Daffodil Day

Tags

charity, Daffodil Day, open garden, spring flowers

The garden with the bridge over the water

Every year a friend from church holds a Daffodil Day in her garden in aid of her church.  We get to walk round her wonderful garden full of spring flowers and also partake of refreshments provided by her and her colleagues.  There are stalls selling plants and cakes and other produce and also raffles and a tombola.

A wet and windy afternoon

This year’s Daffodil Day wasn’t as successful as usual because of the awful weather on Sunday.  There were frequent heavy showers often merging into more prolonged rain.  The wind was very blustery and many people were put off from attending.  Towards the end of the afternoon there was even a thunder-storm!

Not as many flowers as usual because of the cold weather 

Richard and I arrived in the early afternoon and parked our car in one of the less muddy places.  We enjoyed a hot drink and a cake while sitting under the awning.  We bought a couple of small cakes and a pot of raspberry jam.  We took part in the tombola and bought two plants.

I love this yew hedge!

It has an inviting archway.

The many trees are under-planted with daffodils and other spring bulbs.  There are primroses and snowdrops and violets and many other pretty flowers.

A tree just starting to blossom

Scillas

Anemones

The summer-house 

View of St Margaret’s church through the trees

This post is dedicated to wonderful people like Cordelia who work so hard all the time to raise funds for good causes with often very little return.

Out Like a Lion!

Tags

blackthorn, daffodils, early dog-violets, flint boulder, gales, garden plans, geese, goose nest, greylags, hyacinths, mallards, March, muck spreading, primroses, scillas, starlings

In my post at the beginning of the month I wondered if March would go out like a lamb because it had come in like a lion.  Well – no – the month is going out as it came in, with gales!

I have just been outside and found my poor Hyacinths have been flattened!  These are Hyacinthus Delft Blue.

The Blackthorn tree (Prunus spinosa), just coming into flower, has been battered.

The flowers are being ripped off the trees by the wind.

Ten days ago the local farmer began muck-spreading and we have only just got rid of the smell!

More countryside joys!

We have had a small flock of Starlings (Sturnus vulgaris) visiting our garden during the past week.

Despite my having put the ground feeder in a cage with extra chicken wire on two sides of it, the Mallards (Anas platyrhynchos) seem determined to get to the bird seed.

The daffodils are coming out nicely around the garden.

The path round the pond is beginning to green up nicely.

The Early Dog-violets (Viola reichenbachiana) that grow in the grass-path round the pond are looking very pretty.

Early Dog-violet (Viola reichenbachiana)

The Primroses (Primula vulgaris) in the ditch are looking fine too. When we first came to live here there weren’t any primroses at all, only cowslips. These have appeared in the last couple of years.

The Greylag geese (Anser anser) often come up close to the house to see what food there is for them to eat.

I took advantage of their absence and had a look at the nest which has a few eggs in it. This was taken before the goose had finished laying her eggs and started sitting on the nest.

This is the garden on the south side of the house. Work in progress: I have cleared the beds of weeds and other unwanted seedlings and will cover them with soil-improver next.

The central grass path will be kept (there is a flowerbed just out of shot on the left) and I want to position a couple of arches over it and train roses and clematis up them.

This narrow area of grass is difficult to mow and will eventually be removed and replaced with a gravel bed and stepping-stones to give access to the windows, electricity meter and the drain.

The soil here is very poor; full of stones and builder’s rubble.  I am constantly finding very large flints just under the surface.  People in days gone by used to think that stones grew and I can understand why they might think that.

This is a flint boulder I dug up last week – the ruler is a 30 cm one.

I put a pot with a primula in next to the boulder to give you an idea of the size.

Blue Scillas

White Scillas

 

 

These Scillas are flowering in the flowerbed on the left of the grass path.  I have yet to weed here!

 

 

Thanks for visiting!

Wells-Next-the-Sea

Tags

beach, Norfolk, pine woods, Rain, sand, sea, Wells-Next-the-Sea

Wells-Next-the-Sea

 

Last summer we visited the seaside town of Wells-Next-the-Sea in north Norfolk.  It is a very attractive little town with plenty of narrow, winding lanes, pretty cottages, interesting shops and a lovely wide green surrounded by elegant Georgian houses.  The place is very dear to me as I spent many holidays here as a girl.  It gets very crowded nowadays during the high-season and there is nowhere to park if you arrive after mid-morning.

Unfortunately, we set off rather late and stopped in Fakenham on the way to have lunch.

