A Conversation With My Mother

24 Thu Apr 2014

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Agatha Christie, Anthony Horovitz, Conversation, Elizabeth and her German Garden, Elizabeth von Arnim, Foyle's War, Franco Zeffirelli, Joan Plowright, memory, Michael Kitchen, Mike Newell, Peril at End House, Polly Walker, Richard Rodney Bennett, Tea With Mussolini, The Enchanted April

Here is a conversation I had with my mother yesterday. This type of conversation will be familiar to people of a certain age.

We had been discussing my daughter A’s hair. A has blonde hair but has recently dyed it a deep red. To be fair, she had intended it to be a red-gold colour but it is now a dark magenta. She has been this colour before and usually goes red when she is anxious and/or depressed. The deeper the colour the more anxious she is – a sort of litmus test for her family.

Mother: I liked it when she had her hair cut short that time a few years ago.

Me: Yes, we did too. I thought it suited her but she wasn’t impressed by it. She prefers her hair long.

Mother: It reminded me of the girl in that film. The film where two women go to Italy and this girl joins them.

Me: (Interrogatively) Yes?

Mother: Her hair was in a short bob just like A.

Me: Oh yes, I think I know the film you mean. (Thinks: A’s hair was blonde and wavy but the actress had dark, straight hair!)

I must interrupt the narrative here to explain the ‘game’. A conversation is carried on using very few proper nouns. While trying to remember the name/title etc you want, you try to think of other times you have seen/heard of/used etc the aforesaid name/title etc. You drag this second example into the conversation with the hope that it will shock your memory into remembering the first. Sometimes it does and sometimes it doesn’t. The person you are having the conversation with also tries to work out the subject’s name and also may suggest their own examples. The harder you try to remember the worse it gets. A joker can also be played where a totally erroneous example is given by mistake and the whole conversation spirals out of control and all concerned begin to doubt their sanity.

To continue….

Mother: You know the story – the book was written by that German woman.

Me: Yes, I know the story. She wasn’t German she was Australian but had married a German nobleman. I’m trying to think of the title……erm…..erm….I know….something ‘..April’

Mother: Yes, that’s the one. She also wrote about her garden.

Me: Funnily enough, I was listening to the music to the film a couple of days ago. Richard Rodney Bennett wrote it. I think the actress who played the girl is really very beautiful. I can’t remember her name. She hasn’t been in many things recently but she was in one of the David Suchet ‘Poirot’ episodes.

Mother: (Uninterestedly) Oh? (Slight pause) That nice actor was in it too. The one in ‘Foyle’s War’.

Me: (Smugly) Michael Kitchen.

Mother: Yes, that’s who I mean. Often plays strange men. That other woman was in it too. She was Lawrence Olivier’s wife. You know who I mean.

Me: Er… Um..Oh yes. She was also in that film – something, something ‘..Mussolini’. I remember!! (Joyously) ‘The Enchanted April’!!

Mother: Yes, of course.

We had a laugh and then Mum had the last word as usual.

Mother: (Victoriously) Well, there’s an an excuse for me as I’m 84. What’s your excuse?!

Me: (A feeble smile)

The Enchanted April by Elizabeth von Arnim 1922

Made into a film in 1992 and directed by Mike Newell.

Starring; Josie Lawrence, Miranda Richardson, Polly Walker, Joan Plowright, Alfred Molina, Jim Broadbent, Michael Kitchen.

Musical score by Richard Rodney Bennett.

Shot on location at Castello Brown, Portofino, Italy.

Elizabeth and her German Garden by Elizabeth von Arnim 1898

Agatha Christie’s Poirot 1989/1990

Peril at End House

Dramatised by Clive Exton

Starring: David Suchet, Hugh Fraser, Philip Jackson, Pauline Moran, Polly Walker

Foyle’s War Created by Anthony Horovitz

A British detective drama TV series set during and shortly after the Second World War. Action takes place in Hastings, a town on the south coast of England.

Starring: Michael Kitchen, Honeysuckle Weeks, Anthony Howell, Julian Ovenden.

Tea With Mussolini 1999

Adapted from the memoirs of Franco Zeffirelli

Directed by Franco Zeffirelli

Starring: Cher, Judi Dench, Joan Plowright, Maggie Smith, Lily Tomlin.

