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A Suffolk Lane

~ A diary of my life in rural north Suffolk.

A Suffolk Lane

Tag Archives: insects

South Elmham Minster

01 Wed Jul 2020

Posted by Clare Pooley in churches, Days out, Historic Buildings, plants, Rural Diary, walking, wild flowers

≈ 124 Comments

Tags

historical site, insects, plants, ruined chapel, South Elmham Minster, Suffolk, walking, wild flowers

WARNING: OVERLONG POST

It was our 26th wedding anniversary the Thursday before last and we had intended to go out for a walk and take a picnic with us.  However, the morning was very wet and, even though the rain had stopped by midday we decided that walking through long grass and along overgrown paths and then trying to find somewhere to sit and eat our lunch without getting wet would be too difficult, so we put off the walk until the following day.  I did the ironing instead.

Friday was a much better day for a walk, with warmth, some sunshine and a fair amount of cloud.  There was a light shower of rain mid-morning and another just as we approached our picnic spot but not enough to dampen our spirits or make the going, or sitting, any trouble.

As usual, I took my pocket camera with me and looked out for things of interest.  You will have to excuse the quality of the photos; I have to take the pictures as quickly as possible so that I am not left behind.  Also my camera has decided it doesn’t like pink and has changed all the pink flowers to blue or purple.

The beautiful almond-scented Meadowsweet (Filipendula ulmaria) was already in bloom along the lane just a few metres from our house.  This is a native plant.

I quote here from my ID, ‘Harrap’s Wild Flowers’ by Simon Harrap ” The name (Meadowsweet) refers to its use in flavouring mead and other drinks, rather than a predilection for meadows, and also used as a strewing herb, scattered on the floor to freshen up the house.”

The Dogwoods (Cornus sanguinea) have been marvellous this year. Most were past their best already but I felt I just had to record this shrub’s swansong.

This is a plant I have known since I was a small girl. It used to grow prolifically in the places I played. Pineappleweed (Matricaria discoidea)

The plant gives off a very strong pineapple scent when it is crushed.  It is an introduced plant, coming originally from east Asia and was first recorded in the wild in this country in 1871.

Shepherd’s Purse (Capsella bursa-pastoris). This tiny little plant was right next to the Pineappleweed (which you can see bottom right of the photo). It gets its name from the shape of the seed pods.  You can see them surrounding the upper white flowerhead; they are grey-brown in colour and triangular.  Shepherd’s Purse is an ancient introduction to this country.

Hedgerow Cranesbill (Geranium pyrenaicum). This is one of the plants my camera decided should not be as pink as it is. It has rather lovely darker veins on its petals. This is yet another introduction, this time from southern Europe and was first recorded in the wild here in 1762.  I have added a link for you to see the usual colour of the flower.

Creeping Cinquefoil (Potentilla reptans). I love the zingy lemon-yellow of this flower! Next to a buttercup it looks too bright but on its own backed by its lovely soft green leaves it looks glorious.

Italian Alder (Alnus cordata). Halfway down our lane a row of Italian Alders were planted as a windbreak. What attractive trees they are! Here you can see the substantial heart-shaped glossy leaves, dark cones from last year and the new green cones. This tree has beautiful long catkins in the spring which flutter in the strong winds that blow here.

Pretty pink and white striped Field Bindweed (Convolvulus arvensis ) along the edge of this crop of Field Beans.

As you can see from this photo, it was quite breezy during our walk; not the best conditions for getting good pictures in a hurry! In amongst the grass you can see the brown seedheads of Ribwort Plantain (Plantago lanceolata).

Common Knapweed (Centaurea nigra). The hard flowerheads of this plant have given it the name ‘Knap’ weed; ‘knap’ meaning knob.

In olden times, this flower could be used to tell a girl whether she would marry soon.  She had to pull all the expanded florets off the flowerhead and then put the rest of the flower inside her blouse, next to her heart.  After an hour she should take it out again and if the previously unexpanded florets had blossomed, that was a sure sign that the man she was going to marry was soon coming her way.

By this time we had left the lane and were walking along a footpath between fields.

Oxeye Daisy (Leucanthemum vulgare). Sitting on the flower on the right is a Thick-legged Flower Beetle (Oedemera nobilis).  Only the males of this harmless shiny green beetle have the distinctive swollen ‘thighs’.

Lady’s Bedstraw (Galium verum). This is the only photo I managed to get of this pretty plant and most of it is out of focus because of the wind blowing it about.

Harrap’s tells me it is ‘honey-scented when fresh but smells of new-mown hay when dry.  Formerly believed to discourage fleas and was incorporated into straw mattresses, especially for the beds of women about to give birth, hence its name.’

I cannot confirm the information about the scent because: 1. I would have found it very difficult getting down low enough to smell the plant and would then have struggled to get back up again, so I didn’t. 2. The wind was blowing too strongly for the delicate scent to be discernible and 3. I haven’t got a strong sense of smell, anyway.  We’ll just have to take Mr Harrap’s word for it.

Lesser Trefoil (Trifolium dubium). This plant with its three leaflets joined together is widely believed to be the true shamrock.  There are other plants which are also thought to be the shamrock; white clover, black medick, watercress and wood sorrel.

This plant is one of the hop trefoils; its seedheads look like tiny heads of hops.  Once the seeds begin to ripen the petals don’t fall off the plant but turn brown and the standard, the upper petal of the flower, folds down on either side of its centre line over the ripening pod like a ridged roof.  If you click on the photo above to enlarge it and look about a third of the way up from the bottom, you will find a seed head in the centre.  Does that make sense?

Pyramidal Orchid (Anacamptis pyramidalis).

Another not-as-pink, pink flower.  Here is a link to images of what a Pyramidal Orchid really looks like.

I believe this plant might be Oxford Ragwort (Senecio squalidus). The leaves look too evenly-branched to be the native Common Ragwort (Senecio jacobaea) though the latter plant is what I would expect to find here. Oxford Ragwort is found mainly in urban settings. It escaped from Oxford Botanic Garden in 1794 and then spread rapidly via the railway network. It sounds like the main character in a John Buchan novel!

Ragwort is poisonous, its leaves containing an alkaloid poison that can remain in plants that have been dried with hay.  Animals are not aware they are eating it when it’s in hay (though they will avoid it when it is growing in the field) and the alkaloids will destroy their livers in just a few months. Understandably, farmers will try to get rid of all the ragwort they find.

Our aim was to picnic at South Elmham Minster and we discovered it surrounded by trees.  It is on private land but the owners allow walkers to visit it as long as they respect the place.

Here is Elinor discovering and photographing the entrance to the site.

Richard, Alice and I had been here before, when we walked to it from St James in April 1995, nearly two years before Elinor was born!  We hadn’t been back since, though it is only half an hour’s walk from our present home.

The entrance and path leading to the ruins of the ‘Minster’ were very overgrown which somehow added a frisson of mystery to the occasion.

To the Minster

P1060505Entrance to minster
P1060507Common Comfrey
P1060510Entrance to Minster (2)

There was a lot of Comfrey growing next to the path.

Common Comfrey (Symphytum officinale). These flowers were lavender-coloured.

And there it was!

South Elmham Minster

Instead of me writing screeds about this interesting ruin I will recommend this article for you to read, if you so wish.

Here is an information sign with the ubiquitous ‘artist’s impression’ of the Minster.

