Before Christmastide draws to a close I thought I’d better write something about what we managed to do over the past few weeks.
This is the Advent Crown that Elinor and I made this Christmas. The first candle was lit on the first Sunday in Advent.
Norwich Market
Norwich Market
The 1st of December began with a frost (we had many frosty and foggy days in December) but by the time I had driven Elinor into Norwich for her afternoon classes at college it had clouded over and had become a little milder. The light wasn’t really good enough for photographs but the city had recently put it’s decorations up and was looking festive, though these photos make it look rather gloomy!
During the whole month, unless I got to the city before 9.00 am, I was unable to find a parking space in any of the car-parks. Norwich Council would like their visitors to arrive by train, bus, bike or on foot and don’t make it at all easy for car drivers. There is very little public transport from where I live so we have to drive into town. There are ‘park and ride’ places on the outskirts of the city but an acquaintance of mine queued for ages to get into the car-park and then waited an age with crowds of other shoppers for a bus which was full before he got to it! He returned home without doing his shopping. I have discovered a roadside parking area near to the college where I get two hours free parking and which is only a fifteen minute walk away from the city centre! This is where I had parked that day. I had coffee and a sandwich in a café and did some Christmas shopping and then made my way back to my car.
The Coachmaker’s Arms
This former coaching inn is on St Stephen’s Road and was built in the 17th century on the site of an asylum. The pub is said to be haunted.
An attractive frieze outside the pub showing what the inn might have looked like when first built. It was near one of the many city gates
For most of the month, Richard was still unable to drive any distance and was very bored being at home all the time. On the 2nd of December he joined Elinor and me in the car and after I had dropped Elinor off at college just before 9.00 am we drove to the north Norfolk coast and spent the morning in Cromer.
Cromer Pier
The tide was in. Looking westward.
Looking towards the east.
This is a photo of a very tame Turnstone (Arenaria interpres) who had decided that a good living can be made by following visitors about and eating food crumbs. It behaved just like a feral pigeon!
We were so surprised to see this bird at such close quarters! Normally they keep their distance from humans and find worms and molluscs etc. on the shore.
Cromer Pier
There was a large amount of spray coming off the sea
The sand and stones on the promenade show how high a recent tide had been
Boats out at sea
An off-shore wind-farm
A rainbow
Richard walking towards the beach changing rooms
Cromer cliffs
After walking along the front we then visited the pier.
View from the pier
Looking back towards the town
Cromer
We visited the Lifeboat station at the end of the pier
This slideshow requires JavaScript.
Part of one of the boards listing all their call-outs. I chose this because I was born in 1958
This is one of the war-time boards
Richard in one of the shelters on the pier
‘The Wellington’ – one of the pubs in the town
Returning home from shopping the following week, Elinor and I marvelled at the beauty of this misty sunset
This slideshow requires JavaScript.
Christmas flower arrangement around the font at our church at Rumburgh
Richard and I had a lot to do at church this Christmas. At the beginning of the month we had an Advent Carol Service with all our favourite Advent hymns and Advent readings. Usually we have a Carols and Capers service with the local Morris group and their friends at the beginning of the season but sadly they were unable to organise it this time. We had a Christmas Carol service on the 21st of December and then our church hosted the Midnight Mass service on Christmas Eve too.
I had made an Advent Crown for church too
We went for a walk on Westleton Heath on Boxing Day
The gorse (Ulex europaeus) was in flower
In the autumn this area of heather is a rich purple colour
Alice, Elinor and Phil, Alice’s boyfriend who stayed with us this Christmas
Phil up a tree
Richard, walking without a stick now!
Trees on the heathland as dusk fell
Sunset
Melting frost on the outside of my bedroom window
These following photos were taken by Richard in our garden that same morning.
Hoar frost on a Hogweed seedhead
Hoar frost on rose leaves
Our big pond
Frost and fog
Frost and fog
Richard and I went out for a walk across the fields on New Year’s Eve. The weather was very gloomy and I didn’t find much to photograph.
View across the fields
View across the fields
Yet another view! Note the large toadstool – bottom right of the photo.
The large fungus!
And that was my December which also included Christmas celebrations with much cooking and baking, a lot of driving about, lots of shopping and an amazing amount of housework!
This year has been….unsatisfactory. Nothing terrible has happened. We are in fairly good health, we are comfortable and very fortunate. But….almost everything we have tried to do this year has not been straightforward. There have been delays, cancellations and anxieties. I think the last update I wrote on our affairs (this is after all a diary blog) – apart from our holidays, a couple of outings and a few posts of things I’ve seen – was in the spring. I seem to have had less time than ever before for getting things done.
We visited Lowestoft on Tuesday this week so that Elinor could attend a podiatry appointment. The weather was cloudy and damp but fairly warm for the time of year. This is Lowestoft South Beach
Richard’s first year of retirement was meant to be a year in which we improved our lot. Retirement after over 40 years of continuous employment was always going to be a bit of a challenge but he decided he was going to see how the first six months went before making any decisions about what he would do with his time. He has found that he doesn’t miss the work at all though he does miss the social aspect of going out to work. Living in the country, some miles from the nearest town means that we don’t see people very often and we have to work hard to get any kind of social life – or go without. He has come to no decision as to whether he takes up a hobby, does voluntary work or any other activity; he has been too busy with the house and driving Elinor about. He has been a church warden for many years and is a member of our church’s PCC (Parochial Church Council). He has recently joined our local Parish Council too so he has employment enough!
