On Sunday 13th March Richard and I were able to go for a walk along the lanes together for the first time in months. The fields were still much too wet for us to walk across them easily so we stuck to the roads and got along very well. The weather was bright and sunny but the wind was strong and from the north-east so we didn’t linger.
Primroses (Primula vulgaris) had begun to adorn the edges of the roadside.
We surprised a Roe Deer (Capreolus capreolus) who didn’t stay around for a photograph.
This pond was dug a few weeks ago and it is now full of water. It is about five or six feet deep. There is a cottage on the opposite side of the lane which is being renovated and we think this pond was dug to improve the drainage round the building.
Italian Alder catkins
Halfway down our lane a row of Italian Alders (Alnus cordata) grow between the lane and a wide arable field. The trees are large and I assume were planted as a windbreak.
The Beck wasn’t as deep as it had been a couple of weeks earlier but was still flowing quite quickly.
Looking back the way we had come you can see the ditch at the side of the road is still very full. This ditch, along with most of the others near our house, has been cleared and dug out this winter.
The sides of the ditches are scraped to clear away the thick vegetation which if left, can stop the water from flowing away and will cause the roads and fields to flood. The mud is then heaped up on the top of the bank and tamped down. This is necessary work but means that we won’t see many wild flowers here for a while.
This photo shows more of the hedging and ditching work going on.
The ditch in the middle distance has been dug out and the hedge on the far side of it which had been left for too long without maintenance and had grown into a row of spindly trees, was being cut right back.
A view across the field looking in the direction of our house.
A grand Pedunculate or English Oak (Quercus robur) at the side of the lane. It has lost a large branch recently in a storm. You can just see the orange scar where the branch was ripped away.
Another view from the lane.
Another of the muddy lanes we walked along. The sunshine and the strong wind were doing a good job of drying the road.
The Dandelions (Taraxacum officinale agg.) are beginning to flower…..
…and so are the Lesser Celandines (Ranunculus ficaria).
The Primroses are doing well this year.
The Rookery at St Margaret’s village was busy.
More primroses under the hedge.
A male Blackbird (Turdus merula) sitting in a tree above my head was being blown about in the breeze.
These ponds appear on St Margaret’s common when we have had a lot of rain
This is our house as seen from the field at the back. We turned off the lane and walked back home down the edge of the field which had dried out quite nicely.
Our big pond as seen from the field. The white cord is all the boundary marker we have at present.
A view of the rest of the pond showing where the new summerhouse is.
My choice of music today is a video of a folk music session at a Suffolk pub.
There isn’t much of interest to report – we have been busy and we are all very tired but there isn’t much to show for it all.
We have had a new suite of furniture delivered for our living room and the old sofas and reclining chair have been donated to Emmaus a charity that helps and supports the homeless. They have a second-hand retail shop at Ditchingham, a village a few miles to the north of us which is where our furniture was taken. The new furniture is very different but extremely comfortable. It is also less bulky than our old furniture so our living room seems a little bigger.
Our old shed has been demolished and we have had a concrete pad laid next to the tool shed where we will put a new potting shed. Getting rid of the old shed, which really was an eyesore, has opened up the garden at the north side of the house. Richard has dug over the soil which was underneath the shed and will add organic matter to it to help rejuvenate it. Eventually, he would like to plant flowering shrubs there. He has also added compost to and dug over the soil in the vegetable beds. The potatoes are ready for planting and Richard will begin sowing pea and bean seeds in pots soon. The weather has been much too cold recently for anything to be planted outside and as we have an unheated greenhouse we daren’t sow seeds there just yet either.
Last week we saw quite a lot of sunshine and even though the wind was from the north-east and very cold everything seemed very spring-like. This week there has been increasing amounts of cloud and a lot of drizzly rain so with the cold wind it feels like a return of winter. The daytime temperature has stayed between 5 and 6 degrees C all the week.
I walked round the garden last week and took a few photographs in the sunshine.
A Mallard swimming on the big pond
Mallard drake
Primroses in one of the ditches round the garden
Daffodils flowering on the bank of the big pond
A Rook’s nest being built in the Ash tree.
Greylag pair on the pond
Greylags on the pond
Greylags on the pond
I have seen the heron in the garden a few times.
I tried to sneak up on the heron as it stood at the side of the pond but it saw me and flew into the field behind our house. This is a poor photo that has been severely cropped.
