My 2018.

Tags

2018, building works, Christmas, church, Days out, holidays, home improvements, medical problems, no rector, retrospective, weddings

I will begin with a couple of thank yous.  Thank you to everyone who has kept in touch with me and kindly asked how I have been during the past few months.  Thank you to all of you who have continued to follow my blog despite my not having written much all year.

We have had quite a busy year which, as you know has included having our old conservatory demolished and a new room built at the back of the house.

During the building works in the spring

Building has begun!

Ta-da!!

Elinor continued attending art classes three times a week at Wensum Lodge in Norwich until mid-summer and was also interviewed by and accepted at East Coast College to start a Level 3 Art and Design course which began in September.  Richard and I share the driving, taking Elinor to and from college in Lowestoft.  There is no direct public transport between where we live and where she studies; it is quicker and probably cheaper for us to drive her there.  In the autumn we took her to three East Anglian universities that run degree courses in the subject she wishes to study.  They all held open days and we were able to tour the colleges and listen to the tutors speaking about the subjects they teach.  Elinor was able to speak to these tutors and ask relevant questions.  We visited Suffolk University in Ipswich, The University of the Arts in Norwich and Anglia Ruskin College in Cambridge.  She is currently applying to all three and has filled out her UCAS form and paid her fee.  We now wait to see if and when she is called for interviews.

Because we still have no rector for the eleven churches in our benefice we have had to become more involved in the running of the benefice by attending more meetings and in taking some of the services.  Richard took a few services in Rumburgh church during the first half of the year and I took a couple in the second half.  We have attended fund-raising events such as coffee mornings, sales and quizzes and have tried to be as supportive of the other churches in the benefice as we can.  As well as being on the cleaning rota for Rumburgh church I have been doing most of the cleaning at St Margaret South Elmham church all year as there has been no-one well or fit enough there to do the job.  All cleaning is done voluntarily as most of the churches do not have the funds to pay for a cleaner.  As St Margaret has discovered, even when money is found to pay for a cleaner, no-one wants to do it as many local people are afraid to enter these old churches on their own.   All of our churches are medieval buildings needing constant work to keep them from falling down.  This past summer, with its lack of rain, we have found cracks appearing in many of the churches in the benefice.  Some of these repairs have been attended to but we at Rumburgh are still waiting to see when and if ours can be done.  We also have lost a number of glass panes from our windows which meant that birds and insects got into the church during the summer and cold, wind and rain is getting in this winter.  The window repair job will cost about £1000 and we will have to find the money from somewhere.  We have an on-going problem with bats roosting in the church.

Rumburgh church decorated for Harvest Festival. You can see the cracks above the East window.

A closer view of the cracks above the window

Another crack

and another.

The floor tiles are disintegrating.

I visited Alice in February so that I could see her act in ‘Sense and Sensibility’ as I mentioned in a post at the start of the year.  I drove to Kent in March to make a long overdue visit to my sister who was not at all well at the time.  Richard has visited Manchester a couple of times to see his brother, his nephew and his family.  I travelled to Liverpool for a couple of days in June to re-visit old haunts and to see a dear blogging friend who made me very welcome indeed.

The Liver Building in Liverpool seen from the Mersey ferry in June

Richard, both girls and I spent a week on the Isle of Wight in July and then Richard and I spent a week in the Peak District in August while Elinor stayed with Alice in Sheffield.

Looking out to sea from the Isle of Wight in July

The Peak District in August

We visited my dear friend Wendy and her family in August and then, before we knew it, it was the beginning of term and we were driving to Lowestoft three times a week.

We celebrated my brother’s wedding to Helen in May and Richard, Elinor and I visited Pensthorpe Natural Park for the day in June to celebrate our 24th wedding anniversary.

Pensthorpe

We have all had to attend many medical appointments.  I take my mother to the eye clinic every five weeks and despite having eye injections because of her macular degeneration she has almost completely lost the sight in her left eye and the sight in her right eye isn’t too good but it is stable for the time being.  She also has cataracts and glaucoma.  Her arthritis is painful and she can no longer stand up straight.  Her pet cat died in the summer while we were away on holiday and she misses him very much.  I am spending more time with her.

