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A Suffolk Lane

~ A diary of my life in rural north Suffolk.

A Suffolk Lane

Tag Archives: fruit trees

A Quiet Spring – March and April Part 2

03 Mon Jul 2017

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

≈ 95 Comments

Tags

blossom, butterfly, daffodils, flowers, fruit trees, gardening, plants, spring flowers, Suffolk, sunset

Let me take you back in time……

The daffodils this spring were marvellous!  We had a few warm days at the beginning of April that brought the flowers forward and then from Easter onwards the weather was decidedly chilly.  Very dry but chilly and with very little sunshine.

P1010936Daffodils
P1010937Daffodils
P1010938Daffodils
P1010939Daffodils
P1010940Daffodils
P1010941Daffodils
P1010942Daffs and jonquils
P1010943Daffodils
P1010944Daffodils
P1020208Miniature narcissi
P1020209Daffodil

The white daffodils look just like butterflies when a breeze catches them!  Most of these flowers are scented as well.

The blossom on the fruit trees was good this spring.

Wild Cherry
Wild Cherry
Wild Cherry blossom
Wild Cherry blossom
Weeping Crabtree
Weeping Crabtree
Weeping Crabtree blossom
Weeping Crabtree blossom
Crabtree 'Evereste'
Crabtree ‘Evereste’
'Evereste' blossom
‘Evereste’ blossom
Crabtree 'Harry Baker'
Crabtree ‘Harry Baker’
'Harry Baker' blossom
‘Harry Baker’ blossom
Greengage
Greengage
Greengage blossom
Greengage blossom

Damson blossom

Pear ‘Concorde’ blossom

Other trees with blossom looked wonderful this spring too.

Amelanchier
Amelanchier
Amelanchier blossom
Amelanchier blossom

The Blackthorn at the end of our drive

The Pussy Willow was covered in fuzzy flowers

I took photos of some of the plants in the garden.

The Spirea in Richard’s new shrub border was very bright and beautiful.

A pretty primula had planted itself in one of the ditches that surround our garden

We have a number of orange and red cowslips that grow here and there about the garden. I have started to gather them into one place so they don’t get mowed before they set seed.

The King-cups on the bank of the pond looked cheerful.

Primroses and Anemone blanda

The clematis flowered at the end of the month and filled the garden with scent.

Clematis flowers

Last autumn I ordered some tulips and planted them in large tubs.  I was glad I did when I saw the damage the deer had wreaked on those planted in the borders!  I covered the tubs in wire mesh and left them at the back of the house to over-winter.  I had no mouse, vole or deer damage at all!

These lovely tulips look more like peonies! Because of the cool spring they were in flower for nearly a month.

This is a male Holly Blue butterfly (Celastrina argiolus). There were a number of these flying in the garden at the end of April.

A sunset seen from the back of the house

This post has taken me weeks to write because I have been so busy and tired!  I thought about abandoning it a couple of times because of its lateness but decided to post it after all and I hope you will forebear with me.

My choice of music is ‘Schmetterling’ (Butterfly) by Grieg, one of his Lyric Pieces.

Thanks for visiting!

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September’s End

25 Fri Sep 2015

Posted by Clare Pooley in amphibians, family, Insects, music, plants, Rural Diary, trees

≈ 32 Comments

Tags

autumn, berries, buzzard, common lizard, crane fly, family, flowers, Fruit, fruit trees, fungus, garden flowers, greater celandine, wasp nest, wild flowers

IMG_2485Hawthorn

Common Hawthorn (Crataegus monogyna)

We have had some very cool nights already and lots of rain.  Autumn has arrived!  The nights are drawing in and when I get up just after six o’clock in the morning on Mondays and Fridays I have to wait for well over half an hour before the sun rises.

Chrysanthemum
Chrysanthemum
Chrysanthemum
Chrysanthemum
Chrysanthemum
Chrysanthemum
Chrysanthemum
Chrysanthemum

I have no news to give you about Alice – I haven’t spoken to her for about a fortnight so I assume she is busy and coping alright.

