January Walks

Tags

birds, cattle, clouds, fallen trees, landscapes, lapwing, Minsmere Nature Reserve, primrose, seascape, shoveler, storm damage, Suffolk, super blue moon, tank traps, walking, weather

The day after the storm that cut off our electricity, Richard and I decided to take a short walk to see what damage the wind had caused.

We liked the colours in the sky and the faded earth.

I looked closer at the trees on the horizon.

The wind was still blowing quite strongly and it was cold but we enjoyed being out in the fresh air.

Our first fallen tree

This tree had been part of a hedge round a field.  It looks as though it had been dead for a while before it was felled by the storm.  The tree had snapped at ground level.  Dead trees can be very useful as host to so many other organisms; providing food and shelter for many creatures.  They are left in hedges until either the wind knocks them over or until the landowner thinks they are becoming a danger to people passing by on roads or paths.

A view across the fields

A field full of pregnant cows….

and new-born calves.  These look like Aberdeen Angus to me.

Another fallen tree

This one could have been dead already, as well.  The trunk had snapped three feet up from the ground and the tree was covered in ivy.  Ivy (Hedera helix) is usually no problem on a healthy tree but it can smother weak trees and the ivy here would have caused a lot of resistance to the gale-force winds.

This fallen tree had already had someone working on it.

We found some primroses (Primula vulgaris) flowering in the verge on the other side of our front hedge as we got back home.

A week later we drove to Minsmere Nature Reserve owned by the RSPB (Royal Society for the Protection of Birds).  We decided to walk out towards the sea.

Large expanse of marshland covered in reeds

Looking north from the end of the path as it reaches the beach. The little white buildings on the horizon on the right of the photo are the old coastguards’ cottages at Dunwich.

Richard and Elinor sitting in the sun

A closer look at the coastguards’ cottages and a glimpse of the sea.

Looking out to sea

Richard ‘shifting’ one of the WW2 tank traps that have been left in a line along the coast.

Tank traps

Here is a link which describes the anti-tank cubes at Walberswick – a village a few miles to the north of Minsmere.

If you look carefully you might be able to see the large flock of Lapwings we saw flying over the marsh

An unsuccessful close-up of the Lapwings (Vanellus vanellus)

Sunset over the Scrape

We liked the cloud formation here.  Stratocumulus undulatus, we have been told.

Sunset

Sunset

Sunset

A slideshow showing some of the birds we saw on the Scrape

 

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A Shoveler (Anas clypeata)

Here are some photos I took of the super, blue moon at the end of January

They are not as clear as I would have liked as I wasn’t using a tripod or our better camera.  I include the blurred first one mainly for the beautiful colour of the moon as it rose.

Thanks for visiting!

Highlights Part 4

Tags

bee orchid, black medick, branched bur-reed, clouds, Common Spotted-orchid, Escallonia, five-spot burnet, garden, garden flowers, gazania, hedge woundwort, house-leek, hoverfly syrphus ribesii, hoverfly volucella pellucans, insects, iris, large skipper butterfly, micro moth, plants, red-eyed damselfly, southern cuckoo bumblebee, Suffolk, wasp beetle, weather, White Clover, wild flowers

We had stormy weather like this all through last summer!

Many beautiful cloudscapes

Cloudy sunsets….

…and a lot of misty evenings!

ooOOoo

Richard grew Gazanias in pots last summer. They did very well especially towards the end of summer when the weather improved.

I discovered this rather chewed iris on the bank of the big pond in our garden. We don’t have any other irises like this. I wonder where it came from?

Red-eyed Damselfly (Erythromma najas)

I saw this damselfly on a lilypad on the big pond.  I zoomed my camera as far as it would go and then cropped the shot which explains the poor quality of the photo.  I needed to ID this damselfly which is a new one for our garden.

In 2014 I discovered a Bee Orchid in our garden and was very excited.  I looked for it again in 2015 but it didn’t re-appear.  Last summer I looked again at the place where I had found the orchid and was again disappointed.  However, a few days later I found four bee orchid plants about 2 metres away from the original plant.  I have already seen a few leaf rosettes this winter so I know that the orchids have survived.

Bee Orchid

Bee Orchid

This may be a Southern Cuckoo Bumblebee (Bombus vestalis) on white Allium

A Wasp Beetle (Clytus arietis)

Common Spotted-orchid (Dactylorhiza fuchsii)

When we moved into our house we discovered one of these orchids growing close to the house.  I moved it to a safer place and since then it has done well and the plant has spread all over the garden.  I often find seedlings in a tub or flower pot where they seem very happy and grow enormous like the one in the photo.

Hoverfly Syrphus ribesii on Escallonia ‘Apple Blossom’

Five-spot Burnet moth (Zygaena trifolii) on White Clover (Trifolium repens)

Five-spot Burnet on White Clover

House-leek in flower

Large Skipper butterfly (Ochlodes sylvanus) on Lavender – Lavandula angustifolia ‘Hidcote’.