Here is a message we found. We have no idea when the damage was done or when this sign was put up. It looks fairly recent.

We wandered around for a short while and then sat on the bench provided under the trees and had our lunch.

Our picnic spot

Below are a few photos of the ruins themselves.

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An interesting tree-trunk.

Many of the trees surrounding the Minster were Hornbeam (Carpinus betulus).  Hornbeam trunks are said to be ‘fluted’ which might describe the tree above.

Hornbeam pleated leaves with bunches of fruits

The Hornbeam nut forms with a three-lobed bract attached that sometimes grows as long as 5cms.  This acts as ‘wings’ when the nut is released from the tree in the autumn.

P1060544Clearing
P1060545Clearing

I think the Hornbeams have been coppiced in the past though Hornbeams are usually pollarded.  Local children have been making dens under the trees.

Lesser Burdock ( Arctium minus)

Cleavers or Goosegrass (Galium aparine)

Above are two different plants with fruits covered in hooks.  The stems and leaves of Cleavers also have bristles that cause them to stick to anything that touches them.

An enormous Bramble patch! (Rubus fruticosus agg. )

A bird had made a nest in one of the hollows in the wall. It was empty.

Another enormous Lesser Burdock; it must have been almost 2 metres tall. By this time the sun had come out and the air was becoming warm.

The ditch; looking left
The ditch; looking left
The ditch; looking right
The ditch; looking right

There was another exit path from the Minster which crossed the wide surrounding ditch.  This ditch is fairly deep though my photographs do not show this at all clearly.

A Hoverfly, I’m not sure which one, on a large Buttercup flower; again I’m not sure which buttercup.

Hedge Woundwort (Stachys sylvatica). In reality this flower is a little pinker than this photo shows.

Woundworts have been used to stem bleeding and treat wounds since the time of the ancient Greeks.  Formally, the leaves were usually used as a poultice.  Ointments and infusions were also made with the leaves and the flowers made into conserves.  In fact, the volatile oil in Hedge Woundwort does have antiseptic qualities.

Dog’s Mercury (Mercurialis perennis)

The Dog’s Mercury was all in seed. This one appears to have lost a few of its upper seeds.  Dog’s Mercury is extremely poisonous to animals and humans alike.

We left the Minster and walked home in the sunshine.

Mayweed.  I wasn’t able to check to see if it was Scentless or Scented Mayweed.  The white outer ray florets were just emerging round the central disc-florets of these daisy-like flowerheads.

Lesser Stitchwort (Stellaria graminea).

Field Rose (Rosa arvensis).

Field entrance

I didn’t take many photos of our surroundings as we walked and most of those shots were not suitable.  I am glad this one came out as it shows the countryside through which we walked.  Old-fashioned small fields with high dense hedges.  Lots of birds were still singing and wherever we walked we heard numerous skylarks.

A drainage ditch

Richard pointed out the cracked clay sides of this ditch.  The water though not deep, was running quickly along and was particularly clear.  We saw small fish swimming in it.

Further along, the ditch was crossed by a small bridge with what I assume is a gate to prevent sheep from crossing from one field to the next.

A cart pond.  In former times, when carthorses needed to drink, the cart drivers could get into these ponds and out again easily without having to take the horses off the cart.

Pyramidal orchid

Field edge full of orchids…

…and yet more

A selection of different Vetches

Hedge Bedstraw ( Galium album)

Borage ( Borago officinalis)

Agrimony ( Agrimonia eupatoria)

A field full of wild flowers

Unfortunately I couldn’t get into the field because of a deep ditch around it.  I had to take my photos using the zoom on my camera.

P1060597wild flowers (2)
P1060600wild flowers (2)
P1060603wild flowers (2)

Sainfoin ( Onobrychis viciifolia)

I think the pretty pink and white clover in the centre of the photo is Alsike Clover ( Trifolium hybridum)

I think the owner of this field has sown some wildflower seed mix here.  I have never seen so many different flowers all in one field before.  From what I hear from the stories of the elderly people I know at church, all the fields were covered in wild flowers like these when they were young.  Intensive agriculture was becoming the norm thirty or forty years ago: hedges were ripped out and everything was sprayed to kill off the wild flowers and most of the insects.  This was still being done when I moved to East Anglia in 1988 and the birds I heard regularly then and the quantities of moths, butterflies and other insects I used to see then are much reduced.  I especially noticed the difference when I returned to East Anglia in 2006 after our 18 months in Somerset.  Far fewer insects certainly.  However, we had got used to hearing and seeing Buzzards during that 18 months while in Somerset and I was greatly surprised and excited to see and hear a Buzzard in Suffolk for the first time in 2007.  They are well established here now.

Common Mallow ( Malva sylvestris)  The Common Mallow is an ancient introduction to this country.  It seems to line all the lanes at this time of year.

This is the rather handsome caterpillar of the Peacock butterfly . I found it crossing the lane as I was nearing home.

You will be glad to know we all got home safely having met no-one on our walk and only saw a lady driving her pony and trap and I think a couple of cars along the lane.You will be especially glad to know that this is the end of the post!

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A Quiet Spring – March and April Part 1

06 Tue Jun 2017

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

≈ 56 Comments

Tags

birds, churches, flowers, garden, insects, spring, Suffolk, sunset

We weren’t very adventurous this spring, staying close to home and taking things easy, so there wasn’t too much to blog about.

A visit to St Michael’s church on the first mild spring day in March

We admired the ‘Narnia’ lamp post by the gate.

We were unable to tell the time as the sun failed to shine.

The peaceful churchyard.

Marsh Marigold (Caltha palustris ) The flowers are in the centre of the bloom and have no petals. The 5 – 8 petal-like sepals are bright shiny yellow.

Peacock butterfly (Inachis io)  It was very sluggish and was still in the grass outside the church when we came out again.

A pair of Greylags (Anser anser) took up residence in our garden as they usually do each spring

We enjoy their company.

They constructed a nest on the island in the middle of the big pond but after ten days it was abandoned.  Feathers were spread everywhere. We don’t know what happened but we suspect an otter or an American mink was to blame.

The abandoned nest.

After we lost our summerhouse in the storm earlier this year we spent some time clearing the area behind it and discovered this tree with the deformed trunk. What could have caused this?

We enjoy seeing all the birds that visit our garden including the Pied Wagtails (Motacilla alba). Not a good shot as the bird hurried into the dappled shade just as I took its picture.

A sunset seen from the back of the house.

On a visit to our church at Rumburgh we saw this Mallard duck (Anas platyrhynchos) resting in the shade of a gravestone.

Primroses (Primula vulgaris) in the churchyard

I love the informality of our country churchyards and I like to see the wild flowers there. The wild flowers are just as much God’s work as any garden flower or exotic bloom.  They have a haven in our churchyards and should be safe from herbicides.

Barren Strawberry (Potentilla sterilis)

Richard on his way to church

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Meanwhile, back in my garden…..

My Pieris with its new leaves of red and its little white bell flowers

I have been growing these hyacinth bulblets on in shallow tubs and they are now ready for planting out in the garden to flower next spring.

 

Scented narcissi and pink aubretia

Elinor gave me some more aubretia, a mauve variety, as a gift on Mothering Sunday

Lathyrus and scilla

Pasque flowers. These began flowering just a couple of days after Easter Sunday.

