No Time to Stand and Stare

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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!

Day of Dance, Saturday 30th March 2019

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Border Morris dancing, Day of Dance 2019, folk dance, folk music, Folk Traditions, Halesworth, Molly dancing, Morris dancing, Mummers, Suffolk

Those of you who have kindly followed my intermittent ramblings for a few years might remember that Richard and I have attended the Day of Dance a couple of times before.  One of the local Molly dance sides (teams) wished to celebrate an important anniversary in 2015 so invited other Morris and Molly dance sides to join them in Halesworth for the day, as a one-off.  This was so successful that the Day of Dance has taken place each year since then and it has grown!  Not only Morris Dancers, Border Morris dancers and Molly Dancers take part but also steam punk sides have joined in, belly dancers, buskers and mummers!  Please follow the links if you are interested in finding out about Mollys and Mummers!

Below is a slideshow of some photos I took on the day.  The Morris side wearing blue and white is Rumburgh Morris, our local team who were featured in Episode 4 of Alice Robert’s series ‘Britain’s Most Historic Towns’.

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Here is a very short video I took of one of the sides.  I have no idea of their name or where they came from but I thought they were fun.

Here follows a video I found on Youtube of the procession round the town at the start of the day.  Thank you for taking the time to visit my blog!

 

Plough Blessing Service 2017

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Blessing the Plough, church service, folk dance, Molly Men, Old Glory, Plough Monday, Plough Sunday, Rumburgh, St Felix and St Michael's church Rumburgh, Suffolk

Those of you who have been reading my posts for a while will recognise the title of this one.  Every year my church of St Felix and St Michael at Rumburgh holds a special Plough Blessing service on the first Sunday after Epiphany.   Epiphany is on the 6th of January and celebrates the arrival of the Wise Men who brought gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh to Jesus.  The first Sunday after Epiphany is Plough Sunday and the following day is Plough Monday when traditionally, work on the land is recommenced after the Christmas break.  These days there is no real break for Christmas and farm workers do not suffer from the terrible poverty they did in former times though they are still not very highly-paid.  Here is a link to the ‘Old Glory’ site of our local Molly Men.  Please take time to look at all their pages if you can.

The decorated plough in the nave of the church

The decorated plough

I enjoy this short service each year.  In it, we look forward to spring, summer and harvest and pray that not only will there be enough warmth and rain to grow the crops but that we will not take anything for granted and will thank God for his care of us.  We don’t just pray for ourselves but for all farmers throughout the world.  Each component of the plough is blessed – the beam, the mouldboard, the slade, the sidecap, the share and the coulters.

I love the words from the prayer of gratitude.

From God comes every good and perfect gift:  

The rich soil, the smell of the fresh-turned earth.

The keenness of a winter’s frost and our breath steaming.

The hum of the tractor, the gleam of a cutting edge.

The beauty of a clean-cut furrow, the sweep of a well-ploughed field.

The hymn at the end of the service is ‘We Plough the Fields, and Scatter…’

During Harvest-tide we get a little tired of singing this hymn as all the churches in our benefice have their own harvest service and the hymn is very popular, especially with the farming families.  However, singing it at this time of year, so gloomy and cold as it is, gives hope and cheer so we all sing with gusto!

The plough and some of the costumes of the Molly Men.

The plough is left in the church over-night and is ready to be processed down the lane to the pub the next evening on Plough Monday.  There are no street lights here and the nights are black at this time of the year.  Flaming torches are carried to light the way.  This year they won’t be accompanied by the church bells which will be silent out of respect to one of the ringers who died suddenly a few days ago.

Here is a film made in 2010 of the procession of Old Glory with the plough from the church to the Rumburgh ‘Buck’ pub.

Thanks for visiting!