Hedge Woundwort (Stachys sylvatica)

Black Medick (Medicago lupulina)

Hoverfly Volucella pellucens

The same hoverfly next to a tiny micro-moth

Branched Bur-reed (Sparganium erectum)

I have now caught up with all the photos taken in and near my garden last year.  I have photographs from a few outings we did that I would like to share with you and then I can concentrate on this year!

Here is my music selection – Chris Rea’s ‘Heaven’ – one of my most favourite songs!

Thanks for visiting!

 

 

Home from Abroad

Tags

agrimony, butterflies, clouds, common darter, common knapweed, Diary, dragonflies, Field Beans, gatekeeper, Great Willowherb, hedge bindweed, lane, Lords and Ladies, Marsh Woundwort, Meadowsweet, ponds, ringlet, ruddy darter, scarlet pimpernel, spear thistle, Suffolk, Sweet Chestnut, thunderstorm, wild flowers, yarrow

We arrived back home last Wednesday after spending eight days in the Schwarzwald (Black Forest).  It was probably the hottest day of the year so far and we spent it travelling by train up from Triberg, Germany to Ebbsfleet in Kent (England) where we had left our car.  We set off from the hotel at 6.30 am European time and got home just after 7.00 pm British time (one hour behind Europe).  The car thermometer said it was 32C (89.5F) when we set off from Kent and it peaked at 34C (93F) near the tunnel at the Dartford Crossing (under the Thames).  As we drove home up through Essex and Suffolk we watched large black clouds to the west edging ever nearer and we hoped we’d be able to get home before the storm got to us.  We did.  It was still 32C as we unpacked the car, opened all the windows and doors in the house and wandered round the garden for a while looking at the long grass and the drooping plants.  While I put the kettle on and made a cup of tea Richard telephoned the Chinese restaurant in Halesworth and ordered a take-away meal.  He was just about to set off when the storm broke.  It was the most violent one I’ve seen for many years with continuous thunder and bolts of lightening coming down vertically and travelling horizontally across the sky.  The rain was very heavy indeed.  Elinor and I sat on the stairs together as she gets quite frightened during thunderstorms and Richard went off to collect our evening meal.  The storm gradually abated and the sky cleared but still Richard hadn’t come back and I began to worry about him.  I found his phone which he had left behind so I couldn’t get in touch to find out where he was.  I was considering getting in the car and going to look for him when I was relieved to see him driving up to the house.  He had had a hair-raising journey and when he had got to Halesworth he found that the Chinese restaurant had a power-cut and couldn’t give us a meal.  They had tried to phone him on his mobile to let him know, but of course he had left it at home.  The town’s Thoroughfare was flooded with a foot of water and people were out trying to sweep the water away from the shop doors.  Water was coming up through the drains and the town river was in full spate.  Richard didn’t lose his head and knew he had a mission to accomplish so went to the other Chinese restaurant at the top of the town which hadn’t lost it’s power and ordered our meal from them instead.

When the rain stopped I went outside to enjoy the fresh, cooler air and took some photographs of the strange clouds.

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The following day I resumed my dutiful-daughter job and took Mum out to do her shopping.  We had bought double her usual amount of shopping just before we’d gone away and we had made sure she had enough of her medication to last as well.  While we were on our holiday she had been taken to church by my brother on the Sunday and he had cooked lunch for her at his house, so she had plenty to tell me.

When I got home again I got on with the washing and started to tidy the garden.  Richard and I called in to see our next-door-neighbours who had been kind enough to water the plants in the greenhouse and to put our rubbish bins out for collection while we were away.  We are very fortunate to have such thoughtful and generous neighbours.

The next day I continued with house and garden work.

Scarlet Pimpernel (Anagallis arvensis ssp.arvensis) found behind the greenhouse

Marsh Woundwort (Stachys palustris) found growing on the bank of the big pond.

I think this may be a male Common Darter (Sympetrum striolatum) though it could be a male Ruddy Darter (Sympetrum sanguineum)

A Spear Thistle (Cirsium vulgare) in flower near the big pond

A rather old and tired Ringlet butterfly (Aphantopus hyperantus)

Hedge Bindweed (Calystegia sepium) in flower in the area between our garden and the field at the back of the house.

I believe this may be a female Common Darter (Sympetrum striolatum)

Our Variegated Sweet Chestnut (Castanea sativa variegatum) in flower

Sweet Chestnut flowers

I walked down the lane with Elinor to post birthday cards to my niece Natalie (my brother’s daughter) who had her 31st birthday on the 23rd of July and cards to Alice my elder daughter who had her 31st birthday on the 24th of July.  Natalie is exactly 23 hours older than Alice.

