Let me take you back in time to the end of April of this year. In preparing this post it has been strange looking through my early spring photographs while the leaves outside are falling from the trees and most of the flowers have gone.
Elinor and I had enjoyed our two previous walks in Halesworth and Beccles but this time we wanted to get away from people and buildings and into the woods. One of our favourite places is Reydon Wood which is cared for by the Suffolk Wildlife Trust. I have written posts about family walks in this wood a few times before but the last time we visited was about three years ago; how could we have left it that long?!
Reydon Wood
The weather was perfect, chilly but sunny and there hadn’t been any rain for quite a while so the paths were free of mud. Spring was cold and late this year so the first leaves were only just beginning to show on the trees. The wood was full of birdsong and we soon found any number of spring flowers in bloom. The light was strong and bright which was not conducive to good photography, for which I apologise.
The path through the woods
I love these perfectly pleated Hornbeam leaves (Carpinus betulus )
Common Dog Violets (Viola riviniana ) and a small white Wild Strawberry flower (Fragaria vesca) in the centre of the picture
Reydon Wood is quite small and would only take twenty minutes or so to walk round if one wasn’t interested in stopping and looking at anything. We heard a couple of women approaching from behind us and stood to one side as they walked past talking non-stop. We waited while the noise of their voices faded and birdsong re-established itself.
We saw Wood Anemones (Anemone nemorosa ) in the wood for the first time
Primroses ( Primula vulgaris) were in flower
There are plenty of coppice stools like this in the wood
Reydon Wood is coppiced each year. Some of these trees are hundreds of years old and have been supplying wood for generations. Here is a link which explains what coppicing is. A copse is a wood which is or has been coppiced.
A clearing was carpeted with Primroses and Lesser Celandines (Ficaria verna )
Great Crested Newt ( Triturus cristatus)
In this clearing is a large pond which is home to all sorts of interesting creatures and plants. The Great Crested Newt is Britain’s largest newt and has suffered in recent years due to habitat loss, especially by the infilling of ponds.
Water Violet (Hottonia palustris )
The Water Violet isn’t a violet at all, it is a member of the primrose family but the petals are a very pale lilac-colour which may be the reason for its common name. It is usually found in sheltered ditches and ponds with shallow clear water which is rich in calcium. Another name for it is Featherfoil because of its fine feathery leaves.
Tangled branches and shadows
The Bluebells were just beginning to flower (Hyacinthoides non-scripta)
Spring leaves
Woodland in the springtime
I always like to greet this giant Holly tree with its weeping branches (Ilex aquifolium)
A Hoverfly of some sort sunning itself on the path. With their large ‘fly’ eyes they always look like they are wearing large sun-glasses.
Goldilocks Buttercup (Ranunculus auricomus )
A spring-flowering buttercup. The whole plant, including the stems and the leaves, dies back by mid-summer. The flowers are usually deformed with petals missing and the upper leaves deeply cut.
Deeply rutted path
We were extremely fortunate to have had such dry weather during the week before our walk. The paths had set like concrete and though they were uneven they were easier to walk on than if they had been wet!
With any luck I will be able to add to this short series of walks before Christmas!
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.