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A Suffolk Lane

~ A diary of my life in rural north Suffolk.

A Suffolk Lane

Tag Archives: winter

A Week of Winter

22 Fri Jan 2016

Posted by Clare Pooley in churches, plants, Rural Diary, trees, weather

≈ 58 Comments

Tags

Aram Khachaturian, buds, flowers, frost, hoarfrost, ice, Masquerade Suite, moss, music, snow, winter

After the warmest December on record and a mild New Year we have, at last, had a little cold winter weather.  Some of the flowers that were blooming in the mild weather have been frosted and turned brown. Others don’t seem to have been bothered by the frost and ice and have continued to flower.

IMG_2547Big pond

The first ice starting to form on the big pond

We have snowdrops in the garden that don’t look anywhere near being ready to flower but some in tubs have buds that may open in a couple of days.  Strangely, a golden crocus which usually flowers in March has appeared in the grass near the end of the drive.   The garden is unusually colourful for this time of year.

IMG_2544Hyacinths

Slightly stunted pink Hyacinths.

IMG_2543Grape hyacinths-001

Grape Hyacinths.

IMG_2545Miniature iris

Miniature iris

IMG_2550Horse chestnut

The ‘sticky-buds’ are swelling on the Horse Chestnut tree.

Those four photos were taken the morning after a severe gale when lots of rain, then sleet and wet snow fell.  The snow settled for a while but most of it disappeared the next day when the sun came out.  The wind had blown the snow almost horizontally and when I went out the following morning I saw walls and tree trunks with snow and ice stuck to them but hardly any snow on the ground.

IMG_2557Snow on tree

Small amount of ice on an apple tree.

IMG_2546Ice

Melting ice on a window sill

IMG_2549Big pond

It was a beautiful day

IMG_2552Big pond

The water-level in the pond has risen quite a lot recently but not as much as we’d expected. Probably ditch clearing and drainage works done locally have meant less water entering our garden. The reeds and brambles need to be cut back here!

IMG_2555Fungi

Colourful fungi on a dead log.

IMG_2558Corner pond

Even the pond at the front of the house had some ice on it

We continued to get hard frosts at night and then a light sprinkling of beautiful powdery snow on Saturday night.

IMG_2559Big pond

The big pond

IMG_2560Big pond

I like the patterns the snow made on the icy pond

IMG_2567Hoar frost and crabapple tree

We had a hoarfrost yesterday morning but the sun soon came out and the frost melted.  I wish I could have got outside earlier!

IMG_2570Pyracantha

Pyracantha leaves

IMG_2571Cherry

Cherry tree buds

IMG_2572Winter honeysuckle

Winter-flowering Honeysuckle

IMG_2574Thyme

Thyme

IMG_2576Origano/marjoram

Marjoram/Oregano

IMG_2580Moss and lichen

The moss and lichen garden on top of the brick pillar at the end of the drive

IMG_2581Moss and lichen

A close-up of the moss with its frosted capsules

IMG_2582Crabapples

Crabapples.

I am pleased we have had a few frosts because the birds will only eat the crabapples once they have been frosted.

Richard went to a PCC (Parochial Church Council) meeting on Wednesday evening and came home with two pieces of good news.  The first is that we are a stage nearer to getting the screen put in between the Tower Room and the main body of the church at Rumburgh and the second is that when our Rector retires in 2017 we will (eventually) be getting a replacement for him.  For some time now, we have thought that we would have to do without a priest when Richard (the Rector) goes.  We have a large but sparsely populated benefice and even though we would have tried to keep things going on our own and with the help of retired clergy and the priest from our neighbouring benefice, it would have been very difficult and might have meant that some, at least, of the churches would have had to close.  We will have to put up with at least a year’s interregnum before the replacement priest arrives but if we know that we will get a Rector eventually we will cope better.

The piece of music today is a great favourite of mine and very romantic in style.  It is quite long (just over 16 minutes) but is in five short movements so you don’t have to listen to it all in one go!  This music makes me happy – I really don’t think anyone could help being cheered by it!  It goes from a fast ‘Waltz’ to a very romantic interlude – ‘Nocturne’; then to another fast movement – ‘Mazurka’ followed by a slower ‘Romance’.  The piece ends with a ‘Galop’.  It was originally written in 1941 by Aram Khachaturian as incidental music for a new production of a play called ‘Masquerade’ by the Russian poet and playwright Michail Lermontov.  The satirical-romantic play was written in 1835  and has a similar storyline to ‘Othello’.  The run in 1941 had to be cut short because of the invasion of the USSR by Germany.  Khachaturian later (in 1944) turned the incidental music into a Suite.