This is a teneral, or newly emerged dragonfly as you can see by the pale colouring and very shiny wings. I don’t know which dragonfly it is, unfortunately. It is perched on a Great Willowherb (Epilobium hirsutum) growing in the ditch at the side of the lane.

The new pond at the side of the lane which was dug during the winter.

Richard spoke to the man who lives on the opposite side of the lane to the pond and who was responsible for digging it.  Apparently, many years ago there was a pond there which was wide enough and deep enough to enable the horses to be led to drink while still attached to their carts.  It was filled in when horses were no longer needed on the farm but it has now been re-instated and I am very pleased.  The pond is already full of interesting plants and insects which have found their way there on their own.

Our lane. I am standing next to the pond (on my left) and looking back in the direction from which we had come.

Looking over the hedge into the garden of Church Farm I noticed this piece of wall covered in ivy. I wonder if it is part of the old church of St Nicholas demolished many hundreds of years ago.

Lots of unripe Lords and Ladies berries (Arum maculatum)

A field full of Field or Broad Beans.

Another pond at the side of the lane. This one has become rather overgrown. It has fish in it and I once saw a couple sitting at the side of the road with rods trying to catch fish.

View across the fields towards All Saints church which can just be seen to the right of centre on the horizon. It is slightly obscured by a thistle flower!

Common Knapweed (Centaurea nigra)

Yarrow (Achillea millefolium)

Wild flowers at the side of the lane.

Agrimony (Agrimonia eupatoria)

Meadowsweet (Filipendula ulmaria)

Meadowsweet has a beautiful almond-blossom-like fragrance.

A poor photo of a male Gatekeeper butterfly (Pyronia tithonus)

These were all the things I saw at the side of the lane on a short 20 minute walk to post cards.

Here now is my musical choice – the Petite Symphonie in B flat for nine wind instruments by Charles Gounod, composed in 1888.  It lasts about 20 minutes and is of four movements.  I love the lyricism of French 19th century music and I like this recording of the piece very much.  It is a piece of music I used to play and it brings back such good memories to me when I hear it.

Thanks for visiting!

A Little Bit of This and a Little Bit of That

Tags

'The Company', beetles, clouds, cream tea, Fruit, harvesting, insects, Lilium longiflorum, moths, purple beans, Sheffield, Suffolk, sunset, The Man in the Iron Mask, trees, wild flowers

I haven’t published a diary post lately so this is a short resumé of my activities over the past month or so.

To start things off I have a photo of a cream tea that Elinor and I enjoyed while out shopping in Bungay before our holiday.

A very brightly-coloured café called ‘Jesters’ at the entrance to Bungay castle. We were going to walk round what is left of the castle when I remembered in time that I had only allowed myself an hour’s parking . The cream and jam scones were yummy!

Elinor and I went by train to Sheffield on the 2nd of July to visit my elder daughter, Alice.  The day was hot and the journey quite uncomfortable as the carriage we were in on the train from Norwich to Sheffield had faulty air-conditioning.  The ticket collector handed out bottles of water to anyone who wanted some.  We had noticed large quantities of water bottles in the waiting room at Diss Station as well, with a notice saying any customer could help themselves to water if they needed it.

We were travelling to Sheffield in order to watch Alice perform in ‘The Man in the Iron Mask’ by Alexandre Dumas.  We then stayed the night with her in her single room.  It was snug to say the least, but lovely to be all together again.

These are some photos of her that I have ‘borrowed’ from her drama group’s Facebook page.

Alice (in the green dress) played the part of Constance, D’Artagnan’s wife. She is watching D’Artagnan (on the right) fighting his foe.

The man on the left is an expert in weapons and fighting and has an armoury at his home.  He taught all the cast how to fence and fight.  It all looked very real.

I thought Alice did very well especially as she had to wear a costume which gave her a terrible rash for which she needed medical treatment.

‘All for one and one for all!’

Dumas will be spinning in his grave at their version of his very sad and doom-laden book. It was a brilliant, funny, well-acted and well-choreographed play with a happy ending.

As we were waiting for our train back home the next morning I saw and heard the piano in the concourse being played.  The piano is there for anyone’s use at any time.

This young man played well.

Unluckily for me and Elinor, the carriage we were in on our return journey also had no air-conditioning.  This time there was no free water but we were able to leave the carriage at Nottingham (I think) and get into another carriage with AC that they had attached to the train.

The following week was busy with preparations for our holiday.  Elinor’s laptop stopped working and had to be taken in for repair.  She worried that it might not be repaired in time for her to use on holiday.  She used my lap-top all week.  We were able to collect her’s on Friday :).  I shopped with Mum on Tuesday and made sure she’d be alright for food and other necessaries while we were away.  My friend Heather came to lunch on Wednesday and we had an enjoyable time chatting about friends and family.  She gave me a book – Janet Marsh’s ‘Nature Diary’.  Such a thoughtful present.  I had an appointment at Norfolk and Norwich Hospital for a rheumatoid arthritis check-up on Friday – the day before going away.