Gulls on the breakwater
His retirement began with the death and funeral of his mother, which was not a good start. He has missed her very much; her support of him, her good sense, her understanding. Our holiday in the Peak District this year was taken at the anniversary of her passing and those of you who have kindly followed this blog for over a year will remember that we heard of her death last year as we arrived in the Peaks all prepared to go and visit her.
Looking towards Lowestoft docks
Richard has enjoyed working in our large garden and making a few improvements to it and to our house. We started the year by getting all our windows and doors replaced. We have a new summerhouse and a new potting shed. Our next project was to gut the family bathroom upstairs and the downstairs shower room and get new suites for both rooms and then redecorate. We asked around for suitable plumbers and a couple were recommended. We selected one and he came to see us and plans were made. It was decided that we would also have a water-softener fitted which was done as soon as the downstairs shower room was finished. And this is where things really went wrong. We hadn’t been happy with the speed at which the work was done. Days went by when no-one turned up. There were delays and more delays. We said that the upstairs bathroom would have to wait until we returned from Germany as we didn’t want anything left half done while we were away. The plumber failed to return. He has made no contact with us and has not responded to any of our messages. We had already paid him, at his request, for the work done to the shower room and for the water softener (we ought to have smelt a rat here!) but there are still a few things that need to be finished off properly in the shower room, ‘snagging’ it is called, which now will never be done except by us, in our non-professional way. We have a garage full of bathroom fittings and tiles and also some of the plumber’s and his men’s tools and equipment which they haven’t collected. We must find ourselves another plumber but we cannot face the upheaval until some time in the new year. I hope the work is done at a time when it isn’t too cold!
Off-season seaside resorts are a little sad and quiet
We have just had our gas boiler replaced. We use propane gas as we aren’t on mains gas here in the country. It is very expensive but the alternatives, oil or electricity, are not ideal either, both being very expensive too and as we have a gas fire and a gas hob, a gas boiler is the best option for us. We found a gas fitter who was able to get the work done during the second half of October. It was to take three days. In the end it took quite a bit longer as inevitably, problems were found. The fitter wanted it all done by the end of October as he was going to Las Vegas to celebrate his son’s 21st birthday and he did manage to get his part of the work done by then. He arranged for an electrician to come and wire the boiler up but the electrician couldn’t come immediately and when he eventually came he had difficulty with the system. He got it done, so he thought, and we thanked him and sent him on his way but when the boiler switched on the water heated but the pump wouldn’t work. We called the electrician back and he tried again. It still didn’t work. We contacted the fitter when he returned from Las Vegas and he eventually got it going. It took two and a half weeks to fit the boiler and the weather had been quite chilly! Fortunately we have an electric immersion heater which meant we still had hot water, a gas fire in the living room and a portable gas fire which we put in the hall at the foot of the stairs. Elinor got the electric fan heater in her room and the fitter left us another electric fan heater in case of emergency. We wore lots of layers!
At the same time as the gas fitter started work Richard began experiencing severe pain in his leg and back. He saw the doctor who gave him lots of tablets and lots of advice. He was in agony but manfully struggled on until he found that his leg was becoming numb and it was unable to take any of his weight. He fell over a couple of times and hurt himself. We phoned 111 and the medics there passed Richard on to the out-of-hours doctor. I took Richard to Beccles hospital to see the doctor that evening. Richard has a partially slipped disc in his back and a trapped sciatic nerve – not full sciatica as he could still feel his foot! He has still managed to fall over a few times since then – falling down the stairs while I was out with my mother for the day; falling over in the garden while I was out again – but at last the feeling is beginning to return to his leg and the pain has subsided. The hope is he will gradually be able to do more things and the feeling will come back completely. He has been told it will take four to six weeks. At first, he could hardly walk even with a stick and was unable to drive at all. He can now drive very short distances but the damage is in the leg he uses for the clutch pedal and he doesn’t trust himself to be able to do an emergency stop, to drive in heavy traffic, to drive far. I am doing all the driving at present.
The sea front with Richard and his walking stick
Elinor’s college course since September this year only asks for her to be at college for two and a half days a week. Richard is at home most of the time now he is retired. I must admit I miss my alone time and my routines have had to be changed to accommodate these other domestic changes. One good thing is that Richard and I now (usually) share the duty of driving Elinor to college and I found a little more time to work in the garden this summer! I still visit my mother a lot and take her shopping and to her many hospital, doctor’s and optician’s appointments. She is gradually losing her sight and as each month passes I notice she has less energy and is less interested in doing things. I take her to church once a fortnight; the intervening week I go with Richard to our church. I miss going to church in my benefice every week; I miss the people, the churches, the services and the preaching. But, my mother needs me and I can’t let her down. I like my mother’s church and I am so pleased to be able to help her do what she needs and loves to do. There used to be members of her church who collected her and brought her home but not any more. The people who used to do it have either died or moved away and as her church is some miles from where she lives there is no-one now who could easily collect her.