Richard had a hospital appointment for a procedure at the end of May during which he had to be sedated.  During this procedure it was discovered his pulse rate was irregular and faded away at times so the investigation had to be abandoned.  Since then he has had a number of tests to see what was causing this problem and the specialists were very puzzled for some months.  Of course, Richard was quite anxious all this time not knowing how serious the problem was and wondering if he would need an operation or not.  A couple of days before Christmas he received a letter telling him the latest test had shown that the problem wasn’t as serious as previously thought and he would just be needing a course of statins.  This made us very happy.  The test for the original problem for which he needed sedating is no longer needed either!

Elinor has scoliosis and has a trapped nerve in her spine which has caused part of her leg to become numb.  The problem appears to worsen during the winter months when she gets cold.  She has been having physiotherapy to see if anything can be done to ease the situation.  Nothing so far has made a difference.

My rheumatoid-arthritis is still in remission, which means I have had no flare-ups for some time.  My joints are quite severely damaged, especially my hands and feet but I am used to this as I have had it for many years.  Unfortunately, I have now got osteo-arthritis which is causing yet more damage to my hands and feet.  As everyone knows who has osteo-arthritis, there is nothing that can be done for it except pain relief and eventually joint replacement if appropriate.  I also know that the best thing that can be done is to keep using the joints and keep them moving.

After many years trying to get a full-time job Alice was at last successful and began working at Manchester Metropolitan University in November.  She now has a challenging job as befits someone with a doctorate but has to commute from her home in Sheffield to Manchester each day.  There are regular problems with the trains and she often doesn’t get home til very late.  However, once she is on the train she can enjoy an hour’s reading which is a great pleasure to her.  She will be receiving her doctorate at a graduation ceremony in a couple of weeks time.  She and her partner, Phil got married on 1st December.  They organised the event themselves and as they couldn’t afford a big wedding they only invited very close family and friends.  There were eighteen of us all together and the wedding was a Goth-themed one.  We had a wonderful time and we all got on very well together.

Alice and Phil

Alice and me on her wedding day

Alice and Elinor

No photos of Richard, unfortunately!

We couldn’t get to church for Advent Sunday as we were returning home from Alice’s wedding that day; my brother and Helen took Mum to church.  The following Sunday, the 2nd in Advent, I took a Morning Prayer service at Rumburgh and on the 3rd and 4th Sundays in Advent, I took Mum to church at her church in the town of Eye.

The Advent Crown on a table in our new garden room

Our Advent Crown

The view from the garden room. Apologies for the reflections in the windows.

Another view from the garden room

We have had a very nice Christmas.  We attended the Carol Service at St Margaret South Elmham on the 20th of December and Richard organised and ran our Carol Service at Rumburgh on the 23rd of December.  Richard, Elinor and I collected Mum and took her to Midnight Mass at Eye church on Christmas Eve.   She came to us for the day on Christmas Day and Boxing Day.  We had friends visit for coffee on the morning of the 28th.  Alice came to visit on the 27th (on her own as Phil had to work) and was due to go back home on the 29th but when we got to the station we discovered that there were no trains running to or from Norwich due to signalling failures.  She had to return here for the night and eventually got home the following afternoon.

St Margaret’s church at the carol service

A frosty view from the garden room on Christmas Day

I think that covers everything!  I hope I am able to get back to blogging some time soon though, of course, I cannot promise to be any better at it than last year!

May I wish you all a very happy, healthy and successful 2019.

 

Advent

Tags

Advent, church

Here we are in Advent already and what a short Advent it will be too!  There are four Sundays in Advent and this year the fourth Sunday is also Christmas Eve.

The Advent Crown at our church.

During Advent we wait for Jesus Christ and we do this in three ways; in the past, in the present and in the future.  We accompany Mary and Joseph on their journey to Bethlehem and welcome the baby Jesus who was born in a stable.  We prepare ourselves for the celebration of Christ’s birth this year and try to make the occasion more than just presents and food.  Thirdly, we think about and anticipate the second coming of Jesus Christ when He will come in power and glory and his kingdom will be established here on earth as it is in heaven.

The Advent Crown Elinor and I made at home.

The first way I find the easiest despite Christmas having become such a secular festival.  The second way isn’t too difficult either.  I know the story of the birth of Christ and it is in my mind so much during December.  I read the accounts of it in the Bible, I sing carols and Christmas songs and I attend church services.  We talk about it at home.  The third way is the hardest.  I try to keep Advent as a time of reflection.  I think about my behaviour and any bad habits I might have and think how I should improve myself.  I remind myself of Christ’s instructions to us about how we should act and think.  The trouble is, I very easily get caught up in the pre-Christmas madness and find myself panicking about things that are of no real importance at all.  Do I have presents for everyone?  What if I forget someone!  If I don’t start writing the cards soon they won’t get there on time!  Will I have enough food for everyone?  Look at those dirty windows!  When will I get an opportunity to clean the house?  I’m never going to get everything done on time!  My quiet, reflective mood disappears and I moan and complain to anyone who’ll listen to me.  It was much easier to keep Advent as Advent when I was younger.  People didn’t start their Christmas shopping ’til much nearer the festival.  Decorations weren’t put up as early as they are now and things were much simpler.  Now that sounds like an old person speaking!

