We weren’t very adventurous this spring, staying close to home and taking things easy, so there wasn’t too much to blog about.
A visit to St Michael’s church on the first mild spring day in March
We admired the ‘Narnia’ lamp post by the gate.
We were unable to tell the time as the sun failed to shine.
The peaceful churchyard.
Marsh Marigold (Caltha palustris ) The flowers are in the centre of the bloom and have no petals. The 5 – 8 petal-like sepals are bright shiny yellow.
Peacock butterfly (Inachis io) It was very sluggish and was still in the grass outside the church when we came out again.
A pair of Greylags (Anser anser) took up residence in our garden as they usually do each spring
We enjoy their company.
They constructed a nest on the island in the middle of the big pond but after ten days it was abandoned. Feathers were spread everywhere. We don’t know what happened but we suspect an otter or an American mink was to blame.
The abandoned nest.
After we lost our summerhouse in the storm earlier this year we spent some time clearing the area behind it and discovered this tree with the deformed trunk. What could have caused this?
We enjoy seeing all the birds that visit our garden including the Pied Wagtails (Motacilla alba). Not a good shot as the bird hurried into the dappled shade just as I took its picture.
A sunset seen from the back of the house.
On a visit to our church at Rumburgh we saw this Mallard duck (Anas platyrhynchos) resting in the shade of a gravestone.
Primroses (Primula vulgaris) in the churchyard
I love the informality of our country churchyards and I like to see the wild flowers there. The wild flowers are just as much God’s work as any garden flower or exotic bloom. They have a haven in our churchyards and should be safe from herbicides.
Barren Strawberry (Potentilla sterilis)
Richard on his way to church
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Meanwhile, back in my garden…..
My Pieris with its new leaves of red and its little white bell flowers
I have been growing these hyacinth bulblets on in shallow tubs and they are now ready for planting out in the garden to flower next spring.
Scented narcissi and pink aubretia
Elinor gave me some more aubretia, a mauve variety, as a gift on Mothering Sunday
Lathyrus and scilla
Pasque flowers. These began flowering just a couple of days after Easter Sunday.
I had a large patch of these red saxifrage but the deer scraped most of them up. I’m hoping they will spread again.
Before Christmastide draws to a close I thought I’d better write something about what we managed to do over the past few weeks.
This is the Advent Crown that Elinor and I made this Christmas. The first candle was lit on the first Sunday in Advent.
Norwich Market
Norwich Market
The 1st of December began with a frost (we had many frosty and foggy days in December) but by the time I had driven Elinor into Norwich for her afternoon classes at college it had clouded over and had become a little milder. The light wasn’t really good enough for photographs but the city had recently put it’s decorations up and was looking festive, though these photos make it look rather gloomy!
During the whole month, unless I got to the city before 9.00 am, I was unable to find a parking space in any of the car-parks. Norwich Council would like their visitors to arrive by train, bus, bike or on foot and don’t make it at all easy for car drivers. There is very little public transport from where I live so we have to drive into town. There are ‘park and ride’ places on the outskirts of the city but an acquaintance of mine queued for ages to get into the car-park and then waited an age with crowds of other shoppers for a bus which was full before he got to it! He returned home without doing his shopping. I have discovered a roadside parking area near to the college where I get two hours free parking and which is only a fifteen minute walk away from the city centre! This is where I had parked that day. I had coffee and a sandwich in a café and did some Christmas shopping and then made my way back to my car.
The Coachmaker’s Arms
This former coaching inn is on St Stephen’s Road and was built in the 17th century on the site of an asylum. The pub is said to be haunted.
An attractive frieze outside the pub showing what the inn might have looked like when first built. It was near one of the many city gates
For most of the month, Richard was still unable to drive any distance and was very bored being at home all the time. On the 2nd of December he joined Elinor and me in the car and after I had dropped Elinor off at college just before 9.00 am we drove to the north Norfolk coast and spent the morning in Cromer.