The sandy beach
Elinor did really well at the end of the course she took last academic year. She re-took her GCSE Maths and managed to get a ‘C’ grade which is what she was hoping for. She never has to go to a Maths class ever again! She also got a distinction in her Art and Design course and everyone was very pleased with her. She applied for and got a place on the two year Graphic Art course she had wanted to go on the year before. Despite this achievement she is unhappy that yet again she is the oldest one on her course and cannot find anyone interested in being friends with her. She is lonely. She has been extremely anxious and has struggled to attend college during the past few weeks and has found that working at home has been difficult too. She is frightened of making mistakes and that her work might not be of high enough quality. So she prevaricates and then avoids doing anything and then panics when she realises she is behindhand. It is impossible to convince a chronically anxious person that their fears are unfounded so life at home has been distressing for us all. There is no escape from the constant pressure of it. It is our elephant in the room; except it isn’t an elephant as they are too nice. It is a troll, a gremlin, a monster, a sickness that is almost palpable and it is ever-present.
A Fieldfare (Turdus pilaris) eating the tiny crabapples on our species crabapple tree. The Fieldfares have just arrived for the winter from where they spend the summer in Scandinavia
There is however, a glimmer of light at the end of the tunnel. We have tried over the years, many different ways to deal with Elinor’s mental health issue. In our ignorance at first, we attempted the stern attitude. Well, that failed spectacularly. We then saw many different therapists who tried countless different methods of finding out why Elinor is as she is and then attempting to help her by getting her to talk about things, them talking to her about things, giving her Cognitive Behavioural Therapy and oh, all sorts of therapies. Last winter we even resorted to drugs at the insistence of her GP (family doctor). The side effects were awful and it took until the summer for her to stop getting flashbacks and nightmares.
The Fieldfare again. They are beautiful and fairly shy birds.
A couple of months ago my hairdresser told me that she was seeing an acupuncturist because of depression and anxiety. The affect on her health and happiness had been astounding and she was feeling better than she had for years. She had had regular appointments at first but at the time of talking to me about it she was only going back now and again for ‘top-ups’. This got me wondering if it would be something that Elinor could try. I carefully spoke to Elinor about it but she refused to contemplate the thought of someone sticking needles in her. I tried again two weeks ago when Elinor was tearful and desperate for some kind of relief. She said she might be willing to think about it. She thought, and ten days ago she thought we might do some research into it. She then agreed that it was something she would be willing to try… but those needles..! On Thursday last week while Elinor was in college for her half day I went to see my hairdresser to ask for the name of her acupuncturist. By a happy chance this lady was having her hair done at that moment and agreed to talk to me. I have made an appointment for Elinor to see her next week. We will see what happens.
A small Common toad (Bufo bufo) hitching a ride in the wheelbarrow
Alice, my elder daughter who lives in Sheffield, has directed her first play. It was a great success and Alice enjoyed the experience but found it exhausting. We thought she would need a rest from her drama group for a while but she tells us she ‘accidentally’ auditioned for their next play and got cast! Can anyone explain how one can accidentally audition for a play?
A Scabious flower from the garden photographed in October
She had become unhappy living in the house she shared with a few other young people – they were fine but the landlady was awful – so she gave a month’s notice and found another house with a room to let and moved in at the beginning of this month. She has bi-polar disorder and if she gets over-tired or anxious her health deteriorates. The play and then moving house caused her to be very tired and quite anxious so she did feel under-the-weather for a while. She applied for another six-month temporary job at a higher grade in the university library department where she works, got an interview last week and has been successful! She hopes to start the job at the beginning of next month. Yet again it is only a part-time job and is only for six months but the money is better than what she gets at present and one must never look a gift-horse in the mouth – as they say.
Dog-rose hips (Rosa canina)
There we are. A resumé of most of the events of the past year with many gripes and groans included. What I intend doing is to post a few photographic highlights of the past six months (yes, there were a few highlights!) during the next few weeks. I hope to intersperse these with some current affairs on the approach to Christmas. Whether I manage any of it, who can tell!
Hawthorn berries (Crataegus monogyna)
I leave you with my music selection which is the Four Sea Interludes from Britten’s opera ‘Peter Grimes’. Benjamin Britten was born in Lowestoft and lived for many years a few miles further south along the coast at Aldeburgh. I love the music from Peter Grimes and these interludes give a taster of the opera as a whole but without the singing! The four interludes are entitled ‘Dawn’, ‘Sunday Morning’, ‘Moonlight’ and ‘Storm’ and the playing time is about 17 minutes.
When we moved to Somerset for 18 months twelve years ago I was very homesick and I listened to this music a lot while we were there to remind me of the coast I love. Looking through the comments on the different recordings on Youtube I find I am not the only person to find this music, especially ‘Dawn’, so evocative of the Suffolk coast and the North Sea.
On our second full day on holiday we thought we would go and see the Triberg waterfall which we were informed is the highest waterfall in Germany. (In fact, it isn’t as Rothbach Waterfall in Bavaria is the highest with a single, vertical drop of 470 metres.) We had a short walk through the town to the nature park entrance where we were able to get free entry by using the guest-card that the hotel had given us on our arrival.
Just a few minutes walk brought us to the waterfall.
The waterfall is a series of seven cascades falling 160 metres into the valley.
The waterfall can be heard in the town.
The paths and bridges have been carefully designed to enable everyone to see the falls clearly.
This slideshow requires JavaScript.
I didn’t just photograph the waterfall. There were plenty of plants that interested me, some I recognised and others I still cannot put a name to.
