A Graduation Ceremony

Tags

Doctor of Philosophy, PhD, Sheffield, Sheffield University

On the 10th of January, Richard, Elinor and I travelled by train to Sheffield to stay the night with Alice, Phil and Mona the cat.  Our reason for the visit, apart from wanting to see them because we love them, was to witness Alice receive her PhD at a Graduation Ceremony at the University of Sheffield the following day.  Unfortunately, Alice was only allotted two tickets, so while Phil and I sat in the warmth and comfort of a large hall full of people and listened to a saxophone quartet before the formalities began, Richard and Elinor trudged off towards the city centre in search of an art gallery or two and somewhere warm to while away a couple of hours.  Phil impressed me with his ability to recognise and name most of the tunes played by the quartet; no mean feat!

Alice in full regalia before the ceremony, including matching ruby slippers!

Alice and Phil.

Alice and me.

We didn’t have long to wait for Alice’s moment of glory as she was just the second person out of many to receive a handshake from the Chancellor.  (Just look at all those mortar boards at the bottom of the next photo!)

The Chancellor, a high court judge, stands to greet those receiving PhDs; she sits to shake the hands of those receiving MAs and I assume, BAs. No words of encouragement to Alice after her congratulations, just – ‘I love the sparkly shoes!’

After nearly an hour there was a lull in the proceedings while an eminent librarian received an honorary degree and gave her speech.  Then many more people filed past to collect their PhDs and MAs and …… it was all over!

Doctor Alice!

Alice returned her robes and we walked into the city to meet up with the other two.  After a late lunch we returned to Alice’s house for a rest and to collect our luggage then got the train home, arriving at our door at about 10.45 pm.

I wish to thank Phil for the 1st, 3rd and 4th photos; I took the other two.

 

A Little Bit of This and a Little Bit of That

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.

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.

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.

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.

‘All for one and one for all!’

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.

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.

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.

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

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!

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.

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.

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

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

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

Fleabane with Pollen Beetles (Meligethes aeneus)

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.

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

Interesting cloud formation.

A hoverfly on Bramble (Rubus fruticosus agg. ) flowers

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

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.

Richard and I like this view across a field

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…

Cheeky!

…I realised a bee had photobombed my picture!

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

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.

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

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

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.

Pretty pink clouds!

Thanks for visiting!

 

Peak District Holiday 1st to 9th July. Days 1 and 2.

Tags

Buxton, camping, caravanning, Chinley, Duke of Devonshire, Flash, holiday, Huntingdon, Pavilion, Pavilion Gardens, Peak District National Park, River Great Ouse, River Wye, Roman, scout camps, Sheffield, spa town, Staffordshire Moorland, Stffordshire, Testament of Youth, The Crescent, Vera Brittain, war memorial, warm springs

When I was young and living at home with my parents, our summer holidays were camping holidays spent in the UK.  I became fairly well travelled in England, Scotland and Wales.  We never went to Northern Ireland because not only was the cost of the cross-channel ferry prohibitive and the journey was too far for the five of us travelling in a small car from Kent, but Northern Ireland was not a safe place to go during the 1960s and 70s.

This is not my family but we had a tent very much like this one

 Not only did we go on family camping holidays but we also went on scout camps because my father was a Scout Master for many years.  I didn’t like scout camps as I was very shy and a little frightened of all the big, noisy boys but my younger brother and sister loved them and wanted to join in all the fun and were upset when they weren’t allowed.  Mum was in charge of the first aid.

This is an image I got by googling. Scout camps were just like this.

R’s family holidays were in bed and breakfast hotels as his mother refused to go camping, having had enough of it in the Girl Guides.  He was a Scout and enjoyed going off on scout camps and grew to love the hills, mountains, moors and rivers in the North of England.  He eventually became a Scout Leader himself with his own scout troop.

I had camped a couple of times since leaving home and before marrying Richard so we did consider getting a tent.  Eventually, after holidaying in rented cottages for a couple of years we decided to get a caravan instead.  Our daughter E had just been born and we thought a caravan holiday would be easier to cope with than camping.  Camping and caravanning holidays have their drawbacks but we have always enjoyed the freedom they bring.

