The day I fell in love...

8th January 2011

A small glass house and a jelly palm...
crazy dreams & wishes.

Two years ago today we found this house and it was the exact answer to my New Year's Eve wish list... "maybe find a garden with a greenhouse...?"
Exotic plants stuffed the garden room, running all over the ceiling like a jungle. The garden itself - the seven layers of it - spread out like a wide wing, a central rib climbing to a copsed apex, ponds either side, wattle and gum, banana, fig, gingko, yew, quince, apple, blackcurrants and rhubarb, apricot no less ... and two greenhouses!

Time to celebrate ..

Desire Lines

... so, you nip across the road on the crossing, no traffic, and look up to see four long sets of steps going up to the station... what's that odd shaped bit of kerb doing there... I want to walk right across it! I want to get climbing straight away, all in one breath, to the top.
Scores of people must do this everyday... the "desire lines" become pathways, the quickest way from A to B is the straightest ... I just wonder why there two!




Do pairs of people do it side-by-side? Is it someone and a bicycle? Do people go one way and come back the other? What will happen to the tufts of grass in the middle? Which path did I take today?

White Town: Arcos

...is there any point?

treasures...

i always think light is transparent

Peña Flamenca Flores

Arcos de la Frontera: spooky, hidden-exotic, bright, quiet after dark unless you know where to go. In a little cafe, the telly is turned off. It's Friday night, the rest of the family is round for a little chat, a bit of a sing-song, a few twirls in the space between the table and the kitchen. Quite a lot of anis gets drunk, thrown down a ragged throat after a bit of cante jondo... old aunties dance with their brothers, a sevillana. Eight-year old Lola replica steps on the floor... shyly at first, cajoled, then gradually that sort-of-show-off flourish of girly giggling, dancing for her father, dancing with her mum, her grandad, her aunt... generational passing down of passion and skill, big brown eyes flashing promises. We just watch...

Wassailing on the Fête des Rois 2013

Slowly the Three Kings made their way up the path through the pergola, carrying a lantern each, their crowns at various angles. The sparkling light lit our feet up as we all gathered round the big old apple tree, wineglasses in hand, words at the ready. A large Turkish copper bowl held the Wassail... Christmas beer from Harvey's, hot apple juice, cinnamon sticks and cloves, bay berries, fennel seeds and a sprig of holly.
Last year was a very scarce season for everyone's apples we hear. In 2011 we had "bags full", and on the quince too. 2012 was wet at the wrong time (no bees flying), frosty enough to knock off flowers where they had been quick enough to set, and we had TWO apples and one quince!
So Wassailing is very necessary, or Apple Howling as it's called in Sussex.

Twelfth Night - end of the Xmas holiday, Plough Monday tomorrow, Three Kings chosen by finding a favour in the Galette des Rois, leading the party through the woods to the three apple trees. We toasted them by chanting at them, pouring a libation to their roots and placing - literal - toast in their branches...

Old Apple tree, old apple tree;


We've come to wassail thee;


To bear and to bow

Apples enow;

Hats full, caps full, three bushel bags full;


Barn floors full

And a little heap under the stairs

Stand fast root, bear well top


Pray the gods send us a howling good crop.


Every twig, apples big... every bough, apples enow