Happy New Year to you
all! Having transferred all my memorable dates from one diary to
another, written in the commitments that I already have for the year
ahead and filed my online Tax Return, I feel able to write another
blog with a clear conscience!
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| 'Honeycomb' tea light holder |
I had nothing planned
before Christmas apart from a special treat for Jeni and me – a day
of porcelain tealight lantern making in Cheltenham at the beginning
of December. We arrived at the venue at the Wilson Gallery (the new
and improved Art Gallery and Museum in Cheltenham) at 10.00am and
were soon busy, along with six other ladies, learning how to make
these translucent lanterns. I have never done any pottery/ceramics
work before and Jeni had never worked in porcelain, so we were keen
to learn – I think we were all novices on the course but it was
amazing how successful we all were and what differing designs
emerged. We had been asked to bring items to imprint onto the
porcelain and I had brought a few shells, Jeni had brought some ivy
leaves and dried flower stalks and there were some other bits and
pieces brought by the tutor. It was a bit like using rolled out
pastry, printing the design onto the flat surface and then wrapping
it around a circular base and joining it with an overlapping seam.
The course finished at 4pm with a three-quarter hour lunch break and
by then I had made ten tealight holders! One of my favourites was a
picture that I drew, using various blades on my penknife, to create a
vista with hills, trees, a house and birds in the sky – when the
tealight is lit it looks as if the windows in the house are all illuminated! The tutor took away all our efforts to fire in his
studio kiln and then, a week later, I went back to retrieve two
carrier bags of lanterns from the Guild of Gloucestershire
Craftsmen's shop. It was really exciting unwrapping each holder to
see how it had fired and I was really pleased with the effects once
they were lit.
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| Tea light holder unassembled |
I was all set for a
quiet run up to Christmas after that, but I got an urgent email from
my friends Geoff and Sally at Bristol asking if I could do an
emergency farm sit as Sally had to go away for the weekend and Geoff
had injured his ankle and was in plaster! So, off I went.
It was a beautiful
sunny day so I decided to go the scenic route via Cirencester and
Tetbury, rather than use the M5, as I would be able to enjoy the
Cotswolds en route. The A435 runs south from Cheltenham to
Cirencester and is a road I frequently use. As I drove along enjoying
the golden light and long shadows of the midwinter sun I got to
thinking about this road and how diverse it is.
At first there is the
long steep climb up the Cotswold escarpment at Charlton Hill to the
summit at Seven Springs where the road from Gloucester crosses it
from west to east on its way across the Cotswolds. Seven Springs has
long been disputed as the real source of the River Thames and it is
certainly the source of the little River Churn that runs all the way
along the A435 to Cirencester and eventually joins the Thames near
Cricklade. When I was a Girl Guide (when the world was young!) I took
my patrol on a hike to Seven Springs where we saw the springs
bubbling out of the ground and the plaque that reads (in Latin) Here,
Father Thames, is your seven-fold source. If
you stop at the layby on the A417 near the burger van just before the
junction with the A435 you can still see the pool where the springs
emerge.
Just
after that junction there is a farm on the left where there are 5
dark blue grain silos of varying sizes. These were my markers when I
was a child because, when I spotted them, I knew we were nearly home
from our holidays and I didn't need to ask 'Are we nearly there now?'
Even after all these years I still think that I'm nearly there once I
spot them on the horizon – I shall be very upset if they eventually
decide to take them down! What is so amazing is how ell they have
stood the test of time – they must be nearly sixty years old!
From
there it is a gentle incline down the dip slope towards Cirencester
passing Coberley, Cowley Colesbourne and Rendcomb with arable fields
rolling away on either side. At this time of the year they either lie
fallow or are sown with the fresh green of winter wheat and rooks
rise lazily from their busy feeding as I sail along. At one point a
small covey of partridges took flight from one field, flew across the
road just above car height and clattered down into the field on the
other side of the road and, during the shooting season large numbers
of young pheasants can be seen wandering in a dazed fashion along the
verges. Unfortunately, they do not have much experience of roads and
cars and tend to learn the hard way about road safety!
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| Snowdrops at Rendcomb |
The
River Churn runs to the left hand side of the road after Colesbourne
and can be seen very easily from a car. If, in springtime, you turn
off the main road at Rendcomb you are rewarded with the most amazing
display of snowdrops on both sides of the hump-back bridge which
spans it at this point and where there was once a mill. It is a
favourite outing with my Mum and I when we are in need of signs that
Winter is ending and Spring is on its way. As I was driving towards
Rendcomb through some mixed broadleaf woodland (mainly beech) I
spotted about eight deer crossing the road from the wooded slope and
disappearing down towards the stream on my left, their coats glowing
a warm red in the low sunshine.
The
next village is North Cerney and here is to be found Cerney House
Gardens which are open to the public for most of the year. They have
recently designed and created a Snowdrop Walk around the estate and
they also have fabulous spring bulb displays, too. One quirky aspect
of the gardens is that there is a little tea room within the garden
where you can make yourself a cup of tea and have a piece of homemade
cake, leaving payment in the Honesty Box.
The
road curves and bends reflecting the meandering nature of the Churn
at this point, as it weaves its drunken way through water meadows,
which frequently flood in winter, and where the silent heron can
often be seen waiting patiently for small fish to swim by. All the
hedgerows are smothered with Old Man's Beard that looks, in the
sunshine, for all the world like blossom – I have never seen as
much of this plant anywhere else on my travels.
Finally,
passing the old turnpike house on the right I enter Stratton and then
into Cirencester itself, where I negotiate the ring road and head off
towards Tetbury, passing the 'real' source of the Thames on my way! I
love this route, especially in good weather, as it shows the
Cotswolds off to perfection and there is always something interesting
to see.
The
farm sit went off without a hitch and Geoff was able to hobble around
in a support boot – he has torn his Achilles tendon, after an
argument with one of the Labradors – so was not such a bad patient
as I'd been expecting! On Winter Solstice evening I was tending yet
another bonfire in their field overlooking Bristol, looking at the
twinkling lights on the suspension bridge and watching the sheep as
they edged nearer to the circle of warmth. When I went to check on
the fire later they were all gathered round and a few were lying down
almost in the embers – such a lovely, peaceful, Christmassy scene!
I
made it back to Cheltenham in time to make the mince pies and ice the
Christmas Cake and then the festive season was upon us. My two
children came on Christmas Eve and my sister and her family came on
Christmas Day in time for lunch so there were eight of us around the
table, followed by present opening and, much later, turkey sandwiches
and Christmas cake around the fire. On the day after Boxing Day we
all went our separate ways again and life resumed a quietness that
had me feeling quite introspective.
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| 'Little house' tea light holder |
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