Castle Acre Priory

Tags

architecture, Castle Acre, Castle Acre Priory, Cluniac, day out, English Heritage, monastic, priory, ruins

It was Richard’s birthday in the middle of August and to celebrate, he decided he would like to visit Castle Acre Priory in Norfolk.  The Priory is a ruin which is cared for by English Heritage.

Because of Covid-19 restrictions we had to book a ‘slot’ and pre-pay for our visit.  We were so happy to have Alice staying with us for a week; she had arrived the day before and accompanied us on our trip.  We made a picnic lunch to take with us and set out at 11.00 am as our ‘slot’ was at 1.00 pm.  I drove us there and because the traffic was light we arrived in very good time.  We ate our picnic sitting in the car in the car-park;  it was a dull, cool day and the only benches and tables were beyond the reception building.  We had liked the look of Castle Acre village as we drove through it, (it also has a castle and an interesting-looking church) but it was very crowded with visitors wandering about the narrow lanes.  We will return in happier times, I think.

We donned our masks and presented ourselves at the reception desk where we were given a map of the priory and I bought a guide book.  Just outside the reception building was a charming herb garden.

Castle Acre Priory herb garden

There were a couple of stands of plants for sale. I resisted buying from them with difficulty!

This was our first view of the priory ruins on leaving the herb garden

Castle Acre was chosen by William de Warenne, a Norman knight who had fought at the Battle of Hastings, to be the headquarters of all his newly acquired Norfolk properties.  The castle, the priory and the massive 12th century town defences were all built by successive generations of the de Warenne family.  The building of the priory was begun in 1090 by de Warenne’s son.

The west front of the priory church

Just look at this exquisite blind arcading!

Have a closer look…

Carved archway in the west front

More intricate carving, with a couple of grotesques

We always seem to visit a place which is currently having work done to it!  Last year we visited Hardwick Hall in Derbyshire because I wished to see its stunning facade.  ‘Hardwick Hall, more glass than wall’.  When we got there (in the pouring rain, I might add) the whole of the front was covered in scaffolding because of on-going restoration work.

This time, a number of projects were being worked on at the priory which restricted where we were able to go.

The Prior’s chapel is to the left as you look at the photo and the Prior’s great chamber/study is on the right with its fabulous bay window, added in the early 16th century.  Further round the corner on the right side of the building you can see the side view of an early 16th century oriel window.

The Prior’s study with the oriel window is on the left and a late 15th century two-storey porch is on the right. The taller building behind the porch is the Prior’s lodging. You can also see the connecting passages and galleries of the west range joining the lodging to the Prior’s chapel behind the great chamber.  The Prior’s chapel was also connected to the Priory church so the Prior had no need to go outside at all, unless he wished to.

Another view of the Prior’s buildings

This is part of the decoration on the oriel window. It must be a portrait of someone, don’t you think? Such a wonderful face!  Apologies for the poor photo.

From left to right; entrance to the west range of the priory, then a kitchen and behind it the refectory and then the building on the far right is the reredorter or latrine block.

Restoration work is being done to the bridge (in the foreground) over the leat and also to the south boundary wall. The leat is a diversion of the River Nar; this leat was used by the monks to take the waste away from the reredorter. They dug the channel close to the priory and then built the latrine block over the top of it. The leat is dry at present.

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Castle Acre Priory was a Cluniac priory, a daughter-house of the great monastery at Cluny in Burgundy.  With the support of kings and nobility many Cluniac priories were created in England between 1076 and 1154.  During the wars with France the Cluniac priories had restrictions placed on them because they were ‘alien’ even though most of the monks were, in fact, English.  Gifts to the priory were reduced and the French monks were repatriated. Only after obtaining English or ‘denizen’ status did their situation improve again and their numbers increase.  Castle Acre was suppressed by Thomas Cromwell during the reign of Henry VIII and the deed of surrender was signed on 22 November 1537.  Thomas Howard, third Duke of Norfolk acquired the lease of the priory’s site, lands and rights.  By the following summer the priory buildings were being demolished, though the Prior’s lodging was retained as a house.

Richard and Alice at the Priory

My girls!

Elinor with the reredorter in the background. You can see clearly here how the building straddles the leat.

Richard, Alice and Elinor

It started to rain, and we decided it was time to go home.

Alice and Richard approaching the bay of the south aisle of the priory church under the south-west tower

The ceiling of the bay under the tower

Arched exit from the south-west tower

View from under the south-west tower looking towards the inside of the west door and onwards to what would have been the north-west tower

As usual, I also took photos of the plants living on and near the ruins.

A Willowherb. It could be Hoary Willowherb ( Epilobium parviflorum) because of its very hairy stem and leaves. Growing on a wall would account for its small size.  (There are other willowherbs which are hairy which accounts for my doubtful ID).