Morning Glory
Morning Glory
Dahlia
Dahlia
Dahlia
Dahlia

To our surprise, the day after I mentioned in this blog that it would take weeks for probate to be granted, it was granted!  Richard has spent two days in Manchester with his brother sorting out all their mother’s finances.  They also went to a place that Joyce was fond of and scattered her ashes.  Richard was hoping to spend three days with Chris and wanted to travel up in his new car but unfortunately his windscreen was hit by a stone chipping last week which left a four inch crack and it needs replacing!  The insurance company is sending someone to our house to carry out the replacement today (which is when Richard had hoped to return home).  He came home yesterday instead (Thursday).  He will have to go back to Manchester in a couple of weeks to finish going through all Joyce’s belongings and deciding what to do with them – a very difficult business.

Dog-rose-hips (Rosa canina)
Dog-rose-hips (Rosa canina)
Blackberries (Rubus fruticosus agg.)
Blackberries (Rubus fruticosus agg.)
Pyracantha berries
Pyracantha berries
Cotoneaster berries
Cotoneaster berries
Black Bryony (Tamus communis) growing through Cotoneaster horizontalis
Black Bryony (Tamus communis) growing through Cotoneaster horizontalis
Cotoneaster horizontalis
Cotoneaster horizontalis

Elinor has almost completed two weeks at college, is working hard and her tutors are very pleased with her.  She is enjoying the course but finds the social side of college life very tricky.  She is very insecure and worries all the time that she is saying or doing the wrong thing.  She has also been badly affected by her grandmother’s death and funeral.  She is afraid of going to sleep in case she doesn’t wake up again and she is frightened of being left alone both now and in the future.

Eating apples 'Saturne'
Eating apples ‘Saturne’
Pears 'Concorde'
Pears ‘Concorde’
Figs 'Brown Turkey'
Figs ‘Brown Turkey’
Crabapple 'Evereste'
Crabapple ‘Evereste’
Crabapple 'Harry Baker'
Crabapple ‘Harry Baker’
Crabapple
Crabapple

I have been busy in the house and with my mother; Richard has had a lot to do in the garden and has also been arranging our finances now that he has retired.  We have had no time for a walk recently and in fact have done very few walks together during the whole year.  We hope that in the next week or so things will have calmed down and we will be able to find time to go out together.

Chinese Lanterns (Physalis alkekengi)
Chinese Lanterns (Physalis alkekengi)
Japanese Ornamental Cherry 'Fragrant Cloud'
Japanese Ornamental Cherry ‘Fragrant Cloud’
Acer palmatum 'Atropurpureum'
Acer palmatum ‘Atropurpureum’
Spindle (Euonymous europaeus)
Spindle (Euonymous europaeus)
Hazel new catkins (Corylus avellana)
Hazel new catkins (Corylus avellana)
Elder (Sambucus nigra)
Elder (Sambucus nigra)
Fungus
Fungus
Fungus
Fungus
Fungus
Fungus

The photographs in this post were mainly done during one afternoon this week.

IMG_2479Entrance to wasp nest

This is the entrance to one of the three wasp nests we have in our garden. They took over an old mouse or vole hole.

IMG_2487Crane fly

Crane fly (Tipula paludosa)

IMG_2494Buzzard

Buzzard (Buteo buteo)

Greater Celandine

Greater Celandine (Chelidonium majus)

I saw this plant just inside the stone wall that surrounds St Mary’s church in Bungay.

Greater Celandine

Greater Celandine

This plant is no relation to the Lesser Celandine we see in the springtime.  It is a type of poppy, similar to the Yellow Horned-poppy I found on Dunwich beach a few weeks ago.  Its orange-coloured sap has been used in Asia for burning away warts and corns since the beginning of Chinese civilisation.  This caustic liquid was also used to remove soreness and cloudiness from the eyes!  It uses an oil gland on its seeds to ensure they are taken a distance away.  Ants feed on the oil and then carry the seed off.

Juvenile Common Lizard

Juvenile Common Lizard

For the second week running, I discovered something hiding under our wheelie-bin.  Obviously, rubbish bins are the go-to shelter for small creatures.

IMG_5734Clouds

Elinor and I admired these clouds as we neared home the other day.

IMG_5736Clouds

We turned to our left and saw these!

The following song is dedicated to Elinor.

Thanks for visiting!