I found a half-eaten fish on the path round the pond which could have been left there by the heron or by the otter which is causing owners of ponds in our area to wish the otter was living many miles away!
Ladybird
Ladybird
Ladybird
Mallards in the front ditch
Mallards in the front ditch
Mallards in the front ditch
Mallards in the front ditch
Sweet violet
Cherry-plum
Cherry-plum
Cherry-plum
My choice of music for this post is Emmanuel Chabrier’s ‘Suite Pastorale’. As soon as I hear it I think of spring days in the countryside – cool breezes, sparkling streams, flowers and singing birds. I hope you like the music as much as I do.
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.
I managed to do some work in the garden on Sunday; the first time in many weeks that I have spent more than a couple of minutes outside.
Some weeks ago I moved three tubs of spring bulbs – snowdrops with Tete-a-tete daffodils in two tubs and little blue crocuses in the third – from their winter-quarters behind the greenhouse to the front of the house under the kitchen window. They were ready to bloom and they have brightened up the area near the front door. On Sunday I moved the rest of the pots and tubs away from the back of the greenhouse either to the front of the house or to the rear near the conservatory.
The area round the greenhouse has become very wet and waterlogged and the pots were sitting in puddles. Richard and I had a talk about how to solve this problem and I suggested a French drain ( a trench filled with gravel) immediately round the greenhouse and then we discussed again our idea of putting flagstones round the greenhouse to make it nicer to walk on than muddy grass. We have a plastic compost bin near to the greenhouse and a lidded water-butt behind the greenhouse – the water-butt will then go on the flags and so will the compost bin. The water-butt keeps sinking into the ground despite the bricks and flints it is standing on (there must be quite a collection under the water-butt by now). Also, we often get rats, mice and/or voles getting into the compost bin and having the bin on hard-standing would stop that little game! They dig tunnels that come up under the bin and then make themselves at home amongst the potato peelings and weeds.
One of the daffodils that have started blooming round the big pond
We also discussed where we would put the new potting shed. We have a very old tumbledown shed in the middle of the garden. It is rotting and disintegrating very quickly and we need to replace it and we don’t want to use the same site for the new shed. We have a very nice tool shed near the greenhouse so the new potting shed with a large window and bench will go next to the tool shed. This will keep all the out-buildings together in one place and will save us a lot of time walking from one side of the garden to the other.
Witch-hazel by our front door
Witch-hazel
Witch-hazel
I am considering drawing a plan of our garden as it is now and scanning it so that I can include it in this blog. When we make changes to the garden I can then update the plan.
This is our new summer house
I mentioned in a former post that our old summerhouse was demolished and the base was extended in readiness for a replacement. The new building arrived and was put up during a gale on 8th February and is just what Richard wanted. He has been enjoying his room with a view and often sits inside it looking out over the big pond.
Hazel catkins on one of our Hazel trees
A poor photo of a female hazel flower. You can just see the little red tuft at the top of the bud-like object in the centre of the photo
Behind the summerhouse (you can’t see it from the angle the photo was taken from) is our large open compost heap where we put our bulkier garden clippings and waste. Next door’s chickens are often here turning it over for us and kicking it about and in the summer Richard often finds Grass Snakes sleeping in its warmth. Richard doesn’t like snakes.
Not all of the Hawthorn berries have been eaten yet. These two had fallen from an overhanging Hawthorn branch above and caught on this Elm twig
I have also mentioned in former posts that the garden is large and is mainly laid to grass. There are a couple of vegetable beds near the summerhouse and another mixed vegetable and flower bed half way up the garden. I had started to use this mixed bed when we moved in to this house but I haven’t had the time to do much to it since my father died and Elinor started suffering so badly with anxiety. Most of my plants there have died and couch grass and ox-eye daisies have taken over. Richard is using part of the bed for his dahlias and chrysanthemums and there is a rhubarb plant and some blackberry canes there too.
The big pond
The arable field to the rear of our house
There is an old rose arbour next to the mixed bed and on this side of the arbour Richard has made a flowerbed for his favourite flowers. He has also started to make a shrubbery fairly near to our septic tank. We have a large gas tank close to the house and I have made a small flowerbed on the northern side of it and filled it mainly with spring flowers. I haven’t weeded it recently and this will be a project for the next time I get outside.