 

Thanks for visiting!

 

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Boxing Day Walk

30 Tue Dec 2014

Posted by Clare Pooley in Rural Diary, trees, walking

≈ 21 Comments

Tags

fields, oak trees, walking, winter

002Easter chocolate display (480x640)

On the fifth day of Christmas my true love sent to me, a display of Easter chocolate at the supermarket.

Despite the cold and cloud Richard and I had a very pleasant walk on Boxing Day.  We had no wish to drive anywhere so we had our usual amble across the fields.

001Hen (640x480)

One of next-door’s chickens searching for grubs in the leaf litter of the road-side

002Field walk (640x480)

Richard walking along the edge of a field of wheat or barley.

003Trees (640x480)

I love the look of leafless trees. These are English Oaks

004Millet (480x640)

Millet

Many of you will remember the walk I had along this path in the summer when I found this plant in flower and didn’t recognise it as millet.  I have Allen of nhgardensolutions to thank for the identification and also Rachel from coulddoworse.me for explaining links to me (though because of my ineptitude and through no fault of Rachel’s, I have still had a lot of difficulty and a lot of help from family in getting them to work!).  Allen’s posts are full of the small but beautiful things he sees on his trails in New Hampshire and he has taught me to slow down even further and look yet more closely at the natural world around me.  Rachel’s posts are packed with anecdotes about her life in London, her lovely family and the walks she takes through the city streets and parks.  She cooks and crochets and reads and gardens and is so inspiring!

028millet

This is what the millet looked like in the summer

013Millet field (640x480)

015Millet field (480x640)

…and these two photos show what it looked like in October when Richard, Elinor and I went for a walk after Richard had got home from work.  One of the last evening walks we took before the clocks went back.  We thought it would be harvested for seed but from the look of the field on Boxing Day it had just been left to dry and die.  A puzzle.

005Sugar beet (640x480)

We also saw a few sugar beet plants in amongst the dead grass

006Holes in trees (480x640)

and holes that we weren’t able to see when the leaves were on the trees.

007Mayweed (640x480)

A few tough Mayweed flowers that are struggling on even through a few frosts

008The Beck (640x480)

The Beck was low but showed signs of when it had been very high a short time ago. It rose again on Boxing Day night and flooded the road at the Washes for a short while.

009The Beck (640x480)

This little stream looks so much nicer in the spring and summer.

011Lichen on branch (640x480)

We saw lichen on branches…

012Rosehips (640x480)

…and a few rosehips.

English Oak
English Oak
017Oak (640x480)
016Oak (640x480)
015Oak (640x480)

These pictures are of my favourite ancient oak tree seen over the hedge from the lane.  I went into the field it stands in and took a photo of the whole tree as well.

026Oak (640x480)
013Oak (640x480)
014Oak (480x640)

These are three more oaks we saw on our walk.

019Lane (640x480)

The lane with Richard in the distance showing how far I had lagged behind him

020Wet field (640x480)

A wet and poorly drained field at the top of the lane. It looks like some heavy vehicle sunk into the soil here.

021View (640x480)

Looking back in the direction we had come

022View (640x480)

Looking towards Flixton where we had been to church on Christmas Eve. There is a wood there on a slight rise in the land.

023New green leaves (640x480)

We saw these new green leaves – the plants have become very confused as the temperature swings from freezing to 10 degrees C or more and then back down to freezing again.

027Lane (640x480)

The Washes don’t often dry out in the winter.

That photograph reminded me of one I took when we last walked this way in October.

023Lane (640x480)

The sun had set but there was such beautiful silver light in the sky and this was reflected in the shallow puddles on the road

028Field (640x480)

A typical early winter scene. The field is full of dead thistles

030Alder cones (640x480)

These are Common Alder cones, the female catkins. I tried very hard to photograph the male catkins but I couldn’t get the camera to focus on them.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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I talk about what it's like living in a quiet part of Suffolk. I am a wife, mother and daughter, a practising Christian and love the natural world that surrounds me. I enjoy my life - most of the time!

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