Another Catch Up Post!

Tags

plants, spring, Suffolk, walking

As you know, we have been busy with home improvements this year so haven’t had the time to go on our usual walks very often and I haven’t taken as many photos as usual.  Richard and I did manage a walk or two in April along the lanes and over the fields.

Our local farmer has taken to sheep farming in recent years and this year he coppiced many of his overgrown hedges and then waited to see what came up again.  He has selected the plants he wishes to retain in the hedges and has cut out the rest.  He has put up stock fencing next to the new slim-line hedge and all is looking very different now.

We took our usual walk across the fields just after the coppicing had been done. All the heaps of wood were burnt and you can see a smouldering heap of wood-ash in the centre of this picture.

The last time we had walked this route there had been a thick hedge just in front of the ditch in the foreground.

I was quite concerned about the loss of the hedges because they are usually full of nesting, singing birds in the spring.  However, the farmer does care about the local wildlife and had left reassuring notices next to the ex-hedges stating what he was intending to do.

A view across the open fields. This walk was taken at the beginning of April while the weather was still bright and warm.

This oak tree had been blown down in storm ‘Doris’. The green you can see is the ivy that had been growing up the tree trunk. Most healthy trees can cope with ivy growing on them and this one had seemed to be healthy.

An upright tree this time, with holes it in, probably made by woodpeckers.

Another view of the fields and that blue sky!

Red Dead-nettle (Lamium purpureum) and Groundsel (Senecio vulgaris)

The Blackthorn blossom (Prunus spinosa) was very good this spring.

This rather dull and unassuming little plant (not a clear photo, I’m afraid) has the interesting name of Sticky Mouse-ear (Cerastium glomeratum)! The leaves are the shape of a mouse’s ear and they are also sticky as you can see in the photo; the leaves are covered with grains of sand.

I found yet another Barren Strawberry plant. (Potentilla sterilis)

It is easy to tell the difference between a Wild Strawberry and a Barren Strawberry even if there are no flowers to be seen.  The leaves of the Barren Strawberry are a mid-green colour and are matt whereas the Wild Strawberry leaves are shiny and yellow-green.  The leaves of both plants are toothed but the Barren Strawberry’s terminal tooth (the one at the tip of each leaflet) is smaller and shorter than the ones next to it.  You can see this quite clearly on the photo above.  The Wild Strawberry’s terminal tooth is as long as or longer than the ones next to it.  The flowers are different too.  The Barren Strawberry flowers have large gaps between the petals and the sepals are clearly seen in the gap.  The Wild Strawberry’s petals are close together and the sepals are hidden behind them.

A Blackthorn hedge in flower

A view of St. Peter’s church tower in the distance

One of my favourite views through a gap in the hedge

Another view from our walk. The field close-by has barley or wheat growing in it; the yellow field in the distance is of oil-seed rape.

A field of Oil-seed Rape

This photo is of the bank of a ditch and shows the lumps of chalk that can be found in the clay soil here

The verge at the side of the lane was covered with Lesser Celandines (Ficaria verna)

Another view across the fields…

…and another!

Ash tree flowers ( Fraxinus excelsior)

Most of our fields are surrounded by deep ditches.

Annual Mercury (Mercurialis annua)

Most of the Mercury that grows here is the perennial Dog’s Mercury which is found in (sometimes) large swathes under hedges and in the woodland.  The Mercury in the photo above is the Annual Mercury which doesn’t grow in swathes and is branched (unlike the Dog’s Mercury).  It is not a native plant but has been here for at least 1000 years, introduced from mainland Europe.

Cowslips (Primula veris)

A pond at the side of the lane

The last of the Primroses (Primula vulgaris)

Part of St. Margaret South Elmham common

Another Blackthorn hedge

Blackthorn blossom

Another short walk we took was to view the orchids flowering along the verge near to us.

Early Purple Orchids (Orchis mascula)

Early Purple Orchids

We also saw purple Bugle (Ajuga reptans) and Dandelions (Taraxacum agg.)

Bugle

This seems to be a Cowslip/Primrose cross

An over-exposed and out-of-focus photo of Lady’s-smock/ Cuckooflower (Cardamine pratensis)

Richard and I also called in at our neighbour Cordelia’s Daffodil Sunday when every year she opens her beautiful garden to the public in aid of St. Margaret’s church.