We were surprised to find on our return from holiday on the 18th July that the field of barley behind our house had still not been harvested.  The weather at home had been warm and quite dry while we had dripped and shivered on holiday.  We did get a superb sunset to welcome us back.

We had another busy week catching up on household and gardening chores and I had two weeks’ worth of washing and ironing to do.  On the Monday I had to take Mum to the hospital for her regular eye check which went very well.  I collected her shopping list as I would be doing her shopping for her that week.  When I got home I started to make a loaf of bread and discovered I hadn’t enough yeast so had to go out again.  I bought some other groceries as well as the yeast and was on my way home when I got a flat tyre.  I managed to get the car into the town central carpark and got the spare tyre out but couldn’t work out how to remove the jack from the car!  Shameful!  I’m also not strong enough to take the wheel off anyway so had to phone Richard who had just sat down with a drink.  While I was waiting for Richard to come and rescue me I got two offers of help from kind gentlemen who saw my pancake-flat tyre.  The age of chivalry is not dead!  The tyre had a rip in it and a couple of nails too.

The next day they began harvesting the barley field.

This combine had just off-loaded its grain into the waiting tractor trailer.

The harvesting wasn’t started until late in the day and continued until quite late in the evening.

The countryside at harvest-time is a very noisy, dusty, dirty place to be.  It proves at this time of year to be very industrial.  Our houses and cars get covered in a thick pall of dust and bits of straw.  We all start wheezing and coughing and anyone with allergies or asthma has problems with their health.  There is a constant roaring and whining of engines as the combines trawl up and down the fields all day and most of the night too and the tractors with full trailers of grain are driven at break-neck speed along our narrow lanes to the silos and barns at the farms.  Woe betide anyone or any creature who gets in their way!

The barley field was only half finished that evening and the combine went off to another field to work on that. Both fields were left with strips of uncut grain.

I am not sure why they left both fields like this.  Bad weather was forecast and duly arrived a couple of days later.  Perhaps less damage is caused by wind and rain when the crop is in strips.

This is a photo of the other field our local farmer cut in strips. We took this picture while on a walk nearly two weeks ago.  The fields were both finished last week – almost a month since they had begun.

This was the first walk we had taken from home in months.

A bee and a hoverfly enjoying the nectar of a Spear Thistle (Cirsium vulgare)

I disturbed this moth as I walked through the long grass. I think it may be a Shaded Broad Bar moth (Scotopteryx chenopodiata)

I remembered seeing a large patch of Common Fleabane (Pulicaria dysenterica) in the corner of a field last year. It was still there though a large heap of prunings had been left there earlier in the year

Fleabane with Pollen Beetles (Meligethes aeneus)

The Field Maple(Acer campestre) was looking bright, not only with its new ruby-coloured winged-fruits and leaf stalks but also with the crimson galls on many of its leaves. These galls are small red pustules probably produced by the mite Aceria myriadium.

New Pedunculate (or English) Oak leaves (Quercus robur) shining in the afternoon sun. There are also tiny acorns on long stalks to be seen.

Interesting cloud formation.

A hoverfly on Bramble (Rubus fruticosus agg. ) flowers

Bramble flowers are very attractive and blackberries go so well in pies and crumbles!

I saw my first Dewberry (Rubus caesius) last year and was worried I wouldn’t find one this year because of all the hedging and ditching that was done in the spring. I eventually found a small plant under a hedge.

Richard and I like this view across a field

This is another view we like and I’m sure my regular readers recognise it.

When I checked my photos on my return home I was dismayed to see the spot just above the trees at the centre of the photo.  However, when I cropped the photo…

Cheeky!

…I realised a bee had photobombed my picture!

An Oedemeridae beetle, perhaps Ischnomera sanguinicollis on a Spear Thistle flower with lots more Pollen Beetles.

We have had our first harvest of purple beans.

These beans sadly lose their purple colour when cooked and end up a rather dull green.  They taste very nice and they have appreciated growing in the cooler summer.

French beans are so quick and easy to prepare and taste wonderful straight from the garden.

My white lilies (Lilium longiflorum) are flowering in the garden. This photo was taken at dusk.

Another sunset – this time with an added rain shower

The rain soon cleared away and as I turned back toward the house I saw the sky to the East was lovely too.

Pretty pink clouds!

Thanks for visiting!

 

Keswick and an Evening Walk

Tags

clouds, Derwent Water, flowers, geese, holiday, Keswick, Lake District

Our second day in the Lakes was cooler and rainier than the first.  Again, we left it until after midday before we left our cottage and this time went to the nearest town – Keswick.

Fortunately, the rain left off for the first part of the afternoon so walking round the town was fine.

