Random thoughts and photos of my journey through life…
If you cannot read all your books…fondle them—peer into them, let them fall open where they will, read from the first sentence that arrests the eye, set them back on the shelves with your own hands, arrange them on your own plan so that you at least know where they are. Let them be your friends; let them, at any rate, be your acquaintances.
Winston Churchill
12 Comments CherryPie on Jan 4th 2015
When we visited Hinton Ampner the first floor of the property was closed due to storm damage to the roof on February 2014. This was more than made up for by the gardens, the orchard and the parish church of All Saints.
A restored eighteenth century house with a twentieth century garden. The garden was made by Ralph Dutton (Lord Sherbourne), who wrote a book on Hinton Ampner: A Hampshire Manor (Batsford, 1968). He also wrote a history of the English Garden (1937). Mea Allen described its ‘one of Britain’s great gardens to be seen if you can. A classical beauty of layout and ornament’. Ownership then passed to the National Trust. The garden has walks and terraces with hedges, topiary, ornaments and excellent planting. Dutton explained that ‘my interest lies more in shrubs than in flowers’ what above all I want from a garden is tranquility’.
10 Comments CherryPie on Jan 3rd 2015
On New Years Eve I was inspired by a link that appeared on my Facebook page:
HAPPINESS JARS!
Dear Ones -
Here it is the end of the year, and I thought it might be a good time to re-introduce to you all the concept of a Happiness Jar.
Here’s me with mine!
What is a Happiness Jar? The simplest thing in the world. You get yourself a jar (or a box, or a vessel of any kind) and every day, at the end of the day, you grab a slip of paper and write down on it the happiest moment of the day.
Even on lousy days, you do this. Because even on lousy days, there is one best moment (or at least, one least-worst moment.)
You stick that little piece of paper in the jar.
Over the years, you have a record of your happiness.
On bad days, I will thrust my fist in that jar and go fishing — pulling up a handful of great moments that I would have utterly forgotten, had I not documented them.
I’ve been doing this practice for years, and I love it.
If my house ever caught on fire, this would be the one material object I would grab before I ran out the door…because what’s inside this jar? THAT’S WHERE IT’S AT — the whole point of this life.
Over the years, my Happiness Jar has taught me much. What continually amazes me is what ends up on the slip of paper every day. Not awesome events, not huge achievements — usually just a small and tiny thing, a moment of awareness…that moment when you step outside and between the house and the car you get hit on the top of the head with a beam of sunlight, and suddenly feel awash with gratitude simply for being alive, and you think, “Yes. This is it.”
It’s usually something that small — and something that grand.
I know that many of you have started this practice, too — and I love seeing the pictures of your jars, and hearing how you have adapted this to your own lives. I love the woman who put one in the middle of her dining room table, and she and her kids each put an entry in there every day — what a cool family practice! And I love the woman who wrote to me last week saying that she had the hardest year of her life, but she kept her Happiness Jar practice going the whole time, and today — on the last day of the year, she’s going to pull out each piece of paper in the jar, to remind her that even now, even in hard times, there was always one good moment a day.
So if anyone wants to begin this practice tomorrow, a New Year is always a great place to start!
Sending love, and, of course, wishing you all an abundance of Happy Moments in 2015!
ONWARD,
LG
I have recycled a box that held a Christmas gift. From New Years Eve, I have started writing down my ‘Happiness Moments’ of the day, I won’t necessarily restrict myself to one a day…
9 Comments CherryPie on Jan 2nd 2015
As 2014 came to a close, nature provided a glorious sunset.
22 Comments CherryPie on Jan 1st 2015
I know our time zones are all different so midnight will bring in the New Year at different times for each of us. But tonight, ‘New Years Eve’, as midnight turns in the UK is the perfect occasion for me to raise my glass to friends, old and new, and also remembering absent friends.
CHEERS!! I raise my glass to you. Thank you for sharing life’s journey with me, I hope that any troubles from 2014 will fade into distant memory and I wish you, your family and friends a happy, healthy and peaceful 2015.
xxx
20 Comments CherryPie on Jan 1st 2015
I invite you to read my reflection on 2014 on the Broad Oak Magazine blog.
12 Comments CherryPie on Dec 30th 2014
Filed under Heritage, Holidays, Salisbury 2014
In September 2014 archaeologists discovered an encampment about 1.5 miles away from Stonehenge. Using carbon dating it has taken until now to be able to determine the age of the encampment to be around 6,000 years old.
The site of the encampment has been named Blick Mead and it is about 1.5 miles from the Stonehenge monument. Archaeologists tested charcoal remains at the Blick Mead site and carbon dating determined that these charcoal remains date from around 4,000 B.C which is hundreds and possibly even a thousand years before Stonehenge was constructed.
Archaeologists also uncovered a number of other remains and artifacts that point to a settlement or encampment being present in the area around Stonehenge. Archaeologists have uncovered the remains of large cattle called Aurochs, the ancestors of our modern cows and bulls that were eaten by early hunter gatherers at Blick Mead. In addition to cattle remains archaeologists have found burnt flints used to start fires for cooking and warmth and other tools such as primitive knives. The newly discovered Blick Mead site probably attracted early hunter gatherers in Britain because of a natural spring in the area providing a steady source of fresh water for both humans and animals and rare algae that has changed the color of native rocks from brown to pink. No doubt this area would have been an excellent place to have a settlement or encampment.
Historians and anthropologists believe that artifacts and structures from the Blick Mead site could shed light onto the pre-history of Stonehenge and its inhabitants which has long remained a mystery. There are still buildings that need to be studied such as a 33 meter long wooden structure that was possibly used for ritual burials that was unearthed at the Blick Mead site this September.
Archaeologists and historians are concerned for the future of the site due to a plan to build a tunnel beneath the Stonehenge landscape in order to divert traffic from the nearby A303. The Department of Transport have said the will consult with experts to ensure the planned tunnel project does not disturb historical and cultural areas and artifacts.
28 Comments CherryPie on Dec 29th 2014