Her garden is full of spring flowers

The weather was perfect for the open garden this year

The Old Rectory

Looking towards the church from the Old Rectory

More flowers

Daffodil Sunday

Daffodil Sunday

The drive up to the house

I apologise for the length of this post!

My music choice this time is ‘The Banks of Green Willow’ by George Butterworth

Thanks for visiting!

A Quiet Spring – March and April Part 2

Tags

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

Let me take you back in time……

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

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

The blossom on the fruit trees was good this spring.

Wild Cherry

Wild Cherry blossom

Weeping Crabtree

Weeping Crabtree blossom

Crabtree ‘Evereste’

‘Evereste’ blossom

Crabtree ‘Harry Baker’

‘Harry Baker’ blossom

Greengage

Greengage blossom

Damson blossom

Pear ‘Concorde’ blossom

Other trees with blossom looked wonderful this spring too.

Amelanchier

Amelanchier blossom

The Blackthorn at the end of our drive

The Pussy Willow was covered in fuzzy flowers

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

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

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

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

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

Primroses and Anemone blanda

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

Clematis flowers

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

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

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

A sunset seen from the back of the house

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

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

Thanks for visiting!

Highlights Part 7 : Redgrave and Lopham Fen

Tags

ferns, flowers, plants, Redgrave and Lopham Fen, Suffolk, Suffolk Wildlife Trust, wild flowers

At the beginning of September, I visited Redgrave and Lopham Fen with my friend Heather whom I hadn’t seen for over a year.  It was a very muggy, clammy day so not ideal for walking any distance.

Redgrave and Lopham Fen – one of the many large ponds.

The sedge and reeds were very tall so we didn’t manage to see much open water and the pathways across the fen were quite narrow and enclosed at times.  We got very hot and sticky and our feet were black with the peaty soil we walked on.  However, we saw a few interesting plants and we managed to catch up with all our news!

Water at Redgrave and Lopham Fen

Redgrave and Lopham Fen is situated on the border between Suffolk and Norfolk and is owned and maintained by the Suffolk Wildlife Trust.  It is where the River Waveney and the Little Ouse River have their beginning.  It is the largest remaining area of river valley fen in England.  Its diverse habitat make it a very important site; saw sedge beds, open water, heathland, scrub and woodland can all be found here.

It is one of only three sites in the UK where the Fen Raft Spider can be found, though we didn’t manage to see it on our walk.  Nineteen species of dragonfly, twenty-seven species of butterfly, twenty-six species of mammal, four species of amphibian, four species of reptile and ninety-six species of bird can be seen here.  The beginning of September isn’t a great time of year to go looking for wildlife but we were pleased with what we did manage to see.  It is a place I would like to return to one day.

Hips of the Dog Rose (Rosa canina)

Purple Loosestrife (Lythrum salicaria)

Surprisingly for a plant so widespread, this was the first time I had seen this flower since I was a little girl.

Purple Loosestrife

Purple Loosestrife and Water Mint (Mentha aquatica)

Greater Bird’s-foot Trefoil (Lotus pendunculatus)

Bird’s-foot Trefoil seedheads with Fen Bedstraw (Galium uliginosum)

These seedheads really do look a bit like birds feet!

Bulrush and Common Reed

Bulrush and Common Reed

Bulrush (Typha latifolia) is also known as Great Reedmace.  Common Reed (Phragmites australis) stands in this country are a priority habitat because of their importance for wildlife as food and shelter.

Devil’s-bit Scabious (Succisa pratensis)

According to legend, the Devil was so angry with this plant because it was successful at curing all sorts of ailments that he bit off part of the root.  The plant may have a short root but it still has curative powers!  Nicholas Culpeper says the boiled root is good for snake-bite, swollen throats, wounds and the plague.

A meadow full of Devil’s-bit Scabious

Broad Buckler Fern (Dryopteris dilatata)

Broad Buckler Fern has 3-times pinnate leaves.  Pinnate leaves are made up of leaflets, often in pairs, attached to a central stem and often with a terminal leaflet.  2-times pinnate leaves = the leaflets have their own leaflets.  3-times pinnate leaves = the leaflets of the leaflets have leaflets!  Broad Buckler Fern has a long stalk which only has leaf branches for half its length.