Cromer Pier
The tide was in. Looking westward.
Looking towards the east.
This is a photo of a very tame Turnstone (Arenaria interpres) who had decided that a good living can be made by following visitors about and eating food crumbs. It behaved just like a feral pigeon!
We were so surprised to see this bird at such close quarters! Normally they keep their distance from humans and find worms and molluscs etc. on the shore.
Cromer Pier
There was a large amount of spray coming off the sea
The sand and stones on the promenade show how high a recent tide had been
Boats out at sea
An off-shore wind-farm
A rainbow
Richard walking towards the beach changing rooms
Cromer cliffs
After walking along the front we then visited the pier.
View from the pier
Looking back towards the town
Cromer
We visited the Lifeboat station at the end of the pier
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Part of one of the boards listing all their call-outs. I chose this because I was born in 1958
This is one of the war-time boards
Richard in one of the shelters on the pier
‘The Wellington’ – one of the pubs in the town
Returning home from shopping the following week, Elinor and I marvelled at the beauty of this misty sunset
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Christmas flower arrangement around the font at our church at Rumburgh
Richard and I had a lot to do at church this Christmas. At the beginning of the month we had an Advent Carol Service with all our favourite Advent hymns and Advent readings. Usually we have a Carols and Capers service with the local Morris group and their friends at the beginning of the season but sadly they were unable to organise it this time. We had a Christmas Carol service on the 21st of December and then our church hosted the Midnight Mass service on Christmas Eve too.
I had made an Advent Crown for church too
We went for a walk on Westleton Heath on Boxing Day
The gorse (Ulex europaeus) was in flower
In the autumn this area of heather is a rich purple colour
Alice, Elinor and Phil, Alice’s boyfriend who stayed with us this Christmas
Phil up a tree
Richard, walking without a stick now!
Trees on the heathland as dusk fell
Sunset
Melting frost on the outside of my bedroom window
These following photos were taken by Richard in our garden that same morning.
Hoar frost on a Hogweed seedhead
Hoar frost on rose leaves
Our big pond
Frost and fog
Frost and fog
Richard and I went out for a walk across the fields on New Year’s Eve. The weather was very gloomy and I didn’t find much to photograph.
View across the fields
View across the fields
Yet another view! Note the large toadstool – bottom right of the photo.
The large fungus!
And that was my December which also included Christmas celebrations with much cooking and baking, a lot of driving about, lots of shopping and an amazing amount of housework!
This is another collection of things I’ve seen in my garden or near my home during the past month. The weather until a few days ago has been wonderful! Warm, sometimes very hot, mainly dry and sunny; it has been a lovely late summer.
Flower on Richard’s Fish-hook Cactus (Ferocactus wislizeni)
This cactus nearly flowered for the first time two years ago but the warm, sunny weather didn’t last long enough and the buds shrivelled. Last year was too dull and cool so no buds formed at all. This year however, one of the three buds opened and stayed open for three days.
Sweet pepper ‘Sweet Banana’
Richard is growing sweet peppers this year and this is a photo of them when they were just starting to turn red. Unfortunately, the camera focused on the leaf not the pepper.
Zinnia flower
Zinnia flower-bud
Richard bought a tray of Zinnia flowers from the garden centre. They took their time to get established but eventually they got going and have been so bright and cheerful for the past month.
Common Fleabane (Pulicaria dysenteria) has been everywhere I’ve looked this summer but this poor shot is the only photo of it I’ve taken.
For centuries, the leaves of Fleabane were hung in bunches from ceilings or dried and burnt as a fumigant to repel fleas. Richard Mabey in his ‘Flora Britannica’ says the plant is a relative of the species which supplies the insecticide ‘pyrethrum’.
Hogweed (Heracleum sphondylium) seed-heads
Speckled Wood butterfly (Pararge aegeria)
This is a woodland butterfly and its markings make it difficult to spot in dappled shade.