Many plants growing on one of the walls

White Stonecrop (Sedum album)  I find its red leaves most attractive

White Stonecrop

White Stonecrop

Horse Chestnut ( Aesculus hippocastanum) These leaves are badly affected by leaf blotch caused by a fungus.  Horse chestnut trees are also often badly attacked by Horse chestnut leaf-mining moth larvae

Wild Teasel ( Dipsacus fullonum)

Wild teasel

Maidenhair spleenwort ( Asplenium trichomanes) Recognizable by its black midrib

I think this might be Roseroot (Sedum rosea).  Not a plant one would expect to find in this part of the country

Harebells ( Campanula rotundifolia) and Black Medick ( Medicago lupulina)

Harebells

Common liverwort/Umbrella liverwort (Marchantia polymorpha )  Common liverwort is a thallose liverwort; it has flattened leaf-like structures (thalli) with forked branches.  Common liverwort is also dioicous – it has separate male and female plants. This photo is of a female plant as it has star-like umbrella structures some of which are showing yellow mature sporangia or spores.  Common liverworts can also reproduce asexually by ‘gemmae’ produced in gammae cups which can be seen centre bottom of the photo on the thalli.  The gemmae are knocked out of the cups by splashes of water/raindrops.

Lady’s bedstraw (Galium verum )

Wallflower ( Erysimum cheiri)

I think this is Common calamint (Clinopodium ascendens )

Common calamint

We had a very enjoyable few hours at the priory and I hope to return to Castle Acre one day to look around the village and revisit the priory.

To end this post, I have added the following English Heritage guide to Medieval Monastic life….

and, here is the Salve Regina, a chant that would have been sung (probably not to this tune) when Castle Acre Priory was in its glory.

 

Changes

Tags

Barton le Clay Bedfordshire, Bromley Kent, Burnt Ash Primary School, changes, Forest Hill London, homes, houses, memories, New Eltham London, Ravensbourne School for Girls, schools

I have been considering how much and how quickly our lives have changed recently; as no doubt most of you have, too.  I am hoping that some of the positive changes we have witnessed in our communities will continue and flourish ‘post-corona’.  I am not going to discuss the pandemic here as I have nothing new to add and frankly, it just gets me worked-up and anxious just thinking about it.  I will be mentioning it, no doubt, in passing in other posts, as it affects my day-to-day life.

After thinking about current changes, I then began recalling some of the big changes and events in my life.  Moving house is a major upheaval whenever one does it and at whatever age.  Big events for a child are going to school or changing schools.  I was fortunate in that I lived in Bromley in Kent all the time I was growing up and attended just two schools in that time.  My Primary School was called Burnt Ash and had an Infants School and a Junior School in the same building.

Click on the photo to enlarge it.

Burnt Ash Junior School

Above is a school photograph of mine taken during the summer term of my first year in junior school.  (I am of an age where class photos were all done in black and white!)  This must have been in May or June 1967 and I was eight years old.  I am in the front row, third from the right.  I had my hair in plaits with red bows and the two girls either side of me were both called Julie.  The school I went to was built on the edge of an enormous housing estate.  Some of the pupils were extremely poor and Rosemary (second from the left, front row), Shanie Edwards (forth from the left, front row) and Michael Collins (furthest right, back row) in my class didn’t own proper shoes and didn’t have coats, either.  I liked Rosemary (Porter, I think her surname was)because she was quiet and Michael too.  His hands were very hard and rough, I remember.  Many fairly affluent families lived in houses close to the estate and the school, being the nearest one to where they lived, was the one their children attended as well, so we had some girls and boys in the class who were quite comfortably-off.  Bullying went on, as it did in all schools and still does despite all the ‘we don’t tolerate bullying’ hype, but I don’t think anyone was picked on especially for being poor or wearing ragged clothes.  We all played together and learnt together and we all liked our lovely teacher, Miss Gloria Hitchcock, very much.  Isn’t she gorgeous!

Below is another school photo taken about eight or nine years previously.

Burnt Ash Junior School

The boy who has been highlighted is, of course, David Bowie or David Jones as he was known then.  As you can see from the photo, all school pictures were taken in the exact same place; just in front of the veranda.  Click on the link below and you will see what my old school looks like now.  They have enclosed the verandas and have made the classrooms bigger. At present the school is closed temporarily because of ‘you-know-what’.

https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@51.4209432,0.0124713,3a,75y,22.01h,89.88t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1sAgNZwuslE0lJ4gYpdWmSaQ!2e0!6s%2F%2Fgeo0.ggpht.com%2Fcbk%3Fpanoid%3DAgNZwuslE0lJ4gYpdWmSaQ%26output%3Dthumbnail%26cb_client%3Dmaps_sv.tactile.gps%26thumb%3D2%26w%3D203%26h%3D100%26yaw%3D224.82954%26pitch%3D0%26thumbfov%3D100!7i16384!8i8192

Going back to my school photo; look at the blonde girl, third from the left on the front row.  Her name was Vanessa Jaye and her father was Bobby Jaye, a radio producer who became Head of Radio Light Entertainment at the BBC.  Vanessa was a friend of mine and I went to tea at her house.  I remember she had a crazy cat that sat on the stairs and leapt on people as they passed by.  Absolutely terrifying for me!  I had no idea at first that her father was well-known but eventually she spoke of her family knowing Peter Glaze who presented Crackerjack! with Leslie Crowther.  I was never keen on Peter Glaze – he annoyed me.