Probably Common Earthball (Scleroderma citrinum)

Blackberries on Bramble (Rubus fruticosus agg.)  There is an out-of-focus Speckled Wood butterfly sitting on a leaf just to the right of the top red berry

Haws of a Common Hawthorn (Crataegus monogyna)

This might be Lesser Water Parsnip (Berula erecta)

I believe this is probably Amphibious Bistort (Persicaria amphibia)

It took me a while to identify this plant, mainly because it is extremely variable.  It has two main forms – an aquatic form, which is described and illustrated in most ID guides, and a terrestrial form, which isn’t often described and hardly ever illustrated.  The plant I saw is the terrestrial form.

This mole-hill shows how black the soil is

Common Valerian (Valeriana officinalis)

Guelder-rose (Viburnum opulus) with clusters of red berries

Heather kindly bought me a gift of two hardy cyclamen plants as our meeting was close to my birthday.  I took a photo of them at the end of October where I had planted them in my garden.

White and purple hardy cyclamen.  I am hoping they will spread out under the shrubs I have in this border and prevent the moss from returning as soon as my back is turned!

Thanks for visiting!

 

Highlights Part 4

Tags

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

We had stormy weather like this all through last summer!

Many beautiful cloudscapes

Cloudy sunsets….

…and a lot of misty evenings!

ooOOoo

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

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

Red-eyed Damselfly (Erythromma najas)

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

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

Bee Orchid

Bee Orchid

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

A Wasp Beetle (Clytus arietis)

Common Spotted-orchid (Dactylorhiza fuchsii)

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

Hoverfly Syrphus ribesii on Escallonia ‘Apple Blossom’

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

Five-spot Burnet on White Clover

House-leek in flower

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

Hedge Woundwort (Stachys sylvatica)

Black Medick (Medicago lupulina)

Hoverfly Volucella pellucens

The same hoverfly next to a tiny micro-moth

Branched Bur-reed (Sparganium erectum)

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

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

Thanks for visiting!

 

 

In My Garden

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.

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.

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.

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?

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.

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.

A Comma butterfly (Polygonia c-album)

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

Field Bindweed (Convolvulus arvensis)

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

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.

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.

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!

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.

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.

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

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

A male Common Blue Damselfly (Enallagma cyathigerum)

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.

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

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.

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

A sunset seen from the back of the house.

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

Thanks for visiting!

Seaside at Sunset

Tags

Black-headed Seagull, common ragwort, Common Sea Lavender, gorse, hare's-foot clover, harvestman, mudflats, oil, Perennial Glasswort, plants, sand dunes, sea, sea campion, Sea Sandwort, Sea-holly, seashore, Suffolk, sunset, thrift, Walberswick

After a busy day last Friday and a hot, sunny day too, we thought it might be nice to go to the coast for a little while.  We knew that it would be extremely crowded for most of the day so we left it until after we had eaten our evening meal and set off just before 8.00 pm.

We decided that we’d visit Walberswick as we hadn’t been there for some time and parked the car in the car-park there at about 8.30 pm.

Walberswick. With its creeks, mudflats, sand-dunes and varied flora it is a favourite place of mine to visit.

The mass of mauve flowers you can see in the photo above are Sea Lavender.

Common Sea-lavender (Limonium vulgare)

I couldn’t get a clear picture of these flowers – mainly because I couldn’t get down low enough!  Sea-lavender (no relation of true Lavender) is related to the cultivated Statices – everlasting flowers.  Many people pick these flowers illegally to make dried flower arrangements.  Strangely, the drier the ground in which it grows, the taller it gets.  This plant grows in great masses on the North Norfolk coast and I would love to see it there again.

There wasn’t much Thrift or Sea Pink (Armeria maritima) left – mainly seedheads. Thrift is a relative of Common Sea-lavender.

There was a lot of rather scrappy Hare’s-foot Clover (Trifolium arvense)…

…and a small amount of Sea Campion (Silene uniflora)

I cropped the photo I took.

The calyx (the area behind the petals) is swollen, like Bladder Campion is and is similarly patterned with red veins. The petals are larger and thicker than other types of Campion and usually overlap each other.

Sea Sandwort (Honckenya peploides).  I like the way this plant grows. It reminds me of children’s building toys.

In Richard Mabey’s ‘Flora Britannica’ he says ‘… (Sea Sandwort) is one of the earliest colonisers of sand-dunes and shingle, and remarkable for its sprawling concertinas of geometrically stacked leaves’.  It is able to keep growing upwards so if ever it is inundated with sand or mud it can survive.  As with many seashore plants it is succulent and edible.

