South Elmham Minster

Tags

historical site, insects, plants, ruined chapel, South Elmham Minster, Suffolk, walking, wild flowers

WARNING: OVERLONG POST

It was our 26th wedding anniversary the Thursday before last and we had intended to go out for a walk and take a picnic with us.  However, the morning was very wet and, even though the rain had stopped by midday we decided that walking through long grass and along overgrown paths and then trying to find somewhere to sit and eat our lunch without getting wet would be too difficult, so we put off the walk until the following day.  I did the ironing instead.

Friday was a much better day for a walk, with warmth, some sunshine and a fair amount of cloud.  There was a light shower of rain mid-morning and another just as we approached our picnic spot but not enough to dampen our spirits or make the going, or sitting, any trouble.

As usual, I took my pocket camera with me and looked out for things of interest.  You will have to excuse the quality of the photos; I have to take the pictures as quickly as possible so that I am not left behind.  Also my camera has decided it doesn’t like pink and has changed all the pink flowers to blue or purple.

The beautiful almond-scented Meadowsweet (Filipendula ulmaria) was already in bloom along the lane just a few metres from our house.  This is a native plant.

I quote here from my ID, ‘Harrap’s Wild Flowers’ by Simon Harrap ” The name (Meadowsweet) refers to its use in flavouring mead and other drinks, rather than a predilection for meadows, and also used as a strewing herb, scattered on the floor to freshen up the house.”

The Dogwoods (Cornus sanguinea) have been marvellous this year. Most were past their best already but I felt I just had to record this shrub’s swansong.

This is a plant I have known since I was a small girl. It used to grow prolifically in the places I played. Pineappleweed (Matricaria discoidea)

The plant gives off a very strong pineapple scent when it is crushed.  It is an introduced plant, coming originally from east Asia and was first recorded in the wild in this country in 1871.

Shepherd’s Purse (Capsella bursa-pastoris). This tiny little plant was right next to the Pineappleweed (which you can see bottom right of the photo). It gets its name from the shape of the seed pods.  You can see them surrounding the upper white flowerhead; they are grey-brown in colour and triangular.  Shepherd’s Purse is an ancient introduction to this country.

Hedgerow Cranesbill (Geranium pyrenaicum). This is one of the plants my camera decided should not be as pink as it is. It has rather lovely darker veins on its petals. This is yet another introduction, this time from southern Europe and was first recorded in the wild here in 1762.  I have added a link for you to see the usual colour of the flower.

Creeping Cinquefoil (Potentilla reptans). I love the zingy lemon-yellow of this flower! Next to a buttercup it looks too bright but on its own backed by its lovely soft green leaves it looks glorious.

Italian Alder (Alnus cordata). Halfway down our lane a row of Italian Alders were planted as a windbreak. What attractive trees they are! Here you can see the substantial heart-shaped glossy leaves, dark cones from last year and the new green cones. This tree has beautiful long catkins in the spring which flutter in the strong winds that blow here.

Pretty pink and white striped Field Bindweed (Convolvulus arvensis ) along the edge of this crop of Field Beans.

As you can see from this photo, it was quite breezy during our walk; not the best conditions for getting good pictures in a hurry! In amongst the grass you can see the brown seedheads of Ribwort Plantain (Plantago lanceolata).

Common Knapweed (Centaurea nigra). The hard flowerheads of this plant have given it the name ‘Knap’ weed; ‘knap’ meaning knob.

In olden times, this flower could be used to tell a girl whether she would marry soon.  She had to pull all the expanded florets off the flowerhead and then put the rest of the flower inside her blouse, next to her heart.  After an hour she should take it out again and if the previously unexpanded florets had blossomed, that was a sure sign that the man she was going to marry was soon coming her way.

By this time we had left the lane and were walking along a footpath between fields.

Oxeye Daisy (Leucanthemum vulgare). Sitting on the flower on the right is a Thick-legged Flower Beetle (Oedemera nobilis).  Only the males of this harmless shiny green beetle have the distinctive swollen ‘thighs’.

Lady’s Bedstraw (Galium verum). This is the only photo I managed to get of this pretty plant and most of it is out of focus because of the wind blowing it about.

Harrap’s tells me it is ‘honey-scented when fresh but smells of new-mown hay when dry.  Formerly believed to discourage fleas and was incorporated into straw mattresses, especially for the beds of women about to give birth, hence its name.’

I cannot confirm the information about the scent because: 1. I would have found it very difficult getting down low enough to smell the plant and would then have struggled to get back up again, so I didn’t. 2. The wind was blowing too strongly for the delicate scent to be discernible and 3. I haven’t got a strong sense of smell, anyway.  We’ll just have to take Mr Harrap’s word for it.

Lesser Trefoil (Trifolium dubium). This plant with its three leaflets joined together is widely believed to be the true shamrock.  There are other plants which are also thought to be the shamrock; white clover, black medick, watercress and wood sorrel.

This plant is one of the hop trefoils; its seedheads look like tiny heads of hops.  Once the seeds begin to ripen the petals don’t fall off the plant but turn brown and the standard, the upper petal of the flower, folds down on either side of its centre line over the ripening pod like a ridged roof.  If you click on the photo above to enlarge it and look about a third of the way up from the bottom, you will find a seed head in the centre.  Does that make sense?

Pyramidal Orchid (Anacamptis pyramidalis).

Another not-as-pink, pink flower.  Here is a link to images of what a Pyramidal Orchid really looks like.

I believe this plant might be Oxford Ragwort (Senecio squalidus). The leaves look too evenly-branched to be the native Common Ragwort (Senecio jacobaea) though the latter plant is what I would expect to find here. Oxford Ragwort is found mainly in urban settings. It escaped from Oxford Botanic Garden in 1794 and then spread rapidly via the railway network. It sounds like the main character in a John Buchan novel!

Ragwort is poisonous, its leaves containing an alkaloid poison that can remain in plants that have been dried with hay.  Animals are not aware they are eating it when it’s in hay (though they will avoid it when it is growing in the field) and the alkaloids will destroy their livers in just a few months. Understandably, farmers will try to get rid of all the ragwort they find.