A Comma butterfly (Polygonia c-album) on Water Mint (Mentha aquatica)
Creeping Thistle (Cirsium arvense) with a Hoverfly (Helophilus pendulus) on the lowest flowerhead
The crabapples on our species crabapple tree look like cherries. Woodpigeons are very fond of them.
We don’t have many apples this year. This one looks very good – a cooking apple.
We have what looks like a good crop of pears but sadly many of the fruits are rotting on the tree.
Common Hawthorn berries, known as Haws. (Crataegus monogyna)
The Hawthorns are full of fruit; some people say this means we are to have a hard winter. I think it means we had good pollination in the spring.
A female Brown Hawker dragonfly (Aeshna grandis)
I took this photo in a hurry as Brown Hawkers are such restless dragonflies and only perch for a few seconds. I love their amber wings!
Another poor photo, this time of a Hornet (Vespa crabro)
We have had a Hornets’ nest under the tiles of the garage roof this summer. They are busy insects and carry on flying until well after sunset, unlike wasps who retire early. We have also got a wasps’ nest under the house roof tiles near our bedroom window. I could hear them chewing and munching away through the night when they were first constructing the nest in the early summer.
This is a mole hill that appeared in the rather dry border next to the conservatory. The hill got bigger the following day and many spring bulbs were uprooted.
We haven’t had much rain during the past month and the moles are searching for worms. The worms congregate where there is moisture i.e. in flower-beds (if they are watered) or next to paths or buildings where water runs off into the soil.
Sunset
Sunset
Sunset
Sunset with mist
And shortly afterwards on the same evening…..
Moonrise
Moonrise
We were pleased to welcome a new visitor to our garden; a Leveret, a young Brown Hare (Lepus europaeus)
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We first noticed it when it was very close to our kitchen window so you see part of the window frame in my photos! It then moved a little further away and was easier to photograph.
The best time of day to see hares is early morning or at dusk, as during the day they rest in grass, scrubland or in a ploughed furrow. They crouch low against the ground with their ears laid flat and are well camouflaged. If they are disturbed they are capable of running very fast – 35 mph/56kph – and run with their black-topped tail held downwards. They have large staring eyes, large black-tipped ears and powerful hind legs; they are shy and alert creatures. They typically live in open country, preferring not to live in direct contact with grazing animals and they are unlikely to be found in hayfields. They eat a wide selection of grasses and plants of open country as well as crops of cereal, clover, alfalfa, beets and potatoes. In winter a hare will dig for green plants under the snow and will eat buds and bark from bushes and trees, including fruit trees. They have suffered in areas of intensive farming and where herbicides are regularly used. Pesticides contaminate their food and may kill leverets.
In March and April hares can be seen leaping and chasing about which gives rise to the saying ‘mad, March Hares’. They often stand up on their hind legs and box each other; this may be two males vying for social dominance or, as is now thought more likely, a female (Jill) rebuffing a male (Jack). Leverets are born in the open with a full coat of fur and with their eyes open. They are born in litters of about three and the mother moves them immediately to another safe place which makes it more difficult for predators to find them. Each leveret is placed in a ‘form’ – a depression made in long grass – on its own where it lies low waiting for visits from its mother. This behaviour is very like that of deer.
While watering my green beans the other day I noticed some tiny white eggshells lying on the ground and wondered where they could have come from. Richard looked into the branches of the Laburnum tree above us and saw a tiny nest that I hadn’t been able to see – (I am quite a lot shorter than he is). It was a windy day and the pieces of shell must have been dislodged by the breeze. A week later I found the nest on the ground and here is my photograph of it.
I do not know what bird built this nest.
As you can see from the photo it is only 11 cm long and about 6 cm wide. It is made of tiny twigs, grasses, leaves and moss all woven together and is lined with sheep’s wool and white feathers.
And finally, here is my music selection for this post.
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.
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.
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.
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.
We visited yet another of our local beaches on a very windy, cool afternoon recently. We only stayed on the beach for a short while because the wind was so biting; Elinor and I both got earache.