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There are narrow flowerbeds most of the way round the house which I look after and I have also started to landscape the area to the south of the house. I had made a flowerbed near the hedge at the rear of the house but again, I had to abandon this when Dad died and Elinor started to need more support and I had much less free time. Many of my plants are in pots and tubs waiting to find a proper home. I hope to make a gravel garden at the front of the house with paths through it from the front door to the drive way. I bought the gravel for this project eight years ago!
Cherry-plum blossom in our hedge
Cherry-plum blossom
Cherry-plum or Myrobalan Plum (Prunus cerasifera) is not a native tree but has become naturalised here and is often found in hedges. It is often confused with Blackthorn or Sloe (Prunus spinosa) but the Blackthorn flowers open before the leaves come out and the Cherry-plum’s flowers and leaves open at the same time. The cherry-plum isn’t so spiny as Blackthorn.
The corner pond at the front of the house.
My music choice today is a song written by B A Robertson and Mike Rutherford shortly after the death of their respective fathers. It is sung by a favourite singer of mine, Paul Carrack, whose father died when Paul was eleven years old. It is a song about the regret we have when we lose a relative and realise all the things we should have said to them when they were alive. I am so glad I was able to tell my father how much I loved him and appreciated the love he had for me.
The best thing about blogging…No one gives a damn about what I feel about an issue. But, it’s my blog…and I have the freedom to express ANYTHING I want!
Freedom to express ANYTHING? Really?
Which brings to my topic for this post. for the second time in my blogging career, I am writing about a topic which is political in nature…and this one has divided the nation like no other in recent memory!
If you have been in India last couple of weeks, it’s very unlikely that you have not seen or heard about the events which took place in the Jawaharlal Nehru University(JNU) campus in New Delhi.Considering the fact that many of my fellow bloggers are not from India, I think it’s necessary that I give a brief background. However, if you are aware about the incident, you can skip the next 2 paragraphs.
I took this short walk in Norwich on a dull cold day last spring. I began my walk near the Assembly House.
This building was designed and built by the architect Thomas Ivory in 1794 and, as its name suggests, was a place where the local gentry could assemble and be amused and entertained by recitals, displays and dances. One notable ball was in celebration of Nelson’s victory off the Cape of Trafalgar in 1805. A waxworks exhibition from Madame Tussaud’s was hosted here in 1825 and Franz Liszt the composer gave a concert in 1840. The building incorporates the layout of a previous building – the medieval college of St Mary in the Field.
The Assembly House – some more renovation work was in progress at the time of my photograph
It has been used as a dance academy, a cinema and, during the Second World War, it was an army office. It was restored in 1995 but almost immediately afterwards was severely damaged by an electrical fire. With the aid of photographs taken at the instigation of a trustee during WW2, the house was reconstructed and today it appears exactly as it did when it was first built. It is used as a restaurant and hosts exhibitions, concerts, conferences and weddings, almost the same kind of use it was put to in its heyday.
The Forum
Opposite the Assembly House is the Forum, though the large entrance seen in the photo above is on the further side of the building.
Norwich’s Central Library was located on this spot until it was destroyed by fire in 1994 and this new building, designed by Sir Michael Hopkins, not only gave the library a new home but also was built to mark the Millennium in the East of England. The main section of the building is an enclosing horseshoe shape. It is made from hand-made load-bearing bricks and has many windows.
As well as The Millennium Library (the public library) the Forum houses a children’s library, the Norfolk Heritage Centre, the Norfolk Record Office and a business library. The 2nd Air Division Memorial Library is also here; it pays tribute to the thousands of American airmen who were based in East Anglia during WW2. There are over 4000 books covering all aspects of American life and culture with a specialist section dedicated to the 2nd Air Division.
Many other organisations have a base in the Forum. BBC East has its studios in part of the building; there is a Forum shop, a café bar and a pizza restaurant. The Tourist Information Centre is here, as is MINT – a charity which helps young people gain the skills and contacts they need to find employment. MINT is run by City College Norwich where my daughter studies. ‘BBC Voices’ provides film-making and radio-editing workshops throughout the Eastern Region for free. There is a digital gallery – the Fusion Screen – which gives free screenings of work by artists, and a 120-seat auditorium called The Curve. The Forum runs regular events and there is a venue hire facility.