An interesting alleyway in Keswick

I had never been to this town before and Richard hadn’t visited for many years.  I loved it!  It has lots of interesting shops and plenty going on but it isn’t as packed with tourists as Ambleside is.

We bought gifts from the shop below for my mother and our next-door neighbour (who watered our tomatoes) and also a jar of marmalade as Elinor wanted some. My blogging friend Rachel, formerly of ‘Could Do Worse’ visits the Lakes every year and when I saw this shop I thought of her.

The Chocolate Shop

Here is what Rachel had to say about it last year.  She did three or four great posts from the Lakes last year and you’ll find them just before and just after the post I’ve given you a link to.  She has recently started a new blog called The Patch Out Back – do give her a visit.

A pretty tree in the park.

After wandering round for a while, and Elinor sampling some of the best chips she had ever tasted from The Old Keswickian, we agreed we’d like to see the lake.  To get to Derwent Water from the centre of the town you walk through an underpass and alongside part of the town park which is where I took the above photo.

From the path we could see the fells that surround the town

Lots of very friendly Greylags and Canada Geese wait to be fed by anyone foolhardy enough to buy packets of goose-food from the shop.

This is Derwent Water

Derwent Water

As you can see, it was a very cloudy day.

The lake has four islands on it and one of them is just opposite the ferry landing stage near where we were standing.

The clouds began to drift lower and we knew it would rain again soon.

It was nice to watch people rowing on the lake

Fells near the lake

We found this lady and her Poodle most amusing.

She got to the shore-side and took the dog’s lead off and replaced it with a long rope.  The dog was very excited and was barking loudly and shrilly.  It galloped into the water and splashed about, snapping at the water (I can’t imagine how many pints of lake water it drank).  The woman was having to hold very tight on the end of the rope especially when the dog saw a large flotilla of geese come into view.

The geese remained out of reach, to the poodle’s disappointment.

I saw some attractive Bush Vetch (Vicia sepium) near the lake.

As it started to rain again we made our way back to the car and then drove back to the cottage.

After our evening meal, Richard and I went for a walk down the lane our cottage was in.

The first plant I saw was Greater Bird’s-foot Trefoil (Lotus pedunculatus)

The cloud was low and everything was very wet but the fine rain soon stopped.

Spear Thistle (Cirsium vulgare) was everywhere – (as it is here at home)

Marsh Thistle (Cirsium palustre) has smaller flower-heads and they are grouped together at the end of the stems. (A Spear Thistle is behind it)

Masses of Heath Bedstraw (Galium saxatile)

Sneezewort (Achillea ptarmica)

Sneezewort’s name ptarmica comes from the Greek word ptarmos which, surprisingly, means ‘sneezing’.  The plant looks grey and in the bad light that evening the flowers seemed almost luminous.  The upper stems are downy and the flower-heads are made up of white ray florets and greenish-white disc florets (though in this photo they look grey).  The leaves, which are hot to the taste, used to be used in salads.  In the Middle Ages Sneezewort was used to alleviate toothache.  Sufferers held the roots in their mouths which helped the toothache by ‘evacuating the rheum’ according to Nicholas Culpeper.  I can’t imagine how sneezing would help anyone with bad toothache!  Culpeper recommends sneezewort for people with stuffy heads.  The powder of the herb was ‘stuffed up the nose..’ which caused sneezing and ‘cleanses the head’.  Explosive!

More low cloud

We walked almost to the end of the lane but as it was getting quite dark we turned round, retraced our steps and returned to our cottage.

Thanks for visiting!

 

Weekend

Tags

Celandines, clouds, daffodils, Dog's Mercury, dogwood, farmland, Jacob sheep, lichen, Lords and Ladies, primroses, snowdrops, St Margaret's church, Suffolk, sunset, walking, Winter Heliotrope

Calves in the cow shed at our friends’ farm.  The blurring is caused by the calves’ steamy breath.

On Saturday, Richard and I went to the church coffee morning held this month at our friends’ farm instead of at the Rector’s house.  Our Rector had his heart surgery last week, and will be off work for some time while he recovers.  We wish him a speedy return to full health.  As usual we listened to all the gossip and news.  I bought some delicious home-made Bakewell bars which we ate later that day and Richard won a tin of sweets in the raffle.

Saturday was cloudy and chilly but there was no frost and the birds were singing lustily.  I heard the chaffinch’s spring song for the first time this year.

Sunday was a much brighter day.  The church service was held at our church in Rumburgh so Richard and I got there early to get things ready.  The church didn’t need much tidying as I had helped another lady to clean it thoroughly on Friday and there had been a wedding on Saturday afternoon after which Richard had tidied up again.

After lunch we went out for a walk.  We decided against driving somewhere and also thought it better not to walk across the fields as everywhere is waterlogged.  We took our usual circuit of a couple of miles, walking along the lanes.  I have photographed this walk so many times now, so I will just show you a few of the new and/or interesting things I saw.

