thoughts

so all day I've been on annual leave, not something I do a lot of really, putting together the frame for a cob oven, and, having recently been told by the doctor during my check up that Im no spring chicken I realised about 3pm that a days slog in the garden is likely to mean Im laid up for a the following day with backache.
Anyway, thoughts... the great thing about garden jobs isn't so much what you are doing but the fact you can ruminate freely as the day goes by.
In no particular order...
- place- the knowledge of a place  - the special connection of a location where we have a real sense of connection is something I am more and more interested in. It has to do with the familiar, the small observations of details which are just slowly changing as the season changes to autumn. The corresponsing changes during the day in the temperature is noticeable, micro changes but enough to make it feel different. I watched the bees during the day and they seemed to respond very much to the change in the temperature, they were out over the last hour frenetically busy gathering balsam pollen coming back to the hive all white, but earlier it must have been too cold for them as they werent interested in getting out. As the day moved on the sounds changed. Late morning (it was a late start) was filled with busy activity amongst the birds, mainly jays and pidgeons and a few crows. They seemed to chill out after midday, and then it was pretty quiet except for a robin jumping around near me, I swear he was telling me something!
It got windier as the day went on, the breeze brought with it smells of the heather from the tops, and balsam, the sweet smell of balsam which is abundant around here. I could hear the stream running fast, its rained a lot these last few days and there is a lot of water moving through. It is a background noise, you tune into it and then it goes again. The trees are changing colour, they are movinginto the autumn colours, beautiful but signalling the end of the growing season. I picked two big boxfulls of apples, stored them in straw and will deal with them for jams and things later on. Finally with place is the feeling of peacefulness in myself. Its good to slow down sometimes and today has certainly been that. The biggest impression of the day is that sometimes nothing much has to happen, its just so good to do very little, but feel like it has been a full day.