My Daughter

24 Thu Jul 2014

Posted by Clare Pooley in Rural Diary, Uncategorized

It is my eldest daughter A’s twenty-ninth birthday today. I am finding it very difficult to believe that she is twenty-nine already. Like most parents, I remember the highs and lows of her life so clearly that they seem like yesterday. I remember her at the age of four at the beach with me and my ex-husband and his mum – Nan. Nan was with A and they were standing at the water’s edge looking out to sea. Nan was pointing things out to A and remarking on the size of the sea. ‘I wonder what is beyond the horizon?’ asked Nan. ‘I wonder where we’d find ourselves if we sailed over there?’ ‘Belgium’ said A. And she was right. One of the few times that A was aware of her surroundings and not off in a dream.

She has always wanted to be a writer and I truly hope she will get her stories published some day. She worked hard at school despite being very unhappy – both my daughters were victims of bullying. She got her GCSEs and A levels and even stayed on for a third year in the 6th form to get extra qualifications. She went to Royal Holloway, London University and got a BA and then an MA in English. She attended a RADA (Royal Academy of Dramatic Art) summer school after getting her BA and did very well. She had hoped to go to Drama School but became disillusioned by the attitude of the auditioners. She was told by one school that they wouldn’t be taking her as they already had someone who looked a bit like her!

She then decided she would be a librarian, worked for a year in a couple of school libraries to get work experience and then went back to university, Sheffield this time, and got another MA. She was asked to do some research for the university and was given a full grant to do a three year PhD. She is trying to finish writing it up and is looking for work now as the grant has run out. She has a part-time job in the university library filling shelves but she is not needed now until the autumn. She wants to stay in Sheffield as she loves it there but she also needs a job and some money.

She has managed all this despite being bi-polar; and there have been times when her life has been almost too awful to bear. She found it very difficult getting the correct diagnosis and was treated extremely poorly by some members of the medical profession who should have known better.

I am so proud of my dear, generous, kind, clever and beautiful daughter.

Happy Birthday!

Snoopy vs the Red Baron

24 Thu Jul 2014

Posted by Clare Pooley in Insects, plants, Rural Diary, Uncategorized, wild birds

≈ 9 Comments

I am still having trouble posting on my blog. I had almost finished one last night and had worked for well over an hour on it when it just disappeared and all that was saved was the title. A total waste of time! I could have been doing something useful like the ironing and it makes me feel so frustrated.

So, here we go again.

Large White butterfly on Buddleia

We woke on Monday to a bright and breezy day with all the humidity gone. I was able to dry my towels and all my other washing too. The window cleaner arrived and gave all the glass a bit of sparkle. I got through all my household chores and did some shopping in Halesworth too.

Cuckoo Bee on Spear Thistle

During the afternoon I wandered round the garden to see what there was to see. I discovered a wasps’ nest under the garage roof tiles. The wasps are quite small – they appear smaller than common wasps – but I could be mistaken. If they cause us a lot of trouble they will have to go but they are such useful creatures I would rather leave them be. They feed their young on chewed up insects including all the garden pests and flies that get into the house. The also appear to love fennel nectar and pollinate my fennel plants. Last year we hardly had any wasps at all and I had no fennel seeds.

Flies all over the bronze fennel flower-head

Some of the insects I saw were a little the worse for wear.

Four-spotted Chaser on Willow

While hanging out the last lot of washing I heard what sounded like an old-fashioned plane approaching. In fact it was two bi-planes. I don’t know if they were just flying for fun or if they were rehearsing for an air show or a World War I commemoration display but they were ace fliers and I enjoyed watching them very much. They weren’t flying original bi-planes but modern equivalents.

They then started practising loop-the-loops.

His friend wasn’t going to be outdone and did a few loop-the-loops of his own. I couldn’t see him quite so clearly.

I was really impressed! Strangely, I wasn’t alone in being excited by this display. While all this was going on I became aware of a lot of noise coming from the St Margaret’s rookery. The rooks had all gathered together and suddenly flew up into the sky and performed a display of their own! Normally they only display first thing in the morning and last thing at night just before roosting. They fly up into the sky together, circling round and round and getting higher and higher , calling to each other and chasing and weaving through the melée. Suddenly, of one accord, they plummet down into their roost, reeds, scrubland or the tree canopy. This is what they did on Monday afternoon. They must have thought the planes were strange birds.