Our aim was to picnic at South Elmham Minster and we discovered it surrounded by trees.  It is on private land but the owners allow walkers to visit it as long as they respect the place.

Here is Elinor discovering and photographing the entrance to the site.

Richard, Alice and I had been here before, when we walked to it from St James in April 1995, nearly two years before Elinor was born!  We hadn’t been back since, though it is only half an hour’s walk from our present home.

The entrance and path leading to the ruins of the ‘Minster’ were very overgrown which somehow added a frisson of mystery to the occasion.

To the Minster

There was a lot of Comfrey growing next to the path.

Common Comfrey (Symphytum officinale). These flowers were lavender-coloured.

And there it was!

South Elmham Minster

Instead of me writing screeds about this interesting ruin I will recommend this article for you to read, if you so wish.

Here is an information sign with the ubiquitous ‘artist’s impression’ of the Minster.

Here is a message we found. We have no idea when the damage was done or when this sign was put up. It looks fairly recent.

We wandered around for a short while and then sat on the bench provided under the trees and had our lunch.

Our picnic spot

Below are a few photos of the ruins themselves.

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An interesting tree-trunk.

Many of the trees surrounding the Minster were Hornbeam (Carpinus betulus).  Hornbeam trunks are said to be ‘fluted’ which might describe the tree above.

Hornbeam pleated leaves with bunches of fruits

The Hornbeam nut forms with a three-lobed bract attached that sometimes grows as long as 5cms.  This acts as ‘wings’ when the nut is released from the tree in the autumn.

I think the Hornbeams have been coppiced in the past though Hornbeams are usually pollarded.  Local children have been making dens under the trees.

Lesser Burdock ( Arctium minus)

Cleavers or Goosegrass (Galium aparine)

Above are two different plants with fruits covered in hooks.  The stems and leaves of Cleavers also have bristles that cause them to stick to anything that touches them.

An enormous Bramble patch! (Rubus fruticosus agg. )

A bird had made a nest in one of the hollows in the wall. It was empty.

Another enormous Lesser Burdock; it must have been almost 2 metres tall. By this time the sun had come out and the air was becoming warm.

The ditch; looking left

The ditch; looking right

There was another exit path from the Minster which crossed the wide surrounding ditch.  This ditch is fairly deep though my photographs do not show this at all clearly.

A Hoverfly, I’m not sure which one, on a large Buttercup flower; again I’m not sure which buttercup.

Hedge Woundwort (Stachys sylvatica). In reality this flower is a little pinker than this photo shows.

Woundworts have been used to stem bleeding and treat wounds since the time of the ancient Greeks.  Formally, the leaves were usually used as a poultice.  Ointments and infusions were also made with the leaves and the flowers made into conserves.  In fact, the volatile oil in Hedge Woundwort does have antiseptic qualities.

Dog’s Mercury (Mercurialis perennis)

The Dog’s Mercury was all in seed. This one appears to have lost a few of its upper seeds.  Dog’s Mercury is extremely poisonous to animals and humans alike.

We left the Minster and walked home in the sunshine.

Mayweed.  I wasn’t able to check to see if it was Scentless or Scented Mayweed.  The white outer ray florets were just emerging round the central disc-florets of these daisy-like flowerheads.

Lesser Stitchwort (Stellaria graminea).

Field Rose (Rosa arvensis).

Field entrance

I didn’t take many photos of our surroundings as we walked and most of those shots were not suitable.  I am glad this one came out as it shows the countryside through which we walked.  Old-fashioned small fields with high dense hedges.  Lots of birds were still singing and wherever we walked we heard numerous skylarks.

A drainage ditch

Richard pointed out the cracked clay sides of this ditch.  The water though not deep, was running quickly along and was particularly clear.  We saw small fish swimming in it.

Further along, the ditch was crossed by a small bridge with what I assume is a gate to prevent sheep from crossing from one field to the next.

A cart pond.  In former times, when carthorses needed to drink, the cart drivers could get into these ponds and out again easily without having to take the horses off the cart.

Pyramidal orchid

Field edge full of orchids…

…and yet more

A selection of different Vetches

Hedge Bedstraw ( Galium album)

Borage ( Borago officinalis)

Agrimony ( Agrimonia eupatoria)

A field full of wild flowers

Unfortunately I couldn’t get into the field because of a deep ditch around it.  I had to take my photos using the zoom on my camera.

Sainfoin ( Onobrychis viciifolia)

I think the pretty pink and white clover in the centre of the photo is Alsike Clover ( Trifolium hybridum)

I think the owner of this field has sown some wildflower seed mix here.  I have never seen so many different flowers all in one field before.  From what I hear from the stories of the elderly people I know at church, all the fields were covered in wild flowers like these when they were young.  Intensive agriculture was becoming the norm thirty or forty years ago: hedges were ripped out and everything was sprayed to kill off the wild flowers and most of the insects.  This was still being done when I moved to East Anglia in 1988 and the birds I heard regularly then and the quantities of moths, butterflies and other insects I used to see then are much reduced.  I especially noticed the difference when I returned to East Anglia in 2006 after our 18 months in Somerset.  Far fewer insects certainly.  However, we had got used to hearing and seeing Buzzards during that 18 months while in Somerset and I was greatly surprised and excited to see and hear a Buzzard in Suffolk for the first time in 2007.  They are well established here now.

Common Mallow ( Malva sylvestris)  The Common Mallow is an ancient introduction to this country.  It seems to line all the lanes at this time of year.

This is the rather handsome caterpillar of the Peacock butterfly . I found it crossing the lane as I was nearing home.

You will be glad to know we all got home safely having met no-one on our walk and only saw a lady driving her pony and trap and I think a couple of cars along the lane.You will be especially glad to know that this is the end of the post!

No Time to Stand and Stare

Tags

busyness, cataract operation, crocus, Diary, driving, gardening, horse brasses, iris reticulata, medical appointments, muddy lanes, Plough Sunday, Plough Sunday service, pulmonaria, rosemary, Rumburgh Church, snowdrop, sparrowhawk, storm damage, Suffolk, the plough, wintertime, witch-hazel

Both our cars are covered in mud all the time; they are in a worse state now than in the photo! Most of our lane is inches deep in sloppy mud and it is hardly worth our while to wash the cars.