R and I have just bought a new caravan.  Our two previous ones had been second-hand and this is our first brand new one.  We are very pleased with it and hope to be able to go away in it very often.  That is not to say that we won’t be going to hotels and holiday cottages again, we will, especially as E hates caravanning now she is older.

I find getting ready for holidays quite exhausting.  Having a new van made things a little easier as we didn’t need to clean and service it, but making sure the house and garden are left clean and tidy before we go, making sure Mum has everything she needs for the time we are away and trying to remember to pack all we need for the holiday was tiring enough.

 I decided to stop feeding the birds just before we left.  While I had been in Sheffield during the week before, something had killed one of the three ducklings that were living in the garden.  Also, a couple of days before we left, I was admiring a little bird looking for insects in the window box outside my kitchen window, when a kestrel plummeted out of the sky and caught it just in front of me.  I felt that the feeders were making the birds I wished to feed more vulnerable to birds of prey and also to the cats in the neighbourhood.  I had been having a lot of trouble from the local squirrels too.  They had wrecked a few feeders and had been eating so much of the bird food as well.  They had become very bold and one had tried to attack me when I attempted to shoo it away from the ground feeder.  I wished to discourage this and a period of no food might be good for all concerned.

We all set off in good time on the morning of the 1st July but at Huntingdon we got stuck in a traffic jam for an hour and a quarter because of an over-turned lorry.

This is the view from the car while we were on the stationary A14.  The river is the Great Ouse.  We were sent on another diversion to avoid another accident involving a lorry when we were only half an hour away from our destination so the journey was very long and tedious.  For the last few years we have stayed in the Staffordshire Moorlands right on the edge of the Peak District National Park.  The site is at Blackshaw Moor, just to the north of the town of Leek.

   A had kindly offered to look after E for the week, so as soon as we had found our caravan site and pitched the caravan we set off again to the nearest railway station on the line to Sheffield.  While E and I and her enormous, weighty suitcase took the train to Sheffield, R found a supermarket and bought supplies for the week.  He then waited and waited for my return.  I meanwhile, got to Sheffield and we found A waiting for us at the station.  I handed over E, the suitcase and a quantity of money and then found them something to eat.  I decided to get myself a sandwich as the next train back to Chinley, the station where R was waiting, didn’t go for another hour.  I eventually got back to R just after 9p.m.  We drove the 25 or so miles back to our caravan, unpacked the car, collected the water and plugged the electric cable in and our holiday had begun. 

The following day, after a very leisurely breakfast and a restful morning, we put the awning to the caravan up.  The awning (a tent-like porch attached to the caravan) is not a large one but we find it useful for hanging coats and towels and keeping shoes and rucksacks etc.  We sometimes sit out there and we have used the awning for dining in the past when all four of us were together or when we have had visitors.

That afternoon we visited Buxton, about half an hour’s drive away across beautiful moorland.  The views from the road are outstanding especially on a fine day.  One of the villages we pass on the road is called Flash which is reputedly the highest village in the Peak District.  It is 461m /1514′ above sea level and is often snowbound in the winter.  it was once a hideout for footpads, highwaymen and counterfeiters and prize fights took place there even after it was made illegal.

The village of Flash, courtesy of google images

Buxton is the highest town of its size in England at 300m/984′ above sea level and has been occupied continuously since Roman times.

Buxton Thermal Baths – google image

The Romans were attracted by the warm springs which emerge near the River Wye and are a constant 28 degrees C.  They built baths here and these springs have been very important to the town ever since.  The spring at St Ann’s Well was probably a place of pilgrimage since the Middle Ages and by Tudor times it had been established as a spa.

St Ann’s Well – google image

The great period of Buxton as a spa began when the 5th Duke of Devonshire started the construction of the Crescent in 1780.  The building took ten years to build and cost £38000, a fabulous sum in those days.  It was sited alongside the site of St Ann’s Well.  From then until the 20th century many fine buildings and hotels were constructed in Buxton.  In 1851-53 a new set of thermal baths were built and in 1863 the railway arrived in the town which made the spa much more accessible.  The Opera House and the Pavilion Gardens were built.  Vera Brittain, who wrote ‘Testament of Youth’, her book about her life during the First World War, grew up in Buxton.  The main industry of the town from the 19th century to the present day is limestone quarrying.  The spa declined in popularity after the Second World War but since the 1980’s when the Opera House was re-opened the town has started to come alive again.  The annual Opera Festival was established and the University of Derby moved into the former Devonshire Royal Hospital building.  There is work going on now to re-open the spa and the Crescent.  For the past couple of times we have visited the town we haven’t been able to see the Crescent because of the hoardings in front of it. 