Entrance to Chapelfield Gardens.
Not far from The Forum is Chapelfield Gardens which takes its name from the chapel of St Mary in the Field. The chapel (built where the Assembly House is now) was founded in the 13th century by John le Brun and soon acquired many generous benefactors. It became a college and the premises were expanded. In 1406 the citizens of Norwich claimed 4.5 acres of ground that belonged to the Chapel and this land began to be called Chapel Field. In the 16th century it was leased with its cherry yard and dove house to notable citizens and then, after a proclamation in 1578 it was used as an open area for mustering the trained bands, archers or the artillery. It was the ‘fit place’ to charge guns with shot and powder for the exercise of shooting. The Lord Lieutenant had his ‘City Tent’ there for the general musters and the yearly reviews of the city regiment took place there in the 17th century.
Crocus and daffodils in Chapelfield Gardens
The Field was first surrounded by fencing in 1707 and the main walks were laid out by Sir Thomas Churchman who leased the land in 1746. The tree planting began then too. A large water reservoir (about 300 yards in circumference) was dug in part of the Field in 1792 and was filled in again in 1854 when larger reservoirs were built elsewhere by the newly established Waterworks Company. The reservoir in the Field had been used as a skating pond by the people of the city and it was much missed when it went. For a few years the Field declined into a rough area where children played, washerwomen hung out their linen and where sheep were grazed. Eventually, new iron palisades were erected in 1866 and in 1877 a landscape gardener was employed to make the Field into a beauty spot. The newly laid-out gardens were opened by the mayor in 1880.
The bandstand
This lovely Victorian bandstand in the middle of Chapelfield Gardens is still in use. During WW2 Glenn Miller visited Norwich and gave a concert here in 1944.
The Roman Catholic Cathedral is close to Chapelfield Gardens
City wall
City wall
City wall
City wall
I then walked along Chapel Field Road which follows the line of the old City Walls. As you can see from these photos the new and the old rub shoulders in Norwich. The weather had also improved by this time!
Building work on the City Walls began in 1294 and took 50 years to complete mainly due to complaints about the cost being levied for their construction. They were completed in 1343 after a very generous donation by a Norwich tradesman, Richard Spynk who was rewarded by the Corporation by being ‘quit all tallages, tasks and costs’ for both he and his heirs forever. When the walls were completed they had 12 gates, now all gone. Ber Street gate – taken down in 1807, Bishop’s Gate – taken down in 1791, Brazen Doors or Newgate, taken down in 1793, Conisford Gate, at the south end of King Street – taken down in 1793, Heigham Gate or Hell Gate – fell down in the 18th century, Magdalen Gate – taken down in 1808, Pockthorpe Gate – taken down in 1792, St Augustine’s Gate – taken down in 1794, St Giles’ Gate – taken down in 1792, St Martin’s or Coslany Gate – taken down in 1793,St Stephen’s or Nedham Gate – taken down in 1793, Westwick or St Benedict’s Gate – taken down in 1793.
A beautiful Cornus mas growing in a garden on the opposite side of the road to the City Walls was in flower
A row of attractive houses in a private road (The Crescent) off Chapel Field Road
The houses were built in about 1820 and are a mixture of terraced, semi-detached and detached houses, many of which are listed.
St Stephen’s Church which is next to Intu Chapelfield – a large shopping mall.
St Stephen’s church has it’s tower over the porch on the side of the church. I hope to visit this church later in the year and write about it in more detail as I also hope to write about the RC Cathedral.
As the title of this post states, this is about nothing in particular. Since Christmas we, as a family, have been nowhere and have done nothing except the usual chores of housework and shopping and driving – and in Elinor’s case, going to college. Richard has just returned from three nights away in Manchester staying with his brother and enjoyed a visit to a mining museum and a trip to Bury Market and the East Lancashire Railway. Elinor and I stayed at home.
A Hellebore flower
We have found the changeable weather a little trying but fortunately for us we haven’t had to deal with flooding, just lots of deep puddles and mud, mud and yet more mud! My car was half brown and half blue and the mud had oozed into the car round the doors, so just before he went away Richard hosed it down for me and restored it to its original blue-all-over colour.
Another Hellebore
The next two weeks will be very busy as we are beginning on our house renovations. The new garage doors were fitted today and most of the windows and doors in the house will be replaced next week. I am not looking forward to the disruption at all but when it is done the house will be warmer and more secure.