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The Merry (?) Month of May

16 Sat May 2015

Posted by Clare Pooley in cooking, family, Gardening, Insects, plants, Rural Diary, trees

≈ 86 Comments

Tags

family life, flowers, fruit trees, health, spring, Suffolk

IMG_4544Japanese Cherry Fragrant Cloud (640x480)

Japanese Cherry ‘Fragrant Cloud’

We have been fairly busy during the past few weeks with not much time for trips out.  Not that the weather has been conducive to those type of activities; we get one quite nice day with sunshine and a bit of warmth and then we revert to cold, windy days with grey skies and some rain too.  We are still getting cold nights and looking at the photographs I took this time last year, the flowers and blossom I am seeing now were ones I saw then during the second half of April.  The photos I am including in this post have been mainly taken on the few nice days we’ve had this month.

IMG_4547Crabtree Evereste (640x480)

Crabapple ‘Evereste’ 

I took my mother to the hospital for her six-week check-up and we were sorry to be told that both her eyes had suffered a bleed or some damage and she would have to return to have injections in both eyes at the same time.  We duly returned a few days later and she had the injections.  Her eyesight has deteriorated again and for someone who has always enjoyed reading she is finding it so hard not to be able to read with ease any more.  She can’t read sub-titles on the TV quickly enough either so has had to give up watching her favourite foreign-language programmes.  She has also been told her kidneys are not functioning too well and her GP is having to re-think what medication she should be taking now.  She is a brave and sensible woman and is trying to make the best of the situation.

IMG_4550Crabtree Harry Baker (640x480)

Crabapple ‘Harry Baker’

My mother-in-law has now moved into her care-home.  The actual move caused her some distress and she is still very unhappy.  She had lived in her home for over forty years and she had been very happy there.  She knows that she wouldn’t be able to care for herself if she went back home, even with a full care package, as she is almost totally immobile now and has so many other serious medical problems.  But that thought doesn’t take much of the sadness and frustration away; it probably adds to it.  Richard and his brother spent two full days last week going through her whole house finding the few things she would be able to take with her to the home and then trying to decide what to do with the rest of her belongings.  They had four trips to the tip to get rid of things no longer needed and have stored the rest of her possessions in my brother-in-law’s cellar.  My poor mother-in-law is sad that she has to sell her house to pay for her care and that she won’t be able to leave anything to her sons when she dies.

IMG_4553Pear Concord (640x480)

Pear ‘Concord’

My eldest daughter Alice is working hard on the few corrections that have to be made to her thesis before it is printed and bound.  She is also rehearsing for her next production with her drama group.  Because of her work schedule she won’t be able to visit us until the beginning of June.  We haven’t seen her since 31st December – the longest time we have ever gone without seeing each other.

IMG_4560Bergenia (640x480)

Bergenia flowers. I took this photo on the 5th of May thinking that they may not be around that much longer. In past years I have had all my bergenia flowers eaten by deer or rabbits almost as soon as they came out. Not this year (so far). They are still flowering and have got so tall and look wonderful.

Elinor has taken her Art exam and has finished and handed in all her course-work.  She was pleased with the way her exam went.  She managed to do all she had wanted to do and didn’t panic at all.  Of course, she is now starting to worry that she hasn’t done enough and might not pass her exam!  She has an interview on Wednesday with tutors of the next two-year course she has applied to go on.  She wants to do Graphic Art and we and her current tutors think that she will do very well.

IMG_4563Lathyrus Spring Beauty (640x480)

Lathyrus ‘Spring Beauty’

We are currently applying for assistance for Elinor for next year.  This will provide her with one-to-one mentors who will be able to help her if she experiences anxiety at college and it may also be possible to provide her with different equipment and/or furniture which she may need because of her mild scoliosis.  She suffers from frequent back pain especially when she has to stand for any length of time.

IMG_4631Apple Discovery (640x480)

Apple ‘Discovery’

She has her other exams during the first two weeks in June and is trying to revise for these at the moment.  English and Psychology are no problem to her and she is predicted to do well in both these exams but it is Maths as always which is causing her, and us all, such headaches.

IMG_4632Heavy rain (640x480)

Heavy rain on 8th May

IMG_4640Dove's-foot Crane's-bill (480x640)

Dove’s-foot Crane’s-bill (Geranium molle)

Richard is fine and is getting used to the fact that he will need to be on medication for the rest of his life.  Join the club, I say!  He will be seeing the specialist in a few months time to have his situation reviewed with regard to the lesion on his pituitary gland.  Will he or won’t he have to have an operation to have it removed?  He is counting down the days until his retirement at the end of August but in the meantime is having to work very hard at work and has been allocated a number of jobs to do at locations all over the country, all to be done in the next couple of months.  The firm is getting its money’s worth out of him before he goes.  He is naturally saddened about his mother’s situation but knows she is being cared for properly now.