Touch-me-not Balsam (Impatiens noli-tangere)
Fungus
Lichen
Unidentified yellow flower
Slime mould
Moss
More moss
Hoof fungus (Fomes fomentarius) ?
Orange-coloured fungus.
Indian Balsam (Impatiens glandulifera)
Wood Sage (Teucrium scorodonia)
Wood Sage flower spike
We also saw glimpses of Red Squirrels, which are not rare in Germany, but they were too quick for me and I was unable to photograph one.
I was very pleased that I managed to photograph a Nutcracker, a bird from the crow family. They are one of the smallest crows at 12.5 inches long, even smaller than a Jackdaw, and they were moving about quickly in the undergrowth feeding newly fledged young.
Nutcracker (Nucifraga caryocatactes) on a tree-stump
This is the above photo which has been cropped
Nutcracker
Nutcracker
Nutcracker
Only one of those photos was cropped though I had to use the zoom on my camera to its fullest extent for the rest!
There were a few commemorative plaques placed on the rock face; this one is for Otto von Bismarck.
Bismarck commemoration
This one is for Ernest Hemingway
On the right are his dates of birth and death under a note saying that Ernest Hemingway visited Triberg in the Black Forest in August 1922 where he indulged in his passion for fishing. There is a quote from ‘The Snows of Kilimanjaro’ on the left where he talks about a trout-fishing trip to Triberg.
We enjoyed our walk through the forest and before returning to our hotel, indulged in some more coffee and cake!
We recently had an eight-day holiday in the Black Forest in Germany. Richard organised the whole trip on his own, booking the hotel independently and then contacting Deutsche Bahn who recommended a route for us to take. We enjoy travelling by train! On previous trips we have used couchettes or sleeping cars but Elinor said that she’d rather we didn’t do that again so we managed to get the whole journey done in one day, setting off from home at 4.30 am and getting to the hotel just before 9.00 pm (8.00 pm British time) the same day.
We drove to Ebbsfleet in Kent where we left the car and went through passport control and customs before boarding the Eurostar.
The view from the waiting area at Ebbsfleet
Richard and Elinor eager to board the train!
Modern high-speed trains are usually very pleasant to travel on. The seats are comfortable, there is no jolting or bumping and there is hardly any engine noise. We seem to slide through the countryside at 140 mph almost as though we are hovering above the ground rather than fixed on tracks. The only downside is travelling through tunnels which make my ears pop and not being able to see the scenery at times because of sound barriers built next to the line near towns and villages. The tunnel under the English Channel only takes 20 minutes to go through and the train is travelling at a mere 80 mph. This rate of travel is still very surprising to me; I have always journeyed by train and my first train trip to the Continent when I was 14 years old began at Victoria Station in London. That first leg from London to Dover took about an hour and 40 minutes. We went through customs and then boarded a ferry to Ostend in Belgium. The sea journey took three or four hours and we then caught a large train to Paris. It was very exciting! Everything looked and smelt so different. I remember setting off from London about midday and eventually getting to Paris that evening where we ran from one station to another dodging the crazy traffic and quickly finding something to eat before we boarded the sleeper to Munich.
But back to our recent journey – the Eurostar took just over two hours to get to Brussels where we had a couple of hours wait for our next connection to Cologne.
Here we are having some lunch at a café near the station in Brussels. Richard is just posting a photo of his beer on Facebook……
Jupiler Belgian Pils
….and taking a picture of me and Elinor. I see that I am looking very tired which is not surprising as I had only had two hours sleep the night before!
It was so pleasant to be out in the sunshine and the lunch was exceedingly good. What I found sad was the sight of armoured cars and armed soldiers and police everywhere. With all the terrible attacks all over Europe it is not to be wondered at but I find it very upsetting all the same.
Our next train arrived on time and we were soon on our way to Cologne.
This is the station at Liege-Guillemins – the first stop on the way to Cologne. It is a beautiful building; Richard was able to take this photo through the window while we were there.
The last time we passed through Liege, work had begun recently to up-grade the tracks for high-speed trains. I don’t remember seeing this station then. Catalan architect Santiago Calatrava designed the building and it really is superb.
I think this might be us arriving at Cologne. Richard took this view of the River Rhine through the train window.
We had a 40 minute stop in Cologne where we dashed about looking for food as we would be arriving too late at our hotel for a meal. Our next high-speed train took us to the small town of Offenburg where we needed to buy more water as we had forgotten this in Cologne. Luckily, there was a drinks dispenser on the platform and we bought two bottles of ice-cold mineral water. By this time the fine weather had disappeared and it was raining hard and quite chilly.
Our last train was a double-decker local train to Triberg which travelled through very scenic countryside, though by this time it was very gloomy and wet and after 8.00 in the evening. We had arranged with the hotel for a taxi to pick us up at the station and as soon as we got off the train we were halloo-ed by the driver who was over on the opposite platform.