Snowdrop flower. Please excuse the horrible red finger!
One of my aunts died last Sunday 24th January and I will be travelling to Kent with my brother tomorrow for her funeral. Richard will be staying at home and will be driving Elinor to and from college. It will be good to see my cousins again despite the sad occasion. My aunt was my late father’s older sister and she was the last of Dad’s siblings. I have six first cousins on Dad’s side of the family and I am hoping to see most of them tomorrow. Andrew (my brother) and I will be meeting up with Francesca (my sister) when we get to the church.
Phalaenopsis Orchid
I am also going to visit Alice in Sheffield on the 12th of February and I will be watching her perform in another play, ‘And Then There Were None’ – an adaptation of the book by Agatha Christie.
Here is the trailer they have made for the play. I think you will be amused!
All my Christmas Cacti are re-flowering. Perhaps these are now Candlemas Cacti?
It is Candlemas today. We had a Eucharist service at Rumburgh on Sunday and celebrated the festival early. At Candlemas we remember three things; the presentation of the child Jesus, Jesus’ first entry into the temple and the Virgin Mary’s purification. Traditionally, candles are also blessed at Candlemas and Richard our priest gave us two new altar candles.
My choice of music today is Mozart’s Serenade for 13 Winds in B-flat major. My first introduction to this piece was when I was nearly 14 years of age and I was on a music course in the Austrian Tirol. I was lucky enough to be given the first (lead) clarinet part and I loved the whole experience – the great responsibility, the team-work, the music itself. I will never forget that feeling of euphoria as we played through the whole piece together! As soon as I hear the opening bars of music I am transported back in time to Austria, I am 13 years old and full of hope and excitement. This was my first ever trip abroad and I and a friend travelled there with our clarinet teacher and Kerry Camden the bassoonist who drove us from London all the way to the Tirol with a stop overnight in the Ardennes. I had a one-year passport and my parents had given me £15 spending money!
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.
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.
Slightly stunted pink Hyacinths.
Grape Hyacinths.
Miniature iris
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.
Small amount of ice on an apple tree.
Melting ice on a window sill
It was a beautiful day
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!
Colourful fungi on a dead log.
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.
The big pond
I like the patterns the snow made on the icy pond
We had a hoarfrost yesterday morning but the sun soon came out and the frost melted. I wish I could have got outside earlier!
Pyracantha leaves
Cherry tree buds
Winter-flowering Honeysuckle
Thyme
Marjoram/Oregano
The moss and lichen garden on top of the brick pillar at the end of the drive
A close-up of the moss with its frosted capsules
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.
This large church is close to Hay Hill where my last Norwich post came from. It is the largest of the thirty-one Church of England churches in Norwich and is often mistaken for one of the two cathedrals.
The building was begun in 1430 and was consecrated in 1455, a twenty-five year single phase of construction which gives the church its unity of style. There have been only a few additions to the exterior of the building since then, notably the little spire on top of the tower (a fleche), the parapet round the top of the tower and the ‘pepperpots’ on the corners added by the architect A E Street in 1895.
St Peter Mancroft before the Victorian additions to the tower.
St Peter Mancroft Church. Beyond it on the left of the photo you can see The Guildhall featured in a recent post of mine.
This church wasn’t the first to be built on this site. One of William the Conqueror’s barons, Ralph de Guader, Earl of Norwich, had had a church built there in 1075 but shortly afterwards he lost everything he had after rebelling against the Conqueror. Fortunately he had already bestowed the church on one of his chaplains, Wala, who fled to Gloucester after the rebellion. Wala passed the church on to the Abbey of St Peter in Gloucester and so for 300 years this church was known as ‘St Peter of Gloucester in Norwich’ – quite a mouthful! After pressure from the citizens of Norwich in 1388, the church was passed to the Benedictine Community of St-Mary-in-the-Fields in Norwich whose church (long since destroyed) was where the Assembly Room and the Theatre Royal are now. The Dean and Chapter of St Mary’s found the old church dilapidated and in very poor condition and so decided to re-build. It took them 42 years to save enough money through gifts, legacies and donations to be able to start the construction work.