I had a large patch of these red saxifrage but the deer scraped most of them up. I’m hoping they will spread again.

My music choice is ‘Glorious’ sung by The Pierces

Thanks for visiting!

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Highlights Part 4

30 Mon Jan 2017

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

≈ 55 Comments

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

p1000549rain-clouds

We had stormy weather like this all through last summer!

p1000654clouds

Many beautiful cloudscapes

p1000655clouds

Cloudy sunsets….

p1000559mist

…and a lot of misty evenings!

p1000561mist

ooOOoo

p1000563gazania

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

p1000568iris

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?

p1000569red-eyed-damselfly

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

Bee Orchid

Bee Orchid

p1000578bumble-bee

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

p1000579wasp-beetle

A Wasp Beetle (Clytus arietis)

p1000581common-spotted-orchid

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.

p1000583hoverfly-syrphus-ribesii

Hoverfly Syrphus ribesii on Escallonia ‘Apple Blossom’

p1000596five-spot-burnet-moth

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

p1000597five-spot-burnet-moth

Five-spot Burnet on White Clover

p1000598house-leek

House-leek in flower

img_2774large-skipper

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

p1000632hedge-woundwort

Hedge Woundwort (Stachys sylvatica)

p1000633black-medick

Black Medick (Medicago lupulina)

p1000635volucella-pellucens

Hoverfly Volucella pellucens

p1000639moth-h-fly

The same hoverfly next to a tiny micro-moth

p1000641branched-bur-reed

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!

 

 

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In My Garden

18 Sun Sep 2016

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

≈ 62 Comments

Tags

Astrantia, Bittersweet, black bryony, Black Spleenwort, blue-tailed damselfly, butterflies, comma, common blue damselfly, Damselfly, Dragonfly, Essex skipper, Field Bindweed, flowers, fruit tree, garden, gatekeeper, Gladiolus, greengage, hedge bindweed, Hyssop, insects, Jacob's Ladder, Lilium longiflorum, peacock butterfly, perennial sow-thistle, Pheasant Berry, plants, rowan, ruddy darter, runner beans, spleenwort, Stargazer Lily, Suffolk, sunset, Swiss Chard, trees, vegetables, wheat, wild flowers, Woody Nightshade

This post is made up of photos of flowers, insects and other things of interest that I saw in my garden during the last couple of weeks of July and the first fortnight in August.  We spent that time catching up with jobs around the house and doing a lot of gardening as the weather was quite good.

It has not been a good year for insects here; an extremely bad one for butterflies in fact, possibly due to the cool, wet spring and early summer we had.  The flowers and plants had a slow start but once the warm weather arrived in mid July they soon caught up.

P1000970Darter

A male Ruddy Darter (Sympetrum sanguineum)

We still had plenty of these small dragonflies in our garden until recently but in July they had just started flying.  They don’t just fly near water but find perches all over the garden from which they ‘dart’ to catch passing prey.  In this photo the dragonfly is on the top of a cane in my flower-border and was happy to let me get very close to him.  Ruddy Darters are the only red dragonflies with totally black legs – they also have a small patch of yellow at the base of the wings.  There are black lines on the upper side of the second- and third-to last segments of the abdomen.  The upper half of the eyes are red-brown and the lower half are green.  The frons (the front of the ‘face’) is red.

P1000974Hyssop

Hyssop (Hyssopus officinalis)

I bought this herb late last summer; it survived the winter very well and has flowered beautifully this year.  It is very popular with the bees and smells good too.

P1000975Swiss Chard

Swiss Chard ‘Bright Lights’ (Beta vulgaris subsp. cicla var. flavescens)

I grew Swiss Chard from seed this year for the first time, mainly because my mother likes it and hasn’t been able to get it for a few of years.  I gave her a few plants and then put some plants into a couple of gaps in my flower-border.  They look beautiful, especially with the sun shining through the colourful stems.  I can’t say the vegetable when eaten has been very popular.  The leaves are like spinach, quickly reducing in size and becoming soft; the stems which I put into the hot water a minute or so before the leaves, have a lovely texture and a very mild taste.  They can be steamed successfully too.  I think it is the mildness that doesn’t appeal – or perhaps the spinach-like leaves.  We love greens in this family and get through large amounts of cabbage, spring-greens, brussels sprouts and broccoli, all of which have fairly powerful flavours.  Perhaps Swiss Chard is too refined for us?

P1000976Skipper

A poor photo of an Essex Skipper butterfly (Thymelicus lineola) sitting on a buttercup flower.

I include this just to prove to myself that we did get a number of skippers in the garden in the summer.  The Essex Skipper is very similar to the Small Skipper but the antennal tip instead of being golden is black underneath, which can just be seen in my photo.

P1000978Greengage

A Greengage (Prunus domestica ssp. italica var. Claudiana)

We bought a young Greengage tree nearly three years ago and this year we got two fruits on it.  We didn’t manage to eat either of them because one or other of our animal, bird or insect visitors got there first.

P1000981Comma

A Comma butterfly (Polygonia c-album)

The name ‘Comma’ refers to a white comma mark on the underside of the wings.

P1000984Woody Nightshade berries

Woody Nightshade/Bittersweet berries (Solanum dulcamara)

This has got everywhere in the garden this year!  I have found it growing in amongst the herbs, up through the Pyracantha and it has taken over the two Cotoneasters that grow next to our gas-tank.  (We are not on mains gas here so have a large butane gas tank near the house).  Bittersweet berries are beautiful and are at their most attractive at this stage when some are still green and they are plump and shiny.

P1000985Blue-tailed Damselfly perhaps

Another poor photograph showing what I believe to be a female Blue-tailed Damselfly (Ischnura elegans)

Another photo that is proof to me that we had these damselflies flying round the pond this summer.

P1000990F Gatekeeper-001

Female Gatekeeper butterfly (Pyronia tithonus)

Male Gatekeepers are territorial and patrol an area of hedgerow often in corners of fields or near gates trying to deter other insects from entering their domains.  The males are smaller and a brighter orange than the females and have a dark patch of scent glands on the fore-wing.

P1000986Ripe wheat

Ripe Wheat (Triticum spp.)

I couldn’t resist taking a photo of the wheat in the field behind our house just before it was harvested this year.

P1000998Peacock butterfly

Peacock butterfly (Inachis io)

This slightly battered Peacock was sunning itself on the path.  They are very hairy-bodied insects and the colours and markings on the wings are beautiful.  I noticed for the first time the lovely tiger-stripe yellow and black ‘shoulders’ on the fore-wing.

P1010003Perennial Sow-thistle

Perennial Sow-thistle (Sonchus arvensis) This one I discovered growing next to our compost bin.