Fakenham is a pleasant market town in Norfolk

The place where we had our lunch.

 

 

Wells has a harbour but the beach is a mile away from the town and is reached by a narrow road and paths. There is a high bank next to the road which was built about 150 years ago to consolidate the channel that connects the sea to the harbour and also, I presume, to act as a sea defence.  The paths are on the sea-wall.  During the summer months there is also a narrow-gauge railway that shuttles holiday-makers to and from the beach.

View from the top of the bank, across the tidal waterway (called ‘The Run’ I believe) that connects the harbour with the open sea, to the mudflats and saltmarsh beyond.

 

We decided to forego the delights of the town and so drove along the road to the beach car-park at Pinewoods.  We found nowhere to park (of course!) so left Alice and Elinor there with our belongings and drove back to the town where there was an overflow car-park next to the playing field.  We thought we might return to the beach on the little train but we had just missed one and there was a long wait for the next.  We walked along the sea wall in the strong sunshine.  It was very warm work.

Looking towards the sea in the distance

A poor photograph of Viper’s-bugloss (Echium vulgare) that was growing at the side of the path

 

 

 

We found the girls and shared out the bags and chairs and started to walk through the pine woods to the beach.  I remember playing in these woods with my brother and sister over forty years ago when it was wilder and there were fewer designated paths through the dunes.  Red squirrels were still to be found there in the early 70’s but they were under great threat and had died out by the mid 1970’s I believe.  Sadly, I never saw a live red squirrel only a dead one.  At intervals along the path there are steep slopes and steps up to the top of the dunes from where you suddenly see miles of sandy beach and the sea in the distance.

A lovely sandy beach where one can find pretty shells and where jelly-fish swim in the shallow warm-water inlets

I love to see the pine trees so close to the sea.

 

 

We walked some way across the sand in the direction of the sea.  The tide goes out for miles here but when it turns, it rolls in very quickly and many people get stranded on sandbanks every year by not heeding the tide and not listening out for the warning siren.

The beach huts here are on stilts

More beach huts

 

 

As seems to be what happens to us whenever we visit this beach, no sooner had we settled ourselves on the sand when the wind picked up and large clouds appeared.  I was glad of my hat and coat.

What is known as ‘an interesting sky’.

A bit of cloudy sky didn’t put people off their relentless march towards the distant sea.

It’s okay! That raincloud isn’t coming this way!

It looks quite nice over there.

People began to make their way back towards the woods.

This is me! I was glad of the hat and coat.

A yacht going out to sea. Notice the off-shore windmills in the distance. These days it is rare to find a place where you can look out to sea and not see windmills.

The sea was getting rougher

There are always fishermen on the beach

The visibility was getting worse.

A buoy

Wet sand

When we saw this we reluctantly started back towards the pinewoods.

It began raining just as we reached the woods and rained very heavily while we walked under the trees.  It stopped eventually and we walked back along the sea wall to the car.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Royal Arcade, Norwich

Tags

architecture, Art Nouveau, Colman's Mustard Shop and Museum, Digby's Chocolates, Norwich, shopping, The Royal Arcade

 

The main entrance to the Royal Arcade

This is another of my Norwich posts and this time I am just going to focus on one place, The Royal Arcade.  I usually visit it at some stage during all my walks round the city.  I have gathered together a number of pictures that I have taken at different times and have spot-lighted this very interesting and beautiful place.   Many people use and see it but don’t look at it.

This front has just undergone some renovation and is freshly painted.

I cropped the former photo to show some of the details – the carving on the pillars in front of the windows, the tiles under the canopy and the tiny little crowns on top of the railing.

The first building to occupy this site from at least the 15th century was the ‘Angel Inn’.  As well as being somewhere to eat and drink and spend the night the inn was also a place where one could be entertained.  It hosted travelling shows and ‘spectacles’ – in 1685 a pair of elephants could be seen here.  In the 1830’s it was the Headquarters of the Norwich Whigs (the fore-runners of the Liberal party) where there was once such a vicious brawl between the Whigs and their political rivals the Tories that the Mayor had to read the Riot Act and call in the militia.

The Angel was re-named and became the ‘Royal Hotel’ which occupied this site for about fifty years before moving to a newer building elsewhere.  Joseph Stannard rebuilt the entrance when it became the ‘Royal Hotel’ in 1846 and this facade remained when the Royal Arcade was constructed in 1899.

Inside the Arcade.