April Showers

22 Tue Apr 2014

Posted by Clare Pooley in Rural Diary, Uncategorized

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St. Peter's Hall and brewery

The busy last few days added to a high pollen count made me feel quite unwell yesterday so I not only couldn’t enjoy the Bank Holiday I also wasn’t able to post anything on my blog as I had hoped. Yesterday morning was very humid and hazy so my washing didn’t dry very quickly. I had to take A to Diss station as she was returning to Sheffield, and saying goodbye to her always makes me feel sad. I tried to hurry through my numerous Monday chores as R and I had thought we might go for a walk in a local bluebell wood in the afternoon. By the time I was ready to go out I was very tired. The sky had clouded over, the temperature had dropped suddenly by about five degrees and the air had become much fresher. I found R busy in the garden and reluctant to go out. He had planted potatoes in the vegetable plot and had earthed them up and also planted pea, runner-bean and tomato seeds in the greenhouse. I was half relieved that we weren’t to go out as I didn’t think I would have fully appreciated the beauty of the wood feeling as I did. It then started to rain so that was that. Rain continued on and off all night.

I have had another busy day today with more washing, a trip to the surgery in Halesworth to collect my medication and a visit to the supermarket for groceries. I then drove to Bungay to buy bird seed for Mum from the pet shop. I had only been home five minutes and was still unpacking the shopping when our electrician called by. We are to have lots of work done this summer and he had visited to discuss this with me. A new box for the external electrics which power our waste treatment tank, new lighting in the kitchen and new outside lights. There will also be lots of new wiring and a few unnecessary things to remove. A big project and one that has needed doing since we moved into this house in 2006. We had a cup of coffee together and a chat – he will call again in about three weeks and give us a start date for the work and an estimate of the cost. I had a quick lunch, then went to Mum’s house again to collect her and take her to Norfolk and Norwich hospital to have her eyes checked and scanned. The news was very good – the left eye is absolutely fine with no sign of macular degeneration after the series of injections she has just had and the right eye is doing well with no return of the disease. Unfortunately the damage caused cannot be repaired but with care and regular check-ups she should do well. I took her back to her house and I eventually got home at 4.45pm, half an hour before R got home from work.

I am really looking forward to spending time in the garden. I haven’t done any gardening since before we went away for our holiday in the Lake District. I haven’t been able to check on all the bird feeders as regularly as I should either, as housework and Easter preparations have taken all my time. Tomorrow I will be taking Mum out for her usual shopping trip to Diss and E has asked me to help her start sorting out some cupboards in her room. She wants some money to buy things and thinks she can sell some of her unwanted possessions for cash. She also needs a desk and chair but there is no space for it in her room. R says he will get her a desk if she gets rid of all the clutter. So…. she has asked me to help her! I think really she will just need me to get her started – the thought of having to do the job is much worse than the actual job itself. I have a hair appointment on Thursday and my monthly blood test on Friday as well as some more shopping. So things are improving and gardening beckons as long as the forecast rain and showers aren’t too prolonged.

This evening, we booked a table in a local restaurant for Saturday lunch. R has worked for his company for forty-two years and was complaining some weeks ago that no-one at work had acknowledged this. His boss got to hear of his complaint and to belatedly celebrate over forty years service R has been told to have a meal out with me and we will be able to spend up to £100 at the company’s expense. (We will have to spend the money and then claim it back on expenses!). As I can’t/don’t drink I think we should be able to have a really lovely meal locally for that amount. We will also take E with us if she feels she can manage the trip. She doesn’t usually eat much in restaurants but her favourite whitebait is on the lunchtime menu so I’m hoping she decides to join us. The restaurant we have chosen is St Peter’s Hall and Brewery where I went for lunch with my friend W in February. The hall dates from the 13th century and is supposed to be haunted. The beer from the brewery is something special, though I haven’t been able to drink it for many years now.

No pictures today. I also plan to do one post with highlights of the past week and another post where I talk about our holiday in the Lakes. I should be all caught up then.

Easter Day

20 Sun Apr 2014

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

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Easter, greater spotted woodpecker

Happy Easter to everyone!

The weather today was much better than forecast. I was woken at 6.00am by really heavy rain and thought at first that that was what we would get all day. Fortunately, this was not the case. We had a few more fairly heavy showers during the morning but the afternoon was dry with a couple of glimpses of the sun. The temperature rose to the dizzy heights of 13 degrees centigrade as well!