This is what the Crescent looked like the last time we saw it – google image

The reason why there are so many google images in this post is because we forgot to take our cameras out with us.  R was able to take a couple of pictures with his phone and these I will include now.

The Pavilion

We did some shopping for things R couldn’t get the night before and then walked up to the Pavilion, looked at the plants in the glasshouse and had coffee/tea in the café.  We walked about the Gardens and then walked back down to the town past the War Memorial.

View of Buxton from the War Memorial

The day, which had started bright and breezy, became cloudy and very humid during the afternoon.  We returned to our caravan and rested for the rest of the day as we were still very tired from our exertions of the day before.

A Visit to Sheffield

Tags

'The Company', abutilon, architecture, Botanical Gardens, canna, chapels, copper beech, Drama Studio, Ely Cathedral, eringium, George Etherege, HMS Sheffield, Man of Mode, memorial, Mrs Loveit, pavilions, pelargonium, review, Sheffield, Sheffield cathedral, Sheffield Star, Tour de France, water feature, Windy wet weather

We were away from home on holiday from Tuesday 1st July until Wednesday 9th July.  As we neared home on Wednesday the weather deteriorated – the sun disappeared, the wind picked up and the temperature dropped.  While we had been away the weather at home had been quite warm with a little sun but a lot of cloud according to my mother.  I took Mum out shopping yesterday and we were fortunate to be able to do it in the dry.  Shortly after getting home at 2.00pm the heavens opened and it rained for hours with some thunder and lightning.  I went for my monthly blood test this morning and chatted to my friend who is the phlebotomist at the medical centre.  Her daughter and my younger daughter E are the same age and were friends when E was able to go to school.  The Sixth Form Centre that Katrina attends was flooded yesterday and the roof was blown off the maths block so Katrina was enjoying a day off school.  My friend keeps horses and a tree had blown down in her paddock yesterday too.  The weather is quite autumnal at present.

Wheat field behind our house

The wind and rain has done considerable damage to the fields of crops in the area.  Please note the overwhelming grey sky!

My last post ended with me about to visit my eldest daughter in Sheffield to watch her perform in George Etherege’s play ‘Man of Mode’.  The few times I have visited her I have only stayed for one night so this time I booked two nights in a hotel and hoped I would be less rushed and tired and would be able to see more of my daughter and more of the city as well.

The journey was virtually uneventful and there were no delays.  The air conditioning wasn’t working on the train and I was amused by a young man becoming hot and somewhat bothered trying to force open a locked window.  The conductor eventually wandered through the carriage and asked if we would like the window opened.  We were very pleased to see him open it with a key  – fresh air is a wonderful thing!

The approach to Sheffield station seen from the station  Google image

I have had to supplement my photos with some from the internet as not all of mine came out well.

I decided to walk to my hotel in the city centre as it was a fine afternoon and made myself a refreshing cup of tea.  After a short rest I went out shopping and bought some food for our early evening meal and took a taxi to A’s house. The taxi driver was friendly and told me all about his daughters and what he planned to have for his evening meal.  He was just about to finish work for the day.  I had arranged with A that she would be standing at the end of her driveway as I probably wouldn’t recognise her house.  I pointed her out to the taxi driver who waved at her.  He was surprised that she didn’t wave back but of course I told him she had been brought up well and didn’t wave to strange men in cars.

A made us a cup of tea and then we ate our meal and I enjoyed our chat.  I walked with her to the Drama Studio and while she got changed ready for the performance I waited outside for the doors to open.  I had plenty of time to re-acquaint myself with the view from the top of the steps.

Houses opposite the studios

Shops opposite the studios

I had plenty of time to stare at the door too…..

The entrance to the drama studios

and at some of the carved detail.

I took a photograph of the studios the next day and looking at the resultant picture I see that either I wasn’t standing up straight or the building is leaning backwards.

Drama Studios

I think it was me!

