Tags
church renovations, damage, Diary, garden flowers, home improvements, lay-led worship training, Mothering Sunday, power cuts, quizzes, Storm 'Doris', Suffolk
I arranged to visit Alice in Sheffield on Thursday 23rd February, spend the night in a hotel and return home again the following day. What I hadn’t expected when I bought the train tickets and booked the hotel room was a visit from ‘Doris’ that day too. For those who don’t know who ‘Doris’ is (or who might have forgotten), ‘Doris’ was a storm that caused some disruption here. Fortunately, my journey went ahead with no problems other than a speed restriction. Alice met me at the station and we decided to have lunch together before I went to my hotel. We nearly got blown off our feet on the way to the café, the door of which kept blowing open while we ate, but we weren’t inconvenienced too much by this. I spent a lovely afternoon with Alice either chatting in my hotel room, drinking tea in another coffee shop or buying books.
While I was enjoying myself, Richard and Elinor were having quite an unpleasant time at home. The power went off at about 2 pm and in the garden a few of our belongings started flying through the air despite Richard having tried to make them safe before the storm began.
I wonder if any of you remember how pleased we were when we got our new summerhouse last year? Here is a photo of it.
The wind ripped the roof off and the rest of the building just broke apart. A number of trees in the area were blown over and roads were blocked. When I got back to Norwich the following afternoon Richard was a little delayed when collecting me from the station by having to make detours to avoid blocked roads. The power was still off when I got home and the house was cold. Richard and Elinor had coped very well using the gas hob to cook meals and heat water for hot drinks and washing up. They had sat together the evening before in front of the gas fire listening to the battery-powered radio by candlelight. We often get power-cuts living where we do, though not as many as we used to do before the power company changed the cables and started regular cutting-back of tree branches that are too close to the cables. Having said that, we have had six power-cuts of at least an hour this year already. We keep a supply of candles and lamps ready and have torches in all the bedrooms and in the kitchen, utility room and garage. We have a portable gas heater as well as the gas fire and gas hob. We can also use the caravan which has a large battery and a gas supply.
Fortunately, the power came back on later that day. I was very grateful for it as we were expecting my cousin Beverley and her partner Jeremy to visit the following day for an evening meal. I didn’t have the time to prepare all the things I had hoped to, but at least the house was warm and the evening was great fun!
We have been able to claim for a new summerhouse on our insurance and our replacement arrived on Monday of this week. We got an identical summerhouse which had to be put where the old one was which is a little worrying, knowing how quickly it succumbed to the storm-force winds. Richard will bolt it to the concrete base and try to make it somewhat sturdier. We will see what we can do. We lost our old incinerator during the storm and wondered how far it had travelled, but once Richard had taken photos of the wreck and started to clear up the glass and the panels he found it squashed as flat as a pancake underneath one of the sections. I am grateful neither Richard nor Elinor got squashed under it!
Our new internal doors were due to be fitted that week in February but the storm put paid to that, and, because of storm damage the carpenter had to deal with, we didn’t get the doors until nearly a fortnight later. We are very pleased with them. They look good, they are more sound-proof than the old ones and the doors downstairs are now glazed and let much needed light into the hall. The sliding door to the en-suite WC has been replaced with a better one and the sliding door to the downstairs shower-room has been replaced with an ordinary door which is so much nicer. We will now employ a painter and decorator to decorate the hall, stairs and landing and to paint all twelve doors (we replaced the airing cupboard door too).
ooOOoo
Richard and I have attended a Lay-led Worship Training Course at a church in Beccles. To enable us to keep our churches open, the way forward is for us, the members of the church to take the services ourselves if there is no priest to lead us. This will be very useful to us when our Rector retires in the summer. The four-part course was interesting and well-attended and it gave us the opportunity to meet people from other churches in the Deanery. Our Deanery is made up of a number of benefices from Halesworth, Bungay, Beccles, Southwold and the villages in-between.
ooOOoo
We have carried on with the usual round of duties and chores; hospital visits, blood tests, appointments with opticians, hairdressers, acupuncturists and chiropractors; housework, gardening, shopping. We have all had bad colds. I continue to take my mother to church once a fortnight and join Richard at church in our benefice when I can.