P1010007Field Bindweed

Field Bindweed (Convolvulus arvensis)

The flowers this year are only lightly marked with pink.  They are usually much brighter.

p1010009bumble-bee-hedge-bindweed

We are lucky (?) to have both Field Bindweed, as in the former photo, and Hedge Bindweed (Calystegia sepium) as here, in our garden. This one was being visited by a bumble bee.

p1010010rowan-berries

Our young Rowan or Mountain Ash tree (Sorbus aucuparia) had many flowers in the early summer and produced some berries this year. The berries in the photo are not quite ripe yet.  They were eaten by something very quickly once they were red and ripe.

p1010011pheasantberry-flowers

Pheasant Berry (Leycesteria formosa)

I have a pale-leaved Pheasant Berry bush and it has done very well this year, having had enough rain-water at the beginning of the season.  The birds usually enjoy the berries but I’m not sure if the wasps will have left them any!

p1010012lily

Lilium longiflorum

The white Longiflorum lilies did a little better this year.  I still had some trouble with non-native Red Lily Beetles but the cool wet June meant the flowers were taller and stronger and the beetles didn’t appear until later in the season when the weather improved.  I was as vigilant as I could be, going out checking for beetles at least twice a day and squashing them when I found them.  Unfortunately, nothing could be done while I was away from home so when I returned I soon discovered the horrible grubs eating the plants.  I removed as many as I could and discovered that spraying them regularly with soap was very effective.

p1010014runner-beans

Runner Beans (Phaseolus coccineus) ‘Celebration’

I grew runner beans this year and gave my mother six plants and planted the rest in a gap in my flower border.  They grew up through a laburnum tree and did quite well.  I started them fairly late so they didn’t begin flowering til after mid-summer but the beans develop very quickly and these ones are so sweet and hardly have any ‘strings’.   I love the orange flowers.

p1010015runner-beans-and-jacobs-ladder

The beans with a Jacob’s Ladder (Polemonium caeruleum) flower-spike and a bumble bee flying towards the Jacob’s Ladder.

p1010016

The Astrantia, also known as Masterwort, has done well this year.

p1010018common-blue-damselfly

A male Common Blue Damselfly (Enallagma cyathigerum)

p1010028lilies

This photo of my lilies (Lilium ‘Stargazer’) was taken well after sunset and without a flash.

I wanted to see if there was enough ambient light to take a successful photo of these luminous lilies.

p1010030gladiolus

I then took this photo of a Gladiolus next to the greenhouse

p1010021black-spleenwort

On a church cleaning visit to our church at Rumburgh I noticed this Black Spleenwort (Asplenium adiantum-nigra) growing on the wall.

This plant is mainly found in the west of the country so I was surprised to see it here, almost as far east as one can get.  It loves alkaline soil and here it is growing in the mortar.  A month later and it had gone – removed I presume, in case it caused yet more damage to our poor crumbling church building.

p1010022black-bryony

Just below the spleenwort was this patch of Black Bryony (Tamus communis)

A sunset seen from the back of the house.

p1010020sunset

My music selection today is ‘The Arrival of the Queen of Sheba’ by Handel.

Thanks for visiting!

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This and That – Part 2

16 Thu Jun 2016

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

≈ 44 Comments

Tags

Bee, blossom, cow parsley, Crabapples, dandelion, field maple, flowers, gardens, ground-ivy, Hawthorn, horse chestnut, Hoverfly, insects, jonquils, Lady's Smock, Maytime, miniature Tulip, narcissus, pasque flower, Pear, pieris, saxifrage, shrubs, St Mark's fly, Suffolk, trees, wild cherry

This post includes the better photos I took at home during the first half of May.

P1000073Miniature Tulip

I have a few miniature scented Tulips. I have no idea what they are called or even when I got them though I think they are about 18 years old. I had a selection of red, orange and yellow ones but all that’s left are the red ones.

P1000071Jonquils-001

These jonquils are tiny and the flowers bob about on their narrow stems like yellow butterflies. Each flower is only about 2 inches across.

P1000074Pasque flower

The Pasque flowers (Pulsatilla vulgaris ‘Alba’ )in my garden came out well after Easter this year. Not only was Easter early but the weather was cold and the flowers sensibly stayed as buds until the time was right.

P1000075Saxifrage

I love this pretty pink Saxifrage!

P1000077Wild cherry

Wild Cherry blossom (Prunus avium) with a visiting bee

P1000076Wild cherry

Wild Cherry blossom. I like the green-bronze colour of the new leaves.

P1000080Narcissus

Pale yellow double Narcissus

P1000081Pear

Pear ‘Concorde’ blossom.  This pear is supposed to be a dessert pear but by the time it is soft enough to eat it is already rotting in the centre.  Perhaps our climate isn’t suitable for it?  We harvest the pears before they have started to soften and we cook them or we prepare them for the freezer.

P1000082Pear

Pear blossom with a visiting Hoverfly.  The lichen is doing quite well too with its orange fruiting bodies.

P1000096St Mark's flies-001

These are St. Mark’s-flies (Bibio marci) doing what flies do in the spring. The female is the upper fly and she has smoky-grey wings and a small head. The lower fly is the male and he has silvery wings and a larger head. Both sexes have spines on their front legs at the tip of the tibia. You can just see this on the female’s front leg. These flies fly weakly and slowly and dangle their legs as though the effort of flying is almost too much for them. They are called St. Mark’s-flies because they usually appear on or around St. Mark’s day which is April 25th.  This photo was taken on 2nd May – it was a cold spring!

P1000104Lady's smock

Lady’s-smock or Cuckooflower (Cardamine pratensis) – a member of the cabbage family

P1000106Pieris

New leaves on my variegated Pieris ‘Forest Flame’

P1000182Crabapple s. blossom

Crabapple species blossom. Standing under this weeping tree I am almost over-powered by the scent of roses and the buzzing of bees.

P1000183Bluebells

These are the English Bluebells (Hyacinthoides non-scripta) I am trying to establish next to the weeping crabapple. I have put canes alongside them to remind us not to mow them until the seeds have set and the leaves have died. I am also hoping that the canes will stop the deer from trampling the plants.

P1000185Dandelion

A beautiful Common Dandelion ‘clock’ (Taraxacum officinale agg.)

P1000187Crabapple 'Evereste' blossom

Crabapple ‘Evereste’ blossom

P1000189Crabapple 'Harry Baker' blossom

Crabapple ‘Harry Baker’ blossom

P1000191Ground ivy

Ground-ivy (Glechoma hederacea)

P1000195Horse chestnut

The Horse-chestnut tree (Aesculus hippocastanum) with its flower ‘candles’

P1000197Field maple

Field Maple flowers (Acer campastre)

P1000199Hawthorn

Common Hawthorn flower buds (Crataegus monogyna)

P1000201Cow parsley

Cow Parsley (Anthriscus sylvestris) (or as it is called here in Suffolk, Sheep’s Parsley) with a fly.  I am very fond of Cow Parsley and the sight of masses of it in flower along the lanes makes me happy.

Here is another song that features a wonderful trombone solo and a fantastic brass riff too!  This is a very old recording and it is also an uncommon arrangement for this song.

Thanks for visiting!

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October’s End

31 Sat Oct 2015

Posted by Clare Pooley in churches, family, Insects, Landscaping, music, plants, Rural Diary, trees, weather

≈ 30 Comments

Tags

Anastasia Moutsatsou, autumn, berries, Diary, insects, leaf colour, Mendham, October, plants, renovations, Sir Alfred Munnings, sunset, trees, weather

IMG_5822Holly

I saw these holly berries (Ilex aquifolium) in one of the carparks in Halesworth at the beginning of the month.

We have had a fair amount of cloud and rain this month and there was a week when the rest of the country was getting very pleasant weather while we in eastern East Anglia and also those in eastern Kent were having gloomy, wet weather with north-easterly winds.   We have had a few slight frosts and some sunshine too – but not as much as we would have liked!  For anyone who is interested in our weather here in the east of Britain – and why wouldn’t you be! – here is a link to the local BBC weather forecast.