The building looks like a former church and from a photograph on display inside, I found that it had been used at one time as a synagogue.

I enjoyed the play immensely and was sorry that there were so few people in the audience.  A played the part of Mrs Loveit, a spurned mistress –  a jealous, bitter woman out for revenge.

These are photos of A taken by a friend in the dressing room.  They do not quite show how beautiful she is or how good she looked in her costume.

I waited for her afterwards and we walked back to my hotel together and had a drink in the bar before she got the bus back to her house.

The next day we met mid-morning and she took me to see the Cathedral.

Sheffield Cathedral Google images

It was formerly a parish church dedicated to St Peter and St Paul but was made a cathedral one hundred years ago in 1914.  There has been a church on the site for a thousand years but the oldest part of the present building dates from 1430.  Chapels were added over the years – for example in 1520 the 4th Earl of Shrewsbury built the Shrewsbury Chapel where he and his two wives have their tomb and there is a grand monument to the 6th Earl who was guardian to Mary Queen of Scots when she was imprisoned in Sheffield  from 1570-1584.

Chancel ceiling with golden angels

Another ceiling

 

But by the 19th century it had also become very dilapidated.  A diarist of the time said that the church was ‘one of the most gloomy places of worship in the kingdom.’  This is no surprise as Sheffield is also known as ‘Steel City’ and in the 19th century the place was full of steel and iron foundries with furnaces blazing all day and night.  The dirt, soot and smoke must have been terrible.   The nave had to be demolished and rebuilt, the church was enlarged and the interior was modernised.

Ancient banners hanging in one of the chapels

Memorial

 

This lovely statue is a memorial to commemorate the special relationship between the city of Sheffield and ships of the Royal Navy bearing the city’s name.  It was placed in the cathedral on 17th April 2000 by His Royal Highness the Duke of York CVO ADC.  It is a tribute to all those who gave their lives in the service of their country.  British people remember that HMS Sheffield, a 4,100 tonne destroyer with a crew of 300 on board was hit by an Argentinian Exocet missile on 4th May 1982.  Twenty died and twenty-six suffered blast and burn injuries.  It was the first ship to be lost in enemy action since the Second World War.  Prince Andrew took part in the Falklands War.

A Chapel

A Chapel

The church was made a cathedral when the new diocese of Sheffield was formed.  Yet more plans were made to enlarge the cathedral but only some of the building works were carried out.  In the early 1960s more extensions were made including the narthex entrance and the west end was extended with a lantern tower.  The latter was repaired and new glass put in in 1998-1999.  Work is continuing to this day.

The Lantern

After admiring the Cathedral we walked up through the city to the Botanical Gardens  This was originally laid out in 1836 in the ‘Gardenesque’ style which featured winding paths and scattered plantings among tree-planted mounds.  The Gardens are listed by English Heritage as a Grade II site of special historic and architectural interest.  A major restoration programme was completed in 2005.

Sheffield Botanical Gardens Google images

We wandered about the grounds admiring the plants and sat for a while on a bench.  I didn’t manage to take many photos unfortunately as both A and I were bothered by sore feet!

Copper Beech leaves

Eringium

Eringium

A modern clock on the glass pavilion

The pavilions contain plants from the temperate regions of the world.  They are 90 metres long and contain thousands of panes of hand-blown glass.

Abutilon

Canna

Pelargonium

Abutilon

We had lunch – a cream tea (scone, jam, clotted cream, cup of tea) in the restaurant and then went our separate ways – A back to her house to do some more writing and me to traipse all the way back to my hotel for another rest and then more shopping for food.

I decided to walk back to A’s house instead of taking the bus or going by taxi but half way there I almost regretted my decision as it was all uphill, quite warm and my shopping was heavy.  However, I managed it and felt very pleased with myself once I had got my breath back.  We ate together as we had done the day before and again I walked to the Studio with her and waited outside  for the doors to open.  There was a larger audience this evening and I enjoyed the performance as much as I had done the evening before.  I met A after the performance and said good-bye to her there as she was seeing friends after the show.  I walked back to my hotel quite exhausted having walked some miles in the past couple of days.  It had rained while we had been in the theatre but stayed dry for my walk back to the city centre.

