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A Suffolk Lane

~ A diary of my life in rural north Suffolk.

A Suffolk Lane

Tag Archives: amelanchier

Spring Odds and Ends – April

12 Wed Jun 2019

Posted by Clare Pooley in Gardening, plants, Rural Diary, trees, wild flowers

≈ 78 Comments

Tags

amelanchier, blackthorn, bullace, cuckooflower, Damson, garden, garden plants, ground-ivy, horse chestnut, Lady's Smock, lesser celandine, lichen, Mallard, marsh marigold, mining bees, montana clematis, pasque flower, Pear, pond, Suffolk, trees, wild cherry, wild flowers

Blackthorn ( Prunus spinosa) in flower

This was the view from our front door on the 1st of April.  The rather untidy Blackthorn trees growing on the verge on the other side of our hedge looked like they were snow-covered; the blossom was so plentiful.

A mining bee nest-tunnel

Just over a week after I took the photo of the Blackthorn I was finding bee nests all over the garden.  Some were plain ones like the photo above….

Mining bee Nest -burrows

…and these ones.

Mining bee nest-burrow

But this one (the burrow is in the shadow of one of the seed-pods) has been decorated with twigs, bits of wood, stone and seed-pods! I wonder if this is just by chance or if not, were these to make it easier to find or, is the bee just more of an individual, more artistic than most other bees?  I have found other nest-burrows seemingly marked with twigs and stones.

Wild Cherry ( Prunus avium)

This is one of our wild cherry trees just coming into blossom in the middle of April.  The house on the left of the photo is that of our next-door neighbours and this long thin strip of land, in-between their garden and our leylandii hedge on the right, belongs to us and is where the former owners of our house used to park their combine harvester, so we are told.  We have planted a few trees on this strip of land; you can see a couple of hollies and another cherry has decided to grow here too.

Wild cherry blossom from one of our other cherry trees.

The first Pasque Flower

The same plant a week or so later

The flowerbed on the south side of the house. As you can see, it is very stony.

Amelanchier in flower

Marsh Marigold or King-cup ( Caltha palustris) next to the pond

The same plant a week later

I have posted photos of this lichen-covered tree-trunk before

A closer look at the different lichens

Abandoned goose nest on the island

For the first time since we have lived here we had no nesting geese on the island on our pond.  They built a nest and I am sure they began laying an egg each day prior to incubation but something happened and the nest was abandoned.  The water level in the pond was very low and it would have been easy for a fox to cross the water and get to the nest.  There has always been danger from mink and otters but up til now the geese have coped with them.  A fox is different and much bigger.  This is only a guess – there may have been other reasons; I don’t know.

Cuckooflower/Lady’s Smock (Cardamine pratensis ) next to the pond

New Horse Chestnut (Aesculus hippocastanum ) leaves and flower buds

We have a couple of spindly Damson or Bullace (Prunus domestica ssp. insititia ) trees growing in the scrubby area near our pond. This is a photo of the blossom and new leaves.

Pear blossom. We recently pruned and topped our pear tree as it was getting enormous. We should still get quite a lot of fruit this year, if all goes well.

Lesser Celandine ( Ficaria verna) and Ground-ivy ( Glechoma hederacea)

The Montana clematis flowered at the end of the month

A drake Mallard swimming on the pond.

I have a few more April photos I would like to share but I will save them for a separate post.

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This and That – Part 1

03 Fri Jun 2016

Posted by Clare Pooley in Gardening, music, plants, Rural Diary, trees, weather, wild birds

≈ 70 Comments

Tags

amelanchier, blackbird, blackthorn, bluebell, countryside, cowslip, daffodils, English Elm, English Oak, garden, Goat Willow, green woodpecker, greengage, horse chestnut, Lords and Ladies, Marxh-marigold, pheasant, photography, rainbow, Red Deer, shrubs, Snowy Mespil, Suffolk, trees, white dead-nettle, wild cherry, wild flowers

I have taken a number of photographs over the last few weeks but haven’t had the time to write any posts.   Here are a few of the better pictures from April and earlier.

