The sedge has wither’d from the lake and no birds sing…

The theme for this week at Sticky Fingers Gallery is ‘seasons’. I am sitting here writing this post, looking out of the window over the garden as gale force winds and squally showers fling the last few leaves from the rose bushes and I am fearing for the bird table. Something tells me it could be half way up the street feeding the robins in someone else’s garden by this evening.

It is most certainly autumn, and not really the autumn of ‘Seasons of mists and mellow fruitfulness’ anymore. It has a wintry feel about it now; the nights are drawing in and we bought our Christmas cards at the weekend. The one we always receive first, from an old college friend of Peter’s, will be with us in two weeks time with the newsletter telling us of the minutiae of her life over the past twelve months. Where have those 52 weeks gone?

At the weekend we went for a walk in our local park here in Wellington. The Park was a gift from the Quaker Fox family to the town in 1903 as a memorial to the coronation of King Edward VII. It is Grade II listed and it is utterly fabulous. It has the prettiest little house in it, with a beautiful Arts & Crafts style stone tablet embedded in the brickwork and there is  a bandstand still used on a regular basis in the summer. Children and adults alike love it, many sitting above the ‘ha ha’ (to which our attention is quickly drawn as an historic but rather dangerous feature as soon as you walk through the gate), to watch local football matches on the rec, of which you get a great view. It is a long way down…..

Anyway, I have given this post the title I have (it is from ‘La Belle Dame Sans Merci by John Keats) because on our walk I took some pictures of the ornamental pond that has pride of place in the park. The park contains some rare trees, but the pond is surrounded by willow; and by a type of sedge, or rush (or tall grass – my horticultural knowledge is not great…). It is all dying back now and looking rather sad, but beautiful in its own way. I love the picture above because there is an impressionist quality about it, and the picture below (though a little askew) really speaks to me of how cold it was and how glad we were to get home for a cuppa and a piece of cake.

Thanks to Tara for the inspiration to get out and about in even this turbulent weather. Wellington park is beautiful and it is wonderful to take time and breathe in the history on our doorsteps every now and again.