Tags
Alexanders, conservation, Dunwich, Dunwich Greyfriars Trust, erosion, fungus, Greyfriars Monastery, Greyfriars Wood, Holly, ruins, stinking iris, Suffolk, sycamore, trees, walking
I hope you all had a merry Christmas and that you will have a blessed and healthy new year. I apologise if I haven’t visited your sites/blogs recently but I will endeavour to do so very soon.
I would like to thank all my kind followers, readers and visitors for continuing to support me despite very few posts during the past couple of years. I am just embarking on my 7th year as a WordPress blogger, which amazes me and dismays me at the same time. What on earth have I achieved in those six years since January 2014? Not much, I think!
ooooOOoooo
My daughter Alice and her husband Phil came to stay with us this Christmas and Alice brought her cat Mona with her as well. Mum came for lunch on both Christmas Day and Boxing Day so our house was nicely full of family. I took Mum to Midnight Mass at Eye church on Christmas Eve getting back home at 1.15 am. Next morning I went to our church at Rumburgh and helped Richard get it ready as it was our turn to hold the Christmas morning Communion service this year. I also stayed for the service and helped tidy up afterwards. I had put the turkey in the oven to roast before leaving for church and by the time I got home again it was time to take it out. Alice had prepared all the vegetables for me while I was out so I had no trouble getting on with the meal on my return. Boxing Day was easier as I didn’t have to go out in the morning but I had just as much food to cook. By the time we had finished lunch and I had made us tea and coffee I was ready for a rest. Richard did a wonderful job clearing the table and doing all the washing-up and dishwasher loading and unloading on both days! Phil went back home on Friday 27th but Alice and Mona stayed on until the following Monday which was lovely! I was so happy having both my daughters with me this Christmas! We all went out for lunch in Halesworth on Saturday and then drove to the seaside at Southwold. We walked the whole length of the promenade and back again and then to the end of the pier and back before returning to the car and going home. It was very busy with other walkers, chilly and breezy, fine and dry and we were glad of the walk. I took no photographs.
I spent most of Monday and Tuesday shopping for Mum and us, doing the washing and putting the things back into the spare room that had been removed to make room for our guests. Richard and I both felt we needed to get out of the house again but wanted to walk somewhere different. On New Year’s Day we decided that Dunwich Heath would be a good place to go and thought that it would have less mud and puddles to wade through than most walks. However, when we got there the crowds were so great that there was nowhere to park and a queue had formed so we turned round and drove to the beach car park. We found a space, though that car park was very full too.
We started off by walking down to the beach to look at the sea. The beach was quite busy with walkers and dogs and the wind off the sea was biting. We didn’t stay long.
We left the beach and walked up towards the main part of Dunwich village. We turned off the lane and took a footpath that climbed up through Greyfriars Wood. At the top of the incline the path then went along the edge of the cliff.
Most of the East Anglian coastline is eroding fairly quickly. After every storm we expect to find that large chunks of the cliff have broken off and fallen onto the beach. Our friend Cordelia’s daughter has written a book about what it is like to live in a house on the edge of a cliff in Suffolk. The book is called ‘The Easternmost House’ and is available in paperback and on Kindle.
This plant has many names; Roast-beef Plant, Gladdon or Gladwyn, Bloody Bones, Blue Devil, Dragon Flower, Dagger Flower are a few of them. If the leaves are rubbed they give off an odour like stale, raw beef. The flowers are pale mauve/purple, sometimes with some yellow colour as well and are veined with darker lines. It comes into its own in the autumn and winter when the seed pods burst open and reveal these glorious orange seeds. The leaves are evergreen, typical iris leaves. The name Gladdon or Gladwyn comes from the Old English word for a sword.
Woods near the coast are very rare as trees do not usually fare well in salt-laden air and suffer in the wind and storms. This mixed woodland was planted in the eighteenth century by the family who owned the village at that time. The Dunwich Greyfriars Trust which manages the wood today say that only Sycamore trees (Acer pseudoplatanus) are hardy enough to grow on the side of the wood nearest the cliff edge and that there are no young trees in the wood. They are trying to overcome the latter by fencing off areas where large trees have fallen and open glades have appeared. The fences prevent deer from destroying all the seedlings and saplings that will appear in the sunlight and it is to be hoped that the wood will begin to regenerate.