DSCN0205Red deer

Red Deer (Cervus elaphus)

Back in January I was driving home from shopping when I saw this small group of five Red Deer making their way across a field towards the road.  I had to slow down and then stop because I could see that they were not only made nervous by my car but their usual path was blocked by a fire someone had lit to get rid of brushwood.  They eventually managed to cross the lane a little further along and then carried on their way.  I took a photo of them through the car window and this is the result – heavily cropped.  I had thought that I had missed them and it was only when I eventually looked carefully at the shot on my computer a few weeks ago I realised that they were there!

DSCN0330Pheasants

The Pheasant (Phasianus colchicus) family wandering through the garden at the beginning of April.

This is such an untidy photo with the recycling bin out by the roadside and my former car in the way too.  This is another photo taken through glass (the kitchen window this time – you can see a reflection in the bottom left corner of the picture).  We haven’t seen the pheasants for a while now so I presume the females are busy on their nests.

DSCN0342Garden after a storm
DSCN0341Garden after a storm
DSCN0340Garden after a storm

We had a storm with heavy rain and then the sun came out.  It all looked so bright and fresh, so I stood at the front door and took three photos, to the left, straight ahead and to the right.

DSCN0344Daffodils in the garden

A few days later I stood at the end of the drive and took this photo of the ditch that runs along the edge of the garden. We have daffodils growing all along its length. The lane runs parallel with the front of our property. You can also see my new car in this picture.

DSCN0346Pussy willow

Pussy Willow / Goat Willow (Salix caprea)

DSCN0355Goat willow

Goat Willow in flower

P1000039Cowslip

Cowslips (Primula veris)

IMG_1434Stormy sky

A stormy sky. A photo of our house (and the house next door) taken standing next to our big pond and looking across the corner of the field.

IMG_1435Summerhouse

The summerhouse

IMG_2741Green Woodpecker

A Green Woodpecker (Picus viridis) looking for ants in the lawn

I was quite pleased with this photo as it showed all the different colours of its feathers, even the black and white spotted feathers under the wings.  This is a female adult as the moustachial feathers are all black.  The male has a crimson centre to the stripe.

IMG_2744Blackbird

A male Blackbird (Turdus merula) was also on the lawn looking for food.

P1000038White deadnettle

White Dead-nettle (Lamium album)

P1000040Wild cherry

Wild Cherry blossom (Prunus avium)

P1000041Bluebell

The first Bluebell (Hyacinthoides non-scripta) flower in our garden this spring

There is nothing quite like the scent of Bluebells.  They are wild hyacinths but don’t have the cloying scent of the garden variety.  There is a sweet freshness that lifts the spirits and is irrevocably linked, to my mind, with birdsong, sunshine after rain and hope.

P1000043Greengage

Greengage blossom (Prunus domestica ssp. italica). I hope we have some fruit this year.

P1000044Cowslip

Some of the Cowslips in our garden are orange and red.

P1000047Oak

Pendunculate / English Oak (Quercus robur). New leaves and flowers (catkins) appear at the same time.

P1000048Marsh marigold

Marsh-marigold (Caltha palustris). I found it impossible to photograph this bright yellow flower well.

P1000059Marsh marigold

More Marsh-marigold

P1000051Horse chestnut

New Horse-chestnut leaves and flower buds (Aesculus hippocastanum)

P1000053Elm

Beautiful new English Elm leaves (Ulmus procera). We have a number of small Elm trees in our garden. Sadly they will only live for a few years before they succumb to Dutch Elm disease.

P1000061Lords and ladies

Lords and Ladies / Jack-in-the-pulpit / Cuckoo pint (Arum maculatum).  This plant has many names.   Its arrowhead-shaped leaves are often dark spotted.