The mist in the distance is sea-spray.
The waves were quite rough but the tide was going out.
Foam was left on the sand and was blowing about.
This little fish must have come too close to the shore.
This Grove Snail (Cepaea nemoralis) attached to its bit of bracken was swinging about in the wind.
My ID guide suggests that the Grove Snail “is used to demonstrate the survival of the fittest in evolution, because Thrushes eat the snails which are least well camouflaged against their environment.”
The Heather (Calluna vulgaris) was past its best but the Dwarf Gorse (Ulex minor) was looking wonderful
Another sunset.
In a post I wrote a couple of weeks ago I mentioned that the bright yellow of the Perennial Sow-thistle was not common at this time of year. I will have to eat my words because most of the flowers I have seen since then have been yellow!
Tansy (Tanacetum vulgare) seen on the roadside between Linstead Magna and the village of Linstead Parva *(see below)
The Tansy has very aromatic leaves and the little button flowerheads are made up of disc florets only.
The genus name ‘Tanecetum’ and the name Tansy are both derived from the Greek word for immortality. The plant was believed to give eternal life to the drinker of an infusion made from it.
Tansy used to be used as a flavouring in food until fairly recently. Egg dishes especially, were enhanced by the use of finely chopped tansy leaves. Tansy was also used as an alternative to expensive imported spices such as nutmeg and cinnamon and Tansy Cake at Easter was very popular. Because of the strength of its scent, Tansy was also used as a repellent, keeping mice from corn and flies from meat.
Dogwood (Cornus sanguinea)
Close to where I photographed the Tansy I found this hedge of Dogwood. It was covered in large black berries – the largest I have ever seen on a Dogwood – and most of the leaves had turned a beautiful red. Dogwood leaves are usually a much darker, duller maroon in Autumn.
What also surprised me about these Dogwood bushes was seeing flowers in bloom at the same time as the berries and the red leaves.
It isn’t easy to see them in this photo so I cropped it.
One of the flower-heads is in the centre of this picture. The couple of weeks of warm and sunny weather we have had recently had fooled the bush into thinking it was spring again.
Richard and I have been working in the garden, getting it ready for winter. I only seem able to get out there a couple of days a week but I have managed to get quite a lot done. One of my jobs has been tidying behind the garden shed and round the back of the greenhouse. Behind the shed was rank with weeds, mainly stinging nettles, which I was able to pull out fairly easily as the soil is quite damp there. I had stored lots of pots and tubs full of spring bulbs behind the greenhouse so these have come back out to be smartened up and got ready for next spring. I discovered other flowerpots that should have been emptied and cleaned ages ago.
This pot was covered with liverwort Marchantia polymorpha. It has little green cups on the leaf-like structures (thallus). Do you see the baby snail?
We have a lot of fungus all over the grass in our garden. Nothing exciting or colourful, just brown and cream-coloured toadstools. These had been nibbled by something.
Two other unidentified types of fungi.
I have had this Hibiscus for about 26 years. It was a gift from my ex-mother-in-law who brought this with her when she came to see us when Alice was a tiny girl.
I love these double flowers – the peach petals have dark crimson bases.
Richard has a new Chrysanthemum flower
My Geraniums are still flowering
I like this pretty Viola
Three different Michaelmas Daisies
Salvia
The three ages of Astrantia
Elderberries from the bush at the end of the drive.
Acorn This is the first time in years that these acorns aren’t affected by Knopper galls.
This is a photo I took last year of Knopper gall damage on acorns
‘Conker’
Ash ‘keys’
The trees in our lane
Our Silver Birch is changing colour
Birch leaves
I pruned our Pyracantha recently
We not only had a lot of aphid damage to our apple trees in the spring and early summer but the apples on this tree are now being eaten by Moorhens! It is odd seeing water birds wobbling about in the trees gulping down our apples as fast as they can.
