Gratitude

After the terrorist events in Israel at the beginning of the month, it seems a tad tasteless to be posting about my usual irrelevant trivia. How can I witter on about knitting and days out when people have lost their lives, their loved ones and live in constant fear? Even in my country, the repercussions of the events of October 7th are still very much resounding: Weekly marches on Whitehall continue, not all the protesters showing peaceful intentions; posters of kidnapped Jewish children are torn down; Jewish children are being advised to remove the badges from their school blazers for fear that they will be targeted, and the Metropolitan Police have come under fire for apparently turning a blind eye to blatant acts of antisemitism. Can this really be happening in 2023? I thought we had come further than this.

I don't usually discuss any political opinions on this blog - trying to focus instead on the lovelier aspects of life. Having said that, my heart bleeds for those involved and so, I have added my name to the October Declaration, condemning antisemitism and expressing support for British Jews. It also calls on the media to condemn Hamas for what it is: a terrorist organisation. I'm looking at you BBC!

As I've said many times, however, this blog serves as my diary and the content reflects the ordinary day to day things that I want to recall. I try very hard not to take my life for granted. Sometimes it's tricky - day to day stresses, worries and irritations affect us all - but, as recent events have highlighted for me, I am one lucky, lucky girl and I should try to remember that more often. 

Here then, are some happies from the last month. They may be mundane, they may be trivial, but they represent my life at the moment, and I am indeed blessed.

Some of my pumpkin harvest. I didn't grow the huge carving pumpkins this year, opting instead for a smaller, supposedly tastier variety. To be honest though, apart from the size, they didn't seem much different:

Making kimchi. Here it is fermenting quietly, wrapped up snug in a fleece. It is also sitting on a hot water bottle as my kitchen is so cold - I'm still holding out against putting the heating on!

A trip to Arlington Arts to see a one woman show about Agatha Christie's missing days. I really enjoyed it, it was just a shame that the audience was quite small:

Meeting my friend, C, at Batsford Arboretum. We took a picnic and it was lovely. Autumn seems a little delayed in our parts this year, so we were hoping that there would be a bit more colour. According to Alexander Armstrong on Classic FM, it's because the summer was so wet. My favourite tree was a cypress, grown from a cone that fell off the Duke of Wellington's coffin during his funeral parade. 

A day trip to Turville in the Chiltern Hills. This picturesque village has been used as a set in many films and TV programmes including 'The Vicar of Dibley', 'Goodnight Mr. Tom' and 'Chitty Chitty Bang Bang'.

The climb up the hill to the windmill is tiring but well worth it for the view. We recuperated with our picnic and a wee dram at the local pub afterwards:

I woke up one Sunday with a need to see the sea. The weather was fine, so we set off for Christchurch in Dorset for the day. 

Vegan 'fish' and chips on the beach. It was nice that the cafe had a vegan, GF option, but it would have benefited from a bit of lemon, caper juice and nori:

For £2.50, we took the ferry across to Hengistbury Head. Here we took the coastal footpath and blew away the cobwebs with the glorious sea breezes, enjoying our flask of tea on a conveniently placed bench on the headland.

Visiting E and L in Bristol. We went out for mezze at KooCha and jolly nice it was too!

A literary walk honouring war poet Edward Thomas in Steep in Hampshire. He lived in several houses in the village and is commemorated on the war memorial. Given that several of his poems describe the beautiful, local scenery, the residents have dedicated the hillside to him: 

The place wasn't called Steep for nothing! The path up the hill had us making several stops to catch our breath. The view from the top of 'Shoulder of Mutton Hill' was heavenly and a fitting tribute.

A memorial window to Thomas in the local church:

A local monument to 3 villagers - Edward Thomas, John Wyndham and Sir Alec Guinness. We were just admiring it when we fell into conversation with a local gentleman, who stopped to admire Bridget.  Apparently, he lived nearby and washes the stone when it gets too green with algae.

A trip to Shaftesbury in Dorset. This is the view from Gold Hill, famous from the Hovis advert if you are old enough to remember it!

Shaftesbury was very pretty, with lovely views from Park Walk and the interesting ruins of Shaftesbury Abbey:

 We had just found out that it was 'International Curry Week', so we stopped off in Salisbury on the way home. Sadly, our favourite Indian street food place was closed, so we nipped into one in Andover instead. This was slightly disappointing as it smelled much better than it tasted.

Playing with clay. The 'martian skulls' are each dedicated to a weed and imprinted with the name, leaf and flower. The quotation at the base is by A.A.Milne and states that 'Weeds are flowers too, once you get to know them'. Very fitting for my garden!

Blobs made from leftover clay:

Christmas knitting. These are 'Hermione's Everyday Mitts' and despite what it looks like, the 2 pairs are actually made out of different yarns. The top ones are made from a wool called 'There be dragons' and the second pair are made from acrylic for my more strictly vegan daughter!

Our local Apple Day, where you can take your apples to be juiced:

A visit to Tyntesfield (a Victorian Gothic house and garden near Bristol) with my friend, S. I set off in glorious sunshine, only to hit a thick bank of fog on the way. It took me a while to locate the fog lights on our 'new' car! Luckily, it had cleared by the time we met up.

They had a fantastic selection of pumpkins in their greenhouse:

A trip to the American Museum in Bath. We have been here before, but it was well worth a return visit.

My favourite quilts in the exhibition:

An example of Grandma Moses' work in the folk art section:

We spent ages watching this dragonfly laying her eggs in the garden pond:

Lastly, a trip to the one man show 'Haunted'. He acted out F. Marion Crawford's 'The Upper Berth' and 'The Monkey's Paw' by W.W. Jacobs.  It was excellent.

Well, that's all for this month. Anything exciting going on at your end? I'm hoping to get another post in before Christmas, but with my current rate of posting, I wouldn't put money on it. 

For now, Toodle pip.

 

Am Yisrael Chai.