March 'goes out like a lion'!

The earthworks at Avebury

I was back at home for the partial eclipse of the sun on 20^th March but, due to overcast conditions, nearly didn't get to see it at all but, just at the crucial moment, the sky cleared enough to be able to make out the sun as a crescent-shape through the murk – I don't think my friend's welding goggles were really needed! The weather improved after that so I spent some time tending my new veg bed and planting out my onion sets.

The sleeping 'Horned God'

On Sunday, 22^nd March, as it was such a gorgeous sunny, spring day, Jeni and I decided to head to Avebury and the stone circle as I had never been, even though it only took an hour to get there. I was truly amazed by the number and size of the stones and the huge earthworks that surround them and, what I hadn't realised, the village of Avebury sits inside the stone circle! Jeni's friends Tom and Carly were at the stones with their druid group to welcome in the spring and we were invited to join their celebrations, which was really energising as we had to make a lot of noise to awaken the Horned God, who seemed to be particularly deeply asleep! We all stood in a circle and invited the spirits of the place to join our celebrations and then each one of us had to make a statement “I am.....”. The Priestess kicked off by saying that she was the spirit of the wind and others were birds, flowers, etc. By the time it got round to Jeni and me (we were standing just to the other side of the Priestess) I was beginning to worry about what I could be. Jeni chose to be a butterfly awaking from winter hibernation and, in desperation, I chose to be the earthworm bringing fertility to the soil! Nothing like making a humble statement! I'm sure we must have got some odd looks from the many visitors to the stones that day as we capered and sang to welcome in the season but, when you're 'in the moment' you actually don't notice.

Even if you have not reinvented yourself as an ageing hippie there is a lot to enjoy at Avebury, as the village is very picturesque, the pub serves good food all day and the shop sells non-trashy arts and crafts and very good ice cream! After lunch we set off to walk to Silbury Hill and the West Kennet Long Barrow but hadn't realised they were quite such a distance from the village so, when we drew level with Silbury Hill we climbed up a nearby hill and joined the Stone Avenue back towards the village where we had parked the car.

One of the many standing stones (and me) at Avebury

A day later saw me packing my car again and heading to my friends near Oswestry to look after their property while they went off to Brittany for ten days. They were going a month earlier than usual so I was not quite sure what clothing to pack as the weather can be totally different in Powys to Somerset. I was very glad that I had kept some winter weight clothes in my bag as on the day that they left, it snowed! Luckily it didn't last long but it heralded nearly a week of torrential rain which prevented me from doing much outside. I was also very annoyed that I had forgotten to bring my camera with me (the perils of having a home to leave things in!) as I could have got some 'winter' pictures to turn into this year's Christmas cards.

More or less confined to the house I found that time in the valley slowed to almost a standstill, and that got me thinking. We know, from the War Memorial in the nearby village of Llansilin, that a man from this house died in the First World War and I'm sure that he would still recognise 'his' home if he were to return. Apart from the telephone wires on poles down the valley, the view can't have changed much from when he was here. There is very little intrusion of modern day life into the valley as the lane outside only serves a very few houses and doesn't go anywhere that cannot be reached by a better route, so there are only three or four vehicles daily. In the skies above the high valley sides you can sometimes see vapour trails left by planes on their flights to exotic faraway places and, about twice a year, a helicopter arrives at eye level and practices low flying and hovering for a few minutes.

It was even more silent than usual during my stay this year as it was too early for the farmer to have put out his ewes and lambs in the field opposite. I saw lots and lots of fields of ewes and lambs on my journey but this field is remote from the farm so that the lambs have to be quite well-grown and sturdy before the farmer dares to put them out, as he cannot check on them every day. So, in the mornings when I opened the back door and went outside, the only sounds I could hear were the tremendously diverse birdsong, distant tractor noises, distant dogs barking and the far-off sound of sheep – I might have been living in a different century!

I found it quite hard-going being confined to the house so much but made great strides forward in my latest project – knitting jumpers for an orphanage in Tanzania. Now that I have finished my crochet blanket I needed something else to do in my leisure time, preferably something small enough for me to do without getting bored and simple enough for my pretty mediocre knitting skills. Unfortunately, knitting makes my arthritic thumbs ache quite badly so I can only do a bit at a time and had to intersperse it with reading.

When it did stop raining I managed to clear up and clean out the potting shed ready for another season of vegetable growing and planted up several trays of seeds – both flowers (for Dawn) and vegetables (for Tony). Outside, I weeded several of the raised beds ready for planting out the surprising number of plants that Tony had already got established in the greenhouses and cold frames, and also pulled up many ash seedlings which are threatening to take over the wider garden. In future years we will probably discover that they were the only ash trees that were resistant to 'ash die-back' but they are in the wrong places and therefore, technically, weeds!

I took Jasper, the Miniature Schnauzer, out for a couple of walks in the woods during my stay but, after a very stormy night, I decided to walk down the lane in the opposite direction to avoid fallen/falling trees as it was still very windy and there had been a severe weather warning for the area. It was as we turned for home once more that I noticed a bird flying along the road towards us about 4” off the ground. I expected it to divert or fly upwards when it spotted us but it just kept on coming on its chosen flight path and passed us within inches and disappeared around the bend. I am pretty sure, by the very close look that I got as it shot by, that it was a sparrowhawk – very exciting! I also spent ages one morning looking up a 'mystery' bird of prey that was sitting on the telephone wire down in the valley, until I realised that it was a kestrel – it's been such a long time since I've seen this once-common bird close to that I'd forgotten what it looked like!

Towards the end of my stay the weather suddenly dramatically improved and I was working outside in a T-shirt, so I arrived in winter and left in summer – very weird. As I was missing out on a family Easter in Cheltenham I decided to console myself with a bonfire which I started on Good Friday and kept going until the evening of Easter Sunday! To make sure that I had enough material for the fire I, fairly brutally, cut back some very overgrown shrubs of which there are still an awful lot throughout the garden – I think I could work here full-time and I would still never get to the end of the jobs that need doing!

Annoyed with myself for being without my camera, I suddenly realised that I had video capability with my laptop and webcam so, if you have a few minutes to spare, join me on a wander around the gardens using the following link, it's a bit shaky and not fully in focus but it gives a flavour, I think: http://youtu.be/x9w7xFTkgvI

Once Dawn and Tony were safely back from Brittany on Easter Monday I re-packed my car – now with additional trays of seedlings and some tomato plants from France, that Tony had brought back for me – and prepared to head back to Somerset for an overnight stop en route for Cornwall – again!