Mum always comes to lunch on feast days but as I had to take her to church as well today, cooking the lunch and being able to eat it at lunch-time was going to prove difficult. I got up early and managed to get a lot done by the time I had to leave for church. I was disappointed not to be able to go to church with R and A, who has come home for the weekend, as the 9.30am service was at our church at Rumburgh. When I arrived back home with Mum I found that a lot of work had been done by my dear family and we managed to eat our meal at 2.30pm. I then sat around talking to the family all the afternoon feeling very tired but quite happy. We had all exchanged little Easter gifts earlier. When I was a girl we just had Easter chocolate eggs and sometimes we painted hen’s eggs with food dye. With my girls things are different. A really disliked chocolate when she was little and still doesn’t eat much of it now so I used to get her Easter-themed presents. E also won’t eat Easter eggs (but does like chocolate) so I’ve always got her Easter gifts too.

This is the Easter decoration in our hallway that E did for us (with apologies for the horrible carpet we can’t afford to replace yet!)

We did manage to see a male Greater Spotted Woodpecker on our peanut feeder today.

I will be able to post something longer and better tomorrow I hope.

Maundy Thursday

18 Fri Apr 2014

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

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Flower Fairies books, Jack-by-the-Hedge, Ladies Smock, Maundy Thursday, sparrowhawk, stock dove

I have recently come home from taking my mother to the Maunday Thursday service at her church which I found quite moving. The word Maundy is an Old English word which originally came from the latin word mandatum – mandate/command. This refers to Christ’s command for us to love one-another. On Maundy Thursday the Maundy money (specially minted silver coins) is distributed by the Queen. On Maunday Thursday we commemorate Christ’s Last Supper and His washing of the feet of His disciples, even Judas Escariot’s who was about to betray Him. The service ends with the altar being stripped of all it’s candles and cloths to leave it bare and then a vigil takes place when we pray and meditate. Mum and I didn’t stay for the vigil as she was quite tired and she was concerned that I should get home sooner rather than later. It was her 84th birthday today. I tried to phone her this morning but couldn’t get through as the phone was engaged for ages. Apparently my sister phoned and an old friend from where Mum used to work rang as well. This was pleasing news to me.

My friend H contacted me about my last post and said that she usually calls Cuckoo Flower ‘Ladies Smock’. I also noticed that Mr Tootlepedal mentioned Ladies Smock in his post. I must admit that I usually call this plant Ladies Smock too but I suddenly had doubts about this and didn’t want to give wrong information out. I then looked the plant up in a couple of my wild flower reference books and neither of them said anything about Ladies Smock so I played safe! H also reminded me that Garlic Mustard is know as Jack-by-the-Hedge and we then had an e-mail conversation about The Flower Fairies books from where we got our first knowledge of wild and garden flowers and plants. H thought that the sparrowhawk might also have been responsible for the possible loss of the goslings. The geese are fierce, protective parents and bigger than the hawk but the hawk is extremely fast and, as I have mentioned, there is not much cover round the pond at the moment. So yes, that is another possibility.

I will end with a not particularly good photo of a stock dove. I include it because it shows the lovely iridescent green patch on the neck.

Catching Up

15 Tue Apr 2014

Posted by Clare Pooley in churches, Gardening, Insects, plants, Rural Diary, trees, wild animals, wild birds

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amelanchier, bluebell, cow parsley, cuckoo flower, early spotted orchid, fruit trees, garlic mustard, greylags, Holy Week, honesty, mallards, marsh marigold, pasque flower, rooks, St Lawrence, St Mary Homersfield, stock dove, thrift, tulip, wood pigeon

We spent last week, 5th to 12th April, away in the Lake District staying in a rented cottage with no phone signal and no internet. As I don’t have a smart phone I wasn’t able to send or receive messages or post anything on my blog. It is very nice to be away from home and duty and all other pressures but there is so much catching up to do on one’s return! Lots of e-mails, lots of interesting posts to read and such a lot of housework!! As I am still working my way through two weeks worth of washing and ironing I don’t envisage that this post will be very long – but I may be fooling myself and will ramble on at length as usual!

It took us five and a half hours to get home which wasn’t at all bad as it had taken us over seven hours to get there on the 5th. The roads were dry and it was cool and cloudy – ideal driving conditions. We unpacked and had a hot drink and phoned our mothers. R’s mum was fine but was worried about her new home help who will be coming to her twice a week. Her old help recently retired and mother-in-law doesn’t want or like change. It doesn’t seem fair that at 88 years of age she has to constantly make concessions and put up with unwelcome changes and interference in her way of life. But, if she wants to stay in her own home for as long as possible, that is what she has to do. My mother seemed fine and had had a visit from my brother, who lives in Surrey, on Friday which had pleased her very much. She had not been able to go to church the previous Sunday so my brother was the only person she had seen and spoken to since I had taken her out the Wednesday before that. Nine days with only her cat to talk to! I arranged with her that I would take her to church on Sunday as I knew she wouldn’t want to miss the Palm Sunday service.