This year has been crazily busy so far and there has been no time for even a short walk since the new year.  At last, I have managed to catch-up with all my blog reading, I’ve sorted out all my bank statements and receipts and have got rid of large amounts of paper.  I have even spent a little time in the garden weeding and tidying-up the flowerbeds; there has been very little cold weather and the weeds have grown and grown!

Rosemary ( Rosmarinus ‘Miss Jessup’s Upright’) in flower in January

Witch Hazel; the stems covered in lichen.

Crocus

Crocus

Snowdrops. These and the crocus above grow under the crabapple tree. It has got somewhat weedy there in recent years!

Iris reticulata

Iris reticulata

Pulmonaria

I have taken a Morning Prayer service at church and attended a meeting with others in our Benefice who take church services.

Plough Sunday Service 12th January. Richard took this service very nicely. Much of the congregation is made up of members of ‘Old Glory’ the Molly Men and their friends and supporters

The decorated plough; the star of the Plough Sunday service.

Look at these beautiful horse brasses!

Most of my time has been spent in the car, taking Elinor to the station on her university days, taking Mum to her many hospital appointments, taking myself to hospital and doctor’s appointments, dental appointments, eye clinic appointments and grocery shopping trips.  Mum has had both her cataracts removed and such a load has been lifted from her and my shoulders!  She has so much more sight than we thought and the fear that she may not be able to look after herself and live alone as she wishes has receded for a while.  She is approaching her 90th birthday and though she tires easily and is somewhat twisted and stooping because of arthritis, she is still able to cook and look after herself.  Richard and I had to visit her the week before last to repair her hedge and fence, damaged by the first of our storms.  Mum hadn’t been able to do any gardening for some months because she couldn’t see, and the garden has become overgrown with brambles and nettles, thistles and other unwelcome weeds.  I had done a few jobs for her and so had Richard but the weeds had taken over and the fence that broke in the storm was covered in enormous brambles.

A rather beautiful female Sparrowhawk (Accipiter nisus ) who observed me taking her photo

This coming week I only have three appointments to keep and none for Mum except for taking her to church on Ash Wednesday.  I’m at the hospital all day on Tuesday having eye pressure tests, I have a hygienist appointment at the dentist on Wednesday and a hair appointment in Norwich on Thursday.  Housework has been a bit hit-and-miss lately and I hope to be able to catch-up with all my chores at home very soon.

This is just a short post to let you know what has been happening.  My next post will probably be about one of our days out last year, or even the year before that!  I have plenty of old photos but hardly any new ones!

Our Church

Tags

new priest, repairs, Rumburgh, St Michael and St Felix Priory Church, The Saints Benefice

Quite a lot of our time is taken up with the church.  Not just attending services, fund raising, going to meetings and social occasions, but dealing with the crumbling fabric of the church building.

A beautiful spring day with the churchyard full of cowslips

St Michael and St Felix priory church in Rumburgh

Here is the church that Richard and I belong to in the benefice of The Saints in NE Suffolk.  This photo was taken in the middle of April this year and work had just begun to restore the porch roof which was in great danger of falling down.  It takes such a long time to instigate any repairs to the ancient churches in our benefice, I am always worried in case the church collapses into ruins before we have firstly, raised enough funds for the task, then filled in all the endless forms and lastly, all the numerous visits from the authorities have taken place.  Our church is old.  It had its beginnings nearly one thousand years ago, though most of the church was built in the 13th century.

The porch

Quite a lot of rotting timber was removed from the roof.

We are waiting for the inside to dry out now that the roof is watertight.

The builder’s excellent work under the eaves.

The opposite side needed just as much work.

The finished porch

The gate also needed repairing.

This photo was taken towards the end of May this year.  The metal bars sticking up in front of the gate are an attempt to stop thieves driving up to the church to steal parts of the building.  We can unlock the bars when necessary.

Gate one….

…and gate two.

You can see how well these gates have been repaired, all the rotten wood removed and new parts inserted.  We could not afford to have new gates made.

We have had some problems with damage and vandalism in the church this year.  We keep our church open and unlocked so that it is accessible and available to all who may need to visit and use it for prayer or for peaceful meditation.  Fire extinguishers have been set off in the church, mud smeared over the furniture and other minor damage has been done.  On occasion we have had to lock the church overnight and sometimes during the day.  This is the first time in living memory that Rumburgh has had to deal with this problem.

In August of 2017 I published this post in which I spoke about the retirement of our vicar, Richard.  From that moment on we had to run ourselves, all eleven parish churches in our benefice.  We have had to organise our services and make sure there were priests available for communion services, for funerals, for baptisms and for weddings.  We couldn’t have done this without the organisational skills of Maurice, our Elder (who has just retired) and without the kindness of a team of retired priests and the hard work of our one Reader, Lynda.  Many of us were roped in to take Morning and Evening Prayer services, Harvest Festivals and Carol Services, Richard and me included.  We still had our PCC meetings to attend, repairs to our ancient churches to arrange, fund raising for said repairs as well as trying to find our Parish Share each year. At the same time we had many discussions about the future and whether we would be able to get a new priest at all.  All eleven churches provided a wish list; what we wanted in our new priest.

This collection of eleven different pictures of an ideal vicar was read by the Rural Dean, his Assistant Rural Dean and by the Archdeacon who sent them back to us with lots of red pen all over them and a few ‘see me’s.  Eventually we produced a booklet describing our benefice and all the churches within it.  We stated what we thought our new priest ought to be like and asked potential vicars to come and live with us.  We were told at first that we probably wouldn’t get a full-time vicar but the Archdeacon then said he thought that as we don’t have a ‘mother church’ (we are all small churches in small villages; no town church with a larger congregation) and the benefice though sparsely populated is large in area, we needed a full-time priest, or at least two part-time priests.  The Archdeacon got his way and we advertised for two part-time ‘house-for-duty’ priests.  The priest would be provided with a house in exchange for working in the benefice.  The Archdeacon, the Rural Dean and his assistant also all took turns in taking services in our benefice during the interregnum.  The Archdeacon played the organ at the services he took, so we didn’t need to find an organist or arrange a karaoke machine for the hymns.  Sadly, the Archdeacon who wasn’t in the best of health and was just about to retire early, became very ill and then died a few weeks ago.  He lived long enough to see that we managed to get one of our two house-for-duty priests who was licensed on the 5th of September this year.

