Week 25

A solstice swim; peak bindweed trumpet; my new meadow walk

Hello!

This is my weekly post where I talk about the things that have made my week feel especially like this week, this particular moment in the year, and then you tell me yours. It’s a marker in the sand, a reminder that everything is always changing, and an encouragement to stop and notice before it all flies past in a blur. And what a week to stop and notice, perhaps one of the two most important in the year. Because here we are, over the other side, with all the resultant seasonal anxiety that brings. Gulp.

But let’s put that behind us for now. There will be lots of time for holding each others’ hands as we descend towards midwinter (I’m sorry! I can’t help myself…) but for now we in the northern hemisphere are glorying in the beautiful pinnacle of the year. Let’s start with your comments from last week, when days were still elongating (she says, wistfully…), if only by seconds… Here’s your Week 24:

A day in a beach hut in Southwold; stopping the car to peruse roadside stalls selling plants; the mock orange in flower, scenting the garden; an evening rainstorm followed by a low lying mist, like an autumn morning [don’t mention autumn! - Ed.]; making elderflower cordial; majestic foxgloves; a first proper beach day, leaping into the icy water and shrieking; garden nasturtiums just starting to show; the arrival of nectarines; hiking with friends to a waterfall; competition with blackbirds for who can get to the best peaches first (Portugal); sheltering in the shade with a book; cocktails on a rooftop terrace, followed by a walk home in the never-ending twilight; endless sunshine and light nights, and beautiful dusking (the Hebrides); a proper thunderstorm - proper thick rumbles and fat, heavy rain; Dressage Test season - practicing canter circles while fox cubs peek out from hedge; a second clutch of blue eggs in the blackbird nest; first two strawberries eaten by the birds; black swallowtail caterpillars fattening up on parsley; tiny green tomatoes; breakfasting under the shade of the laburnum tree; cherry branches bowing with generous gifts (France); honeysuckle and elderflower scent drifting in the warm evening air; daily evening trips to the allotment to water thirsty plants; A battered male luna moth and a bright rosy maple moth (North Carolina, US); rain and more winter rain in Aotearoa (New Zealand), with the strawberries in the garden a distant dream.

Yes BUT! No…I wont say it…

What a beautiful week, thank you all.

Here’s my Week 25:

A solstice swim

This is our local swimming lake, and I went for a swim on the solstice. It is always a beautiful experience, swimming alongside the metallic blue damselflies skimming over the water, and peering into the reeds as you pulse slowly by, feeling like a river creature. I particularly love swimming down to the farthest point we are allowed (it is too big to lifeguard all of, and part of it is roped off) and then floating on my back and listening to the water, and looking up at the sky. As I did this three swifts began swooping around high above my head in the blue sky. A perfect summer moment. I felt very lucky.

Peak bindweed trumpet

I noticed this week that the wild roses on the common have all gone over. They really had their moment, but it has gone. I think I thought they would last longer, and it made me scout about for other fleeting flowers. I don’t pay much attention to bindweed for the obvious reason that it’s an absolute menace. But look. It’s also beautiful. I guess some menaces are. Is this peak bindweed trumpet week?

My new meadow walk

I mentioned a couple of weeks ago that I start to avoid the woods at this time of year, as it all gets a bit too gloomy for me. So I have been seeking out airier walks to take with the dogs and found this one by turning right on a walk where I usually turn left, intrepid explorer that I am. Well what a find. The dogs LOVED it, charging through the long grasses and kicking up clouds of grass pollen, and then sneezing and sneezing. A hit all round. It’s funny sometimes realising what I have missed out on all these years of living in Bristol and not having dogs that drag me out of bed to find places to stomp around.

That’s it from me. If you havent yet, do have a look at my midsummer film. A lot of it is actually about ‘Old Midsummer’ on the 24th, so you haven’t missed it yet.

Please tell me what has made your week particularly ‘this week’. I am especially looking forward to hearing about your solstices, northern or southern hemisphere, or even equatorial, though I suppose it’s not much of a big deal down there…but we love to hear what is going on all over the world, especially at these pivotal moments, as the world swings on its axis. Have a lovely week.