The Advent Calendar.

Last year we held an Advent service in church which I enjoyed very much.  No carols but Advent hymns, solemn and beautiful.  This year we will have a Carol service on the 20th and we will go to Midnight Mass on Christmas Eve as usual.  We have an Advent Crown or Wreath at church and as each Sunday passes we light one more candle until on Christmas Eve all four are lit.

The Advent Candle.

We have an Advent Crown at home too, and an Advent Candle and Advent Calendars!  We mark each day as it passes and Christmas comes ever closer.

My music choice is J S Bach’s Cantata for the First Sunday in Advent.

May I wish you all a happy and peaceful Advent!

My dear friend Lisa wrote a lovely comment on this post but it has mysteriously disappeared!  I have looked for it and cannot find it on my WordPress account.  Fortunately, I had a copy of the comment in my e-mail folder but I cannot copy it into the comments below so I’ve put it here!

Clare, it may (or may not) be that you sound like an old lady(!), but it’s the truth!  And I was that way myself for many years, and only lately am I increasingly seeing how strange it is that everyone is celebrating Christmas before it comes, only to be sick of it right after New Year and want to put away all the decorations and be free of it all.  But it’s impossible to resist getting into the early spirit of things when we’re all decorated at the library, playing Christmas music and will have our party at work on Friday.  So we have to do the best we can, I guess.  At home, I’m putting out my decorations a little here, a little there, slowly.  (and trying to do fall cleaning, plan making cookies, do all the cards, finish shopping etc. – impossible!)  I hope your Advent journey brings you through all the busyness and confusion in the right way.  xoxo

Your Advent Crown is so pretty!  The two of you are quite artistic, I think.  And thanks to Gallivanta for the Literary Advent link – I like it.

Thank-you very much for your lovely comment, Lisa.  I can imagine that your library is very jolly and festive at the moment.  Have a wonderful party on Friday!  I think one of my main gripes is the commercialisation of Christmas and seeing Christmas food for sale in the shops at the end of October!  So many people here decorate their homes at the beginning of December and then throw out their Christmas tree and decorations on Boxing Day the 26th December – only the second day of Christmas!  I hope you manage to get all your Christmas preparations done on time and you have a little time for rest and pleasure xx

Lisa can be found here at Searchingforabalance.blogspot.co.uk

Another comment has disappeared in the same way, this time from Annika Perry!

Clare, this is a delightful thoughtful and reflective post.  You have a beautiful advent candle at home…so Christmassy!  We sit down every Sunday to light ours; a moment of stillness in the crazy busy days, of being together.  The sense of anticipation builds and I always feel it’s extra special when the fourth advent falls on Christmas Eve!  Haha!  Yep, everything Christmas seems to be pushed further back into December or even earlier – I try to rein it in until the actual month and only had the tree up last weekend as we had a little family party.  People throw the tree out on Boxing Day!!!  How sad!  Here’s to enjoying the peace, absorbing the joy and time for one another.

Thank-you very much, Annika.  Yes, I like the fourth Sunday in Advent being on Christmas Eve too.  Two celebrations on one day!  ‘Here’s to enjoying the peace, absorbing the joy and time for one another’ – yes, yes!!  I couldn’t agree more, Annika!

Annika can be found here at annikaperry.com

 

 

Interregnum

Tags

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

On Thursday Richard, our Rector retired.

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

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

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

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

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

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

Nothing In Particular

Tags

'The Company', Agatha Christie, And Then There Were None, Berwang Holiday Music Course, Candlemas, Christmas Cactus, church, family, flowers, funeral, hellebores, house improvements, Kerry Camden, Mozart, phalaenopsis orchid, renovations, Serenade for 13 Winds, snowdrops, wet weather

Snowdrops under the crabapple tree

As the title of this post states, this is about nothing in particular.  Since Christmas we, as a family, have been nowhere and have done nothing except the usual chores of housework and shopping and driving – and in Elinor’s case, going to college.  Richard has just returned from three nights away in Manchester staying with his brother and enjoyed a visit to a mining museum and a trip to Bury Market and the East Lancashire Railway.  Elinor and I stayed at home.