Leon was born and grew up in this benefice and is the son of a farmer and his wife who live in Ilketshall St Margaret.  Leon’s mum is the Church Warden at Ilketshall St Margaret church.  Leon has been a priest for some years, maybe nearly twenty years, as I remember him at home before he went off to college about a year after Elinor was born.  He is married with two young children.  He originally wanted to give up the priesthood completely and return home to help run his parents’ farm, full time.  But he changed his mind and took the part-time job as our priest and works with his parents on the farm for the rest of the week.  He now finds himself doing two jobs which ideally need to be done by two people working full-time.  We are still wanting another part-time priest so a lot of the duties we carried out during the interregnum we are still doing now.  I took Morning Prayer two weeks ago and Richard and I took the Harvest Festival service together.

Rumburgh church filling up with people ready for Leon’s licensing service.

The clergy congregate at the back of the church before the service. The Bishop is the one with the red over his shoulder on the left of the photo.  He is talking to Maurice.

Unfortunately I became too busy to take any more photos at the service, which went very well.  Afterwards we all went to the village hall for food and drink.  We had all provided one savoury and one sweet item of food and had delivered them to the village hall before the service.

Here is the cheese and broccoli quiche I made.

Mum cooked a tray-bake fruit cake for me to take.

It is good to have a priest in the benefice again.  The PCC meetings and the benefice meetings continue and we are now planning our Christmas services.

Richard and John (another member of our PCC) have been working very hard for  months to get major repairs done at our church.  At the beginning of this year I showed you, in a post, some photographs of large cracks that had appeared in the east wall of the church.  These cracks have become larger and pieces of masonry are falling down inside the building.  Builders have been approached but very few are willing to do the work or, if willing at first, then had to back out because of the length of time it took for the authorities to give us the go-ahead.  A visit was made to the church by a group of people who were very concerned at the state of the church and wished to help but insisted that the gutters should be repaired first before the cracks in the wall are tackled.  The gutters definitely need replacing/repairing as the walls are so damp inside the church they are green.  The visitors said they would give us a grant to get the work done.  A local retired builder who has worked in many of our churches was approached to do the work.  He agreed, but last week the poor man became ill and can no longer help us.  We have to start looking for another builder and the time is running out.  To claim the grant the work has to be done by February.

We must support Richard and John in their work, say our prayers and trust that something will turn up!

As an antidote to all this frustration, here is a festive song.

 

 

April’s End

Tags

April, church porch repair, churches, Common Hawthorn, Common Storksbill, cowslips, crown imperial, daisy, dandelion, Dove's-foot Cranesbill, Forget-me-not, Greater Stitchwort, Lords and Ladies, Ribwort Plantain, St Michael and St Felix Church Rumburgh, St Michael South Elmham church, Suffolk, sunset, the Beck, walking

I began writing this post immediately after publishing my last one and got well over half way through writing it and then had to stop.  No time for much self-indulgence, reading and writing for some weeks and now that I have a little time, this post seems somewhat irrelevant.  However, I don’t want to waste it by deleting it so I’ll finish it as best I can.

A pastoral scene at St Michael South Elmham church

Holy Week and then Easter week were very busy, so I didn’t manage to take many photos.  This was one of a very few and was taken on Good Friday as I was leaving church after a service of quiet prayer.

The churchyard of the church of St. Michael and St. Felix at Rumburgh

This and the next two photos were taken on Easter Day in the early afternoon.  As you can see, the churchyard was full of yellow Cowslips ( Primula veris).  I had taken Mum to her church at Eye in the morning and Richard had been to a service at St. Margaret South Elmham in our benefice.  After having some lunch we visited Rumburgh church to make sure all was well and to change the colours on the altar and to put flowers in the church.  We returned home and I began preparing the dinner to which Mum had been invited.

One of the many cowslips in the churchyard

Rumburgh church

During April we had work done on the church porch at Rumburgh.  It is now less likely to fall down.

A striking sunset seen from the back of our house.

Richard and I managed to find time for a short walk round the lanes during Easter week.

Crown Imperial

Someone must have either discarded a Crown Imperial fritillary at the side of our lane or planted it there on purpose.  We have seen it here for a few springs now and it is getting larger and larger.  It is about 3.5 feet tall, well over a metre in height.  I was unable to stop and photograph it when it was in full and glorious flower but even with its shrivelled petals you can easily see what it is and how well it is doing.

The Beck – the stream that flows through much of The Saints.

There was very little water in the Beck at the end of April and by the middle of the following month it had dried up completely.

Some of the undergrowth and scrub had been cleared away from this area next to the lane and an ancient boundary ditch was revealed

The first Greater Stitchwort (Stellaria holostea ) flowers of the year

A bright and beautiful Dandelion (Taraxacum agg. )

The Common Hawthorn (Crataegus monogyna ) was just beginning to blossom

I noticed some Forget-me-nots at the back of the grass verge but didn’t look to see what kind they were.  Probably Field Forget-me-not (Myosotis arvensis).

I also saw my first Lords and Ladies (Arum maculatum) of the season. I love all the different shades of green in this photo!

A couple of days later I had to go to the doctor’s surgery for my regular blood-test and noticed that there were many flowers blooming in the patches of grass alongside the driveway.  These grassy areas haven’t been tended as they used to be, due to financial cuts and other problems so these ‘weeds’ have flourished.

Dove’s-foot Cranesbill (Geranium molle) with Daisy (Bellis perennis) and Ribwort Plantain (Plantago lanceolata)

I noticed a profusion of yet more small pink flowers….

…and discovered they were Common Storksbill (Erodium cicutarium), a plant that I usually see nearer to the sea as it likes growing in sand and gravel. My camera doesn’t show how very pink this flower is.

And that is all I managed to record in April this year.  Rather an abrupt end, for which I apologise.