All that is left of the 13th/14th century monastery are these ruins, thought to be the refectory at the southern end of the complex. The cloisters, with accommodation for monks and visitors, and an enormous church were further to the north and were all destroyed during the Dissolution of the Monasteries. The nave and chancel of the church together were about 58 metres long and up to 17 metres wide (190 feet 3.5 ins x 55 feet 9 ins). There is a perimeter wall around the site of the monastery which was built sometime after the main buildings were constructed and has been repaired and rebuilt many times in the intervening years. There were three gates into the complex; two which still stand on the western side allowed access to the main road that ran into and away from the medieval town of Dunwich. The third, now lost to the sea gave access directly into the town with its large port which was also lost centuries ago.
The Dunwich Greyfriars Trust work hard conserving what they can of these ruins. They have capped off most of the walls to prevent rain and frost damage. If you look carefully at one of the photos in the slideshow you will see a sign asking visitors not to climb on the ruins. You can also see in my other photos how much notice the visitors take of the sign!
This plant is an ancient introduction, probably at the time of the Roman occupation. Its unusual name refers to its Macedonian origin, Alexander the Great’s birthplace. It is wholly edible and the name Smyrnium is from the Greek word for myrrh and refers to its myrrh-like taste.The leaves can be made into a white sauce or used as a herb. The young stems can be cooked and eaten like asparagus, the flowerbuds may be used in salads and the roots cooked as a substitute for parsnips. I read that an old Irish recipe lists alexanders, watercress and nettles as ingredients for ‘Lenten pottage’. In the 17th century its black seeds were sold in apothecaries’ shops as Macedonian parsley seeds and Nicholas Culpeper the herbalist listed many uses for it including the power to cure not only flatulence but snakebite too! Until recently Alexanders was only to be found in the south and east of Britain and close to the milder coast. However, I have noticed its spread inland and northwards of late.
The Greyfriars Trust have been trying to manage the spread of Alexanders in the wood. It grows so densely it prevents seeds from germinating and smothers other plants. We have had a mild winter so far with some frosts that have melted by midday and no snow as yet. We have had lots of rain and so many plants have continued growing through the autumn and winter and plants, like Alexanders that died after flowering in the early summer have new plants growing from seed already.
I am indebted to the excellent website belonging to the Dunwich Greyfriars Trust for much of the information in this post. My other reference books have been the Reader’s Digest Field Guide to the Wild Flowers of Britain, Reader’s Digest Field Guide to the Trees and Shrubs of Britain, Culpeper’s Colour Herbal published by W Foulsham and Company Limited, Collins Complete Guide to British Wild Flowers, Collins Complete Guide to British Trees, Flora Brittanica by Richard Mabey, Vickery’s Folk Flora and Harrap’s Wild Flowers. The photographs are all my own.
Lavinia Ross said:
Good to see you again, Clare, and I enjoyed your tour! Every season has its beauty, including winter.
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Clare Pooley said:
Thank you, Lavinia. I love seeing bare trees in winter and usually I appreciate the bleached look of the grasses. This year everything is still so green!
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unionhomestead said:
Happy 2020 to ypu and yours, Clare. Im glad you a Christmas full of family and good cheer…and a couple of good walks as well@
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Clare Pooley said:
Thank you very much, Sharon! I am sure your new year is very busy but I hope it is a happy and successful one!
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susanpoozan said:
A post full of interest with excellent photographs. Well done for keeping up the blogging for all those years.
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Clare Pooley said:
Thank you very much Susan. The years have gone past so quickly!
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Jill Weatherholt said:
Happy New Year, Clare! Thanks for sharing your gorgeous photos. I hope you and the family had a wonderful holiday season. ❤
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Clare Pooley said:
Thank you so much, Jill. We had a very good Christmas and New Year. I hope you and your husband have a good 2020 with lots of happiness and improved health.