The Arcade was built where the hotel stables and yard had been and followed the shape of the yard.  It isn’t obvious when walking through the Arcade but from this angle you can see that the Arcade isn’t straight but bends slightly.

When it was first constructed it housed 24 bow-fronted shops, a pub and a clubroom.

This photo is looking towards the main entrance 

This is a marvellous chocolatiere and confectioner’s shop in the Arcade.

The windows are always dressed so beautifully

The Mustard Shop and Museum. Colman’s Mustard has been part of Norwich life for a long time and is quite an institution.  J. Colman began manufacturing mustard 200 years ago.

A beautiful old cash-till in the window.

A longer view of the interior.

The Royal Arcade is a 247′ long covered avenue and was designed and built by Dereham-born architect, George Skipper.  It is a perfect example of Art Nouveau style.

This photo shows a plaque commemorating the architect and some of the wonderful decorative tiles that line the first floor.

The designs are typically Art Nouveau and are inspired by nature and femininity – floral shapes and peacocks.  The tiles were designed by WJ Neatby (who also produced tiles for Harrod’s Food Hall (Harrods is a large and famous department store in London)).  The tiles were manufactured by Doulton.

One of the pillars at the main entrance

Another entrance to the Arcade.

Here is that same entrance showing the lovely stained glass semi-circular window and the decorations on the outside of the Arcade.

This sign is over yet another entrance to the Arcade

 

This wrought-iron work along with other examples in the Arcade, the floor tiles and the beautiful lamps were added later during restoration in the 1980’s.  They are happily in keeping with the rest of the building.

A very pretty clock.

I hope you have enjoyed your visit to the Royal Arcade.

 

Before the Eclipse

Tags

daffodils, dotted border moth, ducks, early dog-violet, gardening, geese, greylags, hellebores, house sparrow, mallards, Mothering Sunday, Rip van Winkle daffodils, silver-lace primula, simnel cake, solar eclipse, Suffolk, viburnum bodnantense

Such a busy week I have had!

Some pretty, delicate daffodils growing at the top of the ditch-bank at the front of the house.

 

After a couple of problems were sorted out, Elinor’s week last week ended well.  She spent Friday in London with her Art class visiting The Victoria and Albert Museum, The Natural History Museum and the Saatchi Gallery and had a wonderful time.  She was able to rest as often as she needed to (she has scoliosis) and so therefore had hardly any back pain.  She travelled by coach and, as many of her colleagues had never been to London before, the driver took them on a route that passed by many of the sights – they drove along the Embankment so they saw the Thames, Cleopatra’s Needle with the two Sphinx, then the Tower of London and the 2012 Olympic Stadium among others.  I left her at the college at about 8.15 am and Richard collected her at 8.00 pm – so about twelve hours away from family – the longest time ever.  I spent the day ironing.

Silver-lace Primula

 

Some more of my new Hellebores have begun flowering.

I was able to do a little gardening on Saturday.  It was quite chilly but dry and I progressed quite well with the weeding I had started earlier in the week.  Richard gave the lawn another mow and over the weekend he was able to finish cutting the leylandii hedge.

The Viburnum Bodnantense is just coming into leaf.

I love these little Rip-van-Winkle daffodils.

It looks more like a miniature Chrysanthemum from this angle.

 

 

 

Sunday was Mothering Sunday and I had told Mum I would be taking her to church.  I collected her and helped her put the Simnel Cake she had made carefully into the car.  She had received a phone call from one of the ladies at church asking if she would be bringing a cake as usual and fortunately she had the ingredients ready in case they asked her.  I took an elderly retired priest back home after the service then took Mum home too.  I arranged with her that Richard would collect her at 6.00 pm as she was coming for a meal at our house.  It had to be an evening meal as I hadn’t time to cook lunch and drive to church.  I spent most of the afternoon preparing the food.  Mum provided an apple pie and another Simnel Cake for us.

This is the Simnel Cake Mum made for us last year. This year’s one looked the same so I’m reposting the photo

 

The temperature at the weekend was about 10 degrees C lower than the weekend before.  The easterly wind dragged such a lot of cloud and mist in off the North Sea but not very much rain.  I have had to water the pots and tubs as they are all drying out very quickly.  Today the wind was veering round to the North, so a change – but not necessarily for the better!

This is an Early Dog-violet (Viola reichenbachiana).   We have them growing on the grass path round the big pond. They are very small and the flower here was only just over an inch tall.

Here’s another one.