IMG_5823Spindle

Spindle berries (Euonymous europaeus) seen in our garden at the beginning of October

The leaf-colour has been very beautiful but I haven’t been able to get out often to take photos.  The leaves are falling fast now and the recent heavy rain and windy weather have stripped many trees of their leaves altogether.

IMG_5831Autumn colour

A beautiful Maple tree I saw on the way to my mother’s house on the 14th October.

IMG_5833Autumn colour

As I stood admiring it it began to rain heavily, as you can see!

IMG_5834Rainbow

The rainbow that appeared at the same time.

IMG_5835Autumn colour

I took a photo of the tree again on the way home later that day.

IMG_5832Hemp Agrimony

I was surprised to see some Hemp-agrimony (Eupatorium cannabinum) in flower in the ditch next to the maple tree. It usually flowers during late summer and all other Hemp-agrimony plants had already gone to seed.

Richard and I have been sharing driving Elinor to and from college and I have been feeling much less tired than I did when I was doing all the driving.  The month has had its fair share of hospital, doctors’ surgery, optician and dentist visits.  Every week this month one of us (at least!) has had an appointment or has had to take someone (my mother) to an appointment.

DSC_0621

I mentioned to Richard that I had seen a beautiful Guelder-rose (Viburnum opulus) on my way to my mother’s house (yet again!) so he kindly photographed it for me with his phone when he walked past it on a breezy morning later in the week.

DSC_0622

He photographed it from the other side too

DSC_0623

He also photographed a Hawthorn (Crataegus monogyna)

Elinor has had her half-term holiday this week.  She has worked very hard during her first half-term and has had quite a lot of homework to do during this week.  She has enjoyed the course so far and her tutors are very pleased with her and the standard of her work.  This bodes very well.  She is also working hard to overcome her anxiety and also the sleep-phobia that has returned to plague her nights.

IMG_5836Raindrops

Raindrops caught in a spider’s web

IMG_5837Witch-hazel

A Witch-hazel leaf. All the rest of the tree’s leaves were a buttery yellow but the leaves on the new shoots went red.

IMG_5838Cricket

This Cricket, a female Speckled Bush-cricket (Leptophyes punctatissima) I believe, was sun-bathing while sitting on a yellow Witch-hazel leaf.

Alice seems well and is enjoying her new job but wishes she was able to work longer hours.  She has to have her PhD thesis printed before she can take part in her graduation ceremony so is trying to save up enough money to get it done.  She is coming home for the weekend in a fortnight and I am looking forward to it very much.  To see her in action discussing horror films please watch the video on the following link.

IMG_5840Autumn colour

Fine trees on a fine day. The churchyard of St Mary’s church in Halesworth. Whenever I see this wall I remember the times I have held one or other of my daughters’ hands when they were little as they balanced all the way along it. It used to take ages! Alice was especially keen.

Richard and I are starting to compile the list of improvements and repairs we need to do to the house and garden.  One of the first jobs will be to replace most of the windows and we hope to get this done before Christmas.  We are also getting a gardener/landscaper to clear and dig out the front ditch which has become overgrown and blocked.  We have asked him to cut the hedges too.  This will be done in a fortnight’s time.

IMG_5850Ladybirds

I found these ladybirds sheltering in my Rosemary bush next to the front door. I think they were hoping to hibernate there. We have since had some very wet weather and they are no longer there.

Last winter we had no ladybirds hibernating in the corner of the window in our bedroom.  This year, when we hope to replace the windows in a few weeks time, the ladybirds are back!  I will have to think of a way of gently moving them before the windows are removed.  I don’t know if they will be as interested in the new poly-carbonate windows we are to have, as they are in the old wooden ones with ladybird pheromones on!

IMG_5844Sir Alfred Munnings pub

Last Sunday we went out for lunch to The Sir Alfred Munnings in Mendham. (I don’t know what the black shadows are top right and bottom left of the photo).

The artist Sir Alfred Munnings was born in Mendham in 1878 and this restaurant and bar was re-named after him.

IMG_5849Mendham

Mendham is a very pretty village just a few miles from where we live.

IMG_5845Mendham church

Mendham church is quite large and well looked after. I couldn’t get far enough away from it to get the whole of the church in one photo.

IMG_5848Mendham church

Mendham church

IMG_5916Sunset

Sunset

IMG_5926Sunset

And another!

Here is one of my favourite songs – ‘Ola Ta Diskola’ (All the Difficulties) by Anastasia Moutsatsou.

Thanks for visiting!

 

 

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Thirlmere Reservoir

29 Tue Sep 2015

Posted by Clare Pooley in Days out, Insects, plants, Rural Diary

≈ 38 Comments

Tags

Dobgill Wood, fungus, Helvellyn, insects, moss, plants, slime mould, Thirlmere Reservoir, wild flowers

This post marks the return of posts about our holiday in the Lake District in July.

We spent an afternoon at Thirlmere, a reservoir which was created in 1894 to provide water for the city of Manchester.

IMG_5174Thirlmere

Thirlmere Reservoir. You see here the typical stony, grey edge of a reservoir. I think the fell on the left is Helvellyn.

Thirlmere was originally two smaller lakes and in flooding the valley, the two villages of Amboth and Wythburn were submerged.  Many people protested about the construction of the reservoir, the philanthropist John Ruskin being one of them, but theirs’ was a lost cause.  The citizens of Manchester’s need of fresh water was thought to have been more important than the loss of a couple of villages and a community’s way of life.

IMG_5145Thirlmere reservoir

Thirlmere

Thirlmere is 3.76 miles long and about half a mile wide.  It is surrounded by 2000 acres of coniferous forest, mainly spruce and larch, planted in 1908.  More deciduous, native trees are being planted now.  There was protest at the planting of the forest because the fells were traditionally tree-less and bare.

IMG_5139Woods at Dobgill on banks of Thirlmere

Woods at Dobgill on the banks of Thirlmere.

We parked our car in one of the car-parks off the road that skirts the lake and then walked down to the lakeside through a pretty wood.  It was so green and mossy in that wood!

IMG_5141Moss

This moss was about 8 inches tall.

I think the moss may be Polytrichum commune.  I read that it has square capsules with pointed lids.  These capsules can be seen if you look carefully at my photo.

IMG_5142Possibly Amanita

This may be Amanita franchetii

IMG_5144Slime mould

I believe this is a slime mould. It’s bright yellow colour caught my eye.

We soon got to the lake shore where there was a lot more to see.  There were plants living amongst the stones ….

IMG_5146Marsh Pennywort

The leaves of Marsh Pennywort (Hydrocotyle vulgaris).  Marsh Pennywort is an atypical umbellifer.  The flowers are tiny and pale (either green or pink) in small umbels on reddish stems.

…and plants at the edge of the wood.

IMG_5148Betony

Betony (Stachys officinalis)

IMG_5152Wood Sage

Wood Sage (Teucrium scorodonia)

This plant tastes and smells like hops and in some areas has been used as a substitute for them.

IMG_5154Wood Sage

Wood Sage

IMG_5158R and E at Thirlmere

Richard and Elinor enjoying the view.

While they sat and relaxed I wandered about looking for plants and other interesting things.

IMG_5159Mossy outcrop

A large mossy hummock or outcrop

This rock was covered with many different types of moss and lichen.