R and I then did a tour of the garden and there were some pleasures and a few disappointments. The most noticeable thing was that the goose was no longer on her nest but there was no sign of any goslings. What had happened while we were away? Had the goslings hatched out and subsequently died? Had all the eggs been infertile? In which case wouldn’t we be able to see them still on the nest on the island? Had the goslings hatched out and then been taken off somewhere else after a couple of days? When we first lived in this house that is what the pair of geese did then but after three years they began to stay until the goslings fledged. We had a change of geese nesting on the island last year after a bit of a battle between two or three ganders, so perhaps the new pair don’t feel this is a suitable place to bring up their young. There is still hardly any grass round the pond and we have got rid of all the willow cover on the bank which might be another reason why they didn’t stay. We had no goslings last year either, but we put that down to the terrible weather in the spring and also the goose wasn’t good at sitting on her nest. The goose this year was very good on the nest and only left it twice a day for very short periods and always covered the eggs well with down. We will never know what happened but I would like to think that one year we will get goslings in our garden again.

A lot of damage had been done by rabbits. A hole had been dug at the back of my border against the house.

A number of my plants had been eaten – probably by rabbits perhaps by deer. We did find a dead, fully grown rabbit near R’s flowerbed. It had been dead for a couple of days and R couldn’t see any obvious reason why it had died. No scavenger had fancied eating it either. Moles had been making lots of molehills.

A blackbird had been killed and plucked next to the greenhouse. I have seen a female sparrowhawk flying about a lot since our return, strafing the small birds with fear, so I suspect her or her mate were responsible for the blackbird’s demise.

We were pleased to see that the pear tree was in full blossom.

The greengage and the bullaces had lost nearly all their petals and we hope that we may have a little fruit. The bird cherries were still in full blossom. R decided that he ought to start on the mowing. We have well over an acre of garden and most of it is grass so we have a tractor mower. It is some years old now and makes R infuriated when it keeps blocking up – I think we will be getting a newer better model soon and then I will see R in his element again, racing round the garden, weaving in and out the trees just like at Le Mans!

The rook chicks have hatched out in the rookery as I can hear them squeaking and squawking all day. Here is a rook looking for tasty morsels. Notice its glossy black feathers and feathered breeches. I have included the second photo even though it is blurred as you can see the shape of the beak and the bald scaly skin at the front of the face. The older the rook, the balder the face.

The duck and drake mallard are still happy in the pond at the front of the house. A couple of common crows are also nesting in the trees on the opposite side of the lane. Wood pigeons abound and so do Stock Doves.

Duck and drake Mallard

Wood Pigeon

Stock Dove

The marsh marigold in the big pond is flowering well. The flowers are more than two inches across.

The marsh marigold in the little pond is flowering well too.

I have found a cuckoo flower by the big pond. This flower belongs to the cabbage family but is much nicer than cabbage. John Gerard, the 16th century herbalist said this pretty flower was called cuckoo flower because it blooms ‘for the most part in April and May, when the cuckoo begins to sing her pleasant note without stammering’.

Cow Parsley is coming into flower. In East Anglia it is called Sheep’s Parsley as well, because in olden times this area was a wool producing part of the country. Another name for it is Queen Anne’s Lace which is a lovely name and describes the frothy whiteness of large quantities of the plant along the hedgerows.

Bluebell spikes are just appearing under the crabtree at the front of the house.

The crabapples are also coming into flower. Pasque flowers and Thrift are blooming in my flowerbed.

As are miniature scented tulips. I used to have more colours than this orangey-red but they have gradually disappeared over the years.

The Amelanchier is in flower. It was planted in the garden a few years ago but then got damaged so I dug it up and I’ve tended it in a tub. It will no longer grow to be a tree as I had hoped but will look alright as a shrub. Once it has stopped flowering I will plant it out in the garden again.

An Early Spotted Orchid is coming up in one of the tubs containing jonquils. We are fortunate to have a lot of these orchids in our garden and they like seeding themselves in flower tubs.

One of R’s cacti is in flower in the conservatory.