More Sea Sandwort, this time with a Harvestman or Harvest Spider. Can you see it? They are not true spiders but are related to them. They have one-piece bodies and no silk-glands so can’t spin webs.

Common Ragwort (Senecio jacobaea) in flower and Gorse bushes (Ulex europaeus)

The dunes and my shadow!

Richard and Elinor beat me to the sea. The cool northerly breeze was so refreshing.

The sea and sky were beautiful

The sun was just setting behind us

Lumps of oil

More oil

I was sorry to see this oil on the beach.  This is evidence that tankers have been flushing out their tanks illegally in N W European waters .

The sunset progressed.

The view out to sea still looked good.

Seagulls were making their way out to wherever it is they go for the night…

…except these two Black-headed Gulls (Larus ridibundus) who seemed to be doing some synchronised beach-combing.

One last look at the sea…

We made our way back to the dunes where I found a couple more plants to photograph.

Sea-holly (Eryngium maritimum)

A most beautiful plant!

A cute little bug hoping I leave him alone!

Vetch and Hare’s-foot Clover

Perennial Glasswort (Sarcocornia perennis)

Another name for Glasswort is Samphire and like Common Glasswort (an annual plant which is also called Samphire) it can be eaten lightly boiled or pickled in spiced vinegar.

For many hundreds of years Glasswort was used in the manufacture of glass.  The succulent stems were gathered at low tide, dried and burned in heaps.  The crude ash which is high in soda was then fused with sand to make a poor quality glass.  Saltworts were also used for this purpose.

View inland with the R. Blyth on the right

We had enjoyed our hour on the beach and went home cool and relaxed.

Thanks for visiting!

All Change!

Tags

Crockham Hill, Dog's Mercury, family life, funeral, fungus, House renovations, Kent, lesser celandine, lichen, Lords and Ladies, Minsmere, moss, Norwich Railway Station, Peterborough Mosque, plants, presents, The Fens, trees, Tyrrels Wood, woodland

We have had a very busy few weeks here with very little time for relaxation.  We are all rather tired and stressed and could do with a holiday (or a few weeks at home with nothing to do!), though there is little chance of that just yet.

All the planned work in this first phase of house renovation has been done and we are very pleased with the results.  The new windows, doors and garage doors are looking good and the house and garage are feeling much warmer.  We still have a little sorting out to do in the garage and a few more trips to the tip and charity shops with the things we no longer need.  There is a little room at the back of the garage which had a toilet and wash-hand basin in it which we never used.  We had the plumbing removed shortly after Christmas and Richard painted the room last week.  He has bought some shelves for it and we hope it will be a good storage room for the bird-seed and fruit and vegetables.  It has a window which we hope to brick up and put in a vent in its place.  For now we will put a screen against the window to prevent the light getting in.

Potatoes chitting on the garage window-sill. Note the new window!

We worked very hard to get the house ready for the work and it was worth the trouble we took.  Most of the time there was just one window fitter – a very pleasant, hard-working man who was so proficient and tidy it was a pleasure to have him here.  He let us know which rooms he would be working on during the following day so we prepared by moving furniture and covering everything we could with dust sheets.  While he worked on one room we got the next ready and so we progressed round the house.  He was here for five days and on his last day with us he was joined by a colleague and together they replaced the Velux window in Elinor’s room.  It was unfortunate that the weather wasn’t very nice that day with snow, sleet, hail and rain showers and it took some time for Elinor’s room to warm up again.  We supplied the men with plenty of hot tea to help them keep warm!

I washed, dried and ironed lots of pairs of curtains and also took the opportunity to launder other furnishings too.  I feel I made a good start to my spring cleaning!

Elinor took her two mock maths GCSE exams the same week that we had most of the window work done.  (She is re-taking her maths because the grade she got last year wasn’t good enough).  She also handed in her art project work that she had been working on since Christmas.  She got a pass mark for the art (there are only two marks she could have got – a pass or a referral) and she got a ‘C’ for her maths which has pleased us all.  If she gets a ‘C’ grade when she takes her exams for real in the summer it will mean she has the minimum grade all colleges and employers demand.  She won’t ever have to go to a Maths class again or take any more maths exams.  (A sigh of relief from Elinor!)

View from Crockham Hill churchyard.

