The Gingerbread Man is one of the fractal shapes that recur time and again….

This image was taken from the revolving observation platform towards the top of the larger tower.  Although the glass was somewhat murky (all that dust), there is a lot of atmospheric dust in the area, and I loved the looming look of this office building which I’ve nicknamed the CheeseStraw, or should that be Cheese Twist?   It looks like a brooding sculpture!

In the evening, we were heading to the old souq when I caught sight of this reflection of the sunset in an office building, and as we were stopped at traffic lights, I used the opportunity to capture it. 

This sails sculpture in the sunken centre of a large pedestrian underpass leading towards the old souq is a water feature.  A beautiful piece of public art.   

Finally, we dropped in to the Al Hashemi 2 Maritime Museum, which was shut, but the boat was beautifully lit. 

On Sunday, I’ll post the remaining photos of the Al Hashemi 2 which has a very interesting story….. In the meantime, Saturday is Midlands Textile Forum’s regular quarterly Babble & Dabble Day!  So I look forward to seeing some of you there!

I was hoping to have got some great images of my trip to Kuwait online by now, but I am having problems uploading images to Wordpress, so whilst my website people (doesn’t that sound posh?!!) are getting back to me (hopefully with a solution), I thought I would put forward a few things that I propose to do this year.

1.    The workshop I gave in Kuwait on Colour and Texture was really well received and it got me to thinking about writing some blogs on what I cover.  So over the next few weeks, I shall be putting down some of the thoughts I have and suggested exercises I recommend to help with using a design source into a piece of textile art.  Although I am a weaver, my workshops are geared to most textile practises.  Obviously, I don’t have the intimate knowledge that, say, a shibori dyer would have to a particular technique relating to shibori, but I can give suggestions and put forward ideas that might inspire or prompt further research. 

In fact, translation of ideas into textile techniques is my particular area of expertise.  Over the 4 years or so that I have been giving these workshops, it is this aspect of my presentation that strikes a chord with so many people.  The technical information that most people require can easily be found through books or guild membership.  For instance, I often give these workshops to Embroiderers Guilds, and whilst I am no dab hand with a sewing machine or a needle, I can see potential effects in different media which can lead to a different and effective approach.  My approach to colour might well be similar to yours or to other peoples.  I have read many books and attended quite a few workshops from other people in the past, so there are bound to be many similarities.  However, there might be a different way of looking or a combination of ideas that suddenly clicks in your mind.  That’s the kind of connection I’m looking for. 

2.    Over the years I have had a fair number of emails asking for advice on all sorts of things related to weaving (and sometimes not!!) and I’ve been asked several times recently to share my responses in a wider way online.  So I will, on occasion, publish a few of the queries, and my answers, and it would be lovely if anyone wants to contribute and chip in with ideas, suggestions, or questions.  The weaving community, as so many others, is a warm, friendly (usually!!), and sharing community, so I look forward to hearing from you.

3.    So that’s to come in the weeks ahead.  In the meantime, and on the same track, I would like to tell you about a company that’s organising textile tours in the UK.  Textile Holiday Tours UK has been set up by Lorraine Traer-Clark and she has got together a varied collection of tours that might appeal.  The Gardens and Textiles Tour is one I am leading in May and July, and I’m very excited about it.  As you can see, it’s right up my street in terms of colour and texture and it should be a lot of fun! 

4.    I’m also really excited about a new publication by a weaving friend of mine.  Robyn Spady has just announced the publication of her monograph on Handwoven Decorative Trim - an introduction to weaving passementerie trims.  http://spadystudios.wordpress.com/  (Jan 8th).  Robyn is a committed (and I mean that whichever way you wish to read it!!! <LOL>) weaver and a great gal!  We have had some lively times together and hope to meet up again at Convergence this summer where Robyn is giving a workshop, whilst I am leading 4 seminars. 

That’s all for today, but I do hope to have some Kuwait images up very soon.