We are getting a little tired of next-door’s free-range chickens in our garden all day. They kick about in the flower beds and damage seedlings; they peck off flowers and generally make a mess of the paths, beds and compost heaps in the garden. We have spoken to our neighbours about it a few times but they don’t appear to have any intention of keeping their chickens on their own land. They have a constant supply of chicks too.
Linstead Magna (large/greater Linstead) is now a small collection of houses and farm buildings. The church no longer exists but I spoke to someone some years ago who remembered the church and used to attend it. For more information about this church see here.
Linstead Parva (small/lesser Linstead) is a pleasant little village with a pretty church. In spring the churchyard is covered in snowdrops and other spring flowers.
This post and the next will have assorted photographs of things I have seen. I’ll also mention briefly a few things I have done. The photos are inserted in chronological order as I can’t think of anything better!
Toadstools on the lawn at the surgery.
A couple of weeks ago I had to attend the doctor’s surgery a few times in one week. I collected my medication, I had my usual monthly blood test with a test for cholesterol which meant fasting from 10 pm the evening before, and I had my flu injection. All on different days. I noticed these toadstools after my blood test but unfortunately I had left my camera in the car. The following morning I took these photos after my flu jab.
These are Shaggy Inkcaps (Coprinus comatus) also known as Lawyer’s Wig and unfortunately most of them are past their best.
The early morning light made it difficult to photograph them and they had deteriorated significantly overnight.
The white fungi are emerging Inkcaps but I can’t identify the dark brown mushrooms.
Some of you may remember that our parcels box was taken over by Great Tits in the spring and we had to seal it shut so that the birds were not disturbed. I believe the brood was successful. Richard dismantled the box last week as it was rotting and we had a look at the nest inside.
Great Tit (Parus major) nest.
We looked closely at what had been used. Please click on each photo to get a description of the materials used.
Dried grass and lots and lots of moss
Bits and pieces of anything soft. I recognise lint/fluff from two of my pullovers here.
Sheep’s wool
Feathers
The work that went into constructing this nest is astounding.
This is a Common Toad (Bufo bufo) that I saw crossing our drive. Fortunately it took it’s time and I was able to run indoors and fetch my camera before it disappeared.
Common Toad
Autumn colour. A Field Maple (Acer campestre)
Last week was a week of sunny warm days and cool nights. The trees and plants began to show autumnal tints.
Elder (Sambucus nigra) leaves have turned pink
A wonderful sunset seen from the back of our house
A ‘picture-wing’ fly. Possibly from the Herina group.
This little fly was in our kitchen some nights ago. I took this photo when it landed on the window blind. It was only a few millimetres in length.
Richard and I noticed posters up in Halesworth announcing the Herring Festival. This is to take place in The Cut, the centre for the arts in the town. The herring industry has been in decline for some time and Richard and I wondered what went on at the festival (not ever having gone). We remembered this……
I haven’t been able to attend our local churches very often recently. I have been taking my mother to her church once a fortnight to enable me to go to church with Richard every other week. We took Elinor to the morning service at Norwich Cathedral a couple of weeks ago as she enjoys these services. The Cathedral was preparing to hold a number of services to commemorate the life of Edith Cavell.
My music choice for this post is one of my favourite arias sung by my favourite mezzo-soprano, the late, great Lorraine Hunt Lieberson
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.
Grasses growing round the edge of the field behind our house.
