On May Bank Holiday, the first Monday after May Day, Rumburgh village always holds a fair and Rumburgh church always has the cake stall – a money-earner, though not as good as the tea tent. This year, I had made a honey and ginger cake which Richard and I delivered to the stall along with a quantity of our rhubarb, which usually sells well. We didn’t stay long as we had a few chores to do at home and we had planned to go to the seaside in the afternoon.
The day was cool and breezy and rain was forecast for late in the afternoon so Elinor, Richard and I set off as soon as we had had our lunch.
We found ‘Thelma’ hauled far up on the shingle.
We looked inside her and what did we find?
A dried-up dogfish tail.
The wind was cold and strong on the beach and the spray from the waves was being blown about.
Looking north up the beach….
…and southwards.
Inland, behind the shingle bank, is Dingle Marshes Nature Reserve, looked after by the RSPB (Royal Society for the Protection of Birds) and The Suffolk Wildlife Trust.
Richard contemplating the view. It was good to be out of the wind!
Plenty of Sea Campion (Silene uniflora) were in flower.
A Little Egret ( Egretta garzetta) was wading through the marsh
Here it is again, marching purposefully on!
Another view of the marshes with a bright yellow ribbon of Gorse (Ulex europaeus)
Common Scurvygrass (Cochlearia officinalis)
A plant of saltmarshes and increasingly, along the sides of roads that have been salted during the winter. (Danish Scurvygrass (Cochlearia danica) however, is seen more regularly than Common Scurvygrass on roadsides). Common Scurveygrass has almost circular fleshy leaves with a few blunt teeth along the edges. The seedpods are spherical and a few can be seen on a flower-cluster close to the centre-right edge of this photo. In that same cluster of flowers and seedpods is a tiny yellow-beige 16 spot ladybird which fees on pollen, fungi and nectar.
In the past, scurvy was a very common disease, often fatal, in those who spent much of their time at sea. Their diet was restricted to salt pork and dried biscuit and they had no fresh fruit or vegetables. Many on land also had restricted diets so it was a happy day when herbalists discovered that scurvygrass, with its high vitamin C content, was one of the foods that prevented the disease. It became the fashion in 17th century England to take a glass of scurvygrass water every morning. The leaves were made into a beer called scurvygrass ale.
The gorse was so bright and cheerful.
Gorse is also known as furze or whin and grows on the acidic soil of heathland and close to the sea. It is an excellent fuel and burns quickly and fiercely in dry weather causing heath fires to spread. It was grown near houses so that washing could be lain out to dry on it and the prickles would prevent the clothes from blowing away.
There was plenty of Sheep’s Sorrel (Rumex acetosella ) with its red flower-spikes.
Sheep’s Sorrel is more sprawling than Common Sorrel and is usually found on very poor sandy soil. The leaves contain the chemical calcium oxalate which tastes acid; the name ‘sorrel’ comes from the old French word for ‘sour’ (‘surele’).
Lovely rosettes of the leaves of Buck’s-horn Plantain ( Plantago coronopus)
The seeds of this plantain exude a large amount of mucilage when they get wet. This gummy stuff was used in France to stiffen muslins and other woven fabrics.
There were paths through the reeds.
And an approaching rain shower.
A small wader
Here it is again. Apologies for the poor quality of my picture.
This is the same bird in both photos but I am unable, through ignorance, to identify it. It may be a sandpiper of some sort. I am sure someone will be able to suggest a name. It moved about very quickly.
An information board.
Please click on any of my photos to enlarge them.
Another information board.
We soon left for home before the rain arrived and had a warming cup of tea.
Last November, Alice had two weeks holiday after leaving her old job and before starting her new one and came to see us for five days. We loved having her with us for so long. She spent those few days sorting out some of her belongings as well as visiting an old friend and cycling to Rumburgh to look round the village where we used to live. We took her out for a meal one evening and on the one bright and dry day of the week we had lunch in Southwold and walked along the front.
Seagulls perched on the top of the breakwater.
The tide was in and the wind was very strong and cold.
A recent storm had caused this set of steps to be covered in sand and stones.
Even as the tide receded, the waves were still very large and powerful.
Southwold Pier
There was spume all over the beach.
Another view of the pier.
Richard, Alice and Elinor sitting on the steps by the café.
We didn’t sit for too long as it really was extremely cold in the wind. We turned and made our way back to the car and instead of walking back along the front we crossed the road and walked through the town.
A last view of the sea.
I will end this post by including a rather blurry photograph of a bird seen from our spare room window.
A pure white pheasant.
I last saw this bird just after Christmas. Friends of ours had two white pheasants visiting their garden. I am surprised the birds lasted as long as they did as they don’t exactly blend in with their surroundings, do they?
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.
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.
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
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Southern Hawker dragonfly (Aeshna cyanea)
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.
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.
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!
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.
Fly ( possibly Tachina fera) on Marjoram
Yarrow (Achillea millefolium) with unknown bug
Common Ragwort (Senecio jacobaea) with Hoverfly (Sphaerophoria scripta) and another unknown insect
Common Ragwort with Hoverfly (Helophilus pendulus) also known as the Footballer Hoverfly because of the striped thorax which looks like a football jersey
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.
Sea Kale leaf (Crambe maritima) with sheltering snails
Sea Kale with seed heads
Dunwich beach
Dunwich beach
Yellow Horned-poppy (Glaucium flavum)
Yellow Horned-poppy
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.
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.
Out of focus photograph of the sunset that evening during a rain shower.
Moments from a Norfolk Country Cottage. The furred & feathered & the worn and weathered. A Druid Herbalist with a Passion for Cats, Vintage, Dogs, Interiors, Nature, Hens, Organic Veggie Food, Plants & Trees & a Kinship with The Earth.