IMG_5156Moss

Moss

IMG_5157Moss

Mosses – the larger one may be Hypnum cupressiforme

IMG_5160Moss

Moss – this one may be Thuidium tamariscinum

IMG_5161Moss

Not a good shot but this moss may be Pseudocleropodium purum

IMG_5162Lichen and moss

Lichen in amongst the moss.  Not at all sure which this lichen this is!

IMG_5163Mosses

Mosses

IMG_5164Moss

Moss

IMG_5166Moss

Moss

IMG_5167Moss

Yet more mosses!

IMG_5168Lichen

Lichen – for a change!

IMG_5170Moss

Moss

IMG_5172Thirlmere

Thirlmere

IMG_5171Lichen

Lichen with a reddish-brown fruiting body at the bottom right of the picture

IMG_5175Lichen

Lichen

IMG_5176Lichen

Lichen

IMG_5177Lichen

Lichen

IMG_5179Lichen

Lichen

IMG_5178Lichen

Lichen

IMG_5180Fell by Thirlmere

View of a fell from Thirlmere

IMG_5173Marsh Speedwell

Marsh Speedwell (Veronica scutellata)

IMG_5181Water Plantain perhaps

Lesser Water-plantain perhaps? (Baldellia ranunculoides)

IMG_5187Spiders

These spiders look like Lesser Wolf Spider females carrying their egg sacs

IMG_5188Spider

Another spider

We then walked back up to the car-park but by a different route.

IMG_5190Fern

Possibly a Male Fern (Dryopteris felix-mas)

IMG_5192Fungus on log

Fungus on a dead tree

IMG_5193Mossy wall

A mossy wall

IMG_5194Hedge Woundwort

Hedge Woundwort (Stachys sylvatica)

IMG_5196Hedge Woundwort

Hedge Woundwort flowers

IMG_5197Yorkshire Fog

Yorkshire Fog (Holcus lanatus)

IMG_5198Moss

Moss

IMG_5202Spores on fern

Spores on fern

IMG_5205Walking through bracken

Walking through Bracken (Pteridium aquilinum).  Bracken gets very tall – this was over 5.5 feet tall.

IMG_5204Unknown beetle

I don’t know what this beetle is though it does look a little like a Click Beetle (Athous haemorrhoidalis)

IMG_5206A gill

The Dobgill

IMG_5209Fern

Maidenhair Spleenwort (Asplenium trichomanes)

We returned to the car-park where we left Elinor to rest but Richard and I continued walking as we wanted to see the Dobgill waterfall.  I will include that in a different post.

If anyone sees that I have made any mistakes with my identification I would be really grateful for any corrections.  If anyone can identify any of the organisms I have been unable to name, again, I would be very pleased to know.

Thanks for visiting!

 

 

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Endings and Changes

04 Fri Sep 2015

Posted by Clare Pooley in Days out, family, Insects, music, plants, Rural Diary, wild birds

≈ 55 Comments

Tags

family, family life, friends, insects, seashore, wild flowers

This is another diary post.  Before I write anymore accounts of days out and holidays I really ought to tell you about a few things that have been happening lately.

Self-seeded Viola
Self-seeded Viola
Self-seeded Viola
Self-seeded Viola

The saddest event of all is that my mother-in-law died on Thursday 13th August.  She had been in very poor health for some time and had had to move into a nursing home a few months ago.  This made her unhappy but she knew that she was incapable of living on her own any more and was doing her best to come to terms with the changes this entailed.  My brother-in-law had visited her during the afternoon of the day she died and hadn’t been home long when he got a call from the nursing home telling him she had collapsed and the ambulance had been called for.  He telephoned us and said he had been told that there wasn’t much hope that she would survive and we were to prepare for the worst.  He phoned us again a few minutes later to say she had died.

IMG_2433Marsh Mallow (640x427)

Marsh Mallow (Althaea officinalis)

The strange thing was that we were only an hour or so away from Manchester (where my husband’s family live) when Chris phoned us.  Thursday 13th August was the day we travelled to the Peak District with our caravan to spend a week there on holiday and with the hope of visiting Mum-in-law.  We had set up the caravan where we usually stay in Leek, Staffordshire and put up the awning on the side of the van already.  We had then driven to Sheffield (about an hour’s journey) to take Elinor to stay with Alice for the week.  Alice had given us a cup of tea and we had left the girls there together and were driving back to Leek.  We had almost got to Buxton when Chris’s call came through.

IMG_2439Allium with bees (640x427)

Alpine Allium with bees

We went to Manchester the next morning.  The rain, which had started when we got to Sheffield the night before, was still coming down so the roads were very wet and some were flooded.  We went to Chris’s house and spent some time talking to him and his partner Annie and then went out to have some lunch together in a pub.  During the afternoon we went to Joyce’s (Mum-in-law’s) nursing home and sorted out all her belongings, taking some away with us but donating all of her clothes and a lot of her equipment and wheel-chair to the nursing home.  They were pleased to accept all we could give them as there are many old people in homes who have no relations to get them clothes and other necessaries.

IMG_2450Peacock on mint (640x427)

Peacock butterfly (Inachis io) on Water Mint flowers (Mentha aquatica)

The Coroner couldn’t establish a cause of death despite a post mortem and there have been a number of tests done and an inquest has been held.  All extremely painful for my husband and his brother.  Eventually the date for the funeral was set and it duly took place yesterday 2nd September.  There was a large turn-out of family and friends and all went smoothly and we hope Joyce would have approved.  Richard had the difficult task of writing the eulogy which he delivered with dignity.  The wake was in the upper rooms of a nearby pub and that was a success too.

IMG_5588Female Gatekeeper (640x480)

Female Gatekeeper butterfly (Pyronia tithonus) on Marjoram (Origanum majorana)

Our holiday was a weird one to say the least!  Richard’s 62nd birthday was on Sunday 16th August so we went to a church in Leek and said more prayers for Joyce and then went to a café for brunch.  There wasn’t much else we could do.  We met Alice and Elinor in Bakewell on Tuesday 18th August and told them the sad news.

This was one of Joyce’s favourite pieces of music.

A lot of our time has been spent (as usual) in keeping appointments with doctors, with physiotherapists and at hospital.  Not a week goes by, it seems, without one or other of us having to go to see some specialist or another!  Elinor went to her yearly appointment with the physiotherapist and was told she needed to do more calf-stretching exercises.  I’m not sure that she has done anything about it yet!  Richard went to the hospital for yet another MRI brain scan but won’t hear the results until he sees the specialist in a few weeks.  He also went to the eye clinic and all seems okay.  I took my Mum to her eye clinic again last week and she had to return there on Tuesday for another eye injection.  I went to the Rheumatology clinic for a check-up and it seems I am in a medically-induced remission.  My blood tests show excellent results and I have lost all the fluid on my finger joints.  The nurse suggested I give up one of my drugs for a month to see if it made any difference to the problem I have in my throat.  It hasn’t made any difference at all, so I’m back on the drug and my GP at my local surgery has asked the Ear, Nose and Throat clinic to give me an appointment so they can investigate further.