Steep hill down to the station

The following morning I returned to the railway station.  Sheffield was getting itself ready for the Tour de France with banners and posters everywhere.

The water feature outside the station didn’t look so attractive on a cloudy day.

The train journey home went quite quickly and I enjoyed it more as I had a window seat this time.  We passed through lots of showers of rain and I managed to take a photo of Ely Cathedral as we pulled out of the station.

It is easier to see in the winter when the trees are bare!

A told me her play had been reviewed in the Sheffield Star so I looked it up on the internet.  A was described as ‘the excellent A S’ – but I could have told them that!

 

Travelling

Tags

'The Company', Chesterfield, Ely Cathedral, Grime's Graves, Hundred Foot Washes, Peterborough, Sheffield, swans, The Fens, Thetford, Train journey

I enjoy looking out of the window on train journeys and there is a lot to see on the route to Sheffield from Norwich. The first stop is at Thetford. R and I have only walked once in Thetford Forest and that was years ago before E was born. However, nearby is a favourite place of R’s and mine – Grime’s Graves. This is a really interesting and beautiful place. A wide open grassy area of quite a few acres surrounded by trees. The ground is pock-marked and humped – the remains of neolithic flint mines which had been back-filled after the flint had been abstracted. The first time we went there we went down one of the shafts which is open to the public and saw the extremely narrow tunnels made thousands of years ago. The experts think that children were used to dig the flint out which was very valuable and highly regarded at that time. R and I love walking around above ground too. It is very peaceful and there are so many different wild flowers growing in the short grass. The sound of sky-larks is all around.
The fens begin shortly after Thetford and even though we have had so much rainfall there didn’t seem to be too many places suffering from flooding. The soil is such a rich black colour and the contrast between it and the vivid green shoots of the wheat and barley was quite striking. This is no doubt one of the places where the ‘dirty celery’ comes from that I see for sale at home.
I love seeing Ely Cathedral as we approach it across the flat fens. It is an enormous building but so delicate looking. R and I went to Ely one weekend about twenty years ago and attended the Sunday morning service. I think it was late winter/early spring time and very windy just like now. It wasn’t that many years after the 1986 storm: the wind made me very nervous and I spent a sleepless night cowering under the bedclothes. I was also a little shy about going to the service at the cathedral; I remember feeling very awkward. We haven’t been back since – mainly lack of opportunity and time – but I would love to go again. From the train I saw many boats and houseboats tied up to the quays and boatbuilders working in their yards. Lots of birds too – heron, ducks, geese, mute swans, little egret.
Between Ely and Peterborough are more fens and The Hundred Foot Washes with the New Bedford River or Hundred Foot Drain on the Ely side, the Old Bedford River on the other and inbetween a wide expanse of water. The railway crosses this on a little causeway and with the wind making waves on the water one feels quite vulnerable and glad to get to the other side. I saw large flocks of swans on the fields; I couldn’t see whether they were Bewick’s or Whooper swans as the train was going too fast.
From one side of the train at Peterborough you can see the large mosque with its green dome and minaret and on the other side the rather squat cathedral.
After Peterborough the Fens are left behind and the countryside gets more hilly and wooded. I like to imagine myself walking through these woods and across the fields; wondering what I would see over the hill in the distance. The train goes through Grantham, Nottingham and Alfreton – lots of woody knolls near Alfreton – and then to Chesterfield of the twisted church spire, which can also be seen from the train!
I got to Sheffield in the pouring rain so decided to take a taxi to my hotel instead of walking. The lifts weren’t working and I foolishly said I didn’t need help with my luggage. After struggling up seven flights of stairs to get to my room I regretted this very much! I met A almost immediately and we had a very pleasant couple of hours chatting over a meal in a vegetarian café while it got dark outside and the rain got heavier. A’s dramatic society is called The Company and they were performing Shakespeare’s ‘Julius Caesar’. A had to be at the theatre at 6.30 so we set off at 6.00 to walk there – a fast walk and all uphill so I certainly got plenty of exercise after my sedentary journey. A had her umbrella; my coat has a hood so I carried the bag of things I had brought from home for her – a book, some letters and her walking trainers. We got to our destination just before 6.30 and A went to the dressing room to get ready. The doors didn’t open until after 7.00 so I waited outside – A left me her umbrella but I didn’t need it as I managed to get some shelter under the portico over the doors.
The play was very well performed; A was so good, as always, as Portia and the young man who played Cassius was excellent too. Afterwards, A walked back with me to my hotel to have a drink in the bar then came up to my room to see the enormous bed there. Four people could comfortably have slept in it! I walked with A to her bus-stop and saw her on to it before returning to the hotel. She texted a little later to say she was safely at home and already in bed. I spent the night clinging to the edge of my bed as to a raft in a stormy sea! I am not used to such space.
When I got home the following afternoon I found not only had I missed the septic tank being emptied (what a shame, I don’t think! Glad it’s been done though) but the work to clear the willow from around our pond had started that day and the top of our tall leylandii hedge, which serves as a windbrake on the south side of the house, had been trimmed. The pond and surround looks so different now especially as the JCB had sunk into the ground all round the pond and has left quite a quagmire. Most of the daffodils have gone and all of the cowslips and violets. Nevertheless, the work had to be done and we can always replace the daffodils if we want to and the cowslips and violets will return eventually. The men weren’t able to finish all the work so are coming back on Monday.
A phoned me today to say the rest of the run of the play went very well and they were reviewed in the Sheffield Star. She was mentioned personally!