 

 

Richard travelled to Lancaster in Lancashire on Monday for work and continued there until Wednesday.  He is now staying with his brother in Manchester as he wanted to see him and his mother.  She has been assessed at last and to our complete surprise she has been told that she is fit to leave the respite home she has been in for three months and go home.  We know that she is not at all able to look after herself – she cannot stand up on her own anymore, let alone walk.  She would need 24 hour care and she would need her home adapting even more than it is at the moment.  Richard and his brother needed to discuss this new challenge together and with Mum-in-law.  They are also going to visit a couple of nursing homes to see if they are suitable for their mother to live in. They have spent the day at York, visiting the National Railway Museum.

This is the goose on a visit to her nest on the very brambly island on our pond. She has been laying eggs but hasn’t started sitting yet.

Here is the goose and gander up close to the house. They come to have a look to see what food they can find under the bird-tables. I am sure the goose, if not the gander, is one of the goslings from two years ago. She follows me round the garden as I fill the feeders so of course I give her and the gander some special duck and goose mixture I have .

The Mallards also come up close to the house looking for food.

They are enthusiastic eaters and rip up a lot of grass too.

 

 

 

 

I had an appointment at the opticians on Tuesday and yet again failed to do well enough in one of the tests and have to go back again next week.  Mum had another appointment at the eye clinic at Norwich hospital on Wednesday afternoon so I took her.  Her appointment went well and we go back again in six weeks.  I have done Mum’s shopping for her but it took three different trips.

A male House Sparrow in the crabapple tree.

 

Tomorrow morning we have a solar eclipse.  We will be lucky to see anything of it because of the cloud cover.  It may be possible to see it if the cloud thins early enough.  I remember the last total solar eclipse 16 years ago.  It was a bright, warm, sunny day and we all went out into the garden to witness it.  What I remember most about it were the strange shadows – each leaf had two shadows and as it got darker it was such a strange twilight with the dimming sun above us and not on the horizon.  As it got dark the birds stopped singing and the silence was eerie.  I wonder what I will see tomorrow at 9.30 am?  I will be just arriving home from taking Elinor to college.

This is a Dotted Border Moth (Agriopis marginaria) that I saw on the outside of my kitchen window. The strange white light is a reflection of my flash in the double-glazing.

 

Elinor has been invited to a party.  One of her old school friends is holding an 18th birthday party tomorrow and Elinor thinks she would like to go.  She may need collecting early but it will be so good for her even to go for a short time.

Thank-you for visiting!

A Quiet Week

Tags

barn owl, bracket fungus, cut flowers, daffodils, garden, geese, greylags, liquid manure, primroses, snowdrops, Suffolk, tulips, winter aconites

We haven’t done anything special this week – just kept quite busy doing ordinary things.  This post will be made up of a few photos of some of the things I have seen in the past few days.

I bought these tulips on Monday. I love the mixture of bright colours.  They are also scented.

I hardly ever buy flowers for the house and the only flowers I bring indoors from the garden are poor damaged blooms that have been knocked over by wind, rain or visiting wildlife.

I love flowers so I am not sure why I don’t have them in the house often.  I know I can’t arrange flowers so that may have something to do with it.  I also feel sorry for them – I love to see them outside where they belong and think it’s a shame to cut them.  Amusingly, whenever Alice sees a vase of flowers she thinks Richard and I have had an argument.  Sometimes we have and sometimes we haven’t.

I saw this bracket fungus on a willow log in the garden.

My Hellebores have just begun to flower.

A tub full of Tete-a-tete daffodils.

These tiny little daffodils are only about 4″ high and grow under the Winter-flowering Honeysuckle.

I found a few more aconites in a gravelly area. Gravel must be where they like to grow. I must pull those weeds up!

The joys of living in the country! Fortunately the wind was blowing the heady aroma away from me. I had a line of washing hanging out on Tuesday as it was warm and sunny and a breeze was blowing. I had to take it indoors quickly once I saw what was happening.

The Greylags are back in our garden and the field behind the house. This is the gander.

And this is the goose.  You can only just see her.

Fifteen geese turned up on Thursday morning. Here are most of them. The geese return each year at the end of February and often there is a day or so of arguments as to who should nest on the little island on our pond. I didn’t notice anything this year but that may be because I am away from the house a lot more.