I am sitting in my hotel room overlooking the bay towards the old Kuwait City.  Through the heat haze and the dust raised by the building works in the city, mingled with the higher dust raised by troops in the desert, I can see the murky outlines of some stunning high rise buildings.  To the far right, on an edge where the land peaks before scalloping back into another sweeping bay, sit the iconic Kuwait Towers - the water towers which are seen on TV whenever Kuwait appears on the news.  I hope to visit them today and to be able to post some images.  They are beautiful with circular mosaic patterns in blues and whites.  These towers used to be the tallest construction in Kuwait, with other buildings restricted to no more than 4 or 5 levels.  That has now changed.  The Liberation Tower, a communications building erected after the expulsion of Iraqi troops from Kuwait, topped the height stakes for a short while and that can also be seen from my window.  However, it has now been overtaken by office buildings and the latest under construction which winds around its centre.  Once complete, this building which is being clad in glass will be a very dramatic presence in the business centre of Kuwait. 

It is wonderful to be here, and a bit of a relief!  With the big freeze in Europe, so many flights were cancelled that I nearly didn’t make it at all.  Happily, after 24 hours of delays, lots of queues and many phone calls to try to re-route, I managed to catch a flight to Bahrain and then a connection on to Kuwait.

  My hosts, the Kuwait Textile Arts Association, and especially Patricia Redding who is looking after me, are wonderful people.  The Kuwait Textile Arts Association, which is under the auspices of Al Sadu House, promotes the knowledge and skills of textile related arts in Kuwait and the Gulf region, and they frequently have visiting tutors and lecturers from around the world.  For example, next month, they have a speaker from Mali talking about Mali textiles.  They are also in the beginning stages of organising a textiles tour to China! 

The group is a multicultural non profit organisation and was established under the patronage of Sheikha Altaf Al Salem Al Sabah in October 1994.  The aim to nurture and promote the art and craft of textiles and fibre arts, and to facilitate sharing and exchanging of ideas, knowledge and skills in Kuwait and the Gulf Region.  Membership is open to any person interested in furtheringtheir knowledge of the world of textiles.   If anyone reading this blog is interested in joining, you can contact Patricia at presidentktaa@yahoo.com 

On Saturday morning, I led a Colour and Texture Workshop and met a diverse group of ladies, from countries across Europe, Canada, India, and Kuwait.  English is the language of communication (thankfully for me) and the workshop was held in the Al Sadu House, a beautiful old-style family house near to the Parliament Building in Kuwait City, which was re-opened in January 2007 after extensive renovations.  Al Sadu means weaving in Bedouin, and the house holds an interpretive exhibition about weaving in Kuwait, including the nomadic Bedouin weaving and urban weaving for bisht making.  A weaving co-operative has been set up and visitors may see and learn the skills involved in Sadu weaving. There are several warps set up in one room for weavers to weave.  Goods are sold in the shop, and courses in textiles are held.  Sadu House has instigated a programme for schools to help children learn about the weaving heritage of Kuwait.  There is also a lovely library with many Arabic, English and French books on textiles, including Peter Collingwood’s ‘The Makers Hand’, which was like seeing an old friend!  I have taken a few images but I hope to go back today and take some more to share with you, but photographs are not usually permitted at Al Sadu, so my images will be subject to Sadu House copyright. 

Last night I gave a talk in the central courtyard of Al Sadu House about the history and development of jacquard weaving, and told the story of my jacquard power loom.  There was a full auditorium and the audience was wonderfully attentive.  It was really strange to me to start my talk, only to be faced with some photographers standing right in front of everyone, snapping away!  If this is a tiny taste of paparazzi, then it’s just as well I’ll never be famous!!!  It was really unnerving, but I carried on, chatting away as if they weren’t there.  Apparently, this is quite normal, but it was a new experience for me.  One incredible follow-on to my story of Hattie is that one of my audience was at one time a lecturer in Constructed Textiles at Heriot Watt University in Galashiels, where Hattie lived before coming to me, and she had woven on Hattie!  What are the odds of that - travelling so far to find, quite by chance, someone who actually knew my loom up close and personal from the UK! 

