All Change!

Tags

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

View from Crockham Hill churchyard.

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

Aunt Marie and Uncle Fred

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

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

The Fens seen from a train window

The Fens seen from a train window

The Fens seen from a train window

The Fens seen from a train window

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

The Mosque in Peterborough seen from the train

Norwich Railway Station

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

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

My presents!

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

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

Minsmere trees

Minsmere trees

Minsmere trees

Minsmere trees

Richard at Minsmere

Minsmere reedbeds

A slideshow of some small but quite interesting things!

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

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

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

Tyrrels Wood

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

The bark patterns on this tree are interesting.

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

Thanks for visiting!

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!