A Hellebore flower

We have found the changeable weather a little trying but fortunately for us we haven’t had to deal with flooding, just lots of deep puddles and mud, mud and yet more mud!  My car was half brown and half blue and the mud had oozed into the car round the doors, so just before he went away Richard hosed it down for me and restored it to its original blue-all-over colour.

Another Hellebore

The next two weeks will be very busy as we are beginning on our house renovations.  The new garage doors were fitted today and most of the windows and doors in the house will be replaced next week.  I am not looking forward to the disruption at all but when it is done the house will be warmer and more secure.

Snowdrop flower. Please excuse the horrible red finger!

One of my aunts died last Sunday 24th January and I will be travelling to Kent with my brother tomorrow for her funeral.  Richard will be staying at home and will be driving Elinor to and from college.  It will be good to see my cousins again despite the sad occasion.   My aunt was my late father’s older sister and she was the last of Dad’s siblings.  I have six first cousins on Dad’s side of the family and I am hoping to see most of them tomorrow.  Andrew (my brother) and I will be meeting up with Francesca (my sister) when we get to the church.

Phalaenopsis Orchid

I am also going to visit Alice in Sheffield on the 12th of February and I will be watching her perform in another play, ‘And Then There Were None’ – an adaptation of the book by Agatha Christie.

Here is the trailer they have made for the play.  I think you will be amused!

All my Christmas Cacti are re-flowering. Perhaps these are now Candlemas Cacti?

It is Candlemas today.  We had a Eucharist service at Rumburgh on Sunday and celebrated the festival early.  At Candlemas we remember three things; the presentation of the child Jesus, Jesus’ first entry into the temple and the Virgin Mary’s purification.  Traditionally, candles are also blessed at Candlemas and Richard our priest gave us two new altar candles.

My choice of music today is Mozart’s Serenade for 13 Winds in B-flat major.  My first introduction to this piece was when I was nearly 14 years of age and I was on a music course in the Austrian Tirol.  I was lucky enough to be given the first (lead) clarinet part and I loved the whole experience – the great responsibility, the team-work, the music itself.  I will never forget that feeling of euphoria as we played through the whole piece together!  As soon as I hear the opening bars of music I am transported back in time to Austria, I am 13 years old and full of hope and excitement.  This was my first ever trip abroad and I and a friend travelled there with our clarinet teacher and Kerry Camden the bassoonist who drove us from London all the way to the Tirol with a stop overnight in the Ardennes.  I had a one-year passport and my parents had given me £15 spending money!

Thanks for visiting!

 

Autumn in a Suffolk Lane

Tags

amphibian, autumn leaf colour, church, common toad, Edith Cavell, Elder, field maple, Fish Slapping Dance, fungi, Great Tit, Halesworth, Herring Festival, Lorraine Hunt Lieberson, mezzo-soprano, Monty Python, nest, Norwich Cathedral, picture-wing fly, shaggy inkcap, sunset, trees, wild bird

This post and the next will have assorted photographs of things I have seen.  I’ll also mention briefly a few things I have done.  The photos are inserted in chronological order as I can’t think of anything better!

Toadstools on the lawn at the surgery.

A couple of weeks ago I had to attend the doctor’s surgery a few times in one week.  I collected my medication, I had my usual monthly blood test with a test for cholesterol which meant fasting from 10 pm the evening before, and I had my flu injection.  All on different days.  I noticed these toadstools after my blood test but unfortunately I had left my camera in the car.  The following morning I took these photos after my flu jab.

These are Shaggy Inkcaps (Coprinus comatus) also known as Lawyer’s Wig and unfortunately most of them are past their best.

The early morning light made it difficult to photograph them and they had deteriorated significantly overnight.

The white fungi are emerging Inkcaps but I can’t identify the dark brown mushrooms.

Some of you may remember that our parcels box was taken over by Great Tits in the spring and we had to seal it shut so that the birds were not disturbed.  I believe the brood was successful.  Richard dismantled the box last week as it was rotting and we had a look at the nest inside.

Great Tit (Parus major) nest.

We looked closely at what had been used.  Please click on each photo to get a description of the materials used.

Dried grass and lots and lots of moss

Bits and pieces of anything soft. I recognise lint/fluff from two of my pullovers here.

Sheep’s wool

Feathers

The work that went into constructing this nest is astounding.