IMG_4639Lilac (480x640)

Lilac

IMG_4636Bush Vetch (640x480)

Not a good photo of Bush Vetch (Vicia sepium)

I continue to have a problem with my dry throat.  I have seen a different doctor at our local surgery a couple of times and he has prescribed artificial saliva spray and also pastilles that should stimulate saliva production.  This all sounds unpleasant but the treatment has improved matters a little.  I would have liked to find out why I suddenly got a dry throat in January, which can be very uncomfortable at times, and would also like to know if there is anything I am doing or eating which has brought it on.  It would be good to know that I could get rid of it by a change in life-style.  I cannot get anyone interested in this and am just supplied with medication to alleviate the symptoms.  The GP says I am to tell my Rheumatology specialist about my dry throat when I next go to see her – there is a possible connection between one of the tablets I take, rheumatoid arthritis and dry throats.  I asked if the specialist might be able to do anything for me.  Oh no, I doubt it, said the GP, she will just find it interesting!  The one unfortunate side-effect is I am unable to sing properly any more.  I get great pleasure from singing and hoped to be able to re-join a choir when circumstances allowed but if things stay as they are I would be a liability.  It saddens me that I have had to give up so many hobbies because of my health and I had hoped that I would be able to sing for a while longer –  I hope nevertheless that the medication will eventually enable me to sing again.  I have also had a very upset stomach for the past ten days.  I have had to continue with driving my daughter and mother to the places they need to be and also had a few appointments of my own to keep, but when I have eventually got back home I have no energy for much housework or any gardening let alone the enthusiasm for reading and blogging.  I have felt quite a lot better today and have managed to catch up with commenting on the blogs I follow but if I have said anything over the last couple of weeks that has been a little odd please blame it on the stomach bug (it wasn’t me!).

IMG_4635Bluebell (480x640)

Bluebell (Hyacinthoides non-scripta)

IMG_4645Orange-tip on bluebell (640x480)

Male Orange-tip butterfly (Anthocharis cardamines) on bluebell. It’s a pity the butterfly chose to drink nectar from a bluebell with a bird poo on it! 

On May Day Bank Holiday Monday, Rumburgh village had its annual fete and as usual I provided a couple of cakes for the church’s cake stall.  Richard pulled a large amount of our rhubarb as well which was also sold on the stall.  I spent most of the day before baking the two cakes I took to the fete.  We went out in the afternoon to Captain’s Wood to see if the bluebells were flowering.  I will put that visit in a separate post.

IMG_4541Honey cake (640x480)

Honey Cake tray bake. It’s always good to provide tray bakes or individual small cakes for cake stalls. They sell for more money than a large cake does.

IMG_4569Rumburgh Fete (640x480)

The tea tent at the Rumburgh fete

Last week, while Richard was away in Manchester helping his brother sort out their Mum’s house, Elinor and I went to Minsmere RSPB reserve to walk through the woods.  This will also be the subject of another post.

IMG_4564Eve's Pudding (640x480)

While I was baking cakes for the fete I also made an Eve’s Pudding for us to eat at home. I didn’t manage to photograph this before some of it had been eaten. The other cake I made for the fete but didn’t photograph, was a Mincemeat Cake. A good way of using up the extra mincemeat bought at Christmas.

This is the sum total of our activities so far this month.  Quite gloomy in places I’m afraid.

Thank-you for visiting!

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A Suffolk Garden in July – Cultivated Flowers, Fruit and Vegetables

25 Fri Jul 2014

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

≈ 14 Comments

Tags

Asian lily, begonia, blackberries, borage, college acceptance, dahlia, English mace, erodium chrysanthemum, fennel, fruit trees, fuchsia, hydrangea, mint, morning glory, peas, rose, runner beans, sempervivum, untidy garden, water lily

003Wild flowers

We returned on 9th July from our short holiday to find a very over-grown garden.  I must admit to loving the green lushness of the garden when it hasn’t been tended lately.  There is so much to be seen – wild flowers (or weeds if you prefer), insects, birds and wild animals have had the place to themselves for a while and have made themselves comfortably at home.