A part of the ditch in our lane has recently been chased out. Regular ditch maintenance is necessary to ensure proper field drainage and to stop flooding on the roads.

This field has been newly ploughed. For years probably, it has been rough grass with heaps of old rusty farm implements alongside the hedge.

Italian Alder tree (Alnus cordata)  There is a row of these trees along the roadside.

Italian Alder catkins

I found that Dog’s Mercury (Mercurialis perennis) was already starting to flower.

This plant is found in woodland often forming carpets, also under hedges and in other shady places.  It has a fetid smell and is poisonous, being a member of the spurge family (Euphorbiaceae).  Male and female flowers are found on separate plants and are small and yellow in spikes.  It is pollinated by midges.

Bright green Dog’s Mercury.

Lords-and-ladies (Arum maculatum)

Another woodland and hedgerow plant.  I was surprised that these leaves were matte green – they are usually glossy.  Another plant that smells of decay when in flower, the berries are poisonous and the roots have a high starch content.  In Elizabethan times the roots were gathered to make starch for stiffening the high pleated linen ruffs that were then in fashion.

The white spots in the photo are midges or Winter Gnats flying in the sunshine.

This dead tree at the end of a hedge and at the entrance to a field is covered in lichen. The bark of the tree has started to fall off taking the lichen with it.

 

 

Our long shadows and that of the hedge behind us can be seen on the field as I took a photo of the beautiful cloud patterns

The clouds.

The Dogwood (Cornus sanguinea) twigs were blazing in the low sunlight.

A hollow tree. In spite of its hollow trunk and all the ivy growing up it the tree, an oak I think, is still alive.

Jacob sheep. They will be having their lambs soon.

 

 

 

 

Winter Heliotrope (Petasites fragrans) growing along the roadside verge near someones house. The flowers are vanilla-scented and the plant spreads quite quickly preferring damp and shady places. It is a naturalised garden plant.

Snowdrops (Galanthus nivalis) in the churchyard

Primroses too! (Primula vulgaris)

St Margaret’s church porch has an upstairs room.

 

 

 

 

White lichen on a gravestone

A daffodil bud in the sheltered churchyard.

 

Celandines (Ranunculus ficaria) flowering on the roadside verge.  I was so surprised to see these as they don’t usually appear until March.  They were everywhere I looked, though as the sun was setting they were closing up for the night.  I should have got there an hour earlier.

Sunset.

 

We got home as the sun sank below the horizon.

This week Elinor is taking her mock GCSE exams.  She has already taken Psychology and English.  Maths is on Wednesday and Thursday and Art is all day on Friday.  She is coping very well indeed though she is exhausted already with the strain of it all.

Richard stays away from home only one night this week; Wednesday night is spent in Gloucestershire.  On Friday he goes back to the specialist to find out more about the lesion/tumour on his pituitary gland and what is to be done about it.

I am disappointed at not being able to go to Sheffield  to see Alice perform in ‘Emma’ especially as she is taking the leading role.  I would really have loved to see her and support her but the performances are at the same time as Elinor’s exams and Richard’s hospital visit.  I also don’t have much money to spare for train travel and hotel rooms after Christmas and Elinor’s birthday in January.

My mother is fine.  She went to the eye specialist on the 30th December and had to return the next day for an injection to stop a bleed in her eye.  We went back last week for a check-up and fortunately all is well again.  The next appointment is in mid March.  My brother has filed for divorce and is in the process of selling his house.  He is moving to Suffolk to be near us and Mum and especially his daughter and has got a transfer to work in the open prison in Suffolk and continue his teaching.  My sister is working hard as always as a paramedic practitioner. She got her degree and will be getting her certificate at a ceremony in May.  My mother-in-law is out of hospital and in a nursing home.  This is a temporary arrangement as she hasn’t yet been assessed but we all know that she won’t be able to go back home.  She has a weak heart, breast cancer, problems with her thyroid and has lost all her mobility.  All so sad.  She understands the situation and is making the best of it; such a sensible woman.