This is a Common Toad (Bufo bufo) that I saw crossing our drive.  Fortunately it took it’s time and I was able to run indoors and fetch my camera before it disappeared.

Common Toad

Autumn colour.  A Field Maple (Acer campestre)

Last week was a week of sunny warm days and cool nights.  The trees and plants began to show autumnal tints.

Elder (Sambucus nigra) leaves have turned pink

A wonderful sunset seen from the back of our house

A ‘picture-wing’ fly. Possibly from the Herina group.

This little fly was in our kitchen some nights ago.  I took this photo when it landed on the window blind.  It was only a few millimetres in length.

Richard and I noticed posters up in Halesworth announcing the Herring Festival.  This is to take place in The Cut, the centre for the arts in the town.  The herring industry has been in decline for some time and Richard and I wondered what went on at the festival (not ever having gone).  We remembered this……

I haven’t been able to attend our local churches very often recently.  I have been taking my mother to her church once a fortnight to enable me to go to church with Richard every other week.  We took Elinor to the morning service at Norwich Cathedral a couple of weeks ago as she enjoys these services.  The Cathedral was preparing to hold a number of services to commemorate the life of Edith Cavell.

My music choice for this post is one of my favourite arias sung by my favourite mezzo-soprano, the late, great Lorraine Hunt Lieberson

Thanks for visiting!

Harvest Festival

Tags

bats, church, church decorations, Evensong, flowers, Harvest, hot-air balloon, Rumburgh, sowing

Rumburgh Church

Here is an autumn photograph of my church taken on Sunday as we were on our way to get it ready for the Harvest Evensong service.  R is one of the Churchwardens and so we got there early to make sure all was tidy (no bat poo on the pews) and to turn on the lights and take the plastic covers off everything.  As I have said before, our poor church is damp and has a colony of bats living in it and to protect the furniture etc. we have to cover what we can with bits of plastic sheet.  No money to repair the church, no money to buy proper protective covers, not enough money for anything, unfortunately.  I like bats and am very pleased that we have two resident pipistrelle bats that fly round our house every evening.  However, I am not happy about the bats that live in our church because of the damage their urine and faeces do.  The urine especially is so acidic it etches into all the furniture, pictures and flooring.  We have to be so careful when serving refreshments after service in case food and drinks are contaminated.  Bats are protected and it is virtually impossible to get them moved elsewhere.

Our benefice is made up of eleven parish churches and one redundant church which we use once or twice a year.  We have one over-worked priest who has recently acquired an assistant (actually the priest in the next-door benefice who does holiday and sickness cover which is reciprocated), a couple of retired priests who step in when needed, one reader and two elders who take services without communion.  All of the churches in the benefice like to have their own harvest festivals, so for weeks on end there are one or two harvest services on most Sundays.  Last Sunday was the third consecutive week of harvest and our service was taken by Maurice, one of the Benefice Elders.  Next Sunday and the following one there are no Harvest services but then they start up again and we have another three consecutive weeks of ‘We Plough the Fields and Scatter’ right through until the end of October.

Decorated pulpit. Our talented flower arrangers make the church look so bright and festive.

Any harvest contributions of food, fruit and vegetables at our church go to Adele House, a nursing home run by the convent at All Hallows.  Other churches in the benefice send their contributions to a local food bank which provides food parcels for the needy.

Decorated Rood Screen.

The Chancel

The Font

The Altar

The Porch

The Porch. Look at the enormous beetroot!

Bunches of wheat tied to the pew ends.

One of these window sills was decorated by me.

The church just before the service started.

Maurice plays the organ so he gets plenty of exercise, walking up and down the aisle from the front of the church to the back where the organ is then back to the front again then up the steps to the pulpit.

We were very lucky to get 23 people at our Evensong service – no children sadly.

Today, I noticed that the field at the back of the house was being worked on again.

Sowing the seed. I apologise for the poor quality photo. The sun was setting and it was a little hazy too.

After the coldest August in many, many years we have had a very warm and fairly dry September.  There has been mist and fog in the morning occasionally which has made driving to Norwich difficult.  It is all set to change this weekend with a storm coming in off the Atlantic which will get to us in the East sometime on Saturday.  When it has passed through the temperature will drop considerably, so we are told.  Yesterday evening I noticed a hot-air balloon in the sky – a Virgin sponsored one.  The thermals must have been just right.

E used to call them ‘hot hair balloons’.

Thank-you for visiting my blog.