I got closer to these few. Once the goose starts sitting on her eggs the extended family call in to visit now and then. Her gander stays with her all the time and I am sure gets very bored wandering about on his own. He is very protective of his goose. For the last two years there have been no goslings which I find very sad. They may be laying infertile eggs or ‘something ‘ may be taking the young when first hatched. We have grass snakes and I have seen an otter on the pond, but not recently. Last year I witnessed a Moorhen chick being dragged underwater by something. My brother suggests that it could be a turtle. Someone unscrupulous may have disposed of it into our pond. I haven’t seen any other evidence of a turtle so far. Neighbours say they have seen a mink which they believe has taken all their ducklings.  That seems more likely as a culprit.

I have a film I shot of the former pair of geese with their goslings swimming on the pond.  When I work out how to put it on U-Tube and then transfer it back to WordPress you will see how lovely they are.  I have also recorded a short film at dusk with the song of a Song Thrush and a Tawny Owl hooting.  I will try to post that too one day.

This is one of the two Barn Owls we see regularly.

They are also known as screech owls as their call is not a hoot but a screech.

They look like giant moths when they fly. Their heads are very large.

Primroses and Snowdrops in the ditch between us and the old schoolhouse.

Thank-you for visiting!

A Mild Weekend

Tags

chaffinches, Coffee morning, daffodils, euonymus, gardening, goldfinches, grass-cutting, green woodpecker, hedge-cutting, honey bees, honeysuckle, ladybird, primulas, Robin, rosemary, weather

These daffodils are only about 8″ tall – I like their delicate yellow colour.  The clay soil in the flowerbed had already formed a hard crust when I took this photo.

We had hardly any rain last week and as a strong breeze was blowing most of the time, the ground at last started to dry out and we weren’t sinking into the lawn at every step.  We had a few frosts that disappeared very quickly and the temperature rose progressively through the week until at the weekend we had temperatures in the mid teens (Centigrade).

A honey bee on honeysuckle. We have some new neighbours living near us who have bee hives. On Thursday I saw that their bees had ventured out and were enjoying our honeysuckle flowers.

Both Richard and I worked quite hard in the garden this weekend, trying to catch up with the tidying chores that should have been done in the autumn and make a start on the jobs that need to be done in the spring.

Rosemary in flower against the front wall of our house.

Rosemary flowers.  Whilst weeding on Sunday I found a number of rosemary seedlings.

The job that Richard was most pleased about was getting the grass cut at last.  He has cut it long to start with and next weekend (weather permitting) he will cut it shorter.  He had also not been able to finish cutting the Leylandii hedge last autumn and on Sunday he worked on that too.  There is only the top to cut now and if the ground continues to dry out he will be able to get on the stepladder without it sinking in a couple of feet and finish that next weekend as well.  Hopefully, before the birds start to nest in the hedge!  Richard wondered if gardening counts as exercise.  The nurse always looks at me in a sceptical way when I suggest that gardening should be classed as exercise.  I expect she imagines I wander about doing a little pruning and weeding – no raised heart-rate there, she thinks.  However, as most gardeners know, gardening can be very strenuous at times and I do my fair share of digging, raking and other heavy work.  Richard worked out that he had walked almost a mile and a half yesterday taking six barrow-loads of hedge clippings to the bonfire heap.  We have a large garden.

Richard mowing the grass. The building on the far side of the hedge is the old school house. It is now a private dwelling.

This is where we have planted our fruit trees at the front of the house. The school house beyond the hedge, the corner pond to the right and you can see our grey septic tank cover to the left. You can see from the tracks in the grass, Richard must have been practising his slalom driving.

Elinor didn’t have a good day on Friday and wasn’t able to get out of the car when I took her to college.  I brought her home again and she slept for a few hours and felt a little better when she woke.  She has had three out of four results for her mock GCSE exams so far.  Psychology A, English A and Maths E.  An E is only just a pass but we are pleased that she did as well as she did with only having attended half a dozen classes at college.  She is determined to do better and really wants to get at least a C grade.

Richard and I went to the church coffee morning on Saturday which was held at the Rector’s house.  The Rector is still recovering from heart surgery and was pale and thin but gamely hosted the gathering.   We won a picture frame in the raffle and I bought a delicious sticky tea bread and some more of the Rector’s home-made marmalade.  We indulged in the usual chat and gossip.  There are a few events coming up soon.  Cordelia is holding her annual Daffodil Day (on Palm Sunday this year), when we admire her beautiful garden and buy food and goods from stalls in aid of church funds.  Our other friends, Pam and Ian are holding an Open Garden on Easter Monday also in aid of church funds and their garden is always a joy to visit too.