The girl standing second from the right in the middle row was Samantha Parry.  She was another friend and I and my brother and sister went to parties at her house.  Her brother Andrew was in the same class as my brother Andrew and her brother Benjamin was in the same class as my sister Francesca.  We all trooped off to their house and played party games, had tea and then listened to their dad, Gron (short for Goronwy) play guitar and sing songs.  He always sang ‘Little Boxes’ as far as I can remember.  Sam’s mum was Alison Prince who, until she died last October wrote lots and lots of books for children.  She also wrote the animated series’ Trumpton and ‘Joe’.

I was aware of all this at the time but I didn’t think about it much; most children take life as it comes and accept it (though don’t always like it) good or bad, interesting or boring, calm or frightening.  The fact that some of my friends were very poor and some well off didn’t occur to me at the time.  That some of my friends’ parents were well known or had written books was no more interesting to me than the knowledge that my mother had been a Woman Police Officer in the Metropolitan Police Force in the early 1950’s and that my father had joined the Friary near Cerne Abbas in Dorset after he came out of the Air Force where he had done his National Service.  I just though of all these children as class-mates, some of whom I liked and the reason I didn’t like some others was mainly because they enjoyed calling me names and making me cry.

My mother when she was in the Metropolitan Police Force – and no, she didn’t drive motorbikes!

Click on the link below and you will see the house I was born in.  It has rose bushes in the front garden.  Mum and Dad bought a newly-built house in Barton le Clay in Bedfordshire shortly after they got married in 1956 and lived there for just under three years.  Despite me being Mum’s first baby she gave birth at home because the house had a bathroom and a water supply.  I remember absolutely nothing of this house.  Mum and Dad decided to move back to Bromley as Dad had another job there.  They would also then be nearer to their parents.  Mum was eight months pregnant with my brother Andrew when we moved and I was approaching my first birthday.

https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@51.9665574,-0.4246467,3a,75y,270.83h,96.06t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sBPuRe2NkGDDIFIjaV9MXLA!2e0!7i13312!8i6656

Click on the link below and you can see where I lived from 1959 for eight years until just after that school photo was taken in 1967.  Our house was the one with the pale silver-blue-grey car in the front garden.  When we lived there we had a front fence with a gate, a front path with a flowerbed alongside and a little bit of grass where that car is now parked.  The house had black paint on the door and window -frames and there were steps up to the front door.  It was a very small house with a small back garden which was made smaller when Dad built a garage and an extension to the house.  There was a back lane behind the houses that we children loved to play in when we could and an area of waste ground called ‘the dump’ – I don’t know why it was called that – and at the top of the road a fenced off hill, or what I thought was a hill but was in fact a reservoir with grass over the top.  The house next door to us on the right, as you look at it – number 137 – used to be the last house in the road on that side and had a large garden.  This has now been built on, I see, and another house added to the road.

https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@51.4243514,0.0164684,3a,75y,61.49h,84.11t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1slKfNgwFFrLS7FTkUAr7B2Q!2e0!7i13312!8i6656

We moved in September 1967 on the day before my ninth birthday to a much bigger, detached house with a much larger garden.  My sister decided to take her beloved collection of garden snails with her in a bucket.  Dad found this in the boot of the car when we arrived at the new house.  We over-looked the churchyard at the back of the house which had an enormous copper beech tree in it and crows nested in it every year.  We used to get lots of different birds in the garden and Mum was able to enjoy gardening, though she never liked the house and Dad built a workshop.  The house was haunted, though I never saw or heard anything.  Dad saw the woman a couple of times; dressed in a crossover apron, she stood by the kitchen window and stared at him.  She seemed sad, or so my father thought.  My sister heard someone clearing the grate in her bedroom; she heard it a couple of times, I think.  Click on the link below and you will see our second house in Bromley.  It was nearer to the town centre which as a teenager, I really appreciated.

https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@51.4128228,0.0137968,3a,75y,119.86h,88.73t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sA8nuSfDSOIZQpzLSj5eZbQ!2e0!7i16384!8i8192

Click on the link below to see the building that once housed the school I attended from 1970 until 1977.  It had been called Bromley Grammar School for Girls until just before I joined it when it changed its name to Ravensbourne School for Girls.  I think the only well-known woman to have belonged to the school when it was known as Bromley County School,was Dora Saint, or as she is better known, ‘Miss Read’ who wrote the Fairacre and Thrush Green series of books. The two Ravensbourne Schools (the girl’s school and the boy’s school) amalgamated many years ago and now occupy the building that was once the boy’s school.  My old school building has been used for many different purposes since then and by different groups of people.

https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@51.4027339,0.0320173,3a,75y,230.86h,90.41t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sKP9LIp9Do9Q6o0Glh9Eaug!2e0!7i16384!8i8192

Fifth Form, May 1975 Ravensbourne School for Girls

Here is my form at Ravensbourne in 1975.  Two girls were off sick that day.  I am in the middle row, fourth from the right.  My dear friend Wendy, is in the same row on the far left and our form mistress, Mrs Shoubridge is on the far right.  She was a lovely lady and taught mathematics and rode to and from school on a motor scooter.  We were all just about to take our O’ Level exams and eight of the girls, including one of the absentees were to leave school in a couple of months time. I and the rest of the form were to carry on into the sixth form and the pleasures of A’ Levels.