Norwich Castle can be seen beyond St Peter Mancroft church
St Peter Mancroft on the right and the Forum ahead
St Peter Mancroft
I include here a link to an aerial map of St Peter Mancroft (marked in purple).
During the Reformation the College of St-Mary-in-the-Field was suppressed and the patronage of St Peter Mancroft was passed through several families until 1581 when it was acquired by trustees on behalf of the parishioners. The church was originally the church of St Peter and St Paul but the name was shortened to St Peter after the two saints were given independent saints days during the Reformation. ‘Mancroft’ probably came from the ‘Magna Crofta’ (great meadow) on which it was built.
St Peter Mancroft – the tower is 146′ high
The church is almost completely faced with limestone which was brought many miles over land and sea at great expense. (There is no local free-stone in Norfolk). It was a deliberate display of wealth on the part of the 15th century citizens of Norwich. There is some knapped flint flushwork decoration most notably on the tower which is well buttressed and was probably intended to carry another lantern stage The tower also carries a peal of 14 bells.
There are two fine porches to the church on the north and south sides. The North Porch has a parvaise (a room over the porch).
This is a view of the interior of the church from the back looking towards the East window.
It is 60′ from floor to roof and has eight arched bays with slender columns. The church is also very long at 180′.
The Crib was about 5′ tall and 5′ wide. I could have got into it easily – if I had so wished!
Richard, Elinor and I visited the church on a very rainy day last week. Amazingly, the church was warm inside! Even the cathedral doesn’t get as cosy as St Peter Mancroft.
Font and Font Canopy in the Baptistery
The font was a gift to the church in 1463 by John Cawston, a grocer from Norwich. The Seven Sacraments were carved on panels round the font basin and an eighth panel showed the ‘Sun in Splendour’, the badge of Henry IV. Eight saints were carved on the shaft of the font. Sadly, the Puritans hacked off all the images, plastered the font with lime and daubed it with black paint. It was found in the crypt with other rubbish in 1926 and was cleaned and put in its present position. The four pillars and the base of the canopy over the font were made in the 15th century but the upper part of the woodwork is 19th century Victorian work.
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I apologise for the poor quality of the photos in the slideshow but all of the objects were in glass cases in the St Nicholas Chapel. These objects are just a few of the many treasures owned by the church and known as the Mancroft Heritage.
The Jesus Chapel.
This chapel is normally used for weekday services.
The tomb of Francis Windham, Recorder of Norwich in the reign of Elizabeth I
The Chancel or Choir
The Reredos (the panel behind the High Altar) has some beautiful carved figures made in 1885 and gilded in 1930 to mark the 500th anniversary of the beginning of the building of the church. At the same time the lower line of larger figures were added by Sir Ninian Comper.
The Chancel roof
This roof (and the roof of the Nave) is of open timbered construction supported by hammer beams. Most hammer beam roofs are ornamented and uncovered but this one is covered by fan tracery or vaulting in wood. Most fan traceries are made from stone so this roof is very rare. It is also an angel roof – there is a single row of small angels on either side of the Nave roof but a double row on either side of the Chancel. There are also gilded suns in splendour on the ridge bosses. The roof was restored in 1962 -64. Some amazing work was done then by the restorers who raised the roof on jacks and then pulled the walls straight which had been driven outwards by the weight of the roof over the centuries.
Here is the memorial to Sir Thomas Browne, the subject of my previous Norwich post
I have discovered a quote of Sir Thomas Browne’s from his treatise ‘Urn-Burial’ at the beginning of Edgar Allen Poe’s ‘The Murders in the Rue Morgue’.
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The most memorable sight in the church is that of the Great East Window.
The East Window
It has 39 tracery lights (windows/panes of glass) and 42 main lights, all of which are 15th century except seven main lights which are Victorian. The Victorian ones are the lower five in the centre colomn and the two bottom ones either side of the centre colomn. This window contains some of the finest work by the 15th century School of Norwich Glass Painters. Most of the church would have originally been full of glass like this but during rioting between Puritans and Royalists in 1648 there was a gunpowder explosion nearby in a house in Bethel Street which left many people dead and much of the glass in the church blown in. It wasn’t until four years later that the glass was gathered together from around the church and most put into this window.
Please click on this link to see each light in detail.
I am obliged and indebted to the Church Guide I purchased in St Peter Mancroft for some of the information in this post.
A Suffolk Lane 