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Helen said:
I was given Harrap’s Wild Flowers book for Christmas, so will look up Alexander’s 😊. I recognise the plant but don’t know if it does grow this far north.
Still, with the climate getting warmer, who knows? Yesterday, in North Yorkshire I got stung by a nettle!
Anyway, thank you for introducing us to Greyfriar’s in Dunwich. And I am glad you enjoyed Christmas with all your family. Happy 2020, Clare 😊
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Clare Pooley said:
Thank you, Helen. I love Harrap’s Wild Flowers mainly for the gorgeous photographs but also for excellent descriptions of the plants. Our nettles and brambles are still growing very well with hardly a frost to hold them back. Sorry you got stung 😦
Happy 2020 to you too!
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Helen said:
It’s amazing how long the effects of a sting last, isn’t it.
There seem to have been more frosts here than last year but I guess overall the temperatures have been higher than the seasonal average. It was 13.5 degrees the other day….
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Clare Pooley said:
😮
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Ste J said:
I understand your thoughts on achieving with the blog, I often wonder the same about my own but we met each other virtually, are part of a community, are (hopefully) an inspiration to others and all round awesome people. I think that’s am achievement right there.
Wonderful documentation, both in photos and facts. I love wandering the countryside with you and discovering things. Keep blogging my friend, here’s to another decade.
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Clare Pooley said:
Thank you very much, Ste J. What a lovely comment. I also really appreciate the wonderful community we have as bloggers – such caring and interesting people!
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Laurie Graves said:
Happy New Year to you and yours! I will echo others in thanking you for the lovely photographs. And “The Eastern Most House” sounds like a terrific read. Took a look at the blurb, and it sounds as though it’s right up my alley. One for the tottering TBR pile.
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Clare Pooley said:
Thank you very much, Laurie. I also have a tottering TBR pile and the Easternmost House is on it.
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Richard Sutton said:
An interesting walk, Clare. It’s sad to see your crumbling Suffolk coast with those Greyfriars Monastery remains likely to be lost to the sea sometime. Well done for blogging for 6 years. Do keep going. Very best wishes.
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Clare Pooley said:
Thank you very much, Richard. It is very sad to see these remains that people are working so hard to conserve and know that fairly soon they will be teetering on the cliff edge. What is even more sad is seeing peoples’ homes falling off the cliff and knowing that they have lost everything and are without recompense.
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Peter Klopp said:
Happy New Year, Clare!
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Clare Pooley said:
Thank you very much, Peter; and the same to you and yours!
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derrickjknight said:
Wow, Clare, you have certainly made up for lost time on this post. A lovely family Christmas; a splendid walk with well researched history; pictures full of mood and textures. I like the sepia beach scene: the degrading, fungus-tipped stump; and all the ruined stonework, some of which will end up in the sea.
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Clare Pooley said:
Thank you so much for this wonderful comment, Derrick. I think textures become so much more noticeable at this time of year with no bright colours to detract from them.
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tootlepedal said:
I am glad that you had a good Christmas. That walk looked to be very good value.
What blogging has achieved for me is a new circle of virtual (and one or two actual) interesting and knowledgeable friends. I think that this is an excellent reward for the time spent in the blogosphere. I have learned a lot and seen many wonderful illustrations of life and nature all round the world. I hope that you have got some of the same satisfaction out of your work.
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Clare Pooley said:
Thank you, Tom. You are quite right. I have come to really appreciate the blogging community and would miss you all most terribly if I had to give it up.
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New Hampshire Garden Solutions said:
I’m glad the family was able to get together, Clare. It sounds like everyone ate well!
I’m also glad you explained what the Alexander was. I was trying to figure it out but the closest I could come was our wild sarsaparilla, which looks somewhat like it. It sounds like an interesting and useful plant.
I’d love to explore those ruins. Thanks for the tour!
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Clare Pooley said:
Thank you very much, Allen. I see what you mean about wild sarsparilla and Alexanders – the colour of the leaves especially is very alike.