 

Cloud Chasing

Tags

Bertha, black bryony, blue flax, bread-making, clouds, clover, fields, fleabane, gates, grasses, great black slug, greenbottle, hen and chicks, Kestrel potatoes, marsh ragwort, phacelia, Rain, red bartsia, René Magritte, rice, the Beck, thunder, tub-thumping priest, walking, wild radish, willow, wind

I had hoped to be able to stay at home on Saturday as the weather was so nice.  However, when I took a loaf out of our breadmaker and saw that, for the second time in a row, the bread hadn’t risen very much I realised that one of two things had happened.  I knew that I hadn’t made a mistake when measuring out the ingredients or when setting the programme.  The problem was either a faulty batch of yeast or, even worse, a faulty breadmaker.  I went into Halesworth and bought a very nice looking loaf from the health food/delicatessen shop as well as some new yeast.  I had been experimenting with a different brand-name dried yeast and thought that that may have been the problem so I bought some of the old tried-and-tested yeast.  While in town I also got some more vegetables and a couple of newspapers – The Saturday Times so that R could do the crossword (most of the rest of the newspaper usually goes straight into the re-cycling bin) and a Beccles and Bungay Journal.  This had a very nice account of our Requiem Eucharist last Sunday with a photograph and also a double-page centre-spread featuring Dolly and her memories of living in a village which is doubly thankful, in that all its people going off to war in both the Great and the Second World War came back safely. As I drove home I noticed such wonderful clouds in the sky!  The wind was picking up already so I decided to trot back down the lane and photograph them before checking round the garden to make sure all was well battened down and tied up before the high winds that had been forecast arrived. One of my favourite artists is René Magritte who painted clouds like these.

La grande famille Series 1 Lithography by René Magritte

I also saw that one of next-door’s chickens had had some chicks and was taking them for a walk on the grass verge of the lane.

There are six chicks there somewhere!

R was mowing the grass when I got home and he also made sure everything was ready for the storm so I didn’t have to.  What a kind man! We had some very heavy rain and thunder over-night and while we were in church on Sunday morning the rain came on again with more thunder.  The Rector is currently having a well-deserved, two-week break from us so the service was taken by a retired clergyman who lives in our benefice and is a great friend of ours.  The bible readings for the day were very apt – the earthquake, wind and fire from which God was absent and then the quiet whisper that was God, and the story of the disciples being tossed about in the boat on the lake and Jesus walking on water to join them and calming the storm.  I was waiting for a stormy sermon and got one though not quite the one I expected.  In fact, we all got a lecture about the current terrible situation in Gaza.  We were told that a lot of what is going on there was our (the British) fault and that we cannot wash our hands of it.  The priest even struck the edge of the pulpit with his hand!  Twice!  Our Rector might grumble and nag but I cannot remember him ever beating up the pulpit during a sermon! I think we have been lucky and haven’t had such bad weather as others around the country.  The rain didn’t last that long really and by mid afternoon the sun was coming out.  It was, and still is very blustery but the wind hasn’t been as damaging as we thought it would be.  We have lost a few apples and pears from our trees and some of the plants look a little sorry for themselves but on the whole, nothing to worry about. Once we saw that the rain had stopped, R and I decided to go out for a walk.  We chose one of our walks across the fields.

Evidence of recent rainfall

Before we had walked more than a few steps along the path we saw such a mass of fleabane!

Pulicaria dysenterica – Common Fleabane

‘Pulicaria’ refers to the plant’s power against fleas (pulex = Latin for flea) and ‘dysenterica’ recalls a time when fleabane was used as a medicine against dysentery.  When dried and burned, the leaves of fleabane were said to give off a vapour which drove fleas away so the plant was highly prized when houses were plagued with them.  The plants were used in an unburned state as an insecticide too.  Culpeper, the 17th century herbalist, didn’t think much of the flower itself – ‘an ill-looking weed’, ‘the flowers are a dirty yellow’, but he commended its effectiveness against insects.  ‘The smell is supposed delightful to insects and the juice destructive to them, for they never leave it til the season of their deaths’. I believe I have photographed this gate before.  It is in an even worse state than the last time we were here.

Something has been eating this clover in a crimping style.

R and I were quite surprised to see that the normally fallow field was full of plants and flowers.  We haven’t been this way for some weeks.

Wild flower seeds appear to have been sown here – not all native.

The purple flower, Phacelia tanacetifolia or scorpion weed, is often grown as a green compost but is dug in before it flowers.  It is also grown as a butterfly and insect magnet as the flowers are full of nectar.  It is not a native plant.  I spotted all sorts of plants that I recognised, for example…

Blue flax

I think this may be wild radish

It also appeared as if a trial crop had been planted here.  We did not recognise it at all.  After some research I have decided that it may be rice.  The kind of rice – arborio – that is grown in northern Italy.

Is this rice?

I think it looks very much like it.  Can anyone confirm this for me, please? Near to the hedge we found some red bartsia but my photo is very poor as you will see. I also found some ragwort which I think may be marsh ragwort. We walked past another field of dried peas and continued to admire the enormous clouds on the horizon. We were now approaching the Beck and we could hear all the ditches and little streams that join it gurgling and bubbling. We saw this Great Black Slug in the damp grass.

The Beck was flowing very fast

This willow has galls on it and one of its leaves is very distorted

We decided to walk a little further to the top of the hill and look at the view from there.