Mum and Dad moved from Bromley in 1987 to the house Mum still lives in, in Suffolk.  By that time all three of us children had married and moved out; click the link below to see my first home with my first husband.  The large Victorian house in Forest Hill in south-east London with the black iron gate and the holly trees in the front garden had been converted into four flats; a basement flat, the ground floor flat, the first floor flat (where we lived from 1982 until Christmas 1984) and a top floor flat.

https://www.google.com/maps/@51.4417398,-0.0529742,3a,75y,299.39h,89.22t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1ssC7_2Ofh6k48txuJkE4pYQ!2e0!7i16384!8i8192

My marriage fell apart in 1985, just after Alice was born.  I lived in New Eltham, where her father and I moved to from Forest Hill until the summer of 1988 when Alice and I moved to Suffolk a year after my parents had moved there.  Click on the link below and you will see my house in New Eltham; number 54.

https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@51.4398324,0.0721311,3a,75y,45.64h,88.83t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1spjKZ0joyWIxwAfKatJhiyA!2e0!7i16384!8i8192

A very long post, I’m afraid but I thought I would put all the house moves, pre-Suffolk, together.  Sometime, I may go on to talk about what I had wanted to do with my life and what I ended up doing instead.  I may show you the houses I’ve lived in in Suffolk and the short 18 month move to Somerset between 2004 and 2006.  We will see.

An Update

Tags

erosion, Humphries Weaving, Kent Ambulance Service, news, Suffolk, The Easternmost House

This will be a strange post with links and no photographs.  I have accumulated a collection of links and titbits of news and thought I would share a few of them with you.

Well over a year ago I wrote a post that included, among many other things, some news about my niece, Natalie.  Natalie works for a firm of specialist silk weavers in Sudbury, Suffolk and she does some extremely interesting work and has a few very important clients indeed.  My brother shared a link on Facebook yesterday and I thought you might be interested in some more details of Natalie’s work.

125 years of the National Trust; Heritage Fabrics

ooooOOoooo

In January this year Richard and I took a walk and I posted about it.  In the post I mentioned a book called ‘The Easternmost House’ written by Juliet Blaxland.  The book tells of the trials and tribulations of living in a house on the edge of a cliff; among many other things.

Here is a further installment.

ooooOOoooo

My sister, Francesca is the Operations Manager for the Kent Ambulance Service and works very hard caring for her team of skilled paramedics and for the patients in their charge.  At present, testing for Covid-19 Corona Virus is an added pressure on an already over-stretched and under-paid profession.  Here is a short film about one of the call-outs her team had to deal with recently where a man went into cardiac arrest and was given 21 shocks and then clot-busting medication.

There you are!  A couple of good news items with a bad one sandwiched in the middle.

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!

Wedding and Weaving

Tags

Brighton Pavilion, family life, Humphries Weaving, restoration work, Suffolk, weaving, wedding

I have been thinking for some time that I ought to let you know something of what we have been doing this year but I haven’t been sure where I should start!  I will begin by telling you of our recent big family celebration, my brother Andrew’s wedding to Helen on the 12th of May.

Helen and Andrew – my brother and his lovely wife

This photo and the one below I ‘obtained’ from Facebook and they were taken by Andrew and Helen’s friends.  I didn’t take any photographs that day and am very grateful to those who did.  Don’t they look a happy couple?

Helen and Andrew

Richard and me – taken by Elinor

Alice and Elinor – taken by Richard

The day was a little chilly but fairly bright and it stayed dry until we were all at the reception, which was very lucky.

I had spent quite a bit of time during the preceding months helping Mum find a new outfit for the occasion.  I visited many shops, on my own, in a number of towns looking for something she might be happy to wear.  The shops had to have easy access and be near to a car park.  The clothes had to be suitable in design and price.  I eventually got together a plan of campaign and we had a shopping trip just ten days before the wedding.  We were very fortunate in finding just what Mum wanted but I am disappointed in not having a photograph of her in her finery.

It was good to see Andrew’s children Natalie and Robert and Natalie’s partner Adam.  My sister Francesca managed to take the day off work but her three children weren’t able to attend.  Mum was very pleased to see them all.

oooOOOooo

My niece, Natalie specialised in weaving when studying for her degree in Art in London.  I thought, as I hadn’t been able in an earlier post of mine to include any photos of the embroidery and textiles I saw at an exhibition, I would mention the work Natalie does and include a few links.

Natalie works for Humphries Weaving based in the town of Sudbury in Suffolk.  Here is a short video produced by that company and in it you will be able to see Natalie and her colleague and listen to them talk about the work they do.  Natalie is the woman with her hair up and she doesn’t have a Scottish accent!

One of the projects Natalie has been working on for the past few years is helping to conserve the Saloon in the Royal Pavilion in Brighton, that wonderful building commissioned by George IV.

Here is an article from the Guardian newspaper about the restoration work.

I also include another film made by Humphries Weaving which explains the work they have had to do and all the detailed research that has been carried out.

I am looking forward to visiting the Royal Pavilion and seeing this beautiful room!

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!

Doris Remembered

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.

Our summerhouse when it was new last February.

The summerhouse after the storm this February.

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!

Here is our new summerhouse. Spot the difference!

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 flowers in the porch.  Looking at this little work of art, you may be surprised to know I am not a flower-arranger 😉  The flowers are lovely in spite of my ministrations. As you can see, the porch is in urgent need of work. If nothing is done soon, the porch will collapse and we won’t be able to use the church.

