As the saying goes (or something like) 'You can take the 'girl' out of the country but you can't take the country out of the 'girl'.
For a large part of my life I have travelled widely, enjoyed every minute of it and now have many, many happy memories of the places I have been and the people I have met. Now I am 'past it' as they say and memories are important.
I have recently read 'Why Women Grow' by Alice Vincent (who is a columnist for The Guardian and Gardens Illustrated). The book is subtitled 'Stories of Soil, Sisterhood and Survival' and is a fascinating collection which as Katherine May says 'shows the beauty and grit of tending the soil in difficult times'.
It set my mind working = sometimes these days it needs a bit of a push to get going. 'Survival' is a word easily applied to the elderly. Slowing down and not being able to walk much means one has to have something to occupy one's mind. And what occupies my mind a lot of the time - apart from family and friends - is the countryside and plants.
I have my garden and D, my gardener, who is here in the garden as I write this. I can't tell you just how much pleasure I get from watching yet another self-sown flower pop up.
But it struck me last evening as I sat looking out on the piece of waste ground opposite my window. The whole of life is there from birth to death and beyond. There are two hawthorn trees - I have watched the leaves come out on trees which were just a bit of hedge when I came but are now two youthful trees - this year giving a fantastic show (and scent) of May blossom. There are half a dozen young Ash trees; cut down every two years they are really Ash Shrubs and at present just a clump of eight or so 'smallish' bushes. The rest is grass - all kinds - just seeding and waving beautifully in the slight breeze. There are several large clumps of daffodils in Spring and along the edge a large patch of wild geranium in full, deep pink flower at present. And standing guard at the bottom is a tall, graceful Silver Birch tree and two hazels which shivered with catkins earlier in the year and in the Autumn will drop plenty of hazelnuts.
I have just chatted to D out of the computer room window and we plan - in the Autumn when the grass on the plot has been strimmed - to throw a few handfuls of foxglove seeds (my garden is full of self sown foxglove flowers at present) willy nilly into the mixture. If I am here next year that is another thing to look forward to.
For like us all there is birth, childhood, youth, middle age, elderly and dying going on in that plot. And the only thing likely to last longer than us humans (who have no right to think ourselves more important) are the trees - for they will be here long after all of us are gone.
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26 comments:
I think gardening and nature watching also breeds acceptance. We may plan, prepare, plant, do our best, but at the end of the day we cannot control how well our crops will do. We have to accept outside influences like the weather. And at the end of the season we assess and then make plans for next year!
That is why farmers are so down to earth, they are aware of this everyday.
That is the best we can do..think of the future, however old we are
When I lived in the country I really loved it, and although I would like to have a place to go to in it now, it makes sense for older people to live in towns I think. I am lucky to live in Bath, where the countryside is so close that you can walk to it within 20 minutes.
Love more flowers!
hugs
Donna
Tom is right. The older you get the less easy it is to live in the country. Town life whilst not as satisfying puts you in touch with shops, transport and medical help. Walking out to the countryside like you can do in Bath or here in Todmorden is an option if you stay fit.
A beautiful reflective post which I enjoyed reading. Thank you. Catriona
You express your thoughts so well, Pat! Thank you!
Tom and Thelma - I am lucky to live in a small town and my back garden wall marks the end of the town and the beginning of fields which go on for miles - the best of both worlds.
Lovely post. I often gather seed pods when I go to gardens. I often forget what they were, but no matter, I welcome the seedlings anyway.
The book you suggested, 'Why Women Grow: Stories of Soil, Sisterhood and Survival' sounds right up my alley. The cover is a piece of art as well. Growing plants shrubs and trees has given me endless hours of satisfaction and pleasure. It's definitely a favourite way to lift my spirits and help take my mind off errant worries.
You've made some lovely keen observations here. I share your love of growing and landscapes...especially the mighty tree which will out live us all.
What a wonderful post and methinks that life should include planting trees and throwing handfuls of flower seeds hither and thither as often as possible wherever you go. What inspiration!
Hugs!
Gardening is optimistic. You are believing in the future vision that will rise from the soil.
My sentiments entirely. I look forward to all the seasons and like you, hope that I shall be here for the daffs again next year.
Briony
x
Love the idea of broadcasting seed from your foxgloves around the waste ground you can see. One of my many favorite quotes about flowers... "Where flowers bloom, so does hope." Lady Bird Johnson
Have a lovely weekend!
Living in the country does give us a better sense of our place in the natural order. I continue to plant trees that I may never see mature, but that's okay. The planting itself is a hopeful, positive act, and a testament to my belief that the world will go on despite us all.
The saying opening your post, has many versions - all of which are true.
We use a lot: "you can take a person out of the neighborhood, but not the neighborhood out of the person".
Methinks, trees are superior to humans as they outlive humans.
I think that perhaps at last we are beginning to realise just how important all aspects of nature are to we humans, with trees at the top of the list. We have been so careless in taking care of it, I just hope our awareness has not arrived too late.
One of my favourite gardening memories is of when I received my tiny greenhouse and sowed the first trays of seeds, and seeing them popping up through the compost. Each one was a tiny miracle.
For each individual decay is different. For some we decay in our mental health .For some mental health is strong but the physical body lets them down. You seem to know it takes to keep going. Keep your head in the game.
Another lovely post.
I love the last line. I think of the ancient oaks at Bradgate Park that shaded Lady Jane Grey and still do so today. I really felt as if time meant little as I stood beside those trees thinking of the people who stood beside them long before me.
One of my greatest pleasures in life has been growing things; in my case mostly fruit and vegs. Our gardener, when I was very small, helped me create my own veg patch, and it's continued ever since. Even now I simply HAD to put-in a few Courgette and Broccoli plants, and the orchard is full of fruit. Without that I would find life very tedious.
Although I have never had my own garden, I absolutely love being outdoors and observing the subtle (and sometimes not so subtle) changes of each season. The circle of life and death continues every year; what seemed dead in winter comes back to life in spring; sometimes it remains dead, making way for new life. It is comforting to know, I believe.
This brings to mind the quote, 'The true meaning of life is to plant trees, under whose shade you do not expect to sit.' X
Thanks evryone.
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