IMG_2410Swallows and Martins on cable (2) (640x427)

Swallows (Hirundo rustica) and House Martins (Delichon urbica) on electric power cable

Alice works part-time in the University library in Sheffield and some months ago went to a number of internal job interviews.  She desperately needs a full-time job, preferably one in which she can use her librarianship skills instead of filling shelves and moving crates of books about as she is doing at the moment.  She was disappointed to hear that though she had been offered a job one grade higher than the one she was doing, it was still a part-time job and as the hours were fewer she would be earning less money.  After a lot of thought she decided to accept the job and after some discussion with her supervisor she has been given a few more hours and is earning slightly more money than in her last position.  She moved house at the weekend and she is now sharing with a few other people (one of them a friend of hers) and will be paying less rent.  This will be a Good Thing!  She has finished the corrections and amendments to her PhD and has handed it back in to have it read through again.  When that’s done she will have to get it printed – not just one copy but several – which will be yet another expense for her.  We will then hear when she will receive her Doctorate which we all hope to attend if possible.  She had her 30th birthday on the 24th July and her friends got together and arranged a Haunted Sheffield Tour for her to go on which she found great fun.

IMG_2415Southern Hawker (640x427)

Southern Hawker dragonfly (Aeshna cyanea)

IMG_2421Southern Hawker (640x427)

Southern Hawker dragonfly

Elinor wasn’t able to go into college to collect her GCSE results as we were still away in the Peak District so she got the results in the post.  She didn’t do as well as she had hoped but she passed three out of the four exams she took.  She got a D in Maths so she will have to re-take that exam next year.  She got an A in Psychology but only Cs in English and Art.  We are pleased that she managed to do as well as this because she missed two whole years of school and at one stage we didn’t think she’d ever be able to get any qualifications at all.  The college have found that the grades the students got this year were generally much lower than expected.  I don’t know if this is the fault of the college or if the marking was stricter than usual.   She went into college last Wednesday for her enrolment and was disappointed to find she can’t take the Graphic Art course she wanted to do because of her failed Maths exam.  She will do a years Art and Design course and re-take her Maths and then she will decide what she does next.  The Graphic Design tutors say that they will assess her work after six weeks this term with a view to moving her onto the Graphic Design course if she is doing very well.

IMG_2425Young Moorhen (640x427)

Young Moorhen (Gallinula chloropus)

Richard has now retired.  His final week at work was last week and he had a good send-off from his colleagues.  He will be giving back his fleet car tomorrow and has ordered a new car of his own which will be delivered in just over a week’s time.  He hasn’t had time to appreciate the fact of his retirement yet.  He still has a number of things to sort out with his brother with regard to his mother.  Once that has been done he will relax a little and then begin to feel retired.

I spent a lovely day in Norwich with my dear friend Wendy.  We met at school 45 years ago!  Her husband was working in this area for a few days so she joined him and took the opportunity to visit former neighbours of theirs and to see me.  Fortunately the weather was fine and we were able to find somewhere to sit outside and have coffee and a long chat.

007Restaurant (640x480)

A photo of the Assembly Rooms where we sat outside and had coffee. This photo was taken last December – the garden was much brighter and greener when we were there a few weeks ago!

We then went to have a look at the Roman Catholic Cathedral which is an enormous building and has many fine features.  I’ll probably make a post about it sometime soon.  We walked from there to the Plantation Garden.  We had a lovely lunch together and I then walked back with her to her hotel.  In thinking about this special day I am amazed to realise that I cannot remember the last time I spent a day out with her or in fact with any friend.  I very, very occasionally meet someone for coffee or lunch or I visit Wendy’s house in company with my family but a whole day away from home with a friend enjoying myself…. no, I can’t recall anything since I was in my early twenties!

IMG_2442Gipsywort and sedge (2) (508x640)

Gipsywort (Lycopus europaeus)

I always look forward to having my piano tuned each year.  Kimble Reynolds is a very skillful man who not only tunes pianos but can also build, restore and repair them.  He has a piano gallery in Blundeston in Suffolk and has recently invented a way of teaching people how to read music which doesn’t entail having to learn the names of the notes.  His invention is called Noterettes.  He is a lovely man and I enjoy talking to him and we spend most of his visit laughing together.

IMG_2440Fly on Marjoram (2) (640x462)

Fly ( possibly Tachina fera) on Marjoram

IMG_2444Yarrow and bug or beetle (640x427)

Yarrow (Achillea millefolium) with unknown bug

IMG_2445Ragwort with Hoverfly Sphaerophoria scripta (640x427)

Common Ragwort (Senecio jacobaea) with Hoverfly (Sphaerophoria scripta) and another unknown insect

IMG_2446Ragwort with hoverfly Helophilus (2) (640x483)

Common Ragwort with Hoverfly (Helophilus pendulus) also known as the Footballer Hoverfly because of the striped thorax which looks like a football jersey

IMG_2428Hoverfly (640x427)

I cannot identify this Hoverfly

With all the upheaval of Joyce’s death and Richard’s retirement, we haven’t had time for much gardening or walking locally.  We managed to visit Dunwich beach for an hour on Saturday.  We bought some chips from the fish and chip restaurant in the beach car-park and then walked on the beach.  The weather was quite over-cast and there was a very strong wind blowing but it was good to be away from the house for a while.

IMG_5591Snails in Sea Kale leaf (640x480)

Sea Kale leaf (Crambe maritima) with sheltering snails

IMG_5592Sea Kale gone to seed (640x474)

Sea Kale with seed heads

IMG_5593Dunwich beach (640x480)

Dunwich beach

IMG_5594Dunwich beach (640x480)

Dunwich beach

IMG_5595Yellow Horned-poppy (480x640)

Yellow Horned-poppy (Glaucium flavum)

IMG_5596Yellow Horned-poppy (640x480)

Yellow Horned-poppy

IMG_5600Evening Primrose plants (480x640)

Common Evening Primroses (Oenothera biennis)  Introduced and naturalised, these plants like to live on waste ground on poor soil; they only open on dull days or in the evening.  I see them on railway sidings quite often.  These particular plants have spread along the base of the crumbling cliff.

IMG_5603Common Mallow (640x480)

Common Mallow (Malva sylvestris) This plant was on the path from the car-park to the beach but at this time of year Mallows are seen everywhere in East Anglia. The round fruits that you can see just right of centre are called ‘cheeses’ and contain many nutlets.

IMG_5604Sunset (640x480)

Out of focus photograph of the sunset that evening during a rain shower.

Thanks for visiting!

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A Little Bit of This and a Little Bit of That

09 Sun Aug 2015

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

≈ 31 Comments

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.

IMG_4905Cream tea (640x480)

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.

11258095_10204761757547885_1220536374365931542_o (640x427)

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.

11665579_10155721644210524_7162535900042599508_n (480x640)

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.

11200774_10155721643400524_4718516296672381910_n (640x480)

‘All for one and one for all!’

11741103_10204761762748015_1710620135797317354_o (427x640)

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.

IMG_4906Pianist on Sheffield station (640x477)

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.

IMG_2389Sunset 18 - 07 (640x427)
IMG_2390Sunset (640x427)
IMG_2391Sunset (640x427)

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.

IMG_2392Barley harvest (640x427)

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

IMG_2394Barley harvest (640x427)

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!

IMG_2395Barley harvest (640x427)

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.

IMG_5290View across field (640x476)

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.

IMG_5294Bee and hoverfly on Spear Thistle (640x480)

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

IMG_5295Moth Shaded Broad Bar perhaps (640x480)

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

IMG_5297Common Fleabane (640x480)

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

IMG_5296Common Fleabane with pollen beetles (640x480)

Fleabane with Pollen Beetles (Meligethes aeneus)

IMG_5298Field Maple (640x480)

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.