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.

This is the new tower screen. You can see the framework for the glass which has yet to be put in. There will be a glazed door at the bottom of the screen.

We will now be able to see and watch the bell-ringers as they ring before our services.

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.

Miniature iris

Miniature iris

Miniature iris

Miniature irises

Crocus

Crocus

Crocus

Mahonia

Mahonia with a bumblebee

Winter-flowering honeysuckle

Miniature daffodils

My music selection is ‘Handle With Care’ by the Traveling Wilburys.

Thanks for visiting!

January Chill

Tags

acupuncture, bullfinch, Dunston Hall, family life, frost, full moon, Southwold, Suffolk, weather

Before I resume my Highlights posts from last year I thought I’d better write something about this new year.

Frosty path next to our big pond

There have been lots of frosts this month; probably more frosty mornings than non-frosty which makes a pleasant change.  The last two winters have been quite mild with frost being a rarity.  We have had some rain, even a day of snow (it didn’t hang around for long) and a fair amount of fog.  The  best days have been the sunny ones; a sparkly start to the day and then blue sky until sunset.  Freezing nights with countless stars and a moon latticed by the bare branches of trees.  Today the temperature stayed at -2 centigrade and a very cold wind and thick cloud made it unpleasant to be outside.

Full moon

Full moon

My life has carried on as usual – driving Elinor to college in Norwich, taking Mum shopping, to her hospital appointments and to church once a fortnight and when I am at home, basic household chores.  I have been very tired this month so haven’t done more than necessary!  I went to see my Rheumatoid Arthritis clinician at the hospital for a routine appointment and she seems to be pleased with how I am coping and doesn’t think I need any change in my drug regime.  Richard is feeling much better, though still has some problems with his leg and back.  He is driving again and we have resumed our sharing of the driving and shopping duties.

Birch tree in the breeze

I mentioned at the end of last year that Elinor had decided to try acupuncture to see if it helped to reduce her anxiety and its symptoms.  She had three appointments before Christmas and has had three more this month.  She would have gone this week but it was cancelled as the practitioner has ‘flu.  Elinor is continuing with it, despite it being quite uncomfortable at times, because it has made a difference.  The first session caused her to feel calm for the first time in her life and the effects lasted for nearly 24 hours!  Not all her sessions have been as effective but since Christmas we have all noticed that she has been able to make decisions more easily and has had the courage to do a few things that for some time have been beyond her capabilities.

Dunston Hall

The venue for her treatment is Dunston Hall, just south of Norwich, which is a mock Elizabethan building constructed between 1859 and 1878 but is now a hotel with spa, beauty and therapy treatment rooms, a gym, a pool and outside, a golf course, driving range and football pitch.  The acupuncture reception area and treatment rooms are ‘below stairs’ and I have become used to sitting on a sofa listening to ‘ambient’ music, attempting to read a book and trying to keep awake while waiting for Elinor.

Dunston Hall

She had her 20th birthday on Saturday and we went out for a meal together that evening.  She felt a little unhappy to think that her whole teenage years were given up to anxiety and, because she has no friends, she had to celebrate her birthday with her Mum and Dad.  Richard and I felt so sorry for her and wished there was something else we could do to help her.

The following day was quite eventful because she announced that she had decided that the college course she has been studying since September was not one she was happy with and was considering giving it up!  We spent the day discussing this statement and even though it does sound like a negative step I am amazed that she has been able to come to this conclusion.  She has been studying Graphic Art because she is interested in illustration work and had been told this course was the best one for her.  She has struggled with it and has not been able to attend many of the classes.  I have suspected for some time that she found it unsatisfactory but until this weekend she has said she thought it fine and was going to continue with it.  She has been told of a one-year-long Art and Design course at the college for students who are 19 years old and older and this is what she intends to apply for.  This week she has been talking to her tutors and support staff and has explained the situation to them.  Her final day is tomorrow when she will try to apply for the new course and discover if there are any short courses she can attend in the meantime.

A bullfinch (Pyrrhula pyrrhula) in my winter-flowering honeysuckle. I opened the kitchen blinds this morning and saw two bullfinches in the honeysuckle. I found my camera and because I didn’t want to disturb the birds too much I crouched down by the window and took this poor photo while peeping over the window sill. I now know why I haven’t had many flowers on the shrub this winter!

We had a beautiful day here on Monday and wanted to go to the coast for a walk to enjoy the cold but still and clear day and also to recover from our surprise the day before.  Because of other duties we had, we didn’t set out until 3.30 pm and it was nearly sunset when we got there.

A still afternoon in Southwold

Fortunately Southwold wasn’t damaged by the surge tides and flooding a couple of weeks ago.

Herring gull (Larus argentatus)

The North Sea

Southwold lighthouse

The sea merges into the sky

My choice of music today is ‘Don’t Get Me Wrong’ by The Pretenders.

Thanks for visiting!

 

December 2016

Tags

Advent, Advent Crown, Cromer, Cromer Lifeboat, Cromer pier, fog, frost, mist, Norfolk, Norwich, Norwich Market, Rumburgh Church, Suffolk, sunset, Turnstone, walking, Westleton Heath

Before Christmastide draws to a close I thought I’d better write something about what we managed to do over the past few weeks.