Ladybird on Euonymus

I had a migraine on Saturday so wasn’t able to take advantage of the fine weather.  Sunday started very fair but by the time we left church it was starting to cloud over and we had a little drizzle then rain showers during the afternoon.  The weather didn’t stop us working outside as it was so mild.

The churchyard at Flixton where we attended the service on Sunday.

Green Woodpecker

Green Woodpecker

Green Woodpecker. I am glad we have these visiting our garden because they enjoy ants eggs and our garden seems to be one enormous anthill!

I think the woodpecker is a female as the males have a crimson centre to their moustachial stripe.

Chaffinches and Goldfinches feeding under the crabapple tree.

House Sparrows on fat feeder

House Sparrows on fat feeder

Chaffinches

Robin

Just a few of the birds in our garden.

Thank-you for visiting!

Minsmere – Summer 2014

Tags

Avocet, beach, Blackthorn sloes, chickweed, Common Reed, common restharrow, Common Sandpiper, Highland Cattle, Konik pony, Lesser Burdock, Lesser Centaury, Marsh Sow-thistle, Marsh-mallow, Michaelmas Daisy, Minsmere, Red Deer, Rosebay Willowherb, RSPB, Sea Kale, silverweed, Spoonbill, Stonecrop, Tansy, Wild Teasel

The beach at Minsmere. I never tire of photographing waves rolling in to the shore.

This is another catch-up post featuring some photos I took last year.  Richard, Elinor and I visited the RSPB (Royal Society for the Protection of Birds) reserve at Minsmere on the Suffolk coast last August on Richard’s birthday.  We are fairly frequent visitors as it is only a few miles drive from our home.  It is a large reserve and has many different types of habitat – woodland, heathland, shoreline, lagoons and creeks.  Not only does it have many, many species of bird there but it is home to all sorts of other wildlife – insects, mammals, reptiles, amphibians and plants.  Quite often we hardly see any birds at all depending on the time of year and where we decide to walk.  We don’t often go into the hides but on this occasion we did go into one briefly.

Rosebay Willowherb (Chamerion angustifolium), a common enough plant, but at the time this was the first one I’d seen that year.

Red Deer (Cervus elaphus). This photograph is not cropped and was taken from the causeway path through the wetland going in the direction of the sea. The deer, though wild, was oblivious to the group of admiring humans taking pictures of it while it ate some tasty vegetation. The deer know they are safe here and feel free to go wherever they want.

I love the dark edges to their ears and the dark line down their necks.

She has such a lovely face! The females are much smaller than the males and are 160 – 210 cm / 63 – 83″ long (not including the tail) and weigh about 120 -170 kg / 260 – 370 lbs.

Driftwood on the beach

Don’t be fooled! They were enjoying themselves really!

Sea Kale (Crambe maritima)

A variety of plants grow on the sand dunes or shingle dunes as they should be called here!

Lesser Centaury (Centaurium pulchellum). Unfortunately I didn’t manage to find any with the flowers open.

I’m afraid you’ll have to take my word for it that this is a Common Sandpiper (Actitis hypoleucos) My camera wouldn’t zoom any closer.

An unidentified duck and an Avocet (Recurvirostra avosetta)

A Spoonbill (Platalea leucorodia)

 

 

 

Common Reed (Phragmites australis)

Common Restharrow (Ononis repens) The sticky leaves are covered in grains of sand.

Stonecrop (Sedum). I am not sure which Stonecrop this one is.

Wild Teasel (Dipsacus fullonum) seedheads

I managed to find a Teasel still in flower – just!

Lesser Burdock (Arctium minus)

Lesser Burdock flowers – the pink-purple florets grow out from between the spiny bracts.

Tansy (Tanacetum vulgare)

Little yellow buttons!

 

Konik ponies – primitive ponies from Poland – are used by the RSPB as they are very hardy, thrive on rough grazing and tolerate wet conditions.

I couldn’t get a shot of the pony’s face –

– no matter how I tried!

 

 

I am always getting left behind!

And this is what happens when I catch up!

Marsh Sow-thistle (Sonchus palustris)

I believe this is Michaelmas Daisy rather than Sea Aster, unfortunately

Chickweed (Stellaria media)

Marsh-mallow (Althaea officinalis)

Ripening sloes on the Blackthorn trees (Prunus spinosa)

Silverweed (Potentilla anserina) so called because the leaves are covered in silvery, silky hairs that catch the light and shine like silver.