He drove us quickly to our hotel where we booked in and found that our other suitcases had already arrived and were waiting in our rooms. We had decided to use a company called ‘Luggage Mule’ to help get all our belongings on holiday. Lugging heavy suitcases on and off trains is a back-breaking business and as we usually need a large case for our medication alone we thought having someone else do the lifting was a good idea. The cases were collected six days before our holiday started and I found packing this far in advance quite tricky. Inevitably, there were things I wished I’d included and hadn’t and things I wished I hadn’t included but had! We were amused by the list of things that we were forbidden to pack. As you will see from the list, we had to leave our sink behind! We still managed to find more things we couldn’t do without for eight days to fill two smaller suitcases that we carried with us on the journey (see the second photo above)! Three washbags, cosmetics, medication for three people with chronic illnesses, Elinor’s books and drawing materials, her laptop and my notebook PC, shoes we had forgotten to pack earlier, coats etc made us look like a normal family going away for a week.
Our rooms in the hotel were comfortable and spacious and we slept well after our long day. The following morning we enjoyed a delicious buffet breakfast and then had a short wander round Triberg, the town where we were staying.
View from our window
View from our window
Our hotel. I took this photo the last evening we were there.
Another wing of the hotel is on the left of the photo. Ernest Hemingway stayed in this hotel when he visited the Black Forest.
It wasn’t a warm day and there was a mixture of sunshine and showers but we saw that it was a pretty place though very busy with tourists like us.
This is one of many cuckoo-clock shops in the town – I took the photo near the end of our holiday when the weather had improved.
As you see from the picture we had arrived in the land of large teddy bears. Two worked unceasingly at their clock-making and another abseiled up and down the outside of the shop all day.
The top of the town with the River Gutach in amongst the trees at the bottom of the photo.
This is a little garden in the centre of the town. There are two large carved figures here that look like Easter Island statues with red balls on their heads.
I believe these statues represent Triberger women in their distinctive national costume and their Bollenhutte (hats with pompoms).
Photo taken from Google images
After our walk about the town we returned to the hotel for a few hours to rest and then at about 4 o’clock we went out for ‘Kaffee und Kuchen’ (coffee and cakes) Our breakfast had been so satisfying that we hadn’t needed lunch but by mid-afternoon we were in need of a little something to eat. The cake shop opposite the hotel served the most delicious cakes!
Café Adler – the cake shop
In the evening we went out for a meal at a restaurant close to the hotel. For the time we were in Germany we tried to eat local Black Forest food for every meal. It was all very good indeed though I found there weren’t as many vegetables as I am used to in these dishes which were mainly meat with potatoes or arborio rice or noodles.
One of our favourite places to eat
In the next post I will describe what we did while in Germany.
We arrived back home last Wednesday after spending eight days in the Schwarzwald (Black Forest). It was probably the hottest day of the year so far and we spent it travelling by train up from Triberg, Germany to Ebbsfleet in Kent (England) where we had left our car. We set off from the hotel at 6.30 am European time and got home just after 7.00 pm British time (one hour behind Europe). The car thermometer said it was 32C (89.5F) when we set off from Kent and it peaked at 34C (93F) near the tunnel at the Dartford Crossing (under the Thames). As we drove home up through Essex and Suffolk we watched large black clouds to the west edging ever nearer and we hoped we’d be able to get home before the storm got to us. We did. It was still 32C as we unpacked the car, opened all the windows and doors in the house and wandered round the garden for a while looking at the long grass and the drooping plants. While I put the kettle on and made a cup of tea Richard telephoned the Chinese restaurant in Halesworth and ordered a take-away meal. He was just about to set off when the storm broke. It was the most violent one I’ve seen for many years with continuous thunder and bolts of lightening coming down vertically and travelling horizontally across the sky. The rain was very heavy indeed. Elinor and I sat on the stairs together as she gets quite frightened during thunderstorms and Richard went off to collect our evening meal. The storm gradually abated and the sky cleared but still Richard hadn’t come back and I began to worry about him. I found his phone which he had left behind so I couldn’t get in touch to find out where he was. I was considering getting in the car and going to look for him when I was relieved to see him driving up to the house. He had had a hair-raising journey and when he had got to Halesworth he found that the Chinese restaurant had a power-cut and couldn’t give us a meal. They had tried to phone him on his mobile to let him know, but of course he had left it at home. The town’s Thoroughfare was flooded with a foot of water and people were out trying to sweep the water away from the shop doors. Water was coming up through the drains and the town river was in full spate. Richard didn’t lose his head and knew he had a mission to accomplish so went to the other Chinese restaurant at the top of the town which hadn’t lost it’s power and ordered our meal from them instead.
When the rain stopped I went outside to enjoy the fresh, cooler air and took some photographs of the strange clouds.
This slideshow requires JavaScript.
The following day I resumed my dutiful-daughter job and took Mum out to do her shopping. We had bought double her usual amount of shopping just before we’d gone away and we had made sure she had enough of her medication to last as well. While we were on our holiday she had been taken to church by my brother on the Sunday and he had cooked lunch for her at his house, so she had plenty to tell me.
When I got home again I got on with the washing and started to tidy the garden. Richard and I called in to see our next-door-neighbours who had been kind enough to water the plants in the greenhouse and to put our rubbish bins out for collection while we were away. We are very fortunate to have such thoughtful and generous neighbours.
The next day I continued with house and garden work.
Scarlet Pimpernel (Anagallis arvensis ssp.arvensis) found behind the greenhouse
Marsh Woundwort (Stachys palustris) found growing on the bank of the big pond.