Richard went to visit his brother Chris in Manchester for a few days recently and had a very pleasant time. On his return we took part in two quizzes. Last year we had been in a team that had won the quiz held in the village of Walpole. Part of the ‘prize’ was the honour of composing and presenting the following year’s quiz and Richard offered to take it on. The time for the quiz duly arrived and he did a fantastic job as Quizmaster (I was his assistant) and he was presented with a bottle of wine as a thank-you gift. The following night we were at the village of St James taking part in the quiz to raise funds for the Harleston Choral Society. A meal was included in the fees – very good it was, too – and the questions appealed to me more than usual as there were more music ones and fewer sport! Our team managed to win again.
ooOOoo
We celebrated Mothering Sunday on the 26th of March and it was our church at Rumburgh’s turn to hold the service. I helped make a few posies to present to the mothers or for people to give to their mothers or take to graves. Though we have no flowers in church during Lent I was asked to provide some flowers to put in the porch.
The church was a little disorganised because we are having a tower screen fitted at the moment and there was dust everywhere. We have been saving for years for this improvement! We put everyone as near the front of the church as possible (well away from the building works) sitting in the choir stalls, which was very pleasant. Richard our Rector chose lots of good hymns and his sermon was amusing and instructive. I brought my mother to our church for a change and took her back home afterwards. I couldn’t ask her to lunch because I had no time to prepare a midday meal but she came for an evening meal instead.
ooOOoo
I will end this rather wordy post with some photos of the flowers in our garden starting with my favourite iris reticulata that bloomed for too short a time in February.
My music selection is ‘Handle With Care’ by the Traveling Wilburys.
Thanks for visiting!
avian101 said:
I never thought that you had damaging storms where you live Clare. We have many of those in the southern part of USA. Luckily I’ve been spared from them so far. Lovely flowers you have. 🙂
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clarepooley33 said:
Thank-you HJ! Fortunately, we don’t have damaging storms that often 🙂
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markspitzerdesigns said:
Hi Clare – from your photos (especially the ones of the summer house blown apart), I can see that the framing of the wall and roof panels is very light, there is no sheathing between the framing and the siding boards, and I don’t see any corner brackets. In other words, in addition to bolting the building down to the concrete slab, you should invest in some brackets and diagonal bracing to stiffen things up, tie the walls together, and tie the walls to the roof. It shouldn’t be too difficult to add those things without changing what’s already there. Mark
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clarepooley33 said:
Thank-you very much, Mark. Richard had begun to think we ought get some brackets and your suggestion of diagonal bracing is good. The men who put the summerhouse up for us made a few suggestions too so with any luck we should eventually get a sturdier building. These little sheds were not designed to withstand 90 mph winds!
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markspitzerdesigns said:
A simple solution would be to screw sheets of plywood to the inside framing. That would automatically stiffen everything and you’d have something you could fasten brackets and shelves to.
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Lavinia Ross said:
Listening to the music as I read this post. Great choice! I love the little irises and spring flowers. Your new shed looks like it has a bigger concrete pad.
Sorry Doris did so much damage over there. We had one come through Oregon on Friday. Our greenhouses stayed put, but a temporary shed from two doors down sailed up over the fence into the adjacent neighbors yard, and is in pieces against the fence. Mother Nature can sure throw some tantrums! We didn’t see the worst of it in my immediate area, and we were very lucky compared to some. Our main problem was loss of power and telephone service.
http://www.oregonlive.com/pacific-northwest-news/index.ssf/2017/04/strong_winds_topple_trees_knoc.html
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clarepooley33 said:
Thank-you Lavinia! I was very interested in your link; the conditions sounded very much like our storm though we were fortunate in that only one poor woman lost her life here. We also had winds gusting at 90 mph in places.
I am glad you enjoyed the music!
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susanpoozan said:
Your replacement summer house looks very smart, sorry that ‘Doris’ gave you so much trouble. Loved all the Spring flowers, what a feast of colour.
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clarepooley33 said:
Thank-you very much, Susan.
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margaret21 said:
I too hadn’t realised that you might be the recipient of such a bullying time from Doris. I’m glad the insurance paid up anyway. But now, life seems to be peaceful and pleasant from your account. I hope so x
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clarepooley33 said:
Thank-you Margaret; yes, all is very peaceful again. x
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Gallivanta said:
Oh dear, Doris had quite a tantrum. Glad you have a replacement summerhouse already ( I can’t spot the difference. 😦 ) Across the Tasman, Cyclone Debbie caused extensive damage/flooding. Not satisfied with Australia, she sent some of her rain over this way. The flooding in the North Island was bad. Here in the South Island we were drenched as well. Dreadful damsels, Doris and Debbie! Good to see the lovely spring flowers. I planted irises last year for the first time. Can’t wait to see them this spring.