Preparations for a Journey

Tags

'Julius Caesar', Diss, fir tree sapling, flood warning, greylags, Halesworth, Harleston, Norwich, Sheffield

I have only spent a little time in the garden during the past two days.  I won’t be at home for the next couple of days so I have been doing housework and shopping to make sure E and R will be alright while I am gone.  I am going to Sheffield to see A, my eldest daughter and to watch her perform in her dramatic society’s production of ‘Julius Caesar’.  A is playing Portia and I am really looking forward to seeing her and watching the play.  I won’t be staying with her this time as she is now in a shared house and there isn’t the room.  I am staying in a hotel in the centre of the city close to the Cathedral.  I hardly ever go away on my own – in fact the last time I did was just over three years ago when I attended A’s M.A. graduation ceremony in Sheffield.  She has been studying for her PhD for the past three years and it is nearing completion.  She is also looking for work and running out of money!

E, my younger daughter, has been looking after a little fir tree sapling in her room for a year since my mother gave it to her.  It is growing quite well but looking a little pale.  I have been suggesting for some time that it ought to go outside and get some fresh air but she has been reluctant to let it go.  I think she remembers the ones I grew from seed a few years ago that were doing very well until I put them outside only to be eaten by something.  I have put her little tree in the greenhouse with other trees I am growing – a yew, two beeches, two oaks and a couple of laburnums.  In the spring they will go outside but somewhere where the deer and pheasants can’t get at them.  While I was in the greenhouse yesterday I checked all the plants in there – tidied them up and gave a little water to most of them.

  The geese are making themselves at home as usual.  They wander about over the garden leaving ‘little messages’ all over the place.  They join next door’s chickens in pecking up spilt seed under the feeders and bird tables.  The female especially has started following me about when I am outside in the hope that I may give them something to eat.  They were around this morning but when I got home about 3pm they had flown off somewhere less windswept.  I spent most of today with my mother helping with shopping, going to Harleston and Diss with her and then collecting her medication from the surgery.  We had a nice chat over a cup of coffee when we got back to her house and then I had some shopping of my own to do in Halesworth and my own medication to collect.  I also remembered, at last, to call in at the church and change the church colours;  the altar frontal and the cloth on the pulpit have been white since Christmas but now that we have had Candlemas the green cloth and frontal must be put up.  The colours will stay green until Ash Wednesday, the beginning of Lent, when all changes to purple.  R usually does this as he is one of the Churchwardens but he has been very busy this week so I offered to do it.  He had to take his car in for a service today at the recommended garage in Norwich.  In total he has driven about 140 miles today just for a car service!  Thirty miles to Norwich, probably over forty miles to his place of work, the same distance this afternoon back to the garage and then thirty miles home again

.  I didn’t spend long in the garden this afternoon as the weather was so wet and windy.  I saw more molehills, more wood down off the birch tree and all the ponds have risen again.  R tells me that the there is a flood warning on the Waveney and the Beck today – this does not surprise me though we have had less rain here than most other places around the country.