 

 

Wednesday 12th to Sunday 16th March

Tags

alder, ambulances, brimstone butterfly, chaffinch, church, cowslip, daffodils, dog violet, Eye, fields, figs, greylags, Harleston, hazel, heartsease, Lent, mallards, moon, moorhen, nesting, pond, prayer, pussy willow, quiz night, rooks, Rumburgh, silverlace primula, sunset, tortoiseshell butterfly, trees, Wissett

Wednesday began with frost and mist.  This soon cleared and the weather was then lovely for the rest of the day.  I did my usual shopping trip with my mother with a detour to a free-range chicken farm at Eye where Mum buys her eggs.  I had a little shopping to do for myself, so called in at Harleston on my way home.  I arrived home just after 2pm for a late lunch and had time for a few household chores and a quick walk round the garden to feed the birds, tidy up a couple of things and take some photos before R came home.

A moorhen and a chaffinch at the front of the house.

 

The moorhen again.

 

A couple of photos of the daffodils that have come up round the big pond.

Some violet leaves that have struggled up through the dried mud round the pond.

 

And some cowslip leaves too!

 

Reflection of trees and cloud in the pond.

 

Afternoon moon.

 

I had decided what we should have for an evening meal and was about to start it when R offered to cook and I gladly accepted his offer.  I didn’t have time to eat anything as I had to go out at 6.45pm to collect Mum and take her to Eye to attend a Lent course.  The course in her area is a deanery course.  A deanery is a collection of benefices and a benefice is a collection of parishes.  In rural areas to have benefice and or deanery meetings or courses means that there will be more people attending and any speakers kind enough to visit will have a good audience.  The only downside is that the distances to be travelled by many parishioners is very great.  This year’s course is on prayer and Wednesday’s talk was on ‘Prayer with Words’.  The speaker was the Precentor from the Cathedral at Bury St Edmund’s; a really pleasant man who gave an interesting talk.  He introduced us to poets and poems that were new to us as well as reading from old favourites.  My journey home was very difficult because of thick fog.

Thursday.  I was woken just before 6.00am by the rooks!  I had remembered to bring in the sunflower seed feeder but the rooks were trying to get the remains of yesterday’s seed off the bird-table and were tapping loudly on it with their enormous beaks.  I have a cage round the bird-table which is supposed to prevent large birds from getting on it. However, it doesn’t stop the birds from clinging on to the edge of the table with their claws, flapping their wings for balance and pecking food through the mesh!  Another lovely day.  Went in to Halesworth for a haircut and to get yet more shopping (I always manage to forget something each time I go!)  My usual hairdresser is on maternity leave so her Mum did my hair and we chatted about babies.  Both her daughters are having their first babies in the next two weeks and they are getting a little apprehensive.  On the way home I saw a tortoiseshell butterfly and an enormous brimstone butterfly.

I spent the afternoon gardening as well as having a short (for us!) conversation with my sister who was planning to visit Mum at the weekend.  The geese have been very argumentative this week.  The gander of the pair who have claimed the island has been spending most of his time swimming in the pond and seeing off any other goose/gander who dares to come anywhere near the pond bank.  He must be exhausted as he doesn’t seem to have eaten anything either.

A couple of photos of the mallards in our front ditch.

Miniature daffodils in the grass.

 

Goat or Pussy Willow.  Salix caprea.

 

When R got home he wanted to go out for a short walk across the fields.  The wind had got up a little and it had got cloudy but R managed to take some decent photos while we were out.

Alder catkins and cone-like fruits from last year.

 

Hazel catkins.

 

More fog overnight.

Friday.  A cooler, cloudier, breezier day.  I did some more gardening and lots of ironing.  The geese seemed to have resolved their differences.  The resident pair came to sit near me while I gardened and whenever I looked up they gave gentle honks.  I knew they were asking for food so when I had got to the end of my weeding I fetched some special goose and duck feed I have for just such an occasion (to quote Foghorn Leghorn) and cast it on the grass near by them.  Of course, the gander then hissed at me while the goose ate the food.  He is a very protective mate and even though I have provided the food he has to warn me off and so I do keep my distance!