Spring Odds and Ends – March

Tags

blackthorn, blossom, Brown Hare, Bugle, cherry-plum tree, daffodils, daisy, Dog's Mercury, early dog-violet, flowers, garden, grape hyacinth, lesser celandine, leveret, March, Narcissus Rip van Winkle, Periwinkle, plants, pond, primroses, silver-laced primula, Spindle, St Mary's church Homersfield, Suffolk, Suffolk Lane, trees

Not having posted anything for over two months I have a number of photographs of things I’ve seen on my travels or in the garden.  This post will be a selection of these photos.

View from my kitchen window

This photo was taken with my phone early one March morning.  You can see the maple leaf sticker on the glass which works well at preventing birds from crashing into the window and injuring themselves.  Just outside the window is my witch-hazel which is planted in a large pot and also a Japanese flowering-cherry tree tied to canes, in a different pot.  We keep both trees up close to the front of the house to protect them from wind damage.  On the other side of our drive you can see the first of the daffodils in flower along the edge of the ditch.  What really excited me was the sight of a leveret, a young hare ( lepus europaeus), crouched in the grass.  Richard had had a sight of this young animal in the garden a couple of days before this and I was so pleased to see it for myself.

Leveret

I took this picture with my smaller camera from the utility room window and you can see how damp with dew everything was, including the leveret.  It stayed with us for a few days, hardly ever moving from its ‘form’, the nest in the grass it had made for itself.

The leveret’s form

Cherry-plum tree (Prunus cerasifera )covered in blossom

When this tree first grew I assumed it was an early-flowering blackthorn tree as they can look very similar.  However, a few years ago I happened to see some of its fruit before the birds ate it all and realised my mistake.

cherry-plum blossom

cherry-plum blossom

cherry-plum blossom

Silver-laced Primula

A year and a half ago I was trying to get rid of Common Nettle and Black Bryony in a flowerbed full of primulas and hellebores.  The only way to deal with them was to remove the plants I wanted before tackling the ones I didn’t.  I planted some of the primulas at the edge of a bed Richard grows dahlias in.  This March I was pleased to see that my treasured silver-laced primula had survived the move and two winters.  I still haven’t finished working on that weedy bed!  The Primula has a pretty silver edge to its petals.

Early Dog-violet ( Viola reichenbachiana )

We have these early violets growing in the grass round our pond.

Large pond

Large pond

Our large pond in March.  The water-level is very low due to insufficient rainfall for a year.

The front hedge and ditch

A week or two on from when the photo of the leveret was taken and the daffodils are all coming out.

I love these little Narcissus ‘Rip van Winkle’!

Grape Hyacinth (Muscari ), Bugle (Ajuga reptans ), Variegated Lesser Periwinkle(Vinca minor ) and Spindle (Euonymous ) ‘Emerald n Gold’.

This is a very narrow bed alongside the rear of the garage next to the back door.  All the flowers are blue and two of the plants have variegated yellow and green leaves.  However, just to prove that nothing goes exactly to plan, the bed also contains a red-berried Firethorn ( Pyracantha) which has creamy white flowers; this plant was here when we moved here and the birds and bees love it.

St. Mary’s church at Homersfield

We attended church here in March and I thought it looked lovely in the sunshine.

Primroses (Primula vulgaris )

That same day I walked round the garden and then out onto the verge next to the lane  beyond our hedge and found these primroses in flower.  Garden primulas are able to flower at any time of the year as long as it isn’t too hot or too cold.  Wild primroses, however, have their season and late March is the best time to see them round here.

Blackthorn (Prunus spinosa )

There is a tangle of Blackthorn on the verge and it was just coming into flower.  You can see our garden over the other side of the hedge.

Here is the Blackthorn on the verge.

It is a very untidy tree with suckers but it has blossom like snow and the fruit (sloes) in the autumn are used for flavouring gin, among other things.

Dog’s Mercury (Mercurialis perennis )

We have this rather insignificant plant growing under all our hedges and in amongst the trees near the large pond.  It is often a sign of old woodland and won’t tolerate being disturbed; it fades away.  The male and female flowers are on separate plants.

The daffodils at the end of March

Daisy (Bellis perennis )

Lesser Celandine (Ficaria verna )

Here is this sunshiny little flower peeping out from inbetween Common Nettles and Ground Elder in the ditch.

These were the highlights of March this year.  I hope to begin an April post as soon as I have published this one.  Whether I’ll be able to finish it and publish it in the next day or so only time will tell!

A Walk at Iken

Tags

estuary, Iken, River Alde, Roy Tricker, Saxon cross, St. Botolph's church, Suffolk, wading birds, walking

Three days after the walk we took round the lanes on New Year’s Day, mentioned in a previous post, Richard and I took ourselves off for another walk.  Elinor joined us.  We set off quite early as we needed to complete the walk before lunchtime; Richard had an optician’s appointment in the early afternoon in Halesworth and we had decided we would have lunch in a pub together before the appointment.

Iken is about twenty-four miles to the south of us and is a tiny village near the estuary of the River Alde and near the coast.  We have walked here a few times before but not for some time and never in the depths of winter.  The day was cloudy and raw, the temperature didn’t rise above 1 degree Centigrade all day ; a day when it would have been pleasant to have stayed at home and read a book.

The view of the Alde estuary through the trees at the edge of the car park.

There is a narrow pathway from the car park down to the estuary.

Despite the cold weather the Gorse (Ulex europaeus) was still in bloom. ‘Gorse is out of bloom, kissing’s out of fashion’.

I noticed this branch covered in fungus.  It was almost luminous.

I looked closer……

I don’t know what this fungus is.  It was much too cold to stand still for more than a couple of minutes so I had to leave it.

The Alde estuary.  You can just see the tower of Iken church sticking out above the dark trees on the horizon on the right.

There are many geese, ducks and wading birds on the estuary.  I don’t know what type of geese these are.

Some, if not all of these waders are probably Bar-tailed Godwits (Limosa lapponica). They appear to have slightly up-turned bills with pink-orange bases.

Here is Iken church near the edge of the estuary.

The shore was very muddy and difficult to walk on.

Ducks…..

I couldn’t definitely identify these ducks either!

