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A Suffolk Lane

~ A diary of my life in rural north Suffolk.

A Suffolk Lane

Tag Archives: guelder rose

Highlights Part 3 Strumpshaw Fen

09 Mon Jan 2017

Posted by Clare Pooley in Days out, plants, Rural Diary, wild flowers

≈ 60 Comments

Tags

common meadow-rue, common twayblade, common valerian, Dame's-violet, dogwood, great crested grebe, green alkanet, grey heron, guelder rose, hemlock, hop, marsh thistle, milk-parsley, Mute Swan, Norfolk, Ragged Robin, River Yare, RSPB reserve, southern marsh-orchid, Strumpshaw Fen, the Broads, wild flowers, yellow water-lily, Yorkshire Fog

It was our 22nd wedding anniversary in June and instead of buying each other gifts we usually plan a day out that we will both enjoy.  We chose to visit Strumpshaw Fen  which is situated in the Broads.

p1000488pond

Pond at Strumpshaw Fen

We had hoped to see all sorts of birds here and I had set my heart on finding a Swallowtail butterfly (Papilio machaon), as the Broads is the only place in the British Isles where they can be found.

p1000494strumpshaw-fen

Fenland

As was the case with many of our ventures last year, we didn’t have as successful a visit as we had hoped because the weather was miserable.  It was cold, wet and windy – not a day for viewing rare butterflies or the Norfolk Hawker dragonfly or any of the birds we had hoped to see.   However, we persevered with our walk round the reserve and saw a few things of interest.

p1000496strumpshaw-fen

A broad

p1000499fish

Small fry – baby fish in the broad

p1000501dogwood

Dogwood (Cornus sanguinea) in flower

p1000502strumpshaw-fen

A waterway in the fen

p1000503yellow-water-lily-001

Yellow Water-lily (Nuphar lutea)

The flowers are much smaller than White Waterlily flowers being only 6 cm/2.5 ins across and are alcohol-scented apparently!

p1000506mute-swans

Mute Swan (Cygnus olor) with cygnets

p1000507common-valerian

Common Valerian (Valeriana officinalis) You can just see the pink flower-heads!

p1000508river-yare

The River Yare

p1000510hemlock

This might be Milk-parsley (Peucedanum palustre) the food plant of the Swallowtail caterpillar.

It might also be Hemlock! (Conium maculatum) They are both described as hairless biennials with purple-blotched stems.  Hemlock’s stems are hollow and purple-blotched and Milk-parsley has ridged stems that are often blotched purple!

p1000511hemlock

Ridged purple-blotched stems?  I can’t decide!

p1000512hemlock

More purple-blotched stems.

p1000513hop

Hop (Humulus lupulus)

p1000515dames-violet

Dame’s-violet (Hesperis matronalis)

p1000519guelder-rose

Guelder-rose (Viburnum opulus)

p1000521common-meadow-rue

Common Meadow-rue (Thalictrum flavum)

p1000524southern-marsh-orchid

Southern Marsh-orchid (Dactylorhiza praetermissa)

p1000526ragged-robin

Ragged-robin (Lychnis flos-cuculi)

p1000530marsh-thistle

Marsh Thistle (Cirsium palustre)

p1000531yorkshire-fog

A meadow full of Yorkshire Fog (Holcus lanatus)

The flower-heads of this grass are red-tipped and gave the meadow a pink glow!

Part of our walk was along Tinker’s Lane

p1000533tinkers-ln

Tinker’s Lane – looking back the way we’d come

p1000534tinkers-lane

Tinker’s Lane – looking ahead. Elinor is the figure in the far distance

p1000536green-alkanet

Green Alkanet (Pentaglottis sempervirens)

p1000537common-twayblade

Not a good photo of Common Twayblade (Neottia ovata) Though ‘common’ I had never seen this orchid before and was very pleased.

p1000538common-twayblade

Common Twayblade

p1000542grey-heron

a Grey Heron (Ardea cinerea) that refused to look my way!

p1000544great-crested-grebe

Great Crested Grebe (Podiceps cristatus)

We enjoyed our walk round the fen and were pleased with the amount of interesting plants we had seen.  I would like to return there this summer if possible to see the butterflies, dragonflies and birds we had intended seeing last year!

Thanks for visiting!

 

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Sunday Walk

11 Tue Nov 2014

Posted by Clare Pooley in churches, domestic animals, plants, Rural Diary, trees, Uncategorized, walking

≈ 15 Comments

Tags

All Saints church, autumn leaf colour, barn owl, bryony berries, field views, guelder rose, hawthorn berries, Lowestoft, muddy lanes, Remembrance Day, spindle berries, St Margaret South Elmham, St Nicholas South Elmham church, stress, stress management, walking

Stressed!

