Sustainability evening

On Thursday, we have a welcome event for some of the local folk involved in sustainability and conservation. I've been busy putting together some factsheets about the various sustainable aspects of Mucknell (and will have to re-read them to stir my memory before Thursday), and an overview (pdf, 153kb). One day, when I get myself together, the factsheets will all go on www.mucknellabbey.org.uk.

Preparations for Thursday also include a good tidy of the kitchen garden by Anthony, and general cosmetic weeding. We'll serve some of the elderflower champagne I made at the beginning of June, but today we thought we ought to try it out first. Verdict: a bit watery, but has a little bit of something and is refreshing.

Nature writing

From "Beechcomings" by Richard Mabey:

I'm still in a state of puzzled excitement about that odd synchrony between scientific description and picturesque sentiment. I know the cynical Gordon is closer to the truth than the romantic Rosemary [in their reactions to Burnham Beeches, in George Orwell's "Keep the Aspidistra Flying"], but I don't see that their truths are necessarily contradictory. At school, I was educated as a scientist, and enthralled by the mechanics of life. But I became uneasy about science when I started writing, fearful that in some way it might 'contaminate' my imagination. I kept it in quarantine in a kind of mental biohazard enclosure, taking it out only under the strictest security. But I'm wiser now, and increasingly believe that finding a common ground between respectful, objective views of nature and respectful views of our own visionary images is what 'nature writing' ought to be concerned with. So I dig deep into the biochemistry I once knew, and swat up on what is really happening in the rites of the fall, hoping that it may reveal something about the beauty of trees in autumn, or at least their meaning.

Kitchen garden progress

Rogation procession

We had a Rogation procession after the Eucharist today, staying close to the house rather than beating the bounds. It was almost a howling gale, with the thurible swinging every which way and the holy water blown back in our faces.

And here's the service sheet (pdf, 258kb) for any who are interested.

Estate map

Here's a map I just produced for the Guest Wing. The red and green pencil hasn't scanned terribly clearly, but hopefully you can make it out if you click to embiggen. One day perhaps I'll smarten it up.

A time for...

"For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven" (Eccles 3:1; NRSV):

• a time to go on holiday, and a time to return to the daily rhythm;
• a time for sunshine, and a time for rain, and hopefully a time for more rain;
• a time for sowing (onions and leaks), a time for planting out (beans and squashes) and a time for harvesting (lettuce);
• a time for building nests, and it seems, sadly, a time for throwing the eggs out of each other's nests;
• a time for being attentive to external things, and a time for being attentive to internal things;

and therefore

• a time for writing a blog, and a time for refraining from writing a blog... at least writing daily.

Mayday Mayday

Greetings for May Day, Beltane, the Feast of SS Philip and James (although this year it is transferred), Low Sunday and the 225th anniversary of the opening night of the Marriage of Figaro at the Vienna Burgtheater!!

It is the last day of the Easter Octave, so things will now be reverting to normal, whatever that is. I have been wondering how much our neighbours have got used to our bell, maybe even using it as an aide memoire. If so, they will have been very confused during the last two weeks, what with the different timetables of the Triduum and Easter Sunday and all the day-by-day variations since. I am looking forward to getting back into a rhythm. But first I am having some time away, so there will be a break of about a couple of weeks in the blog. In the meantime, I am hoping that there will be some proper rain, and that I will return to thriving fruit and veg.