I think this may be a male Common Darter (Sympetrum striolatum) though it could be a male Ruddy Darter (Sympetrum sanguineum)
A Spear Thistle (Cirsium vulgare) in flower near the big pond
A rather old and tired Ringlet butterfly (Aphantopus hyperantus)
Hedge Bindweed (Calystegia sepium) in flower in the area between our garden and the field at the back of the house.
I believe this may be a female Common Darter (Sympetrum striolatum)
Our Variegated Sweet Chestnut (Castanea sativa variegatum) in flower
Sweet Chestnut flowers
I walked down the lane with Elinor to post birthday cards to my niece Natalie (my brother’s daughter) who had her 31st birthday on the 23rd of July and cards to Alice my elder daughter who had her 31st birthday on the 24th of July. Natalie is exactly 23 hours older than Alice.
This is a teneral, or newly emerged dragonfly as you can see by the pale colouring and very shiny wings. I don’t know which dragonfly it is, unfortunately. It is perched on a Great Willowherb (Epilobium hirsutum) growing in the ditch at the side of the lane.
The new pond at the side of the lane which was dug during the winter.
Richard spoke to the man who lives on the opposite side of the lane to the pond and who was responsible for digging it. Apparently, many years ago there was a pond there which was wide enough and deep enough to enable the horses to be led to drink while still attached to their carts. It was filled in when horses were no longer needed on the farm but it has now been re-instated and I am very pleased. The pond is already full of interesting plants and insects which have found their way there on their own.
Our lane. I am standing next to the pond (on my left) and looking back in the direction from which we had come.
Looking over the hedge into the garden of Church Farm I noticed this piece of wall covered in ivy. I wonder if it is part of the old church of St Nicholas demolished many hundreds of years ago.
Lots of unripe Lords and Ladies berries (Arum maculatum)
A field full of Field or Broad Beans.
Another pond at the side of the lane. This one has become rather overgrown. It has fish in it and I once saw a couple sitting at the side of the road with rods trying to catch fish.
View across the fields towards All Saints church which can just be seen to the right of centre on the horizon. It is slightly obscured by a thistle flower!
Common Knapweed (Centaurea nigra)
Yarrow (Achillea millefolium)
Wild flowers at the side of the lane.
Agrimony (Agrimonia eupatoria)
Meadowsweet (Filipendula ulmaria)
Meadowsweet has a beautiful almond-blossom-like fragrance.
A poor photo of a male Gatekeeper butterfly (Pyronia tithonus)
These were all the things I saw at the side of the lane on a short 20 minute walk to post cards.
Here now is my musical choice – the Petite Symphonie in B flat for nine wind instruments by Charles Gounod, composed in 1888. It lasts about 20 minutes and is of four movements. I love the lyricism of French 19th century music and I like this recording of the piece very much. It is a piece of music I used to play and it brings back such good memories to me when I hear it.
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!
This slideshow requires JavaScript.
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.
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!
I had a lot of difficulty trying to think of a title to this post as it is made up of a mishmash of lots of different photos taken from the beginning of December up to New Year’s Day and at a number of locations.
A young hedgehog I saw wandering about the garden during the day at the beginning of December.
This little creature looked healthy enough, though still not quite full-grown. It seemed unbothered by my presence and was trotting about looking for and finding things to eat in the garden. The photo is a little blurred because it didn’t keep still long enough for me to take a good picture of it. Hedgehogs are normally nocturnal mammals and only emerge during the daytime if disturbed or hungry. They hibernate during the winter but emerge during mild spells of weather to feed.
The Viburnum bodnantense is in full flower and smells divine!
The Winter-flowering Honeysuckle is also flowering and its scent is beautiful.
The Primulas in Richard’s border are in flower and his Pinks are covered in flower-buds.
Not only do we have all these flowers but also miniature Iris, Grape Hyacinths and Hyacinths are in flower. On my travels I have seen Daffodils, Snowdrops and Winter Aconites. My mother’s garden has Hardy Geraniums still in flower from the autumn and also the bright red flowers of Ornamental Quince. We have had a lot of rain (though much less than in the north and north-west of the country) – the ditches are filling fast, the roads are thick with mud and have standing water on them and parts of our garden are like a quagmire. The grass hasn’t stopped growing but it is too wet for it to be cut. I spent some time a few days ago pulling out Stinging Nettle runners from under our Crabapple tree.
This seaweed-like algae has started growing out from the edge of the grass onto our driveway.
This is St George’s church at St Cross South Elmham – another of the churches in our benefice.
I had reason to call in to this church a couple of days before Christmas and while there I thought I’d take a few photos. I didn’t have much time to spare so only took a few pictures – I hope to return there again soon and finish the job.
The church is large and seems very tall especially as one approaches it from the bottom of the valley. I didn’t have time to walk round the outside of the church or visit the grave of the Canadian poet and writer, Elizabeth Smart.
Inside the church
Sunlight entering through the clear windows
A very attractive pulpit and the tiny staircase that used to climb up to the rood loft
I like the little bracket on the wall above the reading desk.
The altar with its painted reredos. The picture on the left is of St George.
The pretty pipe-organ.
The heater – a venerable one!
A watcher from up in the roof.
In this photo you can see where the face is. There are others elsewhere in the church.
This person with the jolly face, long auburn hair and white shirt is up in the roof too.
This carving round the door is in the porch.
This is part of the wooden ceiling to the porch.