Yesterday evening E and I went to Lowestoft to attend a stress management course.  Stress in all it manifestations was described, its causes and what keeps it going.  We were told how it affects our thoughts, actions and body and why it affects people in different ways.  We have been given a relaxation CD and a little homework to do for next week.  This is a rolling course; as soon as this one finishes it starts all over again with a different set of people.  There is a day-time course running at the same time as this in Great Yarmouth on a Thursday morning.  There are courses like this being run all over the country all the time.  The room we were in was full of people of different ages – a few had brought companions like me – but most of us there were sufferers from stress of one type or another.  Research done a few years ago states that in this country 4 out of 10 people suffer from stress.  This figure is already out of date – anxiety and stress are on the rise.

Lowestoft is affected, like most British seaside towns, by high unemployment especially in the winter.  The recent down-turn in the economy has made a bad situation worse.   Shops have had to shut and the buildings are still empty or ‘pound shops’ and pawn shops have replaced them.  However, it looks better cared-for than Great Yarmouth and a lot has been done recently to brighten it up and improve the road system.  As well as being a traditional seaside resort Lowestoft developed firstly as a fishing port, mainly herrings, and when that declined it became, with Great Yarmouth, the base of the oil and gas exploitation industry in the southern North Sea.  This has now declined too but Lowestoft has begun to develop as the centre of the renewable energy industry within Eastern England.   Parts of the North Town are very attractive and the old Scores are still there – the steep narrow lanes with steps up from the beach that were used by fishermen and smugglers.  The Scores are now the site of an annual race which raises money for charity.

Lowestoft is the most easterly point in Great Britain and is on the edge of the Broads which is a series of connected rivers and lakes and Britain’s largest protected wetland and 3rd largest inland waterway.  Some of the earliest evidence of settlement in Britain has been found in the town – flint tools dating back 700,000 years.  I will try to make a post about Lowestoft at a future date.

As sunset is now about 4 o’clock in the afternoon we drove there and back in the dark.  We parked on the sea front and, returning to the car at 7.30 pm we could hear the waves crashing on the beach – the tide must have been in.  I was glad to see on our drive back along the Front, with its rows of hotels, bed-and-breakfast establishments and restaurants, that the Beau Thai Restaurant is still open.  I’ve never been in there, but a place with such a terrible name deserves to survive!

Remembrance Day

I looked out of a bedroom window this morning at dawn (about 7.00 am) and saw one of our local Barn Owls flying round the field behind the house.  It perched for a while on a fence post but the photograph I took of it there never came out.  However, I have included the following picture which I took at the same time, strange as it is, as a record of the owl’s presence.

001Barn owl (640x427)

Why this happened I have no idea! I was looking westward and it was fairly bright and cloudy. No pink anywhere! The sun hadn’t risen yet and would be on the other side of the house anyway.

At 11.00 am this morning I listened on the radio to Big Ben striking the hour and I kept the two minutes silence, praying for all those who have lost their lives in war and for those who have been damaged and injured by war and also for their loved ones.  I am finding this more and more affecting as the years go by.

An Afternoon Walk

We have had so much rain recently that the garden and fields are sodden.  R and I were in need of a little exercise and fresh air on Sunday afternoon so we decided to do our circuit walk round the lanes, which were less muddy and wet than the footpaths.

007View to All Saints (640x480)

View from the lane across the field to All Saints church, just visible sticking out of the group of trees in the distance.

008Muddy lane (640x480)

Our lane is fairly muddy as you can see!

009Muddy lane with pond (640x480)

There is a natural pond full of fish just to the right of these bollards. It is so full that it is close to overflowing onto the road.

010Collection of old metal (640x487)

Farmers round here cannot bear to get rid of old implements, tools and scrap metal. I think it gives them a sense of pride to survey this old stuff.  ‘It may come in handy some day! It’s worth a lot of money, scrap metal is!’

011Site of St Nicholas church (640x479)

St Nicholas church was demolished many hundreds of years ago. This is the site where it once stood – the cross is in a garden.

012Lichen covered post box (480x640)

This is our nearest post-box. The lime-green lichen is happy to grow on it.

014Mountain of straw bales (640x478)

Just beyond the low pink barn in the distance is the largest tower of straw bales I have seen so far this year. Not a good picture I’m afraid – the light was already fading.

015Goats (640x480)

The goat on the left is keeping itself dry by lounging on a trampoline!