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clarepooley33 said:
Thank-you Gallivanta! Flooding causes such long-term damage doesn’t it? All that waiting for things to dry out before one can start to re-decorate and re-furnish.
I hope you enjoy your irises. I love all types from the tiniest to the ones taller than me – and the scent!
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Gallivanta said:
Hmmm…. I wonder if mine will be scented?
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KerryCan said:
Yikes–what a shock to see that little house blown apart! I think everyone was lucky to have avoided getting hurt. You may know that many parts of the US are getting terrible severe weather from tornadoes right now. I have never lived in any of those regions and cannot imagine the terror! The rest of your post was much more pleasing and placid to read!
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clarepooley33 said:
Thank-you Kerry. Fortunately, we don’t often have these damaging winds, though they seem to be getting more frequent than they used to be. I would hate to live in a tornado region too! We get mini tornadoes (known as ‘willies’) here in East Anglia quite often in the summer but they don’t do any damage. I remember the Great Storm in 1987 – that was awful!
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Jill Weatherholt said:
I’m sorry to hear about the damage caused by Doris, but I’m thankful to know that you and your family are safe. We’ve recently experienced some violent weather here in the south, but thankfully we were spared. Your new summer house is so adorable. Hopefully this one will weather any storm. Thanks for sharing your beautiful photos. xo
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clarepooley33 said:
Thank-you very much, Jill. I am so glad to hear you have been spared the worst of the storms.
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quietsolopursuits said:
Wow, Doris was quite the storm! I’m glad that every one made it through the storm and power outage okay, and that your summer house has been replaced already. I loved seeing all the flowers, we’re still a few weeks away from when they start in earnest here. Oh, and thank you very much for the music selection, one of my favorites.
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clarepooley33 said:
Thank-you very much, Jerry! I’m glad you liked the music – and the flowers!
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Liz said:
What a lovely news-y post, Clare, tempered of course by the traumas of Doris. I am so pleased that you all emerged safe and well the other side, and that your summer house insurance company acquitted themselves so well (I always assume that anything to do with insurance companies will be a trauma in itself). I was due to travel to London on the main ‘Doris Day’ but took the decision not to risk it. This turned out to be the right move because, although the train I would have caught made it through to London, its journey took 10 hours instead of the usual 4.5. 😱
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clarepooley33 said:
Thank-you very much, Liz! We found our insurance company surprisingly helpful. All the paperwork was dealt with in just a couple of weeks – amazing! I was very lucky indeed on my rail journey that day. I am glad you didn’t have to put up with a 10 hour journey – how tedious that would have been!
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quercuscommunity said:
I thought you were remembering a deceased neighbour, but I have the attention span of a goldfish and do forget a lot of things.
Sorry about the summerhouse and power cut.
The irises look lovely, as does the church flower arrangement – simple but effective.
🙂
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clarepooley33 said:
Thank-you very much, Simon 🙂
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New Hampshire Garden Solutions said:
That’s too bad about the summer house but at least it was covered. You must have had hurricane force winds! It looks like Richard will have his hands full staining the siding on the new one.
I like the colors in the little candy striped reticulated iris on the bottom left.
I like the flower arrangement for the church too. It shouts that spring is here and I’d guess that everyone probably loved hearing that.
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clarepooley33 said:
Thank-you Allen. Yes, Richard has to set about staining this summerhouse less than a year after staining the first one!
The delicate coloured reticulate iris is ‘Katharine Hodgkin’ http://www.leavesnbloom.com/2011/04/iris-reticulata-katharine-hodgkin-blue.html
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New Hampshire Garden Solutions said:
Nice!
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tootlepedal said:
That storm sounds fearful. I hope that the new shed can be sufficiently anchored.
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clarepooley33 said:
Thank-you Tom. It wasn’t much fun I heard. We hope we can keep the new shed from flying away too!