This is The Beck flowing through St Cross.
The road crosses The Beck by a bridge which I looked over to watch the water racing through underneath.
The Magpie (or as it’s now known, the JD Young Hotel – so boring!) in Harleston.
We stopped off in Harleston on our way back home after taking Alice to the station on New Year’s Eve. Harleston is a town on the north side of the River Waveney and in Norfolk. The Waveney is the border between Suffolk and Norfolk.
This is another view of the town from the same spot – outside the bank where Richard was withdrawing some money. By the time I had taken this photo he had finished the transaction and had walked off, as you can see.
The Swan. Another of the inns in Harleston
The Adnam’s Shop, Harleston.
After we had finished our shopping we treated ourselves to a wander round this shop. Adnam’s is a local brewery based in Southwold. They brew many different types of beer and ale and recently have started to produce wines and spirits as well. They opened a very large store selling their beers and spirits and also cooking utensils, china and glassware in Southwold. This shop in Harleston is a much smaller version of their main store.
Tunstall Forest
On New Year’s Day, Richard, Elinor and I went for a walk in Tunstall Forest. The forest is managed by The Forestry Commission and is about 20 miles to the south of where we live.
One of my favourite books when I was a girl (and I still enjoy reading it now) was The Black Arrow by Robert Louis Stevenson. I was overjoyed to find that I was living near the Tunstall Forest of the book when I moved to Suffolk in 1988. Surprisingly, this walk was the first time I had visited the place.
The day was very dull and the ground was muddy from the quantities of rain we had had recently. It was difficult getting decent photos of the walk and there wasn’t much to see of special interest. However, the walk in the fresh air and in good company was good in itself.
The forest is predominantly Scots Pine and Corsican Pine used as a crop but since the Great Storm of 1987 when many of the trees were lost, it has been replanted with mixed woodland.
The rides through the forest are wide and sandy and I look forward to returning here in the spring and summer.
The Gorse was in flower and the bright yellow flowers were a welcome sight.
I noticed this toadstool at the edge of the path.
More fungi.
Moss
More moss
Even more moss
Another view from our walk
A fallen tree with its roots in the air.
I was surprised to see these new Oak leaves
New Honeysuckle leaves
A fine tree next to the ride.
Proof that I didn’t walk alone. Elinor in the foreground and Richard in the distance.
December was very busy with few opportunities for taking photographs and fewer for taking walks!
All the things we hoped to do before Christmas that I mentioned in my Advent post were done, with the exception of taking my mother Christmas shopping. She gave me a few shopping lists of things I could more easily get for her and we did a big shop for her at the supermarket on the day before Christmas Eve. She decided to give everyone some money for Christmas instead of buying gifts and we were all very content with that.
I did spend a lot of time shopping in December but mainly for food items and ingredients for Mum and me. Most of the presents were ordered on-line – this is the easiest option for us as we live some miles from the nearest shops.
I spent a whole morning away from home at the doctor’s surgery followed by an appointment with the optician. Elinor had a doctor’s appointment to discuss a couple of problems she has and then I went for my regular blood test. At the optician’s, Elinor was told that she needed yet more new glasses and we made an appointment to return the following week to collect the new prescription.
Elinor’s last couple of weeks at college went well. We attended the parent’s evening, viewed her work and listened to the wonderful things her tutors had to say about her. They predict very good marks for her at the end of the year. We went to see her artwork on display in a gallery in Norwich.
Elinor’s Red-Riding-Hood design in her ‘altered book’ is on the left on the shelf behind the chair.
The gas boiler was serviced and we discussed having a new boiler installed in the summer. A representative from the firm that will be replacing our garage doors visited us to talk about the work to be done and we were told the fitters will be installing the doors in a couple of weeks time. We had to have a water pipe moved to make way for the new garage doors.
The flush on our downstairs toilet kept going wrong and has now given up for good. The whole contents of the cistern will need replacing I think. We will have to call the plumber back yet again.
I got a puncture in one of my car tyres but fortunately it was repairable.
We attended the December Coffee Morning at the Rector’s house and also helped host two Carol Services at our church in Rumburgh.
I baked more than six dozen mince pies.
I wasn’t able to attend church on the 3rd Sunday in Advent as we were returning from our trip to Manchester that day. We had a lovely meal with members of Richard’s family in Manchester and exchanged presents with them. Our hotel was comfortable and for the first time ever on a Manchester visit, I managed to sleep well and for most of the night too!
We had a delicious lunch out with my brother Andrew and we exchanged Christmas presents with him as well. He was expecting both his children to stay with him for Christmas.
A photo I filched from Facebook. This is my brother Andrew and my niece, Natalie
He gave us his presents for my sister and her children as we were to visit her in Kent the following day. Our car was full of gifts on our 150 mile journey south to Francesca’s house and we brought a different lot home with us again that evening. Francesca made us very welcome on one of her very few days off work this Christmas. She had already worked 80 hours that week! Over-worked, under-paid and under-appreciated she spends her life as a paramedic practitioner saving the lives of others and looking after the welfare of her staff and colleagues. I am so proud of her.
Here she is (on the left) at work yesterday. I appropriated this photo from Facebook too.
We wrapped countless presents and sent off a number of parcels to people we couldn’t manage to visit. Many, many cards were written and posted or delivered by hand. A number of letters and e-mails were written to friends and relatives and some phone calls were made and received. I also managed to keep up with all the housework and the washing and ironing.