My goodness! The amount of food my family managed to consume over the Christmas holiday was quite amazing. Hours cooking and then it all disappeared in minutes!
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New Hampshire Garden Solutions said:
I’m sure that was because the food was excellent!
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Clare Pooley said:
Haha! Thank you!
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Lisa G. said:
Culpeper’s! Now, that’s an old reference book! I’m glad you went to the shore, since you love it so, and glad you didn’t take pictures. I mean, glad you just enjoyed and rested, and didn’t make yourself think of that. 🙂
I was surprised when I recently read a book about trees, that the holly is so ancient – the oldest tree, maybe?
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Clare Pooley said:
Thank you, Lisa. My Culpeper has all of his original writing on each plant and then has a section on the plants’ uses today. Most of the comments in this section say that the plant isn’t used today as it is considered poisonous!
I think the holly is one of the oldest trees around though even older than that is the ginko.
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H.J. for avian101 said:
Happy New Year, dear Clare. May the year 2020 bring you health and prosperity. 🙂
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Clare Pooley said:
Thank you very much, HJ! May I wish you and your family much health and happiness in 2020. I hope your eyes are feeling better?
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Jolandi Steven said:
Sounds like you had a very busy festive time, Clare. I hope 2020 will bring many more lovely walks and quality family time.
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Clare Pooley said:
Thank you very much, Jolandi. It was extremely busy and will continue to be for the next few weeks. By the middle of February things will have calmed down, I hope! More walks and quality family time – oh, yes please!
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Jane Sturgeon said:
Happy New Year with much ❤ and many blessings for you all, Clare. I am glad your family was together and your photos are lovely. Christmas sounded busy for you all. I feel the achievement is our Global Village and the loving support that flows so kindly on here. I have met kindred spirits virtually and made connections I am so grateful for. Even met some in person, like your lovely self, so we created heart memories. We can measure ourselves so harshly sometimes when in reality all the loving grace and kindnesses get lost in the mists of life. I am grateful for you. ❤
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Clare Pooley said:
Oh, Jane! What a lovely comment! Thank you so much! I really appreciate the wonderful community we have as bloggers and I have made many friends that I would really miss if I had to give up my on-line activities. I also think of our meeting with so much pleasure and gratitude. We must do it again some time soon! ❤ ❤ ❤
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Jane Sturgeon said:
You will love this, but after my last Birthday I have a travel pass now. The ferry will see me a lot more now! It would be great to get together again. Wrapping you all in much love, Clare and here’s to kindness in 2020. ❤ ❤ ❤
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Clare Pooley said:
❤ ❤ ❤
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kevin cooper said:
It’s the kind of walk I really enjoy when I get the chance. 🙂
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Clare Pooley said:
Thank you very much, Kevin! Have a very happy, healthy and successful 2020!
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kevin cooper said:
🙂🍷
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Elizabeth Melton Parsons said:
Clare, your walks are always so fantastic. Thanks for allowing us to tag along with your lovely photos. I love the old monastery and your pictures of the sea reminded me of just how badly I miss walking on the beach in Daytona Beach. ❤
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Clare Pooley said:
Thank you so much, Elizabeth! How very kind you are. I would miss the sea very much if I couldn’t visit it regularly. Sometimes it is surprising what we miss when we move away from somewhere ❤
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Annika Perry said:
Wishing you a wonderful New Year, Clare and also congratulations on your 7th year of blogging! The years seem to fly by once on WP, I find! I love the walk, packed with information and detail – many thanks for sharing with us. After a week ill with bronchitis, this is the closest I’ve come to being outside – so a real treat!
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Clare Pooley said:
Oh, Annika! Poor you! Get better soon ❤
Thank you for your kind wishes and a happy new year to you, too (once you recover xx)
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margaret21 said:
I’m only just catching up with blogs like yours, having been away. I’m glad you had such an energising and interesting walk, with, as ever, a fine crop of photos. You needed it after that exhausting Christmas! All best wishes to you and your family for 2020. Oh – and congratulations on 7 years of blogging!