I now have two days to discover more of Kuwait City, in the company of Patricia.  She comes from northern England but has been in Kuwait for many years so is an excellent tour guide!  Tomorrow, I hope to put up images from today’s sight seeing along with more of an explanation of Al Sadu weaving in Kuwait.

I’ve written this blog several times now.  The first time round I was reflecting on Christmas, then I decided that what I’d written was probably too controversial!  The second time, I was talking about change but felt that was also too provocative!  (Ironic, isn’t it?  Something which purports to document the writer’s thoughts and yet I feel I have to censor so I don’t offend anyone!!!  What does that say about me?!)  So I’ve decided to write about a book I’ve just read which seems to me to be a great message for this time of year.

The book is The Year We Seized the Day.  It was written by Elizabeth Best and Colin Bowles, both living in Australia, and was given to me by fellow weaver and friend Agnes Hauptli.  In it are passages of reflection, and of hope for the future.  The book is about walking the Camino, the road to Santiago.  Other writers have written about it too. Most notably for me was Paulo Coelho, in his book The Pilgrimage.  Fellow weaver Louise Lemieux Berube has also walked the road to Santiago.

It’s just started to snow here.  I’m surprised because, although everywhere else in the UK seems to have had bucketloads of snow this winter, so far we have escaped.  Ice, yes, but snow no.  Whilst others have been snowed in and struggled to get around, we have been smugly driving, walking, shopping.  But it seems that that is about to change as it is coming down thick and fast!  And I haven’t even walked the dog yet!!  That’ll teach me for reading a book and writing this blog before getting washed and dressed!! 

Weaving wise, it’s been a quiet time.  Not because I’ve not got any ideas - far from it!  My brain is bubbling with all the things I want to try!!  But, I managed to aggravate an old spinal injury by putting my reading glasses on the audio speakers, just like I do every day, only this time I twinged something which has put me out of action for a week so far!  Poor Dad, the first time he visits in 7 years, and all the plans I had for things for us to do together completely scuppered!  The plus side, I have had time to do some reading - all the magazines that arrived before Christmas have been read, as have several books! 

Also weaving wise, I want to pay tribute to a wonderful weaving friend, Pat Williams.  Pat died shortly before Christmas and will be sorely missed.  A lovely, gentle, walking encyclopedia of weaving, with humour and generosity of spirit, Pat was a stellar teacher and an encouraging mentor.  We shared a room at the Jacquard conference in North Carolina last January and had a great time.  Although I knew of Pat’s health problems, she never wanted to talk about them, preferring to focus on more positive things.  Pat, you will be missed by all who knew you. 

I’ve got a little out of sync with my blog postings.  Next week I’m off to Kuwait for a week of lectures and workshops, so I’m not sure whether I’ll manage to post anything from there, but if not, you’ll hear all about it when I return.  In the meantime, I hope 2010 will bring at least some of your hopes and dreams alive.

Sorry to republish this, but I was asked by Dusan from Arahne to make it clear that Arahne did not charge for my phone calls, but that I was referring to my telecoms provider.  I am more than happy to clarify that, with my apologies if anyone read it that way.  I also forgot to put in the links for my weaving friends, so I’m pleased to have got the opportunity to update those. 

I missed last week’s blog as I was working away on a TC-1, a computer jacquard handloom.  What was even nicer was that I was visiting fellow Complex Weaver, Belinda Rose.  Belinda has a TC-1 set up at the moment for 60 epi and 14″ wide, with 4 modules deep.  She has a black/white warp so that was ideal for utilising double cloth structures.  I was exploring a number of images to create dimensional effects.  I don’t yet know the total outcome as I have still to repair the various ends that need mending and then to photograph the work before shoving it in the washing machine!! 

I’ve been using ArahPaint4 and ArahWeave, and after overcoming some teething problems with the Operating Software, and several expensive (but well worth it) phone calls to Dusan and Anton at Arahne, and a helpful email from fellow weaver and friend Sheila O’Hara, I was able to do what I wanted to do….  The weaving community is a wonderfully warm and helpful one! 