017Flowing water in ditch (640x480)

Water flowing fast in this ditch.

019Flowing water (640x480)

This is the other side of the bridge.

020Green lane (640x496)

There is still a lot of green about. Many of the leaves have dropped from the trees while still green.

021Field of Rape (640x480)

This is a field of oil-seed rape which is growing very well in our mild, wet autumn. Only a few weeks ago it seems, I was posting photographs of rolls of straw on these fields after the wheat harvest.

023Spindle berries (640x480)

These are beautiful spindle berries.  Only nature could make orange seeds emerge from shocking pink seed cases!

024Spindle berries (640x504)

This is a spindle bush in the hedge. It was glowing in the light of the setting sun.

025Haws (640x480)

These are gorgeous dark-red haws from a hawthorn bush in the hedge.

026Autumn leaves (640x480)

Some leaves are beginning to show some colour.

030Sugar Maple leaves (640x480)

These leaves caught my eye. I think this is a Sugar Maple – not a native tree.

031View across fields (640x480)

Another view across the fields.

034Guelder Rose leaves (2) (480x640)

These are Guelder Rose leaves (Viburnum opulus)….

042Guelder rose with berry drupes (640x480)

…and this is another Guelder Rose with mainly green leaves and also bunches of berries or ‘drupes’.

036Dead oak (480x640)

A dead oak tree. I am pleased that landowners are not in as much of a hurry as they used to be to remove dead wood from fields and hedgerows. A dead tree supports more life than a living one.

038Bryony berries (640x480)

These poisonous bryony berries are like shiny beads.

037Bryony berries (480x640)

They are everywhere to be seen now the leaves are disappearing from the hedges.

044Path through churchyard (640x480)

The path through St Margaret’s churchyard is an attractive one….

045Sheep (640x486)

…especially as one can see these sheep from there.

047Village hall entrance (640x480)

I thought the entrance to the car park outside the village hall was looking inviting.

049View across fields (640x480)

I also liked this entrance to a field further along the lane.

048Leafy puddle (640x480)

A leafy puddle,

050Toadstools (480x640)

some tiny yellow toadstools…

051Autumn leaves (640x480)

and some more autumn shades and our walk was over.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Miscellany Part 2

15 Sun Jun 2014

Posted by Clare Pooley in churches, Landscaping, plants, Rural Diary, trees, Uncategorized, walking

≈ 6 Comments

Tags

barley, church cleaning, churchyard, coffin bier, electrical repairs, flowers, grasses, guelder rose, hedge woundwort, Klargester septic tank, landscaping, LED lights, lesser tortoiseshell butterfly, memorial stone, micro moth, ox-eye daisies, pond, Rumburgh Church, St Michael's water tower, St Peter's church, walking, wheat

I cannot believe how quickly this year is speeding by!  I always think at the beginning of spring that this year I will definitely make a better job of the gardening and I will have the time to do all the things I need to do around the house.  I always forget that as spring flows into summer the amount of jobs that need doing multiply and multiply and here I am left far behind yet again.  I forget how much time I have to spend away from the house driving about the countryside and this year I have had extra places to go.  Mum now has monthly check-ups at the hospital in Norwich to make sure her eyes are still free of macular degeneration.  My younger daughter E is hoping to go to City College Norwich in the autumn so we have had a number of visits there over the past few weeks, getting to know the place and some of the people there.

We have had a visit from the electrician who has done some work for us.  We had spoken to him a few weeks ago asking him to replace our kitchen under-cupboard lights which were very old and becoming faulty.  We also needed a new box cover for the electrics for our Klargester septic tank.  The old box cover had rusted away some years ago and we have had an upside-down plastic bin over the top since then!  We also need a lot of re-wiring done and some outside lights replacing.  The weekend before last R and I were woken in the middle of the night by a roaring noise in the house.  For some time we couldn’t think what it was and where the noise was coming from but eventually I realised it was something to do with the electric immersion heater which I switched off immediately.  (We use our immersion heater during the summer to heat our water; during the winter we use a gas boiler for water and central heating and this is fuelled by propane gas which is enormously expensive.  We are not on mains gas and as we often have power cuts it is better not to have everything powered by electricity.  We switch the immersion heater on over-night as electricity is cheaper then.)  The thermostat had gone faulty and the water was boiling.  The hot tank was emptying and the cold water tank and expansion tank were full of hot water – the house was turning into a kettle.  I wonder if steam was rising out of the roof?  If it had been left on much longer the tank would have exploded.  I phoned the electrician and asked him to add a new thermostat to his list of jobs to do.  When he visited last week he put in new kitchen lights for us….