I now feel I must say how much I appreciated all your kindnesses when I spoke of the death of my aunt – I was most touched; thank-you.  The funeral went very well and was a very satisfying celebration of her life.  It was good to see my brother, sister and all my cousins and their families and to re-visit Kent and Crockham Hill, the village where my Aunt Marie and Uncle Fred lived for so many years.  Aunt Marie had moved away into sheltered accomodation after Uncle Fred died.

Aunt Marie and Uncle Fred

It was sleeting and snowing as I set off for my brother’s house that morning and that continued until my brother had driven us to the Suffolk/Essex border when the clouds began to break up.  When we got to Westerham in Kent where we stopped for coffee, the sun had come out.  My cousin had arranged a lovely buffet meal for us all after the funeral in The Royal Oak, Uncle Fred’s local pub.

The Fens in Cambridgeshire seen from the window of the train I took to Sheffield.

The Fens seen from a train window

The Fens seen from a train window

The Fens seen from a train window

The Fens seen from a train window

I travelled to Sheffield by train so that I could see Alice in her production of Agatha Christie’s ‘And Then There Were None’.  The play was excellently performed by all the cast and I enjoyed it very much.  I stayed at Alice’s house overnight and met one of her housemates and also Alice’s cat, Mona.  Alice and I breakfasted in the city next morning before I caught my train back home.

The Mosque in Peterborough seen from the train

Norwich Railway Station

These life-size figures stand outside the station and are rather a disparate group.  Admiral Lord Nelson on the left; born in Norfolk and was a great Naval commander during the Napoleonic Wars and was killed during the Battle of Trafalgar – Edith Cavell; born in Norfolk and was executed during WW1 for helping allied soldiers escape from occupied Belgium – Stephen Fry; born in London though grew up in Norfolk and is an actor, writer, presenter, activist and ‘National Treasure’.

I saw quite a lot of my mother during the middle of February as she had a number of appointments to keep ( two hospital appointments in Norwich and two with her local doctor) and a fair amount of shopping to do.  Elinor and I had a meeting at her college to discuss her support needs for her next academic year and to deal with any support problems she has this year. I had been looking forward to Elinor’s half-term holiday but as the window replacement carried on into that week and as we had other duties to perform it wasn’t as restful as I’d hoped.  Elinor had a hair appointment on the Thursday and we had planned to go with her and have lunch out in the city.  Unfortunately, I woke with a migraine and had to spend most of the day in bed.  Richard took Elinor to Norwich and they had lunch in a café.  Richard brought me back a lovely couple of presents.

My presents!

I love the design on the tote bag!  It is by the artist Amelia Bowman and is a view across the roofs of the market towards the castle. The book is also just what I need for my visits to the churches in the city.

We have managed two short walks; one at the RSPB reserve at Minsmere and the other in Tyrrels Wood which lies to the north of Diss and Harleston in Norfolk.  Neither of the walks were particularly interesting but we were out in the fresh (very fresh and cold!) air and were taking some exercise.

Minsmere trees

Minsmere trees

Minsmere trees

Minsmere trees

Richard at Minsmere

Minsmere reedbeds

A slideshow of some small but quite interesting things!

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Our walk in Tyrrels Wood was less pleasant as it was so very muddy and we were disappointed by the state it was in.  There was a quantity of litter in the wood, especially near the entrance and it was obvious that the wood is used by dog-walkers.  We had to watch where we walked!  In this country it is illegal to allow one’s dog to foul a public area and not clean up after it.  I am surprised that a large organisation like the Woodland Trust is happy to leave the wood in this condition.

The spotted leaves of Lords and Ladies/Jack-in-the-Pulpit (Arum maculatum) next to Dog’s Mercury (Mercurialis perennis)

Lesser Celandine (Ranunculus ficaria) also with Dog’s Mercury

Tyrrels Wood

An ancient coppice stool. This group of trees was once one tree but through repeated coppicing (cutting back the tree to near ground level to let new shoots re-grow) it has become a group of trees with a shared root system.

The bark patterns on this tree are interesting.

And now for my music selection!  A little trip down memory lane to the summer of 1978 when I was nearly 20 years old and fancy-free.

Thanks for visiting!

October’s End

Tags

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

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.

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.

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

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

The rainbow that appeared at the same time.

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

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.

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.

He photographed it from the other side too

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.

Raindrops caught in a spider’s web

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.

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.

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.

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!

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.

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

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.