This is a Bee-fly. It is harmless to humans despite the nasty looking proboscis. Its larvae live as parasitoids in the nests of mining bees.

In driving about during the past few days I have noticed Alexanders and Stitchwort in flower in the hedgerows. I have also seen Orange-tip butterflies flying. The food for their caterpillars is Garlic Mustard, another member of the cabbage family and the only one to smell of garlic.

I found some perennial Honesty at the entrance to one of the farm yards down our lane.

Oil-seed Rape is everywhere this year and is in flower at the moment. We are surrounded by it. We see it to the left of us…

and to the right.

It has a strong distinctive smell both when in flower and when left to set seed. I don’t like it very much and it gives me hay-fever.

It is now Holy Week and we start, on Palm Sunday, by celebrating Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem on a donkey. At Mum’s church we gathered in the church-yard and processed into church carrying our palm crosses. Mum and I enjoyed the service, both having a bit of a cry during a favourite hymn. Poor R went to St John’s church on his own but met our friends there. I went to Compline on my own on Monday night as R had a migraine. (I had woken with a migraine myself early on Sunday morning!). The service was at St Lawrence church but sadly there were only four of us there. As I drove to the church the sun was setting on one side and the almost full moon was rising on the other side of me. The church door was left open during the service and even though the church is up a lane off quite a well-used road the sounds of the few cars driving along it at 8pm faded away and the silence enveloped us. Now and then we heard the evening warning calls of blackbirds and robins but most of the time it was absolutely quiet. St Lawrence church is built on an ancient site. The Romans had a building yard there, I think, and a Roman carved face is set into the wall of the church. The road from which the lane to St Lawrence church turns off is called Stone Street and is a Roman road. If one comes from Halesworth it is known as the Bungay Straight and if one comes from Bungay it is known as the Halesworth Straight. On my way home the sky was apricot on the horizon where the sun had disappeared. Above that the colours changed from yellow to turquoise to dusky blue and the enormous moon was shining brightly. I saw a couple of hares and some tiny rabbits, only about four inches long – probably on their first night above ground.

Tonight R and I went to Compline at St Mary’s Church at Homersfield. Another lovely church which has been in danger of closing for some time. There were eight of us there tonight and the church was lit by lamps and candles as there was no electric light.

As I thought it would, this post has got to be a long one again and I haven’t done all the housework I should have!

Gallery

Violas

03 Thu Apr 2014

Posted by Clare Pooley in plants, Rural Diary

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violas

This gallery contains 8 photos.

Pollution and Other Matters

03 Thu Apr 2014

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

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amelanchier, belemnite, blackbird, Blue Tit, claypipe, Garden Warbler, ground-ivy, Jacob's Sheep, jonquils, Mistle Thrush, pollution, rhubarb, tulip, violets, woodpecker feather

The warmer weather that was forecast certainly arrived bringing with it hazy sky – and pollution. Everything outside was covered with a coating of fine yellow dust – from the Sahara Desert – and this was especially noticeable on our cars. Here in East Anglia our air isn’t as pure as we would like. As we live in the countryside many people think that the air is fresh and clean here; but they would be wrong. The prevailing wind from the south-west brings pollution from London and winds from the south-east bring pollution from the Continent – mainland Europe. The cleanest air is on winds from the north-east but that is also the coldest! East Anglia is a mainly agricultural area with plenty of agricultural vehicles and large trucks delivering feed, grain and other supplies on the narrow lanes. The farmers use herbicides and insecticides and the crops are sprayed at least two or three times a year. Because there is very little public transport we all have to drive everywhere that is too far to walk or cycle. R and I are fortunate to live in an area where the local farmers are trying to make the land better for wildlife. Wide strips of land are left fallow around each field with the hope that wild flowers will colonise them and animals and birds will find more food and shelter there.

Since coming to live in Suffolk twenty-six years ago I have developed asthma, hay-fever and other allergies that I didn’t have in south-east London and Kent. R also has hay-fever and E has asthma. This morning both R and I woke feeling quite unwell with headache, sore throat and other hay-fever symptoms. Fortunately we always have a stock of anti-histamine tablets in the house!

Yesterday, after getting home from taking Mum out, I had a letter to post so walked down the lane to the postbox. I was hoping to see the Jacob’s sheep in a field close to us as I had heard them arrive there on Monday. They always bleat a lot when they are in a new field but soon settle down and if I hadn’t heard them arrive I wouldn’t have known they were there. It was quite difficult to see the sheep and lambs as the hedge is high and thick but I managed a couple of photos.