I had a book of daily readings for Advent recommended to me by Rachel from Could Do Worse . I found them very useful and was able to spend at least 15 minutes each day in quiet contemplation and prayer.
The Christmas wreath on our front door
We attended the local theatre at The Cut to see Richard Durrant’s Candlelit Christmas concert on the evening of the day we had lunch with my brother. We enjoyed the concert very much. Here is one of the pieces of music we listened to.
The house was decorated a couple of days before Christmas and Richard put some lights up outside the house.
Alice was coming home on Christmas Eve but as she was working that day her train wasn’t due in to Diss station until well after 9.00 pm. Unfortunately the train was delayed because of signalling faults before it got to Sheffield and was 45 minutes late. This meant that Alice was unable to catch her connections and there were worries that she might not be able to get home at all that night. Fortunately, the train she was on eventually arrived very late at Norwich so that is where Richard went to collect her. After I had given her a cup of tea and something to eat she had some present-wrapping to do and unpacking so she didn’t join us at Midnight Mass at St Margaret South Elmham church.
Mum joined us for Christmas lunch the following day and brought the Christmas Pudding with her. We went to her house on Boxing day for a buffet evening meal.
Richard and I went to church on Sunday morning at St Peter’s church and celebrated the Feast Day of St John.
The following day we were all going to go out for a walk together but I spent the day in bed with a migraine instead. Richard, Alice and Elinor went to Walberswick Woods.
Alice and Elinor in Walberswick Woods
On Wednesday, my mother had a 9.40 am appointment to attend at the Eye Clinic at Norfolk and Norwich Hospital so I picked her up at 8.15 am and drove to Norwich. The appointment went well and she only had to wait twenty minutes after her appointed time before being seen! We did some shopping for her on the way home and after taking her to her house and having some coffee I was back at home by 1.30 pm.
All too soon, it was New Year’s Eve and Alice had to take the train back to Sheffield.
Alice, Richard and Elinor on Diss station.
I managed to take a couple of photos of the flowerbeds at the station to take my mind off my sadness at saying goodbye to Alice.
The Advent Crown that I helped assemble with its first candle burning. This photo was taken in our church at Rumburgh on Sunday morning.
Here we are in Advent again. I enjoy Advent – I like the quiet thoughtful aspect of the season. One tends to get caught up too easily in the rush and tear of Christmas preparations – the frenzy of shopping for gifts and preparing food. Advent is all about waiting patiently and being prepared – not for the arrival of friends and relatives or having enough food and drink to last through the holiday (though that has to be considered!) – but for the gift that God gave us, his son Jesus Christ. We also have to be prepared (as Maurice reminded us on Sunday morning) for the Second Coming; for the Day of Judgement. Have we been leading good Christian lives? Have we loved God with all our hearts, with all our souls and with all our minds? Have we loved our neighbours as ourselves? Or, if we were suddenly asked to account for ourselves, would we be found wanting? I love the beautiful words of the Collect for Advent Sunday written by Archbishop Thomas Cranmer in the 16th century.
‘Almighty God, give us grace that we may cast away the works of darkness, and put upon us the armour of light, now in the time of this mortal life, in which thy Son Jesus Christ came to visit us in great humility; that in the last day, when he shall come again in his glorious Majesty, to judge both the quick and the dead, we may rise to the life immortal.’
The Advent Crown seen from a different angle.
Elinor and I made our own Advent Crown at home. I had a look in the garden for greenery to decorate it but could find hardly any. Our hedges have been cut and there weren’t any branches that hadn’t had all the best bits cut off. A lot of the ivy has gone from the garden this year as well. Fortunately, I visited Mum on Friday to deliver some shopping (which included candles for her Advent Crown) and while I was there she invited me to forage for useful evergreen in her garden.
Our Advent Crown
I have to provide two dozen mince pies for a carol service next Sunday evening. I have collected the ingredients for the shortcrust pastry and the filling and now I will have to find the time to bake them! This is the post from last year where I described how I make them.
The next few weeks are going to be quite busy and it will be hard to set aside enough time for quiet meditation and prayer.
Elinor breaks up from college at the end of next week and next Tuesday evening Richard and I will be attending a Parent’s Evening where we will meet her tutors. The pop-up design of Red-Riding-Hood and the Wolf she made at the beginning of term has been put on display in a gallery in Norwich. We must go to see it!
We have someone coming to see us tomorrow to discuss the replacement of our garage doors and we have the gas man coming to service our gas boiler on Friday. We believe that we need to replace the boiler quite soon and we will have to ask his advice. I will have to take my mother Christmas shopping soon – this will need to be carefully planned as she doesn’t have as much energy and strength as she thinks she has!
We have a trip up to Manchester planned for one weekend and I hope to visit my sister in Kent as well. She is a paramedic and is on stand-by from now until the 28th December and can’t visit us until after Christmas. There is another carol service on the 20th December and I will no doubt have to provide mince pies for that as well. Richard and I have tickets for a Carols by Candlelight Concert in Halesworth! Alice comes for Christmas and will arrive quite late on Christmas Eve and will need collecting from the station.
So what with all that and the usual round of our own chores to do we will be kept quite busy.
A Suffolk Lane 