The Archdeacon’s Visitation.

Tags

aquilegia, Archdeacon's Visitation, Easter cactus, Halesworth, hare, lilac, newts, rowan, St Mary's church, woodpigeon

I am amazed at how lucky we were with the weather on Monday!  Since then the weather has been ‘changeable’ as the forecasters say. Tuesday had showers in the morning but a sunny, breezy afternoon, Wednesday had light showers in the early morning, a very fine middle of the day and then heavy showers from late afternoon onwards and today, well, yuk! is all I can say.  Light showers this morning, heavy showers by midday and persistent rain this afternoon and evening.  What makes it worse is that I have a nasty cold in the head.  I had hoped to go with R to the Archdeacon’s Visitation service at St Mary’s church in Halesworth this evening but E needed to see her doctor and the only available appointment time was 6.30pm.  I drove her home afterwards and saw R driving past us in the opposite direction on his way to the service and there wasn’t enough time for me to drop E at home and join him.  And anyway, I think I’m better off at home not spreading germs about.

An Archdeacon’s visitation, as far as I understand it, is when all the Churchwardens (R is a Churchwarden) in the Deanery get together for a special service once a year with all their priests and the Archdeacon.  They hand in their annual reports and accounts if they haven’t already done it on-line and also their Declaration.  Churchwardens are supposed to serve for six years at most, I think, and then a new one is voted in.  However, it usually is a case of ‘once a Churchwarden always a Churchwarden’, as no-one wants the job.  The Churchwardens are ‘sworn in’, for want of a proper phrase at this special service and take their oaths to do their duty.  A few hymns are sung and this sounds lovely as only large churches are chosen for this service and they are always full.  The Archdeacon has his or her say and maybe some of the priests will give a talk too.  This year there will be an extra item.  Our Rector and the priest in the Benefice next to ours will be licensed to each others Benefice.  This will mean that they will be able to serve in each others Benefice without having to get special permission each time from the Bishop.  Our Rector looks after a Benefice of eleven churches with a couple of retired priests, one Reader and two Elders to help him.  The priest in the Benefice next to ours looks after three churches one of which is in a town.  It will make life much easier for our Rector especially, once this is done.  Our Rector is due to retire in a very few years and we don’t know if we will get another priest to replace him.  We think there will be a lot of changes and not for the better and our priests are preparing the ground for us.  To add insult to injury we haven’t even got a Bishop at the moment and haven’t had for some time!

I wanted to go to the service, not only to support R and our church but to go into St Mary’s church again.  When I first moved to Suffolk in 1988 I lived in Halesworth and attended St Marys.  I was made very welcome at the church and made a number of friends.  I also met R there and he asked me out while drinking coffee after a Sunday service.  We had our Marriage Blessing Service there too.  R has just returned and tells me the service went well and the refreshments afterwards were very good.

I have been able to take a few photos round the garden during the past few days.

Our Rowan or Mountain Ash tree is flowering.  It has grown well in the last couple of years and this is the best it’s ever looked.

Rowan blossom.

Rowan blossom.

 

A very poor photo of the newts in our front pond.

White lilac.

White lilac blossom.

White lilac blossom.

Pink and purple aquilegias.

This the best photo I have of the hare that has been visiting our garden recently.  Back view only!

Woodpigeons having a bath in a puddle in our drive earlier today.

Indoors now.  This is my Easter cactus which is just coming into flower.  Unlike Christmas cacti these flowers shut during the afternoon and re-open next morning.

Easter cactus flowers.

Easter cactus flowers.

Better Late Than Never

Tags

aubretia, birch catkins, bluetit, Bungay, daffodils, Eye, Lent course, narcissus, pheasant, raw milk, roadworks, women drivers, woodpigeon

I don’t seem to have had the time to write a post for days and have got all behind.  So, instead of trying to catch up I will start with today and if I have the time will add in some of the things I have done/noticed during the past week at a later date.

This morning was mainly taken up with housework – boring but necessary.  The weather here, unlike the rest of the country it seems, was lovely.  Bright, hazy sunshine and light winds which dried my washing very nicely.  The wind was a little chilly as it came from the east but nothing to complain about.  I had to go to Bungay in the early afternoon to do some shopping and post a couple of letters.  The improvements to the town’s pavements and road system are coming along nicely and I was able to drive into the centre for the first time in weeks.  When the work is finished there will be fewer traffic jams (I hope!) and the absence of kerbs will mean that those with prams and pushchairs or in wheelchairs or mobility scooters will be able to get about more easily.  The town will look very different and in some ways that is a little sad.  Bungay will have lost it’s timeless look; it will no longer look quaint and old-fashioned but like all other towns with the regulation one-way streets and easy-access shops.

On my way home I nearly collided with another car.  All the lanes are mainly single track with a few passing places.  The lanes are also windy so it is always best not to go too fast.  The driver of the other car came shooting round a corner towards me and had to swerve to avoid me.  She was on the phone.  I am very sorry to say that a lot of the really bad driving I see these days is done by women.  Women used to be reliable, sensible drivers but not any more it seems.  The worst ones are the young girls who appear to be unable to drive at less than 50mph.  They are also the ones using phones:  twice in recent weeks I have been stuck in a queue at a junction behind young women who thought it would be a good moment to sent a text or instant message.  One girl had stopped a couple of yards from the junction to message someone and had opened the driver’s door and was hanging her leg out!  She may have broken down but it didn’t look like it.  Many women don’t know how to reverse and won’t pull into a passing place and to be followed by a woman on the school run in the morning is a terrifying experience!  They are always late and have cars full of children.

My route home was along the road from Bungay to Flixton which has water-meadows on one side of it.  It has been pleasing to see the cows out on the meadows again after their winter stay in the cattle sheds.  The farmer here is one of the few remaining dairy farmers around.  He has recently started selling raw (unpasteurized/unhomogenized) milk from a little stall in the farmyard and this has been exceedingly popular.  Every time I drive past there is always someone there in the little shop.

I took a few photos this afternoon.  This first one (which I actually took this morning) is from an upstairs window and is of a couple of woodpigeons feasting on leaf and flower buds on the top of our hedge.  What is not obvious is that they weren’t the only pigeons on the hedge at that moment and they spent most of the day there too!

 

Birch catkins and new leaves.  Our horrible, tumbledown summerhouse is in the background!

 

A bluetit in the birch tree.

 

Scented narcissus

 

Aubretia

 

Scented daffodils.  These have come out extremely early and have rather thick petals, almost as if fashioned out of wax.

 

A male pheasant.  I took this photo through the kitchen window which accounts for the vague haziness.

 

I drove to Mum’s house this evening at 6.45pm and there was still a lot of light in the sky.  We attended her Lent course lecture in Eye, the subject being Prayer for Healing and Wholeness and given by the Sub-Dean and Canon Pastor from the cathedral at Bury St Edmunds.  A very interesting talk indeed.

A starry drive home with the temperature just above freezing at 1 degree centigrade.