Mendham church

Sunset

And another!

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

Thanks for visiting!

 

 

An Autumn Walk at Minsmere.

Tags

autumn, fungus, lichen, Minsmere, plants, ponds, RSPB reserve, Suffolk, trees, walking

We took advantage of a dry but cloudy afternoon earlier this week to walk through the woods at Minsmere.  To those of you who don’t know, Minsmere is an RSPB (Royal Society for the Protection of Birds) wildlife reserve situated on the coast in Suffolk.  We didn’t see many birds, though as the afternoon wore on and the crowds of visitors began to leave we began to hear more birdsong.

The cliff behind the visitor centre with Sand Martin (Delichon urbica) burrows. I’m not sure what the larger holes are – probably rabbit burrows.

We went first to the ponds behind the visitor centre to see if there was any sign of the Bird’s-nest fungus that was discovered there last year.  I looked but didn’t see any though that doesn’t mean it wasn’t there!  I did see some lichen on the decking.

One of the Cladonia lichens

More lichen was growing on the ground amongst the sparse grass and moss.

We saw lots of fungi on our walk but because of the low light many of my photographs didn’t come out very well and had to be erased.

Fungus

Reeds in the pond near the visitor centre – mainly Great Reedmace/ Bulrush (Typha latifolia)

A bright Sweet Chestnut tree (Castanea sativa)

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A little pale sunshine filtered down through the trees

I believe the section they have roped off here is where the Adders (Vipera berus) live.

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We saw plenty of Bramble flowers (Rubus fruticosus agg.)

There was dead wood everywhere

Richard and Elinor watching the rabbits on Warren Hill

Lots of rabbits live here. The birds of prey appreciate this!

We saw more of the sun as we neared sunset

Sun on the reeds and rushes

Minsmere at sunset

Edge of the wood

Sunset

I think this may be Lesser Water-parsnip (Berula erecta) but I am probably wrong.

Here it is again showing its leaves

One of the many ponds

A fern

Holm or Evergreen Oak (Quercus ilex)

The bracken has turned such a rich colour

More dead wood

More colourful bracken

The last fungus we saw – in the carpark!

Thanks for visiting!

A Walk in the Peak District.

Tags

butterfly, caves, Manifold Valley, Peak District, plants, sheep, squash stile, Thor's Cave, walking, Wetton, wild flowers

Not only did we have a week’s holiday in the Lake District this summer but we also went to the Peak District for a week.  I have already told you about the sad start to this break – the death of my mother-in-law on the day of our arrival.  We spent the first full day of our holiday with my brother-in-law but after that there wasn’t anything else to do but wait until we were told by the Coroner that we could arrange the funeral.

We thought we might as well stay in the Peaks and not abandon our holiday.  If Chris (my brother-in-law) needed us we would be close at hand.  We thought we would find comfort in walking in this beautiful part of the country.

After lunch on Saturday 15th August we drove to the village of Wetton in Staffordshire from where we intended to walk along the Manifold Valley.  We drove along a very scenic road en route to Wetton.

The Roaches and Hen Cloud (the nearest hill) seen from the road.

Another view of The Roaches. The Rocks look like spikes on the spine of a dinosaur.

We could just see the Welsh hills on the far horizon beyond the flat Cheshire Plain.

We got to Wetton and found the car park near the centre of the village.  The buildings and houses in the village are mainly made of stone and the church, which was built in the 14th century has an exterior staircase to the belfrey which contains six bells.  The Royal Oak pub, which owns a camping field next to the car park is also the venue for the World Toe Wrestling Championships which began in the 1970’s!

One of the buildings of Wetton.

Another of those squash stiles which let tall and/or thin people through but not livestock or short people with generously proportioned legs etc.

Richard and I crossed this field which sloped steeply down into the deep valley of the River Manifold.

There were many hazards.

A colourful seed-head – probably Hogweed (Heracleum sphondylium).  We also saw a number of Betony (Stachys officinalis) flowers but none of my photos were any good.

The route down to the river valley

At the bottom of the field we crossed a couple of stiles and entered a wood.

Path through the wood

Lots of invasive Rhododendron seedlings

Steps up through the woods

Yet more steps! Gasp! Puff!

We were going to see Thor’s Cave.