This is the Advent Crown that Elinor and I made this Christmas. The first candle was lit on the first Sunday in Advent.

Norwich Market

Norwich Market

The 1st of December began with a frost (we had many frosty and foggy days in December) but by the time I had driven Elinor into Norwich for her afternoon classes at college it had clouded over and had become a little milder.  The light wasn’t really good enough for photographs but the city had recently put it’s decorations up and was looking festive, though these photos make it look rather gloomy!

During the whole month, unless I got to the city before 9.00 am, I was unable to find a parking space in any of the car-parks.  Norwich Council would like their visitors to arrive by train, bus, bike or on foot and don’t make it at all easy for car drivers.  There is very little public transport from where I live so we have to drive into town.  There are ‘park and ride’ places on the outskirts of the city but an acquaintance of mine queued for ages to get into the car-park and then waited an age with crowds of other shoppers for a bus  which was full before he got to it!  He returned home without doing his shopping.  I have discovered a roadside parking area near to the college where I get two hours free parking and which is only a fifteen minute walk away from the city centre!  This is where I had parked that day.  I had coffee and a sandwich in a café and did some Christmas shopping and then made my way back to my car.

The Coachmaker’s Arms

This former coaching inn is on St Stephen’s Road and was built in the 17th century on the site of an asylum.  The pub is said to be haunted.

An attractive frieze outside the pub showing what the inn might have looked like when first built.  It was near one of the many city gates

For most of the month, Richard was still unable to drive any distance and was very bored being at home all the time.  On the 2nd of December he joined Elinor and me in the car and after I had dropped Elinor off at college just before 9.00 am we drove to the north Norfolk coast and spent the morning in Cromer.

Cromer Pier

The tide was in.  Looking westward.

Looking towards the east.

This is a photo of a very tame Turnstone (Arenaria interpres) who had decided that a good living can be made by following visitors about and eating food crumbs. It behaved just like a feral pigeon!

We were so surprised to see this bird at such close quarters!  Normally they keep their distance from humans and find worms and molluscs etc. on the shore.

Cromer Pier

There was a large amount of spray coming off the sea

The sand and stones on the promenade show how high a recent tide had been

Boats out at sea

An off-shore wind-farm

A rainbow

Richard walking towards the beach changing rooms

Cromer cliffs

After walking along the front we then visited the pier.

View from the pier

Looking back towards the town

Cromer

We visited the Lifeboat station at the end of the pier

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Part of one of the boards listing all their call-outs. I chose this because I was born in 1958

This is one of the war-time boards

Richard in one of the shelters on the pier

‘The Wellington’ – one of the pubs in the town

Returning home from shopping the following week, Elinor and I marvelled at the beauty of this misty sunset

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Christmas flower arrangement around the font at our church at Rumburgh

Richard and I had a lot to do at church this Christmas.  At the beginning of the month we had an Advent Carol Service with all our favourite Advent hymns and Advent readings.  Usually we have a Carols and Capers service with the local Morris group and their friends at the beginning of the season but sadly they were unable to organise it this time.  We had a Christmas Carol service on the 21st of December and then our church hosted the Midnight Mass service on Christmas Eve too.

I had made an Advent Crown for church too

We went for a walk on Westleton Heath on Boxing Day

The gorse (Ulex europaeus) was in flower

In the autumn this area of heather is a rich purple colour

Alice, Elinor and Phil, Alice’s boyfriend who stayed with us this Christmas

Phil up a tree

Richard, walking without a stick now!

Trees on the heathland as dusk fell

Sunset

Melting frost on the outside of my bedroom window

These following photos were taken by Richard in our garden that same morning.

Hoar frost on a Hogweed seedhead

Hoar frost on rose leaves

Our big pond

Frost and fog

Frost and fog

Richard and I went out for a walk across the fields on New Year’s Eve.  The weather was very gloomy and I didn’t find much to photograph.

View across the fields

View across the fields

Yet another view!  Note the large toadstool – bottom right of the photo.

The large fungus!

And that was my December which also included Christmas celebrations with much cooking and baking, a lot of driving about, lots of shopping and an amazing amount of housework!

Thanks for visiting!

And Now, The News!

Tags

anxiety, Benjamin Britten's Four Sea Interludes from Peter Grimes, Diary, elderly relatives, family, house improvement, music, retirement, sciatica

This year has been….unsatisfactory.  Nothing terrible has happened.  We are in fairly good health, we are comfortable and very fortunate.  But….almost everything we have tried to do this year has not been straightforward.  There have been delays, cancellations and anxieties.  I think the last update I wrote on our affairs (this is after all a diary blog) – apart from our holidays, a couple of outings and a few posts of things I’ve seen – was in the spring.  I seem to have had less time than ever before for getting things done.

We visited Lowestoft on Tuesday this week so that Elinor could attend a podiatry appointment. The weather was cloudy and damp but fairly warm for the time of year. This is Lowestoft South Beach

Richard’s first year of retirement was meant to be a year in which we improved our lot.  Retirement after over 40 years of continuous employment was always going to be a bit of a challenge but he decided he was going to see how the first six months went before making any decisions about what he would do with his time.  He has found that he doesn’t miss the work at all though he does miss the social aspect of going out to work.   Living in the country, some miles from the nearest town means that we don’t see people very often and we have to work hard to get any kind of social life – or go without.  He has come to no decision as to whether he takes up a hobby, does voluntary work or any other activity; he has been too busy with the house and driving Elinor about.  He has been a church warden for many years and is a member of our church’s PCC (Parochial Church Council).  He has recently joined our local Parish Council too so he has employment enough!