Saturday.  A quiet morning and another beautiful one.  Still very breezy but much brighter than yesterday.  Did some housework and spoke to A on the phone.  We drove to Mum’s in the afternoon to see my sister F who was visiting with her eldest son and her dog Ben.   We had a lovely couple of chatty hours and we then had to leave to get our evening meal before going to yet another quiz night.  This one was in aid of Rumburgh village hall.  I think it was the noisiest event I had been too since going to dances when I was young.  The hall had just been insulated and redecorated but there were no curtains or blinds at the windows yet and I think this was the reason it was so noisy.  The two farmers on our team were both a little deaf (caused by driving noisy farm machinery) and they were finding it really difficult to hear anything above the hubbub of loud chatter.  Our local Member of Parliament was taking part too.  He lives in Wissett, the next village along on the way to Halesworth, and is very good about taking part in local events and is a truely supportive MP.  He had been out all day on the ambulances as there has been an enquiry about the time it takes for ambulances to get to emergencies.  He was talking to R and one of our farmer friends and said he was very sympathetic towards the ambulance crews, as he had seen for himself the great distances they had to travel and also how many wasted journeys they had to make.  R told him about my sister’s job as a paramedic in Kent and some of the problems she has to put up with too.  Unfortunately we came ninth today but R won a picture of a tree in the raffle.

Sunday.  There was a Morning Prayer service at Rumburgh today but I couldn’t attend as I took Mum to her church.  She hasn’t got anyone to give her a lift at the moment and as she doesn’t usually see anyone at all during the week except me, and all her friends are at her church, I think it only right that I take her there.  I got back home at 1.00pm and had lunch before doing some chores, putting a loaf on to bake and then back out into the garden.  I fed the birds which took nearly an hour – all the feeders were empty, I have a number of them scattered about the garden and the garden is well over an acre in size.  I had noticed this morning when I looked out of the window that the goose has started sitting on her nest on the island.

 

A dog violet in flower.

 

A silverlace primula.

 

A heartsease flower.

 

Figs are starting to swell on the tree.

 

Lots of pictures of this evening’s sunset.

The rookery in the sunset.

 

A Busy Week

Tags

Ash Wednesday, Billingford, birds, burdock, church, embroidery, fish, Flixton, food, frogs, Goldbrook Bridge, goldcrest, gorse, Hoxne, ladybirds, Lent, lichen, moss, Norfolk & Norwich Hospital, orange tea bread, pancakes, Porgy & Bess, pulpit, rood screen, RSPB Minsmere, Rumburgh, Shrove Tuesday, St Edmund, St Felix & St Michaels church, St Mary's, tapestry, trees, windmill

This has been such a busy week that I have only had time for two posts.

R had Monday and Tuesday off work and it was so nice to be able to spend more time with him.  I always have lots of boring chores to do on Mondays so I rushed through most of them and was ready to go out with R at lunchtime.  We decided to go to the RSPB reserve at Minsmere which is about nine miles away.  The day was fine and not too cold.  We had lunch in the café at the reserve and then walked round the woodland walk.  The walk out past the Scrape to the sea seemed a little cold and windswept and we thought that as some damage had been done during the tidal surge in December we would be better off avoiding that walk.  It was very pleasant to be visiting during the week instead of at the weekend.  It was peaceful and quiet.  We didn’t see many birds as we decided not to go into any of the hides and it wasn’t quite warm enough to stand still for long.  We did sit on a seat in the sun for a while and watched a goldcrest in the branches above our heads.  I tried to take a photo but it flew away and I only got a picture of the lichen-covered branch it had been sitting on.

 

We saw lots of gorse bushes in flower and tried to smell the flowers (to find out if they do smell of honey) without spiking our noses.

 

We noticed many fallen trees from all the storms we have had this winter.

 

I love this picture!  Whoooooooooo!!!

 

A moss tuffet.

 

Tuesday began with mist and frost but both soon disappeared and the sun came out.  R took E to Norwich and they spent the morning there shopping and then had lunch.  I had to take Mum to the eye clinic at the Norfolk and Norwich hospital again in the afternoon.  She had both eyes assessed and all seemed to be going along well.  Afternoons at the hospital are very busy and the carparks are always full.  A new carpark, only opened at the end of last year, was nearly full when we arrived and completely full when we left so I think they will have to find some more carparking space before long.  It is quite a new building but the architects didn’t make it big enough.  It was apparent within a very short space of time after completion that they would have to add to the hospital and they have been adding to it ever since.  It is on the outskirts of the city and there is still a little land that can be used for building but not much more, I think.  They also assumed that most people would be arriving by bus from the city centre or using the park and ride service.  They were wrong there as well!