IMG_5300New oak leaves (640x480)

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

IMG_5303Clouds (640x480)

Interesting cloud formation.

IMG_5307Hoverfly on bramble flowers (640x480)

A hoverfly on Bramble (Rubus fruticosus agg. ) flowers

IMG_5309Bramble (640x480)

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

IMG_5308Dewberry (640x480)

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.

IMG_5310Field view (640x479)

Richard and I like this view across a field

IMG_5312Field view photo-bombed by fly (640x480)

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…

IMG_5312Field view photo-bombed by fly (2) (640x374)

Cheeky!

…I realised a bee had photobombed my picture!

IMG_5317Oedemeridae beetle perhaps Ischnomera sanguinicollis (640x480)

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

IMG_5322Purple beans (640x480)

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.

IMG_5321Purple beans and spring greens (480x640)

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

IMG_5330White lilies (640x480)

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

IMG_5323Rain at sunset (640x480)

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.

IMG_5335Pink clouds at sunset (640x480)

Pretty pink clouds!

Thanks for visiting!

 

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July (mainly) in Suffolk

30 Thu Jul 2015

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

≈ 35 Comments

Tags

birds, butterflies, caterpillar, danselfly, dragonflies, flies, garden, garden flowers, green woodpecker, herbs, hoverflies, insects, moths, Suffolk, wild flowers

This post is made up of photos of things I’ve seen in my garden during the last month.  The first few shots were taken during the last two days in June (I did say ‘mainly’!), when the weather suddenly got much warmer and the sun appeared.  Summer arrived and we all felt much better!

IMG_2329Painted Lady on scabious (2) (640x416)

Painted Lady butterfly (Vanessa cardui) on a scabious flower

IMG_2333Dog Rose (2) (640x434)

Dog Rose flowers (Rosa canina) next to the big pond

IMG_2335Common Blue Damselfly (640x423)

Male Common Blue damselfly (Enallagma cyathigerum)

IMG_2341Four-spotted chaser (640x427)

Four-spotted Chaser dragonfly (Libellula quadrimaculata)

IMG_2340Small Tortoiseshell on pond (2) (640x428)

Small Tortoiseshell butterfly (Aglais urticae) on big pond

IMG_2348Female Emperor Dragonfly (640x408)

Female Emperor dragonfly (Anax imperator) laying eggs on the big pond

We have Ground Elder in our garden.  I wish we didn’t but there is little chance of us ever getting rid of it here so we will have to try to weaken it and stop it from spreading further.  It is in the ditch between us and the school house next door and also in the ditches at the front of the house and under the hedge.  It is trying to spread into the lawn at the front but we strim and mow as much as possible and try to stop it from flowering.  We often fail in this.

IMG_2350Ground Elder (640x427)

Ground Elder flower! As you see it is a pretty umbellifer with slightly pink buds.

I eradicated it from a former garden by digging it out over a period of a few years.  It was in a flower bed so therefore easier to deal with.

IMG_2351 (2).jpgCommon Backswimmers (640x424)

Common Backswimmers (Notonecta glauca) in the front pond. This pond completely dried up while we were away on holiday but is starting to fill again because of the torrents of rain we’ve had during the past week or two.

IMG_2359Insects on lavender (640x427)

Insects on Lavender ‘Hidcote’. There haven’t been as many insects this year as last, but the lavender attracted quite few while it flowered. It is a fabulous insect magnet!

IMG_2354Lavender (640x427)

Lavender growing at the front of our house

IMG_2373Herb garden (601x640)

My herb garden

IMG_4908Bronze Fennel flower bud (640x480)

Bronze Fennel flower bud. When we returned form our week away all the leaves on the fennel had died and the flowers were drooping. I watered the herbs and then the rains and cool weather returned; the fennel is still alive (it has an enormous tap root) but no leaves at all for now. The flowers are fine and are being enjoyed by wasps and hoverflies.  A neighbour came in to water the plants in the greenhouse while we were away (tomatoes mainly) but we couldn’t expect him to water all our plants – that would be asking much too much!

IMG_2355Tumbelina Petunia (640x427)

A pretty Tumbelina Petunia in the window box.  It has a lovely gentle scent.

IMG_2356Verbena (640x427)

A very bright pink Verbena in the window box with the petunia. The hoverflies love it very much. I wish it was scented.

IMG_4917Hoverfly Episyrphus balteatus on verbena (640x480)

Hoverfly Episyrphus balteatus (I think!) on verbena

IMG_4926Hoverfly on Fuchsia (640x480)

A hoverfly on the Fuschia that is also in the window box. This photo was taken after we had begun to have rain at last after a long dry spell.

IMG_4923Spider on fuchsia (640x480)

A beautiful, tiny green spider on the fuschia. I think this is a Green Orb-weaver (Araniella curcurbitina).

IMG_4915Six-spot Burnet (480x640)

A Six-spot Burnet moth (Zygaena filipendulae) on lavender

IMG_2358Lily (640x427)

One of my unscented Asian lilies.

IMG_2369Sisyrinchium striatum (2) (640x427)

Sisyrinchium striatum. These put on a good show this year. Many years ago I had these growing in my garden and loved them as they seemed to go with all the flowers in the border. We moved to Somerset for 18 months and then moved here in 2006. Three years ago I found a seedling sisyrinchium in the garden which appeared from nowhere.  I potted it up and grew it on; it flowered the following year and I let it go to seed. I sprinkled the seed on my border and last year I found lots of plants growing which flowered beautifully this year. Free flowers!

IMG_2370Viola (2) (640x419)

A pretty Viola. These seed themselves all over the garden.

IMG_2376Rosa Mundi (640x427)

I have two Rosa Mundi bushes ( a gift from Richard) and they both flowered well this year. It is sad that they have such a short flowering period but it is worth having them for their pretty, painted petals.

IMG_2378Perennial Sweet Pea (640x427)

Perennial Sweet Pea

IMG_2379Scabious (640x427)

Scabious flower

IMG_2382Rose (640x427)

A pretty rose from Richard’s border

In a former post I posted a photo of a mullein flower infested with Mullein moth caterpillars.  Here is another photo taken a week or so later when the grubs were much bigger.

IMG_2380Mullein (640x427)

Mullein Moth caterpillar (Shargacucullia verbasci) on what was left of a Mullein flower spike

IMG_2386 (2)Meadow Brown (640x417)

A Meadow Brown butterfly (Maniola jurtina). Wonderful camouflage!

IMG_2387Fly on Amelanchier (2) (640x429)

A fly on the Amelanchier tree. I cannot identify this one properly though it looks a little like Empis digramma, a fly which hunts other flies in long grass and other lush vegetation and spears them with its proboscis.

IMG_2404Adult and fledgling Green Woodpeckers (2) (640x411)

I took this photo of the Green Woodpecker (Picus viridis) and its 2 fledglings this evening. The adult was trying to teach its young how to find ant’s eggs.

This last photo wasn’t taken in my garden but in the grounds of the Norfolk and Norwich Hospital where I had to go for a check-up on the day before we went on holiday.  I didn’t know what else to do with it!

IMG_4929Lady's Bedstraw (480x640)

Lady’s Bedstraw (Galium verum)

Thank’s for visiting!

 

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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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