Gulls on the breakwater

His retirement began with the death and funeral of his mother, which was not a good start.  He has missed her very much; her support of him, her good sense, her understanding.  Our holiday in the Peak District this year was taken at the anniversary of her passing and those of you who have kindly followed this blog for over a year will remember that we heard of her death last year as we arrived in the Peaks all prepared to go and visit her.

Looking towards Lowestoft docks

Richard has enjoyed working in our large garden and making a few improvements to it and to our house.  We started the year by getting all our windows and doors replaced.  We have a new summerhouse and a new potting shed.  Our next project was to gut the family bathroom upstairs and the downstairs shower room and get new suites for both rooms and then redecorate.  We asked around for suitable plumbers and a couple were recommended.  We selected one and he came to see us and plans were made.  It was decided that we would also have a water-softener fitted which was done as soon as the downstairs shower room was finished.  And this is where things really went wrong.  We hadn’t been happy with the speed at which the work was done.  Days went by when no-one turned up.  There were delays and more delays.  We said that the upstairs bathroom would have to wait until we returned from Germany as we didn’t want anything left half done while we were away.  The plumber failed to return.  He has made no contact with us and has not responded to any of our messages. We had already paid him, at his request, for the work done to the shower room and for the water softener (we ought to have smelt a rat here!) but there are still a few things that need to be finished off properly in the shower room, ‘snagging’ it is called, which now will never be done except by us, in our non-professional way.  We have a garage full of bathroom fittings and tiles and also some of the plumber’s and his men’s tools and equipment which they haven’t collected.  We must find ourselves another plumber but we cannot face the upheaval until some time in the new year.  I hope the work is done at a time when it isn’t too cold!

Off-season seaside resorts are a little sad and quiet

We have just had our gas boiler replaced.  We use propane gas as we aren’t on mains gas here in the country.  It is very expensive but the alternatives, oil or electricity, are not ideal either, both being very expensive too and as we have a gas fire and a gas hob, a gas boiler is the best option for us.  We found a gas fitter who was able to get the work done during the second half of October.  It was to take three days.  In the end it took quite a bit longer as inevitably, problems were found.  The fitter wanted it all done by the end of October as he was going to Las Vegas to celebrate his son’s 21st birthday and he did manage to get his part of the work done by then.  He arranged for an electrician to come and wire the boiler up but the electrician couldn’t come immediately and when he eventually came he had difficulty with the system.  He got it done, so he thought, and we thanked him and sent him on his way but when the boiler switched on the water heated but the pump wouldn’t work.  We called the electrician back and he tried again.  It still didn’t work.  We contacted the fitter when he returned from Las Vegas and he eventually got it going.  It took two and a half weeks to fit the boiler and the weather had been quite chilly!  Fortunately we have an electric immersion heater which meant we still had hot water, a gas fire in the living room and a portable gas fire which we put in the hall at the foot of the stairs.  Elinor got the electric fan heater in her room and the fitter left us another electric fan heater in case of emergency.  We wore lots of layers!

Statue of Triton by John Thomas (1813 – 1862) on the sea front

At the same time as the gas fitter started work Richard began experiencing severe pain in his leg and back.  He saw the doctor who gave him lots of tablets and lots of advice.  He was in agony but manfully struggled on until he found that his leg was becoming numb and it was unable to take any of his weight.  He fell over a couple of times and hurt himself.  We phoned 111 and the medics there passed Richard on to the out-of-hours doctor.  I took Richard to Beccles hospital to see the doctor that evening.  Richard has a partially slipped disc in his back and a trapped sciatic nerve – not full sciatica as he could still feel his foot!  He has still managed to fall over a few times since then – falling down the stairs while I was out with my mother for the day; falling over in the garden while I was out again – but at last the feeling is beginning to return to his leg and the pain has subsided.  The hope is he will gradually be able to do more things and the feeling will come back completely.  He has been told it will take four to six weeks.  At first, he could hardly walk even with a stick and was unable to drive at all.  He can now drive very short distances but the damage is in the leg he uses for the clutch pedal and he doesn’t trust himself to be able to do an emergency stop, to drive in heavy traffic, to drive far.  I am doing all the driving at present.

The sea front with Richard and his walking stick

Elinor’s college course since September this year only asks for her to be at college for two and a half days a week.  Richard is at home most of the time now he is retired.  I must admit I miss my alone time and my routines have had to be changed to accommodate these other domestic changes.  One good thing is that Richard and I now (usually) share the duty of driving Elinor to college and I found a little more time to work in the garden this summer!  I still visit my mother a lot and take her shopping and to her many hospital, doctor’s and optician’s appointments.  She is gradually losing her sight and as each month passes I notice she has less energy and is less interested in doing things.  I take her to church once a fortnight; the intervening week I go with Richard to our church.  I miss going to church in my benefice every week;  I miss the people, the churches, the services and the preaching.  But, my mother needs me and I can’t let her down.  I like my mother’s church and I am so pleased to be able to help her do what she needs and loves to do. There used to be members of her church who collected her and brought her home but not any more.  The people who used to do it have either died or moved away and as her church is some miles from where she lives there is no-one now who could easily collect her.