P1000063Amelanchier

Snowy Mespil (Amelanchier canadensis) blossom

P1000065Blackthorn

Blackthorn blossom (Prunus spinosa). This poor photo is the only image of this year’s blossom I managed to get.

P1000067Rainbow

A rainbow behind the trees

All these photos were taken in April and in my garden, except the first one.

I find I haven’t made a music selection for a while so this post’s choice is ‘Let’s Work Together’ by Canned Heat.  Excellent lyrics, great tune and the best tempo ever!

Thanks for visiting!

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Yet More Things!

26 Sun Apr 2015

Posted by Clare Pooley in Gardening, Insects, plants, Rural Diary, trees, Uncategorized, wild birds

≈ 28 Comments

Tags

amelanchier, Ash, ash keys, bristly ox-tongue, clematis montana, crabapple 'Harry Baker', euonymus, garden, greylag, pasque flower, pieris, red-legged partridge, rosemary, saxifrage, spring, Suffolk, tulip, viburnum bodnantense, white dead-nettle, wild cherry

IMG_4329French Partridge (640x480)

I was surprised to see two Red-legged Partridges (Alectoris rufa) in my garden one morning as I opened the kitchen blinds.

IMG_2008French Partridge (640x427)

This one had obviously had a bad night.

IMG_2010French Partridge (640x427)

Please ignore the weedy flowerbed – I have since tidied it up.

IMG_2011French Partridge (640x427)

Shortly after I took this photo they both flew away.

IMG_2056Euonymus (640x427)

The variagated Euonymus is looking bright with new leaves.

IMG_2057Pieris (640x427)

The Pieris ‘Forest Fire’ has tiny new pink leaves

IMG_2066Clematis (640x427)

The Clematis montana ‘Rubens’ I cut back a few weeks ago is showing me that it won’t be beaten.

IMG_2068Rosemary (640x427)

The Rosemary is still flowering beautifully

IMG_4441Ash flowers (640x480)

The Ash trees (Fraxinus excelsior) are flowering.

IMG_4441Ash flowers (2) (640x471)

The flowers are very small and a warm purple colour. Ash trees have separate male and female flowers, mainly on separate trees but there are a few trees that have both male and female flowers but on separate branches! The trees around us are all females and produce thousands of Ash ‘keys’, winged seeds that hang from the trees in bunches in the autumn. My mother has plenty of Ash trees near her house but all hers are males – so no ‘keys’.

IMG_4444Greylag (640x480)

A reflective Greylag!

IMG_4449Bumblebee on White Dead-nettle (640x480)

A bumblebee on White Dead-nettle (Lamium album)

IMG_4454The ditch (640x480)

A very over-grown corner of our garden. This ditch doesn’t belong to us but is part of the common land between our garden and the road. I expect that no-one will take responsibility for looking after this but if there is a problem with it in the future we will no doubt be asked to deal with it!

IMG_4458Amelanchier (640x480)

The Amelanchier is blossoming.

IMG_4459Viburnum (640x480)

The Viburnum bodnantense produces dark pink flowers in the spring and pale pink or white flowers during the winter

IMG_4460Wild Cherry (640x480)

Wild Cherry blossom (Prunus avium)

IMG_4461Wild Cherry (640x480)

Wild Cherry

IMG_4462Pasque Flower (640x480)

Pasque Flower (Pulsatilla vulgaris)

IMG_4463Saxifrage (640x480) (2)

Red Saxifrage

IMG_4467Tulip (640x480)

A soft pink Tulip

IMG_4466Tulip (640x480)

It looks so different depending on the angle from which I photograph it

IMG_4465Tulips (640x480)

Tulips

IMG_4470Bristly Oxtongue (640x480)

The new leaves of Bristly Ox-tongue (Picris echioides).  Another member of the Daisy family.