Tuesday was Shrove Tuesday or Pancake Day.  When I got home I mixed the pancake mixture and then made us a light evening meal of fish and mixed vegetables.  R made the pancakes for us; he is extremely good at making them and we enjoyed them very much.  R and I had two each and E had four!

Wednesday morning was bright and frosty and poor R had to go back to work.  Wednesday is my day for taking Mum shopping in Diss and we managed this quite quickly for a change.  The supermarket didn’t seem as full as usual and we were soon on our way back to her house.  A beautiful day – everything seemed shiny; mainly blue and green.  The first day for months that I have gone out without a coat.  After a chat and a cup of coffee I drove to Halesworth to do my shopping and to visit the library.  I also drove up to the doctor’s surgery to collect my prescription and then called in at Rumburgh church to change the colours from green to purple as it was now Lent; Ash Wednesday.

The church of St Felix and St Michael, Rumburgh.

 

Rumburgh began as a Priory founded in 1064 which was later that century given to the Benedictine Abbey of St Mary at York.  In 1086 there were twelve monks under a Prior at Rumburgh.  It was never a rich priory, as you can see from the variety of materials the church was built out of.  It was suppressed in the reign of Henry VIII on 12 September 1528.  The church building here is all that is left of the original small priory.

In our benefice we are so fortunate as to have some very talented needlewomen.  Below is an altar frontal made a couple of years ago.  As you can see we have to drape everything in plastic sheets when the church isn’t being used to stop water (condensation and water penetration) and bat urine and droppings from ruining everything.

Our Jacobean pulpit with another example of our church’s embroidery

 

The Millenium Tapestry which hangs near the south door.  All the kneelers in the church have been covered with lovely tapestries too, depicting the houses, buildings, plants, animals, organisations, families etc. associated with Rumburgh.

 

The nave and chancel with the lovely Rood screen between.

 

There was an Ash Wednesday ashing service at Rumburgh that evening but I couldn’t go as I had promised to take Mum to the service at her church at Eye.  Mum’s church’s service had a communion as well so I didn’t get home until just before 10.00pm.

A much quieter day on Thursday also quite cloudy.  I took E to the surgery at 9.00am for an appointment and then went home for the rest of the day.  Did a little gardening and some ironing as well as other household chores.  All the ladybirds in our bedroom have woken up now and only two were left wandering about on Thursday.  Another quiet day on Friday spent catching up with the housework.

I made Orange Tea Bread on Saturday as we had all been asked to provide some food for a Bring and Share lunch party after church on Sunday.  This is to say thank-you and good luck to Caroline our former Reader.  It is quite amusing that the first thing we do as a church on the first Sunday in Lent is to have a party with lots of lovely food!  R took this photo.

R and I have bought a new really good camera that we can share.  We decided to go out on Saturday to try it out and so drove to Billingford, Norfolk just on the other side of the Waveney River to look at the windmill there.  Some of the following photos were taken by R and some by me on my smaller camera and one by me on the new camera!

 

Billingford windmill

Billingford windmill

 

 

 

R took a lovely picture of a burdock seedhead.

 

We then drove to Hoxne in Suffolk to look at the village.  Traditionally this was the place where Edmund, Martyr-King was captured, tortured and killed by the Vikings.  Nowadays, historians think this was more likely to have taken place at Bradfield St Clare just south of Bury St Edmunds.

This is the inscription on Goldbrook Bridge, under which St Edmund was supposed to have been captured.

 

Goldbrook Bridge.

 

Hoxne village.

 

The Old Butchery.  The window has a lovely etched glass picture of a bull.

 

We shopped in Harleston on the way home and had an Indian takeaway meal that evening.

Sunday morning service was at St Mary’s church at Flixton.  The weather was glorious – already 14 degrees celsius on the way to church and the sun shining brightly.  The service was quite well attended and the lunch afterwards was very nice with such a lot of lovely food provided.  We had all clubbed together and bought Caroline an i-Pod with case, a bench for her garden, a bottle of champagne and a couple of other bottles of drink for her husband.

When R and I got home we decided to work in the garden all afternoon.  We dragged some branches and other bits of plants out of the big pond.  I heard frogs croaking for the first time this year and the fish had woken up and were leaping out of the water.  This made me think of Porgy and Bess with the fish jumping – we don’t have cotton but R said the grass needed cutting so he tried to get the petrol push mower to start but couldn’t.  Fortunately, we have a sit-on mower which he was able to start, so our grass got it’s first trim of the season.

For our evening meal I cooked a tasty low-fat meal of lemon and honey chicken with rice and green and yellow beans.