Greenbottle flies develop a coppery tinge with age

One of our favourite views

The road junction at the top of the hill

After all the humid weather recently it was lovely at the top of the hill with the strong wind blowing.     It looked as if we might have some more rain so we headed back down the hill. On the way I noticed some shiny Black Bryony leaves in the hedgerow. Another view of a field, a gate and some clouds.   The wind and rain had made patterns with the dried grasses. We got home and I started preparing the evening meal.  I used some of our home-grown Kestrel potatoes which are very tasty indeed.

Purple patterned potatoes

In fact, the clouds passed us by without shedding a drop of rain.  The skies cleared by nightfall and we were able to see the enormous full moon as it rose and then a couple of shooting stars as well.  A beautiful end to the weekend.

Storm Clouds

Tags

Bertha, clouds, storm, Suffolk

This gallery contains 16 photos.

The Sky at Night

Tags

clouds, evening, Rain, rainbow, sunset, sunshine

The following photos are ones I took this evening.  We have had a cloudy day today but much better than forecast because the predicted rain didn’t come until late afternoon and then it was fairly light and patchy.  It is now 10.30 at night and I can hear that the rain has now become much heavier and we have had a little thunder too.

A Rainbow.

 

A Sunset.

The rainbow and sunset happened concurrently so you must imagine me photographing the rainbow at the front of the house and then running to the back of the house to take photos of the sunset.  I was upstairs and downstairs and outside too so I have had plenty of exercise.

A Wet Day

Tags

ash die-back, ash tree, calendula, clouds, collared dove, Eye, lupin, moon, Rain, Rumburgh, St Chrysostom's prayer, St Michael and All Saints and St Felix church, St Peter and St Paul's church, yellow iris

The past couple of days have been fairly busy doing mainly mundane chores.  Fortunately, I am feeling much better and have regained what little energy I usually have.

View from our front door on Sunday after one of many showers

I took Mum to church again on Sunday morning.  A windy day with lots of heavy showers.  Her church is currently full of scaffolding and difficult to get around.  Quite a few years ago they bought a new second-hand organ at a bargain price (still many thousands of pounds I believe).   They took out their old one and sold it on but before they could put in the new one somebody thought it might be a good idea to make a Parish Room with a kitchen and toilets too.   This could be done more easily without the organ being in place.  The church is quite a wealthy one but even so, some time was spent fund-raising and then all the architects reports, and surveyors reports and moving of tombs etc took even more time.  Bits of organ pipe and casing were handed out to all and sundry to look after at home as there was no-where to store the new organ in the church.  All money raised was spent on the Parish Room and the church had to make do with a little electric organ.  At last the Parish Room was finished and everyone was pleased with the result.  Saving up for the installation of the organ was resumed and was going very well until the boiler broke down and had to be replaced.  Fortunately, some very generous parishioner kindly paid for a new boiler for the church.  At last, a few weeks ago the installation of the organ began and should be completed in time for the arrival of their new priest in the Autumn.  When I got to church with Mum on Sunday even more scaffolding had been erected as they had decided to investigate a large damp patch that had appeared above the Rood Screen.  They also have a Doom painting up there (covered with whitewash) which they want to look at to see that it isn’t deteriorating too much.

I had lunch when I got home and then spent a quiet afternoon reading, checking e-mails, feeding the birds and preparing the vegetables for our evening meal.  Our church had an Evening Prayer service at 6.30pm and R and I went along at 5.45pm to get everything ready.  It is fortunate that the lovely prayer of St Chrysostom is used during Morning and Evening Prayer, because if it wasn’t one might be tempted to wonder if there was much point in having the service.  There were only five of us there including poor Maurice who had prepared a very thought-provoking homily and led the service so well.

‘Almighty God, who hast given us grace at this time with one accord to make our common supplications unto thee; and dost promise that when two or three are gathered together in thy Name thou wilt grant their requests…’

Monday was another showery day with a few rumbles of thunder as well.  I did a lot of supermarket shopping and washing and other necessary jobs around the house.  I took a few photographs in the garden in-between the showers.

The tallest tree here is a lovely Ash tree. It upsets me to think that it probably will be dead in ten years time because of Ash die-back disease

The lane in front of our house is looking particularly green at the moment.

A lupin in R’s flower-bed

Calendula/Pot Marigold in R’s flowerbed

Yellow Iris in bud by the pond

You can tell by the Collared Doves’ blurred feet that it was moving fast and I had difficulty keeping up!

The sky gradually got cloudier and more stormy-looking as the day progressed.

 

 

 

 

Living in the (fairly) flatlands of East Anglia you can always see what the weather’s going to be like before it gets to you.

This is a plane from one of the local air bases

I was glad I wasn’t flying before the storm.

I got indoors just in time.

(If anyone is wondering why there is a brick on top of the cage over the ground bird feeder, it is to try to stop squirrels lifting up the lid and eating all the bird seed.)

By dusk the rain had stopped and the moon had risen.