IMG_4476Crabapple 'Harry Baker' (640x480)

Crabapple ‘Harry Baker’ flower buds

I had an on-line conversation with a member of the WordPress team a week or so ago and asked about my missing posts.  The person who dealt with my enquiry was extremely helpful but was unable to retrieve them.  He would have been able to retrieve three old posts I had deleted on purpose but was unable to find the ones that had disappeared!  Fortunately, a very dear friend who is an e-mail follower has been saving my posts and has sent all the missing ones to me.  When I have the time I may post a page with them on for anyones information.

Thank-you for visiting!

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Catching Up

15 Tue Apr 2014

Posted by Clare Pooley in churches, Gardening, Insects, plants, Rural Diary, trees, wild animals, wild birds

≈ 7 Comments

Tags

amelanchier, bluebell, cow parsley, cuckoo flower, early spotted orchid, fruit trees, garlic mustard, greylags, Holy Week, honesty, mallards, marsh marigold, pasque flower, rooks, St Lawrence, St Mary Homersfield, stock dove, thrift, tulip, wood pigeon

We spent last week, 5th to 12th April, away in the Lake District staying in a rented cottage with no phone signal and no internet.  As I don’t have a smart phone I wasn’t able to send or receive messages or post anything on my blog.  It is very nice to be away from home and duty and all other pressures but there is so much catching up to do on one’s return!   Lots of e-mails, lots of interesting posts to read and such a lot of housework!!  As I am still working my way through two weeks worth of washing and ironing I don’t envisage that this post will be very long – but I may be fooling myself and will ramble on at length as usual!

It took us five and a half hours to get home which wasn’t at all bad as it had taken us over seven hours to get there on the 5th.  The roads were dry and it was cool and cloudy – ideal driving conditions.  We unpacked and had a hot drink and phoned our mothers.  R’s mum was fine but was worried about her new home help who will be coming to her twice a week.  Her old help recently retired and mother-in-law doesn’t want or like change.  It doesn’t seem fair that at 88 years of age she has to constantly make concessions and put up with unwelcome changes and interference in her way of life.  But, if she wants to stay in her own home for as long as possible, that is what she has to do.  My mother seemed fine and had had a visit from my brother, who lives in Surrey, on Friday which had pleased her very much.  She had not been able to go to church the previous Sunday so my brother was the only person she had seen and spoken to since I had taken her out the Wednesday before that.  Nine days with only her cat to talk to!  I arranged with her that I would take her to church on Sunday as I knew she wouldn’t want to miss the Palm Sunday service.

R and I then did a tour of the garden and there were some pleasures and a few disappointments.  The most noticeable thing was that the goose was no longer on her nest but there was no sign of any goslings.  What had happened while we were away?  Had the goslings hatched out and subsequently died?  Had all the eggs been infertile?  In which case wouldn’t we be able to see them still on the nest on the island?  Had the goslings hatched out and then been taken off somewhere else after a couple of days?  When we first lived in this house that is what the pair of geese did then but after three years they began to stay until the goslings fledged.  We had a change of geese nesting on the island last year after a bit of a battle between two or three ganders, so perhaps the new pair don’t feel this is a suitable place to bring up their young.  There is still hardly any grass round the pond and we have got rid of all the willow cover on the bank which might be another reason why they didn’t stay.  We had no goslings last year either, but we put that down to the terrible weather in the spring and also the goose wasn’t good at sitting on her nest.  The goose this year was very good on the nest and only left it twice a day for very short periods and always covered the eggs well with down.  We will never know what happened but I would like to think that one year we will get goslings in our garden again.

A lot of damage had been done by rabbits.  A hole had been dug at the back of my border against the house.

027Hole dug by rabbit (640x480)

A number of my plants had been eaten – probably by rabbits perhaps by deer.  We did find a dead, fully grown rabbit near R’s flowerbed.  It had been dead for a couple of days and R couldn’t see any obvious reason why it had died.  No scavenger had fancied eating it either.  Moles had been making lots of molehills.