……. and yet more ducks. All floating about far out on the water in the gloom.

We left the estuary and walked along another narrow pathway adjacent to a few gardens until we got to the road in the village.  At a junction on the edge of the village we turned left towards the church which is situated right at the end of a promontory jutting out into the estuary.

I saw this Yarrow (Achillea millefolium) in flower by the side of the lane, What a hardy plant!

Richard disappearing into the distance along the lane towards the church.

Sheep in a field by the side of the lane. So many molehills in this field!

Iken church, dedicated to Saint Botolph.

This church is mentioned in the Anglo Saxon Chronicle.  “Here in 654……Botwulf (Botulph) began to build the minster at Icanho”.  There are a couple of other places that have been considered as the possible site of Botulph’s first church (Boston in Lincolnshire and Hadstock in Essex) but this promontory, or hoo is now considered to be the most likely site.Here is a short passage quoted from the church guide written by Roy Tricker.

‘A Saxon minster was a nucleus of Christian worship, witness and learning for a wide area.  It was staffed either by a community of monks or a group of priests and from it missionaries travelled to spread the Faith and to establish satellite churches.  Botolph remained at Icanho as its abbot until his death in c.680.  It is recorded that he was buried by his disciples on June 17th and this has remained his annual feast day.  Abbot Coelfrith of Wearmouth and Jarrow, who nurtured the young (though later to become the Venerable) Bede, paid a visit to Icanho in 670 to observe the type of monastic life in operation here, and it is recorded that he was greatly impressed.

From Icanho the monks made missionary journeys into East Anglia and beyond and it may be that the 75 or so English churches which bear (or have once borne) St. Botolph’s name may give some clue to the extent of their work.  They include 16 in Norfolk, 4 in Essex and 6 in Suffolk, of which the church at Burgh (near Woodbridge) appears to have enshrined the Saint’s remains for a time.  King Cnut authorised the removal of some of Botolph’s bones to the abbey at Bury St. Edmunds, which he had founded in 1020.  These precious relics had clearly at some time been transferred from Icanho to the relative safety of Burgh, which was also a fort and a defensive site”.

The invading Danes destroyed the monastery in 870 and some time later the site was marked with a stone memorial cross.  The church was rebuilt, again in timber in 900 and re-dedicated to Saint Botolph.  The Normans rebuilt the church in flint-rubble between 1070 and 1110 and from then on parts were rebuilt or improved upon over the centuries.  By the early 19th century only the western end of the church was in use, the rest being in ruins.  The church was repaired and a new chancel built in the mid 19th century.  The village was evacuated in 1942 and the church closed so that the area could be used as a centre for battle training.  The church, which had been slightly damaged  by a fallen tree in a gale and then by the blast from a land mine, reopened in 1947 and the parishioners spent the next ten years or so improving and decorating the church.  During tree-felling in the churchyard in 1968 some sparks from a pile of burning logs set fire to the thatched roof of the nave and destroyed it.  Fortunately, the chancel was undamaged and was blocked off and made fairly watertight. The Parochial Church Council and the tiny congregation have worked hard for many years to raise money for the church’s restoration.  The tower was restored first from 1984 onwards then the nave walls and buttresses conserved and the nave got its new roof in 1987-9.  Between 1990-94 the nave floor was laid and repairs done to the porch and chancel roofs, benches and altar rails, the stonework and glass of the windows and the font.  The work continues still.

A plaque donated by the 81st Fighter Wing USAF who were stationed near Iken from 1951 – 1993.

Information plaque.

Noticeboard with what I believe to be a bell-clapper.

The War Memorial to ten local men who lost their lives in the Great War 1914-18.

The door from the porch into the church.

The beautiful 15th Century font with it’s typically East Anglian decoration of four lions round the stem and angels with outstretched wings under the bowl. The bowl is decorated with the emblems of the four Evangelists and four angels.

I apologise for the murky picture.  It was a very gloomy day and the church had no lights available to us.

The opening to the rood loft staircase.

You can just see the stairs going up to the rood loft. The rood loft has long gone so the stairs go nowhere.

A recess. See the angel with spread wings underneath!

A prettily carved corbel in the roof.

A piscina, so that water used by the priest to wash his hands could be disposed of.

The lower half of the 9th Century Saxon cross probably dedicated to St Botolph found embedded in the tower wall during restoration work in the 1970’s.

The cross is very weather-beaten as one might suppose, but typical inter-lacing Saxon patterns decorate it and there is also what could be a dragon carved on it, but I was unable to photograph it due to the gloom.We left the church and retraced our steps back to the car-park.

I saw this tiny rose in flower!

The entrance to the car-park.

A replica Saxon cross stands in the car-park.

The view across the estuary.

Another bleak view!

We were glad to return to the car and I drove us to Halesworth where we enjoyed a tasty lunch and a drink.

2017 Revisited

Tags

Bungay, Churches Conservation Trust, gargoyles, grotesques, H Rider Haggard, John Barber Scott, Priory Church of Saint Mary, Suffolk

As I mentioned in a previous post, I am writing a series of posts about a few places I visited last year but hadn’t the time then, to feature in my blog.

ooooOOoooo

The Priory Church of Saint Mary, Bungay, Suffolk

Last spring I went to see an exhibition of ancient and modern needlework and textiles at St. Mary’s Priory Church in Bungay.  The exhibition was called ‘A Stitch in Time’ and the leaflet I was given as I entered the church stated that it “… offer(ed) the visitor the opportunity to explore Bungay through the textiles that have been left as legacies of its past and … (admire) textiles that, it is hoped, will become heirlooms for future generations”.

Star of Bethlehem

Star of Bethlehem

Star of Bethlehem (Ornithogalum umbellatum) were in flower in the churchyard.

I enjoyed the exhibition exceedingly but photography was not allowed because many of the exhibits were extremely old and precious and all were unique and beautiful.  I spent some time admiring the needlework and also watching as some of the members of the ‘Sew on Sunday’ group worked on their current projects.