The RSPB also use black Highland cattle to graze the marshes

 

We will no doubt be visiting the reserve again very soon.  I read that they have discovered some Common Bird’s-nest fungi there recently and I would like to see it.

February’s End

Tags

bluebell, clematis montana, crocus, ditches, Elder, gardening, herb garden, herbs, hyacinth, mole hill, ponds, snowdrops, stinging nettles, viburnum bodnantense, vole hole, winter aconite, witch-hazel

Part of our garden as seen from near the house. This photo was taken on Sunday afternoon when it was still quite breezy. We had great plans for our garden when we first moved in nine years ago but because of a number of reasons we have had to delay doing most of the work. Maybe, once Richard is retired and not travelling away from home so much, we can get on with it!

I am surprised at how quickly this year is speeding past.  Christmas was a bit of a non-event – I can’t remember much about it at all – and since then the days and weeks have merged together into a bit of a blur and here we are at the beginning of March!

We seem to have been alternating between days of sun and days of gloom and/or rain recently.  Friday began with frost and continued with bright sunshine and white clouds all day.  Elinor has yet another streaming, heavy cold and took the day off college. Richard has started taking every Friday off work as he has been given extra pre-retirement leave.  I went with him to Bungay where he called in at the barber’s shop for a haircut while I went to the bank and then to the post office.  We then drove to Harleston which is just over the border into Norfolk, where we bought an enormous 25 litre container of de-ionised water for my iron, steam mop and steam cleaner.

My Witch-hazel in a pot by the front-door. Cynthia Reyes asked me to describe the scent of the flowers. I have had great difficulty trying to think of an adjective to describe the scent. It isn’t a floral smell at all and only smells slightly like the smell of the astringent made from the leaves and bark. I then remembered a book I loved reading as a girl and also read to both my daughters when they were small – ‘The Children of Green Knowe’ by Lucy M Boston. In it someone says Witch-hazel flowers smell like something to eat and I think that is a good description. I would say that the scent is like that of warm, spicy yeast buns or bread.

After lunch I went into the garden and stayed out there until just after 5.30 pm!  Heaven!  I have been doing a little garden tidying whenever I have had a moment and so far I have reduced the size of a few perennial herbs and taken out completely a lot of tired and woody plants from my herb garden.  When the chance of all frost has gone I will replace them with new ones.  I took some cuttings from my elderly thyme last year so those will go in and there are some little seedling chive plants coming up in the wrong places which will be transplanted to the right places.  Other herbs will be replaced when I get the opportunity.  I tend not to grow perennial herbs from seed (in fact I haven’t grown anything from seed for a long time – lack of time mainly).  I only usually need one plant of each herb so I buy them from the garden centre – I find taking cuttings from perennials easy if I need more.  I love basil and one day will grow some more from seed along with parsley and other annuals.  Meanwhile, supermarkets sell pots of annual herbs for cooking which can be re-potted and grown on and garden centres sell them quite cheaply too.  I hope to get a drying cabinet to dry my herbs one day.  Herbs attract so many lovely insects so I let them flower.  Birds visit the herbs to eat the insects and the seeds too.

My rather sad-looking herb garden at the front of the house. I am hoping that by the summer it will be full of lush, green growth with mauve and cream and yellow flowers visited by bees and butterflies.

More recently I have been clearing weeds and moss from the paths and trimming the lawn edges back away from the paths.  A tiring, back-breaking job but very satisfying because all looks so neat and tidy when it is done.  I finished the job on Friday!

Stepping stones through the grass that we haven’t been able to cut since early autumn. The grass hasn’t stopped growing but the ground is too sodden to put a lawnmower on!

Path at the side of the house

I also cut right back an enormous Clematis Montana ‘Rubens’ which was not only growing well along its trellis but had spread across to the shed and was trying to smother it and was also growing in the other direction towards the greenhouse.  I realise that this is the wrong time of year to prune Clematis Montana but I had attempted it last summer and failed miserably.  It grew so fast because of all the rain we had had and any attempt at pruning seemed to encourage it to grow faster.  It won’t flower this year I know, but Richard will be able to re-paint the shed and we have regained about 3′ x 10′ of garden!

The bald and diminished Clematis. Not a very professional job but I didn’t want to take any more away in case I killed it!