005Mole hills (640x480)

A blackbird had been killed and plucked next to the greenhouse.  I have seen a female sparrowhawk flying about a lot since our return, strafing the small birds with fear, so I suspect her or her mate were responsible for the blackbird’s demise.

We were pleased to see that the pear tree was in full blossom.

004Pear tree (480x640) 006Pear blossom (640x480)

The greengage and the bullaces had lost nearly all their petals and we hope that we may have a little fruit.  The bird cherries were still in full blossom.  R decided that he ought to start on the mowing.  We have well over an acre of garden and most of it is grass so we have a tractor mower.  It is some years old now and makes R infuriated when it keeps blocking up – I think we will be getting a newer better model soon and then I will see R in his element again, racing round the garden, weaving in and out the trees just like at Le Mans!

019R mowing grass (640x480)

The rook chicks have hatched out in the rookery as I can hear them squeaking and squawking all day.  Here is a rook looking for tasty morsels.  Notice its glossy black feathers and feathered breeches.  I have included the second photo even though it is blurred as you can see the shape of the beak and the bald scaly skin at the front of the face.  The older the rook, the balder the face.

001Rook (640x480) 004Rook showing beak (640x480)

The duck and drake mallard are still happy in the pond at the front of the house.  A couple of common crows are also nesting in the trees on the opposite side of the lane.  Wood pigeons abound and so do Stock Doves.

003Duck and drake mallard (640x480)

Duck and drake Mallard

003Wood pigeon (640x480)

Wood Pigeon

009Stock dove (640x480)

Stock Dove

The marsh marigold in the big pond is flowering well.  The flowers are more than two inches across.

008Marsh marigold (480x640)

The marsh marigold in the little pond is flowering well too.

006Marsh marigold in small pond (640x480)

I have found a cuckoo flower by the big pond.  This flower belongs to the cabbage family but is much nicer than cabbage.  John Gerard, the 16th century herbalist said this pretty flower was called cuckoo flower because it blooms ‘for the most part in April and May, when the cuckoo begins to sing her pleasant note without stammering’.

007Cuckoo flower (640x480)

Cow Parsley is coming into flower.  In East Anglia it is called Sheep’s Parsley as well, because in olden times this area was a wool producing part of the country.  Another name for it is Queen Anne’s Lace which is a lovely name and describes the frothy whiteness of large quantities of the plant along the hedgerows.

011Cow Parsley (640x480)

Bluebell spikes are just appearing under the crabtree at the front of the house.

012Bluebell (640x480)

The crabapples are also coming into flower.  Pasque flowers and Thrift are blooming in my flowerbed.

021Pasque flower (640x480) 024Thrift (640x480)

As are miniature scented tulips.  I used to have more colours than this orangey-red but they have gradually disappeared over the years.

026Miniature scented tulip (640x480)

The Amelanchier is in flower.  It was planted in the garden a few years ago but then got damaged so I dug it up and I’ve tended it in a tub.  It will no longer grow to be a tree as I had hoped but will look alright as a shrub.  Once it has stopped flowering I will plant it out in the garden again.

 

007Amelanchier (480x640)

An Early Spotted Orchid is coming up in one of the tubs containing jonquils.  We are fortunate to have a lot of these orchids in our garden and they like seeding themselves in flower tubs.

025Orchid coming up in tub of jonquils (640x480)

One of R’s cacti is in flower in the conservatory.

039Cactus in flower (480x640) 040Cactus flower (640x480)

This is a Bee-fly.  It is harmless to humans despite the nasty looking proboscis.  Its larvae live as parasitoids in the nests of mining bees.

009Bee-fly (640x480) (2)

In driving about during the past few days I have noticed Alexanders and Stitchwort in flower in the hedgerows.  I have also seen Orange-tip butterflies flying.  The food for their caterpillars is Garlic Mustard, another member of the cabbage family and the only one to smell of garlic.