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Clare Pooley said:
Thank you very much, Margaret. I am weeks behind with my blog reading!
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(Kitty) Cat Strawberry - Meow! said:
This was a wonderful post and I hope you are having a lovely 2020 already 🙂 Wow that is a long time to have been blogging, it’s so wonderful that you do still blog and don’t worry about how often or not you do it, a blog is personal and we always love to read your posts whenever you do have the time 🙂 ❤
It's sounds like you had a hectic but lovely Christmas. What sort of cat is Mona? Did she fit in well, cats don't always enjoy travelling, lol.
Lovely photos as always, and I feel so sad about Greyfriars and how little of it is left. The disolution of the monasteries is such a significant piece of history but so tragic with how many buildings, books and relics were destroyed. It's good that the trust are trying to preserve the place as best as they can. I didn't know about Alexanders being edible, you know me and my plant knowledge🙄. Should they encourage some foraging in the area? Of course you don't want there to be too many people doing that, but I think foraging, or at least the knowledge of which plants are edible and not is something that we've lost in the moern world. Valuable information should we ever need it.
By the way, I do love that dead tall tree stump. That bark pattern all broken into lines is somehow just so beautiful! 🙂
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Clare Pooley said:
Wow, Cat! Such a fantastic comment! Thank you!
Mona is a small tortoiseshell cat that my daughter adopted as an adult when her original owner couldn’t look after her any more. She is quite feisty and knows her own mind. She really appreciates her own space and is easily intimidated by other (usually larger) cats. She coped amazingly well with the train journey from Sheffield to us. Alice used some calming spray on Mona, which apparently lasts for a couple of weeks, and covered her basket with a blanket to keep her as calm as possible. She settled into our house very quickly especially as we don’t have any other pets and I had provided a litter tray and food. She loved looking out of our windows and I still keep finding nose splodges on the glass! She was impeccably behaved and left the Christmas tree alone and wasn’t interested in any of the food we had about the house either.
I agree about foraging, especially as many of the plants we have the most difficulty with like Ground Elder and Alexanders were introduced as food plants. I don’t think anyone would be that disappointed if foragers took too much of either of those plants!
Thank you for liking the tree stump. I thought it was beautiful too!
I hope 2020 has been good for you so far and that it continues to be a successful, happy and healthy one for you xx ❤ 🙂
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(Kitty) Cat Strawberry - Meow! said:
Aw, Mona sounds like such a lovely kitty ❤ 🙂 🙂 🙂 It's good that she settled so well, different cats cope differently with travel and new locations and clearly she copes very well (my late cat didn't!).
Thank you so much, I've had so many years of good and bad things happening, it would be wonderful to finally have a very positive year 🙂 Let's hope it continues to be for everyone ❤ 🙂
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Clare Pooley said:
❤ ❤ 🙂 ❤ ❤
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roughwighting said:
Happy 7 years of blogging. Keep it up! We meet each other through these posts and learn so much. The land you live on and near is so breathtakingly beautiful. How I wish I lived near a beach to walk on – even in the cold. And the ruins! And cliffs! Enjoyed your photos and your tour. THANK YOU.
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Clare Pooley said:
Thank you so much, Pam! One of the reasons I started blogging was to remind myself how lucky I am to live here. A lot of the time I am so engrossed with the ordinaryness of life that I forget to look around me and take note of the landscape, the buildings, nature and the people I meet. The day-to-day routines are never quite so dull then.
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roughwighting said:
So true. We get used to seeing what’s always around us. Thus, it’s good to share photos/stories of our place to realize how special it is, and unique to those who have never lived near.
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Resa said:
Thank you for sharing your corner of the world, Clare!
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Clare Pooley said:
My pleasure and thank you, Resa!
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quercuscommunity said:
Some lovely photos there Clare. I’ve never been round the ruins, but mainly stick to the beach when we visit. I’ve never seen the car park that full – people must have been desperate to get out!
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Clare Pooley said:
I think they were! We certainly needed to get out of the house 😀 Thank you, Simon.
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quercuscommunity said:
🙂
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