The sandy beach

Elinor did really well at the end of the course she took last academic year.  She re-took her GCSE Maths and managed to get a ‘C’ grade which is what she was hoping for.  She never has to go to a Maths class ever again!  She also got a distinction in her Art and Design course and everyone was very pleased with her.  She applied for and got a place on the two year Graphic Art course she had wanted to go on the year before.  Despite this achievement she is unhappy that yet again she is the oldest one on her course and cannot find anyone interested in being friends with her.  She is lonely.  She has been extremely anxious and has struggled to attend college during the past few weeks and has found that working at home has been difficult too.  She is frightened of making mistakes and that her work might not be of high enough quality.  So she prevaricates and then avoids doing anything and then panics when she realises she is behindhand. It is impossible to convince a chronically anxious person that their fears are unfounded so life at home has been distressing for us all.  There is no escape from the constant pressure of it.  It is our elephant in the room; except it isn’t an elephant as they are too nice.  It is a troll, a gremlin, a monster, a sickness that is almost palpable and it is ever-present.

A Fieldfare (Turdus pilaris) eating the tiny crabapples on our species crabapple tree.  The Fieldfares have just arrived for the winter from where they spend the summer in Scandinavia

There is however, a glimmer of light at the end of the tunnel.  We have tried over the years, many different ways to deal with Elinor’s mental health issue.  In our ignorance at first, we attempted the stern attitude.  Well, that failed spectacularly.  We then saw many different therapists who tried countless different methods of finding out why Elinor is as she is and then attempting to help her by getting her to talk about things, them talking to her about things, giving her Cognitive Behavioural Therapy and oh, all sorts of therapies.  Last winter we even resorted to drugs at the insistence of her GP (family doctor).  The side effects were awful and it took until the summer for her to stop getting flashbacks and nightmares.

The Fieldfare again. They are beautiful and fairly shy birds.

A couple of months ago my hairdresser told me that she was seeing an acupuncturist because of depression and anxiety.  The affect on her health and happiness had been astounding and she was feeling better than she had for years.  She had had regular appointments at first but at the time of talking to me about it she was only going back now and again for ‘top-ups’.  This got me wondering if it would be something that Elinor could try.  I carefully spoke to Elinor about it but she refused to contemplate the thought of someone sticking needles in her.  I tried again two weeks ago when Elinor was tearful and desperate for some kind of relief.  She said she might be willing to think about it.  She thought, and ten days ago she thought we might do some research into it.  She then agreed that it was something she would be willing to try… but those  needles..!  On Thursday last week while Elinor was in college for her half day I went to see my hairdresser to ask for the name of her acupuncturist.  By a happy chance this lady was having her hair done at that moment and agreed to talk to me.  I have made an appointment for Elinor to see her next week.  We will see what happens.

A small Common toad (Bufo bufo) hitching a ride in the wheelbarrow

Alice, my elder daughter who lives in Sheffield, has directed her first play.  It was a great success and Alice enjoyed the experience but found it exhausting.  We thought she would need a rest from her drama group for a while but she tells us she ‘accidentally’ auditioned for their next play and got cast!  Can anyone explain how one can accidentally audition for a play?

A Scabious flower from the garden photographed in October

She had become unhappy living in the house she shared with a few other young people – they were fine but the landlady was awful – so she gave a month’s notice and found another house with a room to let and moved in at the beginning of this month.  She has bi-polar disorder and if she gets over-tired or anxious her health deteriorates.  The play and then moving house caused her to be very tired and quite anxious so she did feel under-the-weather for a while.  She applied for another six-month temporary job at a higher grade in the university library department where she works, got an interview last week and has been successful!  She hopes to start the job at the beginning of next month.  Yet again it is only a part-time job and is only for six months but the money is better than what she gets at present and one must never look a gift-horse in the mouth – as they say.

Dog-rose hips (Rosa canina)

There we are.  A resumé of most of the events of the past year with many gripes and groans included.  What I intend doing is to post a few photographic highlights of the past six months (yes, there were a few highlights!) during the next few weeks.  I hope to intersperse these with some current affairs on the approach to Christmas.  Whether I manage any of it, who can tell!

Hawthorn berries (Crataegus monogyna)

I leave you with my music selection which is the Four Sea Interludes from Britten’s opera ‘Peter Grimes’.  Benjamin Britten was born in Lowestoft and lived for many years a few miles further south along the coast at Aldeburgh.  I love the music from Peter Grimes and these interludes give a taster of the opera as a whole but without the singing!  The four interludes are entitled ‘Dawn’, ‘Sunday Morning’, ‘Moonlight’ and ‘Storm’ and the playing time is about 17 minutes.

When we moved to Somerset for 18 months twelve years ago I was very homesick and I listened to this music a lot while we were there to remind me of the coast I love.  Looking through the comments on the different recordings on Youtube I find I am not the only person to find this music, especially ‘Dawn’, so evocative of the Suffolk coast and the North Sea.

Thanks for visiting!