Thor’s Cave

This is a Karst Cave i.e. it was formed from the dissolution of soluble limestone.  The entrance is just over 18m up on the hillside and the opening is a symmetrical arch, 7.5m wide and 10m high.  I don’t think there is any connection between this cave and the god Thor; the name probably derives from the word ‘tor’ meaning a hill or rocky peak.   I was most disappointed to find that I didn’t have the ability to climb up to the entrance from the path.  I had to wait outside while Richard explored inside.

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You can see minute-me waving at Richard in one of the photos above.  This will give you some idea of the size of the cave.

This is what the entrance to the cave looks like from the path below.

While Richard enjoyed himself in the cave, I kept myself busy looking for things to photograph outside.

Harebells (Campanula rotundifolia) growing out of a crevice in the stone.

A tiny Maidenhair Spleenwort (Asplenium trichomanes).

Jacob’s-ladder (Polemonium caeruleum)

I saw another cave entrance below us.

After Richard emerged from the cave we walked back down to the valley-floor.

Lots of different plants grew in the scree and rocks of the river-bed alongside the path. There were many wild raspberry canes with ripe fruit but again my camera failed to focus on them.

Meadow Crane’s-bill (Geranium pratense) next to the path.

I’m including another photo of these flowers because I like them! You can see that the seed-heads look a little bit like crane’s heads.

The large leaves of Butterbur (Petasites hybridus). Also known as Wild Rhubarb, the heart-shaped leaves can be up to 1m/3 ft across.

This Meadowsweet (Filipendula ulmaria) was so strongly and beautifully  scented!

Common Knapweed (Centaurea nigra)

Wild flowers

Wild flowers

The path we were walking along was the former Leek and Manifold Light Railway line.  There had even been a station at Thor’s Cave!

This also explains all the well-made steps up to the cave.

View of a hill from the path.

Meadow Vetchling (Lathyrus pratensis)

Red Campion (Silene dioica) and Bramble (Rubus fruticosus agg.)

More Meadowsweet.

Ripening Hazel nuts (Corylus avellana)

The pretty flowers of the terribly invasive Indian Balsam (Impatiens glandulifera)

Another view of the path.

Lots of Rosebay Willowherb (Chamerion angustifolium)

This is the dry river bed of the Manifold.

In anything other than very wet weather the river disappears into swallowholes and flows through caves and subterranean passages and reappears at Ilam further downstream.

Lady’s-mantle (Alchemilla vulgaris agg.)

Field Scabious (Knautia arvensis)

A wonderfully gnarled and twisted tree.

Cinquefoil.  I think this is probably Creeping Cinquefoil but the leaves in the photo aren’t quite what I expect from Creeping Cinquefoil.

Hill and valley.  We had left the old rail-track behind us.

Musk Thistle (Carduus nutans) with its drooping flower-heads

A black-faced lamb

Richard walking along the track

Creeping Thistle (Cirsium arvense)

It was about this stage in our walk that we missed a landmark and went up a hill on the wrong side of a wall.

A stream

Tufted Forget-me-not (Myosotis laxa)

Small Heath butterfly (Coenonympha pamphilus)

I took a photo of this house little realising that we should have gone past it and then climbed the hill.

‘You’re on the wrong side of the wall, you fools!’, said the sheep.

I took a photo of this sheep tunnel (note my shadow) little realising we could have used it to get onto the right side of the wall!

The wall. We little realised we could have climbed over it at this point.

View from the hillside

Another view

Sun setting behind a hill

It was here that it dawned on us we were heading for the wrong valley.

We re-traced our steps right back to the house I had photographed earlier.

Rock Stonecrop (Sedum forsterianum). This specimen was probably a garden escapee as the plant is only native in the SW of England.

I am not sure what this plant is. I think it might be Bogbean (Menyanthes trifoliata) but I am not sure. My guide says that the emergent leaves of Bogbean have the texture and appearance of broad bean leaves which I would say these do.  However….

Knotgrass (Polygonum aviculare)

And that was the last photo I took you’ll be pleased to know.  Only when we got back to the house and saw that the correct path went up the same, long, steep hill that we had just climbed and then come down again, but on the other side of that wall that we realised exactly what we had done and what we still had to do.  I must admit that our hearts sank and we suddenly felt very tired.  We did it though; and got back to the car before the sun set.  We were tempted to have a meal in the pub but thought how late we would get back to our caravan if we did so.  We were very thankful to find the car and then return to the caravan site.

Thanks for visiting!

Apologies for the length of the post.