Since I’ve been back in my studio, I’ve mostly been tidying up and getting everything in order so as to de-clutter my mind before I fling myself back into the sample weaving on the AVL dobby loom.  I’ve been thinking how to translate some of my jacquard thinking into dobby weaving, and am looking forward to trying a few things out. 

I find December to be quite a strange month.  There’s the frenetic activity in schools and shops, compared with the quieter times in the studio with less teaching and fewer workshops and lectures.  I actually like this down time.  It’s a time for reflection, a time for planning, a time for re-evaluating priorities.  This economic downturn we’re all in has repercussions for most of us, and I am no exception.  It’s really easy to feel low when the money dries up and times are tough, but we have a choice in how we react to these circumstances.  Today I made my decision -  I’m going to relish the challenge of overcoming the difficulties.  So this winter, I am using my existing stash and not buying any more yarn.  I am selling off yarn I no longer require (such as a 6ply cotton rug warp!!) and some books that I have duplicated.  I am tidying up so that I know what I have, and I am using my book resources combined with my own weaving experience to develop my work.  Technology is wonderful, but I sometimes forget how resourceful we humans can be, and when pushed to it, it’s good to rediscover that side of us. 

One of the many sayings that sounds good to me is “Want what you have, not have what you want”.  Right now, that’s a good place to be!!

Autumn is most definitely with us now.  In the last two weeks, the weather has got progressively colder, and the days shorter, although we have only had one real day of rain here in the middle of England.  The sun is much lower in the sky and walking Charlie in the mornings is a little more dangerous when on the road walking east.  The trees are beautiful this year – still with the leaves on but changing into glorious shades of reds, oranges and yellows before spilling down onto the paths, fields and roads.  The American term ‘fall’ aptly describes the physicality of the season, but doesn’t do justice, in my mind, to the amazing kaleidoscope of colours, scents and textures of this time of year.  Autumn is a much more imaginative word, conjuring up images of past years, and memories of kicking through the leaves, bobbing for apples, lighting the fire for the first time for 6 months, closing the curtains against the darkening sky, and curling up with a book and a cup of tea – even crumpets and poached eggs.  All these thoughts are summoned to my mind by the wonderful word Autumn.

I’m not one for clearing away the fallen leaves, although I have a neighbour who religiously sweeps up the leaves on every dry day.  Too much like hard work to me!! And also, I like to think that I’m protecting the ground against the harshness of frosts and feeding the soil at the same time!  Obviously, once the leaves on the drive get wet, they become slippery, and that’s not a good thing.  But I’d rather wait until they are wet and then scoop them to one side of the drive.  There’s nothing quite like that swishy, crunchy sound of walking up the drive when the leaves are on the ground in dry weather!  This morning’s walk with Charlie was up the opposite side of the valley, and there was a slight mist, giving the further trees and church roof in the next village of Checkley that romantic look so well described by Jane Austen in her novels.  The sun was lowish, but high enough to shorten the shadows so that they didn’t overwhelm the scene.  Yet again, I stood and appreciated the wonderful countryside in which I have the good fortune to live. 

Last weekend I was down near the south coast, on the borders of Hampshire and Dorset, at a place on the edge of the New Forest called Ringwood.  Years ago, when working for the Bournemouth Orchestras, I would drive past Ringwood on a twice-weekly basis.  This time of year the New Forest is stunning.  I was giving a talk at the New Forest Guild of Weavers, Spinners & Dyers, and was staying with a fellow weaver, Dawn Willey, and her husband, Alan, in Verwood.  As Dawn and I drove to the meeting on the Saturday morning, another beautiful day like today, the sun illuminated the spiders’ webs on the low bushes along the verges.  It was like looking at stick on stick of candy floss!  Stunning!

Although we’re all so busy chasing our tails these days, nature has the power to stop us in our tracks and just breathe deeply, breathing in the beauty and scents, and absorbing the wondrous world that is ours, available whenever we allow ourselves to stop and look.