St. Mary’s Church tower

St. Mary’s Church began its life as part of a Benedictine Priory, its Parochial Nave, which was founded in the 12th century (about 1160) byGundreda wife of Roger de Glanville.  The nuns who resided in the priory were skilled needlewomen and made beautifully embroidered wall-hangings, altar cloths and other textiles used in church and chapel.  They probably also made embroidered vestments for the clergy.   The leaflet told me that after the Reformation in 1536 the Priory was closed and according to the parish accounts and local wills, “some of the church embroideries and vestments were cut up and made into elaborate theatrical costumes for the plays forming part of the annual Ale-Games in the churchyards during the Whitsun period!”  Don’t ask me about Ale-Games, because I can’t tell you a thing about them!  On display were some exquisite vestments and other church textiles.  Local churches, the Community of All Hallows and the Museum in Bungay had contributed some items for display, as had a number of local people.

St. Mary’s Church, built in the 15th century

Also on display were some needlework samplers dating from  the late 17th century.  These were made by the female ancestors of John Barber Scott (1792 – 1862) who was a wealthy local gentleman, diarist, philanthropist and Town Reeve.

I particularly enjoyed the display of work by the All Hallows Embroidery School which used to be part of the Community of All Hallows in Ditchingham.

The Barber Scott memorials and grave stones in the churchyard

I returned to the church a week later once the exhibition had finished, and took some more photographs of the church, inside and out.  This church is now redundant and is cared for by the Churches Conservation Trust.

Carving over north door.  A knight and a lion.

Carving over north door.  A lion and a mouse.  There is also a man’s head to the right of the lion.

An arch-stop with oak leaves and acorns

The north wall of the church.

I enjoy looking out for grotesques and gargoyles on churches.

Dog grotesque on north side of the church

What looks like a pig with a crown and long hair on north side of the church

Man with a toothache on north side of the church

Grotesque on north side of the church

These are the ruins of the 13th and 14th century priory buildings at the east end of the church

Priory ruins

Priory ruins

Churchyard with the Barber Scott graves in the middle distance

Look at the beautiful open-work cresting on the top of the north aisle! What skilled masons they were to have carved this!

I love this tiny figure of a knock-kneed kneeling knight in armour!

These niches on the buttresses would have contained figures of saints which were probably destroyed when the priory was dissolved.

More grotesque faces!

A chained begging monkey

A hound with folded paws

I’m not sure what this creature is!

I like the pinnacles on top of the tower. More fine carving here too.

Carving and flushwork on the West Front

Note the crowned ‘M’s above the West window.  The emblem incorporates all the letters of the name ‘Maria’.

Opposite the West Door is this stone known as ‘The Druid’s Stone’ which has probably been there since the Ice Age.

The inside of the church is less interesting than the outside.  Damage was done to the church in the Bungay Great Fire of 1688 when most of the roof timbers were destroyed and again during the Second World War when most of the glass was lost.

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The slideshow above is of the windows and the stained glass in the church, most of which had to be replaced after the Second World War.

The High Altar

Some of the modern needlework that adorns the church

Carved ivy

One of the bosses in the roof. I apologise for it being out of focus.

Some of the original 15th century woodwork was saved.  I have no idea if this might be one of the older carvings.  Most of the roof dates from the restoration after the fire which was completed in 1699.

Another blurred boss

The font is 18th century and decorated with cherubs and roses.

Behind and to the right of the font is a stone bowl thought to be part of a Saxon or Norman font which was found near the Staithe in the town.

This is a dole cupboard where bread and other scraps of food were placed for the poor to collect.

The cupboard was restored in the 19th century but it is dated 1675.  Or, it may be a fake and made in the 19th century.  Who knows!  There is a rebus on the lower front of the cupboard; a large Q with a rat inside it (Curate) and his initials.  There are also mitred bishops being pulled downwards by hands.  Hmmm!  Bishops can’t have been rated very highly here!

I like the studded door.

The studded panels came from a 16th century house in the town.

The War Memorial Chapel in the church has this 17th century Flemish carving of the Resurrection as the central panel of the reredos.  

This beautiful carving was the gift of Sir H Rider Haggard  of ‘King Solomon’s Mines’ and ‘She’ fame, who lived in Ditchingham House nearby.

Thank you very much for taking the time to read this long post!

Interregnum

Tags

benefice, church, retirement of our priest, Suffolk, the Suffolk Saints

On Thursday Richard, our Rector retired.

Richard was with us for sixteen and a half years and looked after us well.  We are a large (in area) benefice consisting of eleven parishes with eleven ancient churches; and I really mean ancient!  Richard not only worked very hard to keep all these unique churches going despite many set-backs but also at the same time, managed to get us to think of ourselves as a team; a ‘federation’ of parishes.  We help each other out whenever possible.  He gave us thought-provoking sermons each week.  His constant message was that all people are equal in the sight of God and all should have equal rights and opportunities.  He is a fairly shy and self-effacing man but who also would not put up with thoughtless, careless and bad behaviour from anyone.  He has an encyclopaedic knowledge of films and often quoted from them in his sermons.  He is a talented artist and has also written a book about a pilgrimage he made in France.  He can also tell the most awful and funny jokes!   He supported all our individual fund-raising efforts and provided us and our churches with all sorts of different things that have been of invaluable service.  He cleaned, polished, mended, tidied and adorned our church buildings.  He designed our website and kept it up-to-date.  He edited our benefice magazine and often wrote most of the copy, got people to advertise in it and sent it off to be printed.  He ran a coffee morning once a month in his home and made marmalade, cakes and breads for us.  He fought on our behalf with anyone who tried to make our lives more difficult.  He researched the history of all our churches and was extremely knowledgeable about their architecture.  At the centenary of the start of World War I he presented each of our churches with a Remembrance folder containing information on all the men (and women) from each parish who are mentioned on the war memorials.

This is only a fraction of all he has done for us.  Like children, we accepted it all and often took him for granted.  We now have to fend for ourselves for goodness knows how long.

Richard’s last service was the mid-week said Eucharist at 9.00 am on Thursday at Ilketshall St Margaret’s church.  Usually, there are less than ten people who attend this service.  This Thursday the church was nearly full with representatives from most of the churches in the benefice.  Richard asked us where we’d all been for the past 16 years!  A good question!  After the service we presented him with a gift and sang happy birthday to him.  We had sherry to drink and Pam had made a delicious fruit cake.  We chatted and laughed and then it was over.