013Garlic Mustard (480x640)

I found some perennial Honesty at the entrance to one of the farm yards down our lane.

015Perennial honesty (640x480)

Oil-seed Rape is everywhere this year and is in flower at the moment.  We are surrounded by it.  We see it to the left of us…

017Oil-seed rape field to the left (640x480)

and to the right.

016Oil-seed rape field to the right (640x480)

It has a strong distinctive smell both when in flower and when left to set seed.  I don’t like it very much and it gives me hay-fever.

It is now Holy Week and we start, on Palm Sunday, by celebrating Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem on a donkey.  At Mum’s church we gathered in the church-yard and processed into church carrying our palm crosses.  Mum and I enjoyed the service, both having a bit of a cry during a favourite hymn.  Poor R went to St John’s church on his own but met our friends there.  I went to Compline on my own on Monday night as R had a migraine.  (I had woken with a migraine myself early on Sunday morning!).  The service was at St Lawrence church but sadly there were only four of us there.  As I drove to the church the sun was setting on one side  and the almost full moon was rising on the other side of me.  The church door was left open during the service and even though the church is up a lane off quite a well-used road the sounds of the few cars driving along it at 8pm faded away and the silence enveloped us.  Now and then we heard the evening warning calls of blackbirds and robins but most of the time it was absolutely quiet.  St Lawrence church is built on an ancient site.  The Romans had a building yard there, I think, and a Roman carved face is set into the wall of the church.  The road from which the lane to St Lawrence church turns off is called Stone Street and is a Roman road.  If one comes from Halesworth it is known as the Bungay Straight and if one comes from Bungay it is known as the Halesworth Straight.  On my way home the sky was apricot on the horizon where the sun had disappeared.  Above that the colours changed from yellow to turquoise to dusky blue and the enormous moon was shining brightly.  I saw a couple of hares and some tiny rabbits, only about four inches long – probably on their first night above ground.

Tonight R and I went to Compline at St Mary’s Church at Homersfield.  Another lovely church which has been in danger of closing for some time.  There were eight of us there tonight and the church was lit by lamps and candles as there was no electric light.

As I thought it would, this post has got to be a long one again and I haven’t done all the housework I should have!

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Pollution and Other Matters

03 Thu Apr 2014

Posted by Clare Pooley in Gardening, plants, Rural Diary, trees, Uncategorized, wild birds

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

amelanchier, belemnite, blackbird, Blue Tit, claypipe, Garden Warbler, ground-ivy, Jacob's Sheep, jonquils, Mistle Thrush, pollution, rhubarb, tulip, violets, woodpecker feather

The warmer weather that was forecast certainly arrived bringing with it hazy sky – and pollution.  Everything outside was covered with a coating of fine yellow dust – from the Sahara Desert – and this was especially noticeable on our cars.  Here in East Anglia our air isn’t as pure as we would like.  As we live in the countryside many people think that the air is fresh and clean here; but they would be wrong.  The prevailing wind from the south-west brings pollution from London and winds from the south-east bring pollution from the Continent – mainland Europe.  The cleanest air is on winds from the north-east but that is also the coldest!  East Anglia is a mainly agricultural area with plenty of agricultural vehicles and large trucks delivering feed, grain and other supplies on the narrow lanes.  The farmers use herbicides and insecticides and the crops are sprayed at least two or three times a year.  Because there is very little public transport we all have to drive everywhere that is too far to walk or cycle.  R and I are fortunate to live in an area where the local farmers are trying to make the land better for wildlife.  Wide strips of land are left fallow around each field with the hope that wild flowers will colonise them and animals and birds will find more food and shelter there.

Since coming to live in Suffolk twenty-six years ago I have developed asthma, hay-fever and other allergies that I didn’t have in south-east London and Kent.  R also has hay-fever and E has asthma.  This morning both R and I woke feeling quite unwell with headache, sore throat and other hay-fever symptoms.  Fortunately we always have a stock of anti-histamine tablets in the house!