 

My mother got a lift to her church yesterday!  I spoke to a lady about it a month ago and had almost given up on her remembering or doing anything about it.  However, we have a result at last!  I had begun to find that I was being expected to give other people lifts home as well.  I don’t like to think of elderly people being stranded but it was adding quite a bit to my mileage and driving time and, well, who was taking them there?  Couldn’t they take their passenger home again?

Snowdrops at the top of the bank of the front ditch.

Richard went back to see the clinician at the hospital two weeks ago and was given the bad news that he has osteoporosis.  He should have been told before Christmas but the doctor in charge forgot and had also forgotten to arrange a meeting with the surgeon at Addenbrooke’s hospital.  (Addenbrookes is a hospital in Cambridge affiliated with Cambridge University.  It specialises in neurosurgery, transplants and cancer treatments among others).  Richard was a little disappointed.  His GP (General Practitioner/local doctor) has been comforting and supportive however, and Richard feels a little more positive about it all.

A vole hole – we have lots of these.

A mole hill – we have lots of these too!

Prosaically, I have had a sore and bleeding nose for the past month and I had it cauterized on Thursday with silver nitrate.  I have also a dry patch in my throat which may be connected to the nose infection and may be something else.  The GP thinks it may be burning from reflux acid and has doubled my prescription of gastro-inhibitor which I take against the side effects of ibruprofen etc!  I know that I don’t get heartburn and told the GP so but he wants to rule it out as a cause of the throat problem so I have to take the tablets which have caused upset stomach!  Life (and doctors) can be extremely tedious sometimes.

Bluebell leaves just emerging.

My sister, who is a paramedic and has recently got a degree from university which makes her a practitioner (she can now prescribe drugs and treatment), has been presented an award at work for leadership skills.  I am very proud of her and the award is well deserved.

A single solitary Winter Aconite flower

My brother stayed the night with us on Wednesday and visited Mum on Thursday.  He has obtained a transfer at work and starts his new job in three weeks time but still hasn’t got a buyer for his house.  He has seen a new house he would love but is afraid he won’t be able to have it if he can’t sell his old house very soon.

Viburnum bodnantense flowers

Alice, my eldest daughter, still hasn’t got a full-time job, not through want of trying.  She has the date of her Viva – the spoken part of her PhD  – which will be on the 23rd April.  She is nervous about it but it will be such a relief to get it all over and done with.  She is very poor at the moment and I know is not eating enough.  I sent her some money the other day but I realise it won’t go very far.

Rather stunted pink Hyacinths

Saturday was very gloomy and windy with occasional drizzle during the day which developed into rain by evening with very strong gusts of wind.  I ironed for most of the day.

The corner pond

The front ditch that flows into the corner pond.  We have ditches circling most of our garden – almost like a moat!

Sunday was very bright and sunny again but the wind was still strong.  We went to our church at Rumburgh for Morning Prayer.  Unfortunately, there were only five of us there including Maurice who took the service.  We discussed everyone’s ill health – as one does!  Our Rector has had his heart operation but there have been complications and he is still quite unwell; we pray for his speedy return to full health.

The big pond with its little island on which greylag geese nest each year.

The big pond – looking towards the house

I did some more tidying in the garden during Sunday afternoon.  I had discovered some daffodil bulbs a couple of days ago that I had removed from a flowerbed last autumn because of over-crowding and then forgotten about.  The poor things were trying to grow so I have planted them alongside one of our hedges.  Fortunately they are late flowering bulbs and as tough as old boots so they should do well.  I also tidied up lots of pots and tubs full of spring and summer bulbs that I had stored behind the greenhouse.  They were a bit weed-covered and the voles/mice and birds had been having fun with some of them.  Stinging nettles were starting to invade the area where the pots had been so I pulled quite a few out and will keep my eye on any new shoots appearing in the next few weeks.  Nettles are easy to pull out at this time of year especially with our saturated soil – thick gloves are necessary though!

Elder leaves coming out

Today started with frost and clear skies but by mid-morning we had had a couple of showers of rain and the wind had picked up again so much that the top of my bird-table was blown off.  It flew through the air and embedded itself in the lawn.  I am glad no-one was in its path!  Elinor went back to college today but only has classes during the morning on a Monday.  I shopped in Bungay and just had time to put the groceries away and put some laundry in the washing machine before I had to return to Norwich to collect her.  This afternoon we had hail, sleet and wet snow showers and then more sunshine.  March has come in like a lion – will it go out like a lamb?  The forecast is for cold nights and windy weather for the next few days and then warmer weather with the winds coming up from the Azores instead of from Canada for the weekend.  We shall see!