the running wave

Over twenty years ago, when we lived in Hampshire, we had a young Indonesian girl lodging with us.  She was the friend of a cousin, adopted by an American couple, and had just been expelled from her school in the UK, so needed a perch for a while!  She was a brilliant girl, full of beans and always bouncing, a bit like Tigger.   Every so often she would land in the kitchen, first thing in the morning, and with eyes sparkling, announce that "It's a great to be alive day today!".  And today is one of those days.  Tilly and I have just walked round the barley field.  The sun is white-gold in a powder blue sky.  It's Sunday, and we have visitors coming for tea, so I have some baking to do this morning. Then, with a bit of luck, the sun will still be shining this afternoon, and we can sit in the garden. Can't resist showing you this blackberry leaf, glowing in the wood as we passed.   Delicious colour.

The annual village flower show was held in the community hall today.  I missed it last year, so resolved to go along today.  It's the kind of event which keeps Britain great!  I love the tradition of exhibiting vegetables, knitted baby bootees and soft toys, the competition for the best sweet peas and dahlias, the home baking, and the offerings from the local children. However, before breakfast and the flower show, Tilly and I had another walk round the newly harvested field.  During the course of yesterday, the rows of billowing straw were baled up into giant cotton reels.   In the background of the photograph below you can just see the purple heather on the Lammermuir Hills.   So to the flower show.  I am not entirely sure what this creation was depicting, but it seems to have won no less than two trophies! This was my favourite.  These jolly folk are just part of a long line of characters! No village flower show would be complete...

We went to Glasgow on Monday.  There was an exhibition at The Lighthouse of work by Australia's most celebrated architect, Glen Murcutt.  It had the inviting title 'Touch the Earth Lightly'.   The Lighthouse was designed as a warehouse, in 1895, by Charles Rennie Mackintosh.  It was built behind the offices of the Glasgow Herald.   http://www.thelighthouse.co.uk/about/history Since 1999 it has housed Scotland's Centre for Design and Architecture, offering great exhibition space.   Having travelled through from East Lothian, the first thing we looked for were the loos! Mackintosh designed this water tower, which housed an 8,000 gallon water tank.  There are some lovely internal spaces in the building, which has woven in the new with the existing really well. This is part of a glass balustrade, designed by Alexander Beleschenko.  He uses the gingko leaf in his design, which is blue on one side, and white on the other. The...

When so much in our world is unpredictable, you can always rely on the countryside to respond faithfully to the seasons.  As we inch towards the end of summer, the harvest began yesterday. This morning Tilly and I were able to walk round one of our favourite fields. They haven't baled up the straw yet, and it lay in long, soft pillows.  I could have thrown myself in one, but I had only just got out bed!   The modern combine harvester, or combinester as my daughter called them when she about six, is a very sophisticated beast.  The driver now has a computer screen, with GPS, probably a sound system, and sits on a padded seat in an air conditioned cab, protected from the elements -  all a far cry from the farm worker of days gone by! In the small lake, in one corner of the field, there were four pink patches of amphibious bistort, bobbing about on the ripples, as the wind blew across the water. Along the western edge of the field, gathering...