Yesterday, after getting home from taking Mum out, I had a letter to post so walked down the lane to the postbox.  I was hoping to see the Jacob’s sheep in a field close to us as I had heard them arrive there on Monday.  They always bleat a lot when they are in a new field but soon settle down and if I hadn’t heard them arrive I wouldn’t have known they were there.  It was quite difficult to see the sheep and lambs as the hedge is high and thick but I managed a couple of photos.

 

 

004Jacob ewes & lambs (640x480)

Jacob ewes and lambs

003Jacob lamb (640x480)

Jacob lamb

I then took a few more pictures of the garden, fed the birds and watered the tubs of flowers.  More and more birds are singing and the dawn chorus is getting louder and louder.  Yesterday I woke to hear what I thought was a Garden Warbler, our second summer visitor, singing in a tree across the lane.  As I was still sleepy I wasn’t sure whether it was a Garden Warbler or a Blackcap, the songs being quite similar, but having heard it again today I am sure it is a Garden Warbler.  We do get both birds here in the summer but the song I heard yesterday and today was definitely the faster more garbled song of the Garden Warbler.  The Song Thrush has been singing all day, every day for some time now and yesterday he was joined by the Mistle Thrush.  We now have a wonderful chorus of birds in the garden – too many to mention without it becoming a long and boring list.  Here is a photo of a male Blackbird and a Blue Tit on the peanut feeder.

008Blackbird (640x480)

Blackbird

009Bluetit on feeder (640x480)

Bluetit on the peanut feeder. A Chaffinch is in the tree at the back.

 

 

 

 

Today I took some more photos of the garden and also of some objects I have found in the garden.  The belemnite I found in my herb garden on Monday.  I remember finding lots of these when on holiday with A when she was little at Charmouth on the Dorset coast.  They are fossils of squid-like creatures.

010Belemnite (640x480)

 

The feather I found a couple of weeks ago.  No doubt from a Greater Spotted Woodpecker.

012Spotted feather (640x480)

 

The broken old clay pipe I also found in my herb garden but about five years ago.  I can’t bear to get rid of it!

013Clay pipe (640x480)

 

The rest of the photos are of plants, flowers and trees.

White violets in the grass verge near my mother’s cottage.

001White violets (480x640)

 

Ground ivy.  This is an evergreen wild plant and if the leaves are bruised they smell minty.  Also known as Alehoof, the leaves used to be added to ale during brewing to clear the fermenting liquid and sharpen the flavour.  Even after hops were introduced to England in the 16th century liquor flavoured with ground-ivy was still made and sold for a time.  Another name for ground-ivy is gill and a drink called gill tea was made by infusing the leaves with boiling water and adding honey.  This was supposed to alleviate coughs and other chest disorders and was still being sold by street vendors in London in the 19th century.   Culpepper says ‘The juice dropped into the ear doth wonderfully help the noise and singing of them, and helpeth the hearing which is decayed.’

006Ground ivy (640x480)

 

Some jonquils.

014Jonquils (640x480) 023Jonquil (640x480)

 

 

A pink tulip.

022Pink tulip (640x480)

 

Rhubarb!

024Rhubarb (640x480)

 

The Amelanchier is just coming into flower.

025Amelanchier (640x480)

 

R and I discovered another goose nest in the undergrowth on the other side of the pond yesterday.  Unfortunately, today the goose was no longer there and all the eggs gone.  The good thing about nesting on the little island is that foxes and other predators cannot get to you so easily.  The bad thing about our island is that it isn’t big enough for more than one goose nest.

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I talk about what it's like living in a quiet part of Suffolk. I am a wife, mother and daughter, a practising Christian and love the natural world that surrounds me. I enjoy my life - most of the time!

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