010New kitchen lights

A thin strip of LED lights only a centimetre wide – such bright lights!

he replaced the septic tank electric box cover…..

015Septic tank with new box

The septic tank with the electric box wearing its attractive new cover.

and fitted a new thermostat to our immersion heater.  He will be coming again soon to do the rewiring and fitting new outside lights.

The landscaper who had worked on our big pond in February also visited our house on the same day as the electrician and filled in all the ruts the JCB had made in the lawn with top-soil.  R is very pleased that this has been done at last.  He has seeded it all and we are now waiting for the grass to regrow.

021Filled-in ruts

The ruts nicely filled-in at last.

While he was at our house we asked the landscaper to look at our small pond and let us know how it can be improved.  We don’t want the pond quite so close to the hedge, the liner needs replacing and I would like a boggy area at the side of the pond where I can plant iris, lobelia  and other marsh plants.

011Small pond

The small pond in desperate need of improvement

The last couple of weeks I haven’t had to take Mum to church.  She has been taken by a young man from her church who lives in Harleston.  He works abroad, especially in Asia and the far East, for much of the year as a film director.  When he returns home from his high-powered meetings and filming in India and China he resumes his more important job of taking old ladies to church and being bossed about by them.  Well, what else has he to do except a bit of script writing!  I am really very grateful to him.  He stays in this country until September and that is probably when I’ll have to resume my duties again.

Meanwhile, I have enjoyed two weeks of going to church with my husband.  It is our month for cleaning Rumburgh church and when we went in last week we were amazed at how dirty it was.  The church had had a few visitors who had left some rubbish about and there was dirt which had been trodden in on shoes.  The main mess had been caused by our resident bats.  It took us about two-and-a -half hours to clean up the worst of the mess.  I think that during the summer when we have more visitors and when the bats are active the church should be cleaned more than once a month but some of the people on our rota will only come in once a month or only if we have a service in the church and of course we don’t have services every week in our church.  I also find that some of our cleaners will concentrate on the entrance to the church and will often ignore the Sanctuary at the East end of the church where the altar is.

052Wild flowers in churchyard

Wild flowers in Rumburgh churchyard

054Ox-eye Daisies in churchyard

Ox-eye daisies in Rumburgh churchyard

039Altar flowers

A beautiful flower arrangement on the altar

044Coffin Bier

The old coffin bier in the church

040Grave memorial Eliz Davy

Memorial stone in the aisle

R and I went for another of our walks across the fields a week or so ago.  We didn’t intend to go far as we were both tired.

002View across fields

A view across the fields

042Path at edge of field

The path at the edge of the field

003Hedge Woundwort

Hedge Woundwort

Hedge Woundwort is in flower everywhere we look at the moment.  This plant has been used since the times of the ancient Greeks to stem bleeding and treat wounds.  Poultices, ointments and infusions were made with the leaves and the flowers made into conserves.  It has been proved that the volatile oil contained in this plant does have antiseptic qualities.

004Micro Moth

An, as yet, unidentified micro moth

006St Peters church over fields

St Peter’s church

011Water Tower at St Michaels

Water tower at St Michaels

Most of the water in East Anglia comes from springs and artesian wells and is very ‘hard’ water.  We all suffer from lime-scale in our homes and all those who can afford one get a water-softener.  I love the taste of our water and when and if we get a water-softener I would have to have a tap for un-softened water.

044Lesser Tortoiseshell butterfly

A Lesser Tortoiseshell butterfly

We saw this butterfly sunning itself on the path.

We also saw the crops ripening…..

046Barley

047Barley

010Barley

Barley.

014Ripening wheat

015Wheat

Wheat

We saw other grasses too

013Grasses

012Grasses

And a beautiful Guelder Rose.

019Guelder rose flower

018Guelder rose

I think I would love to have one of these in my garden!

The walk took longer than we thought it would because there was a path diversion which we took but after struggling through nettles and thistles and head-high grasses we had to turn back as the path hadn’t been cleared.

R has spent all this past week away, firstly in Gloucestershire and then he travelled to Lancashire for a couple of days.  He returned home on Friday having called in on his mother and spent the night with his brother in Manchester.  E and I had spent the day without electricity as there was a planned power cut to enable the electricity company to do repairs.  It is difficult to find things to do these days which doesn’t involve the use of electricity.  We managed however, and it is a good opportunity to have silence in the house with no humming fridges and freezers, no radios and TVs.  The only worry I had during the six-and-a-half hours was whether the food was still alright in the fridge and freezers.  It was a very warm day!  As it turned out, all was well.

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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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