I have been doing a lot of gardening recently. Not the gentle-dead-heading, touch-of-light-weeding type of gardening but lots of digging – which always involves extracting large flint boulders from clay soil, lots of watering – carrying heavy watering cans round our large garden and lots of grass-cutting – I do most of this with shears. We have a large area of grass which is planted up with spring bulbs. There are a few trees planted there as well and the ground is very uneven. I think that it was originally a spoil heap from when the house was built; it also slopes quite steeply down to the ditch at the front of the house. We leave cutting the grass until the bulb leaves have died back which means it is left until June by which time it is looking quite unkempt. The ground is much too uneven for the tractor mower and because of the trees it is a very difficult area for Richard to do (he is 6′ 3″ tall). I am a foot shorter in height than he is, so I do this part of the garden. I can’t use the strimmer as it is too heavy for me so I cut the 3′ high grass with shears. We bought a scythe but somehow we can’t get it to sharpen. I like using shears as I can see what I am doing and I don’t cut the wrong things down as I might if I could use the strimmer. A strimmer makes such a mess; shears are tidy. Once I have cut the grass to a manageable length I then rake it up into a number of enormous heaps and then transport it to the other end of the garden in a wheelbarrow and put it on the grass heap. I then use the electric mower and cut the grass even shorter.
The field of barley behind our house.
As a result of this work I am extremely achy and stiff but I have developed some good muscles in my arms and shoulders! I was glad we had a little rain on Sunday so I excused myself from working outside. I read my book, talked with my husband and daughter and generally had a relaxing day.
View across the pond to the field beyond.
We had an Evening Prayer service at St Michael and St Felix Church in Rumburgh where Richard is one of the church wardens. We left home at 5.45 pm to make sure the church was tidy and ready for the service. There had been a big wedding there on Saturday so the church is full of beautiful flowers.
The decorated Rood Screen. This is very pretty but it would be better if people didn’t decorate it as the screen is hundreds of years old and falling apart.
Posies on the pew ends. I think the top of the poppyhead (the carved pew end) looks like a clown with a bowler hat.
Flowers at the East Window
Flowers round the Font
Flowers in the porch
Flowers in the porch
The path has been regravelled and the fence panel at the side of the church has been repaired.
Fresh gravel and new fence panel.
The bride’s family live at the farm which surrounds the church and the church is in their back garden. I have never walked all round my church because that would mean walking through someone else’s property. However, it is so nice to have kind people who decorate our church and repair our fence and path because their daughter wanted to get married in the church!
Our evening service was taken by Maurice and we concentrated on the Trinity. It was a pleasant, peaceful and thoughtful service.
I’ll use the rest of the post to show you a few more things I’ve seen on my travels and in the garden recently.
This is a Great Mullein (Verbascum thapsus) and I noticed the other day that it was looking a little ragged.
This is one of the culprits – a Mullein Moth larva (Shargacucullia verbasci). The plant was covered in the caterpillars which will probably eat most of the plant and leave a blackened stump.
I had noticed that a few of my plants and tree seedlings had been damaged and on Sunday I found a few of the caterpillars that were responsible.
This is a Vapourer Moth larva (Orgyia antiqua), and it is eating a Laburnum seedling.
The Vapourer is often found in towns and often defoliates street trees. I’ve never seen it in our garden before – perhaps they found their way here on a plant from the garden centre in town. Vapourers are tussock moths which are all rather hairy. The Vapourer female moth doesn’t have functional wings and will stay close to her cocoon after hatching out. The Vapourer larva, along with other members of the Tussock Moth family, has tufts or tussocks of often colourful hairs (the Vapourer’s are yellow). The hairs on adults and larva are usually barbed which makes them unpleasant and painful to handle.
A bee on a scabious flower.
I am not very good at identifying bees. I never seem to notice or photograph the key feature mentioned in the ID guide. The bee above could be a cuckoo bee.
I try to grow as many plants as possible that are liked by bees and other insects.
Bee on Cotoneaster.
Bee on Purple Toadflax.
A rather lovely sunset I saw last week.
Lastly, I have another video to share with you but it isn’t the video that’s important just the soundtrack. I would like you to ignore the video! It’s rubbish! I was taking photos in the garden next to the pond, when the Turtle Dove started singing. I switched the camera to film so I could record the song and vaguely pointed the camera in the direction of the pond. The video is very shaky as I didn’t have a tripod with me. I only managed to record a very short part of the song. It is quite a quiet purring sound and the other birds in the garden were singing very loudly!