016Pond through grass

As soon as I could, I went out for a quick tour of the garden.  There had been a lot of wind and rain so the garden flowers were a little battered.  R’s dahlias had grown very tall during our absence and a couple had lost a stem or two.  R quickly did some tidying up and we admired the blooms on plants, some of which were already over five foot tall.




The runner beans were doing very well and we were able to start harvesting them a few days later.  I read fairly recently that when runner beans were first introduced to this country it was as ornamental plants; no-one thought to eat the beans themselves for some time.  Many people say they don’t like runner beans but I am sure this is because they have eaten old and woody beans, and I don’t blame them!  Horrible!  The beans have to be picked before they get too big and should be eaten straight away.  Our first beans were very juicy but didn’t have much flavour, probably because we hadn’t had much sunshine.  The ones we have eaten most recently which have had the benefit of a little sunshine have tasted much better.  


The peas were ready to pick too and were the best peas we had tasted in a long time.  They have all been eaten now!


Because of the rain, the mint had grown very well.

041Variegated Apple mint

Variegated apple mint

042Mum's mint

This is a lovely mint grown from a rooted cutting Mum gave me. She has always had it in her garden and doesn’t know what type it is.

Just before we went away the blackberries had started to ripen.  We picked a few and took them away with us and delicious they were too.

007Blackberries

Unfortunately, while we were away quite a few were lost to the bad weather, birds, mice, wasps etc.  They have only recently started cropping again and they are soooo good!

045English mace

This is English Mace, achillea ageratum, and as you can see it is a member of the same family as Yarrow.  The leaves actually do taste mildly of mace, the outside shell of nutmeg.  The leaves can be made into a tea or just added as they are to culinary dishes.043Feverfew

This is feverfew, another one of my herbs.  I bought one small plant a number of years ago and its seeds have spread all over the garden.  This one I found growing in a crack in the path.  The insects love it especially black-fly so it is useful as a companion plant attracting good insects and also keeping black-fly off broad beans etc.  

Feverfew is a febrifuge; it induces perspiration which lowers the temperature in fevers.  It is a useful herb to use during childbirth as it regulates contractions and recently has been found as an effective remedy for headaches and migraine.  A tincture can be made from the leaves and then applied locally to relieve the pain and irritation of insect bites.  The tincture can be made into a lotion by adding it to distilled water.  This can be applied to the body as protection against attack by flying insects.  A wonder-herb!  It does smell a bit odd though!

046Bronze fennel flowers

My bronze fennel I have already spoken about in a previous post.  I love the aniseed smell which pervades the front of the house on rather damp evenings.  It is a useful flavouring herb for use in cooking but also the seeds can be eaten to ease indigestion and disperse wind/gas etc.  Usually fennel grows to a height of about 4ft but the one growing at the front of the house is over 6ft tall.

051Borage

I found this self-seeded borage plant near the hedge

023Water lily

A shiny white water lily

007Morning glory

Purple Morning Glory

I had such difficulty getting the original seeds to germinate in a heated seed-tray as recommended on the seed packet.  If I had known that I would still be benefitting from self-seeded plants seven years later I wouldn’t have worried and just chucked the lot out on the gravel round the garage.  The seeds survive through extremely cold winters with rain, ice and snow.  Admittedly I planted the first young plants up against the house and in very well-drained soil.

051Hydrangea

This Hydrangea has a strong pink colour

008Fuschia

A newly purchased fuchsia was doing very well.

All our fuchsias died in the severe winter of 2012-13.  After a year without them I felt the need of another plant.  This is one I have had before.  It is fairly hardy and it is easy to take cuttings from.

009Begonia

I didn’t think I liked begonias until E bought me this one last year.

010Lily

A new Asian lily was flowering

015Rose

Some beautiful deep-red roses were flowering in R’s border

044Sempervivum - house leek

Pretty pink and green flowers of the sempervivum or houseleek were already past their best

048Erodium chrysanthemum

The delicate flowers of erodium chrysanthemum were just beginning to flower

All the fruit trees, the apples, crab-apples, pear, damson and hazelnut were doing very well and the fruits were swelling.  We hadn’t lost many in the June drop.

We were all very pleased on our return to get a letter telling E that she had been accepted at City College Norwich and would be starting there in September.  She is so relieved and believes she will be getting her life back again now.  We sincerely hope and pray she will.

 

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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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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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