Looking towards the East end of the church. Some of the people at Richard’s last service.

Looking towards the back of the church. You can see Richard in the centre of this photo.

Goodbye and good luck, Richard.  We will miss you very much.

A Quiet Spring – March and April Part 1

Tags

birds, churches, flowers, garden, insects, spring, Suffolk, sunset

We weren’t very adventurous this spring, staying close to home and taking things easy, so there wasn’t too much to blog about.

A visit to St Michael’s church on the first mild spring day in March

We admired the ‘Narnia’ lamp post by the gate.

We were unable to tell the time as the sun failed to shine.

The peaceful churchyard.

Marsh Marigold (Caltha palustris ) The flowers are in the centre of the bloom and have no petals. The 5 – 8 petal-like sepals are bright shiny yellow.

Peacock butterfly (Inachis io)  It was very sluggish and was still in the grass outside the church when we came out again.

A pair of Greylags (Anser anser) took up residence in our garden as they usually do each spring

We enjoy their company.

They constructed a nest on the island in the middle of the big pond but after ten days it was abandoned.  Feathers were spread everywhere. We don’t know what happened but we suspect an otter or an American mink was to blame.

The abandoned nest.

After we lost our summerhouse in the storm earlier this year we spent some time clearing the area behind it and discovered this tree with the deformed trunk. What could have caused this?

We enjoy seeing all the birds that visit our garden including the Pied Wagtails (Motacilla alba). Not a good shot as the bird hurried into the dappled shade just as I took its picture.

A sunset seen from the back of the house.

On a visit to our church at Rumburgh we saw this Mallard duck (Anas platyrhynchos) resting in the shade of a gravestone.

Primroses (Primula vulgaris) in the churchyard

I love the informality of our country churchyards and I like to see the wild flowers there. The wild flowers are just as much God’s work as any garden flower or exotic bloom.  They have a haven in our churchyards and should be safe from herbicides.

Barren Strawberry (Potentilla sterilis)

Richard on his way to church

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Meanwhile, back in my garden…..

My Pieris with its new leaves of red and its little white bell flowers

I have been growing these hyacinth bulblets on in shallow tubs and they are now ready for planting out in the garden to flower next spring.

 

Scented narcissi and pink aubretia

Elinor gave me some more aubretia, a mauve variety, as a gift on Mothering Sunday

Lathyrus and scilla

Pasque flowers. These began flowering just a couple of days after Easter Sunday.

I had a large patch of these red saxifrage but the deer scraped most of them up. I’m hoping they will spread again.

My music choice is ‘Glorious’ sung by The Pierces

Thanks for visiting!

Easter Day

Tags

Diary, Easter, eating out, Hot Cross Buns, St. Peter and St. Paul Eye, St. Peter's church St. Peter South Elmham

Happy Easter everyone!

St. Peter’s church, St. Peter South Elmham

Richard attended Holy Communion this morning at the church of St. Peter in the village of St. Peter South Elmham.  He kindly took this photograph for me on his phone.

I attended Solemn Mass this morning at the church of St. Peter and St. Paul in the town of Eye.  I was unable to take any photos as I was busy helping my mother so this link may give you an idea of where I was.  One day I intend to write a post about the church at Eye.

During Holy Week we did manage to do a few things on top of all the church-going.  We visited Norwich on Tuesday so that Elinor could revisit the exhibition of dolls’ houses currently on display at the Castle Museum.  She decided that this was the exhibition she wanted to review for her college interview this coming Wednesday and she needed to check up on a few details and take some more photos.  While we were in the city we did some Easter shopping and had an extremely pleasant lunch at the Iron House.

On the way home I stopped off in Bungay to get some more shopping and to order some flowers for the church to be collected on Holy Saturday.

On Wednesday I took my mother out shopping in Diss and she gave me a dozen Hot Cross Buns she had made which I put in the freezer when I got home.  Richard and I went to Rumburgh church to tidy it a little before the service that evening.  The building works have nearly finished but the dust is still settling on everything.  The churchyard is full of cowslips!

Rumburgh churchyard

Rumburgh churchyard

We drove back home and then walked to the corner of the lane to admire all the Jacob sheep and their lambs.

Jacob sheep and lambs

Jacob sheep and lambs

Jacob sheep and lambs

Jacob sheep and lambs

Thursday was quite busy.  After the early church service I went into Halesworth to pick up some things I needed and spent some time in town.  We  had organised a team cleaning session at Rumburgh church for 2 pm but only five people managed to attend – Richard the Rector, Pam and Ian (the other Churchwarden and his wife), Richard and I.  We all worked hard for two and a half hours and the church is clean and tidy again with everything back where it should be.  We got rid of a lot of rubbish and moved some furniture about too.

Before going out again that evening I managed to wash two altar cloths and a table cloth from the church.  They dried quickly in the strong, cold breeze that has been blowing all the week.

Church washing

Friday was Hot Cross Bun Day!

One of my mother’s excellent Hot Cross Buns. They are split, toasted and then buttered.

Not only did we have buns at home but the Rector held a tea at his house after the last service of the day.  It was very well attended, much food and drink was consumed and a lot of talking and gossiping was done!

We got a little much needed rain later but unfortunately, just as it started at 5.15 pm we got yet another power-cut which lasted until after 9.30 pm.  A power cable was hit by a branch again!  I had nothing suitable to cook on the gas hob for our evening meal so we went out to Bungay and had a pizza at the Stonehouse.

I went back to Bungay on Saturday morning to collect the flowers I had ordered and to  buy some wrapping paper for presents for my mother whose 87th birthday is tomorrow.  I also had to take a large parcel to the post office.

Today we went to the Fox and Goose in Fressingfield for lunch to celebrate both Easter and Mum’s birthday.  It was a lovely meal, enjoyed by all of us and then Mum came home with us for the afternoon.  The rain that was forecast for today held off until the afternoon so we didn’t get wet.

We have eaten out much more than usual this week, and very nice it has been too!

Thanks very much to you all for visiting my blog!