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bitaboutbritain said:
Doris was certainly a little tinker, wasn’t she? These things are so traumatic. Our village is still recovering from the rain that her brother, Desmond, brought, but at least we are mostly spared the extremes that others get. It’s the victims of flooding I feel particularly sorry for. Love the look of your church – glad it’s still vibrant. I worry that ours is dying, though as a non-believer but lover of churches I suppose that smacks of hypocrisy. Really enjoyed hearing and seeing the Traveling Wilburys – great sound from a fabulous bunch of musicians simply having a good time and especially wonderful to see dear Harrison and The Big O enjoying themselves so much. Great post, as usual!
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clarepooley33 said:
Thank-you very much, Mike. We were certainly grateful we didn’t have to put up with much rain as well as the wind. Flooding is so traumatic and takes such ages to recover from.
I’m not sure that I would describe my church as vibrant but there are a few of us who care very much about it and wish to keep it going for as long as possible. I think that many people feel as you do about churches. The buildings are so much part of the British scenery and especially so in villages. The trouble is that so many of them are listed buildings which adds to the cost of any repairs. The members of the church have to raise most of the cost themselves from cake sales etc and it takes years and years!
I am so pleased you enjoyed the Traveling Wilburys – they really seemed to enjoy playing together which I find irresistible.
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Andrea Stephenson said:
We escaped Doris completely up here Clare. You must have been devastated at the summerhouse, but I’m glad you now have a new one. Your church looks lovely, I hope you can get the necessary repairs done so that you can go on using it.
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clarepooley33 said:
Thank-you very much, Andrea.
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Jane Sturgeon said:
Hugs for you and yours Clare and I see that your replacement summerhouse needs ‘preserving’….there’s always something isn’t there? ‘Doris’ was a bit scary. I love reading your stories and seeing your beautiful photos….they are among my peaceful moments. ❤ much love and more hugs flowing to you ❤ Ohh, and the Travelling Wilbury's rule ❤
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clarepooley33 said:
Thank-you so much, my dear Jane! Yes whatever we do seems to entail so much extra work! I’m so pleased you liked the Wilburys ❤
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Lisa G. said:
I enjoyed the music, and found myself looking up some others by them on youtube. It was enjoyable to see them in action.
I’m so glad your insurance took care of the summerhouse issue, especially since it was so new – you need time to enjoy it before it blows away again. (hopefully never) 🙂
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clarepooley33 said:
Haha! That is exactly what I’ve been thinking!
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Laurie Graves said:
The flowers are beautiful, but drat that storm. Glad you were able to get the summerhouse replaced.
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clarepooley33 said:
Thank-you Laurie; we are very pleased with the replacement.
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navasolanature said:
I’m a long time catching up with you but my daughter commented on Doris the other day and I said who? And then remembered! I have found your posts on your involvement with the local churches interesting as I used to be quite involve with Cof E when my daughters were young and we lived near the local church I used to go to in Barnes. A friend in Dorset also has a tiny church near her and she looks after it. It sounds a good idea to involve and have lay preachers.
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Clare Pooley said:
Thank-you, Georgina. Each church is precious to the people who attend them but there are fewer and fewer church-goers, fewer priests and the churches are getting more and more expensive to keep up. We as church-goers have to do something to help ourselves. The church isn’t just the building but the people who belong to it.
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navasolanature said:
It is and it’s hard to build up with younger folk but it is also a connection to our rural past and the villages our families came from. It makes me think maybe I should support the Church in Sparham where my mother’s line of the family come from. Quaker meetings and the original buildings suffer too in more spread out rural places.
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Clare Pooley said:
Yes I agree. I know of two chapels in local villages that have had to close in recent years.
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Cynthia Reyes said:
My goodness, Clare! You and Richard have been extremely active, and Doris only made you more so! What a shock it is to see the flattened shed. Wow. Great to see its replacement, and lets hope the reinforcement stands it in good stead.
I’m interested to hear about the training for Lay-Led worship. I don’t know if we have such a programme here in Canada – it might have prevented the closing of churches in some villages and small towns.
Finally, I like your flower arrangement. It is delightful.
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Clare Pooley said:
Thank-you very much, Cynthia. I really think that lay-led worship is the best solution to our problem. There were about six of us from our benefice who attended the course which was quite a good number considering our small population. The course was devised by a priest and a retired bishop living in our Deanery.
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cindy knoke said:
That chapel is lovely and so are the flowers! I am happy you have a new summerhouse. Enjoy all the beauty and thank you for sharing it with us!
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Clare Pooley said:
My pleasure, Cindy. The ‘new’ summerhouse is still standing after four years.
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