Jacob ewes and lambs

Jacob lamb

I then took a few more pictures of the garden, fed the birds and watered the tubs of flowers. More and more birds are singing and the dawn chorus is getting louder and louder. Yesterday I woke to hear what I thought was a Garden Warbler, our second summer visitor, singing in a tree across the lane. As I was still sleepy I wasn’t sure whether it was a Garden Warbler or a Blackcap, the songs being quite similar, but having heard it again today I am sure it is a Garden Warbler. We do get both birds here in the summer but the song I heard yesterday and today was definitely the faster more garbled song of the Garden Warbler. The Song Thrush has been singing all day, every day for some time now and yesterday he was joined by the Mistle Thrush. We now have a wonderful chorus of birds in the garden – too many to mention without it becoming a long and boring list. Here is a photo of a male Blackbird and a Blue Tit on the peanut feeder.

Blackbird

Bluetit on the peanut feeder. A Chaffinch is in the tree at the back.

Today I took some more photos of the garden and also of some objects I have found in the garden. The belemnite I found in my herb garden on Monday. I remember finding lots of these when on holiday with A when she was little at Charmouth on the Dorset coast. They are fossils of squid-like creatures.

The feather I found a couple of weeks ago. No doubt from a Greater Spotted Woodpecker.

The broken old clay pipe I also found in my herb garden but about five years ago. I can’t bear to get rid of it!

The rest of the photos are of plants, flowers and trees.

White violets in the grass verge near my mother’s cottage.

Ground ivy. This is an evergreen wild plant and if the leaves are bruised they smell minty. Also known as Alehoof, the leaves used to be added to ale during brewing to clear the fermenting liquid and sharpen the flavour. Even after hops were introduced to England in the 16th century liquor flavoured with ground-ivy was still made and sold for a time. Another name for ground-ivy is gill and a drink called gill tea was made by infusing the leaves with boiling water and adding honey. This was supposed to alleviate coughs and other chest disorders and was still being sold by street vendors in London in the 19th century. Culpepper says ‘The juice dropped into the ear doth wonderfully help the noise and singing of them, and helpeth the hearing which is decayed.’

Some jonquils.

A pink tulip.

Rhubarb!

The Amelanchier is just coming into flower.

R and I discovered another goose nest in the undergrowth on the other side of the pond yesterday. Unfortunately, today the goose was no longer there and all the eggs gone. The good thing about nesting on the little island is that foxes and other predators cannot get to you so easily. The bad thing about our island is that it isn’t big enough for more than one goose nest.

Monday’s Garden

31 Mon Mar 2014

Posted by Clare Pooley in amphibians, churches, cooking, Gardening, Insects, plants, Rural Diary, trees

≈ 4 Comments

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blackthorn, bullace, cowslip, daffodils, Elmer Fudd, fritillaries, greengage, jonquils, ladybird, lathyrus, Mothering Sunday, pieris, primulas, rabbits, saxifrage, simnel cake, wild cherry

I must admit to having an Elmer Fudd moment this morning. I went to have a look at the cowslip/primula plants I had transplanted last weekend and to my horror I saw that all the flowers and buds had been eaten on almost all the plants. I suspect some wascally wabbit! I will now not know until next spring which of the plants are normal cowslips to be planted at the top of the ditch and which are the different ones to be grown on elsewhere.

Very strange weather today. It was quite warm – in fact it got to 18 degrees centigrade but we only got a little sunshine at midday and then a few showers of rain during the afternoon. Quite humid all day and extremely cloudy this afternoon. I walked round the garden checking on the bird feeders and looking to see what plants had started to grow or flower since Saturday. I hadn’t been able to get into the garden at all yesterday as I had been busy cooking lunch after coming home from church and then entertaining Mum all the afternoon. We had had a good Mothering Sunday service at church and all the women had been presented with little posies of flowers. The Rector looked wonderful in his rose coloured chasuble but sneakily removed it before I could photograph him!

My eldest daughter A had sent me a card which had arrived in the post on Saturday and she telephoned me when I got back from church. E gave me a card and two stoneware pots for the garden. Mum arrived bringing with her an apple pie and a simnel cake. My mother will be 84 in a couple of weeks time and can hardly see but she still manages to bake and garden and run her house with no help at all.

Mum’s simnel cake.

The goose is still sitting on her nest on the island. She probably only has another week or so to go until her eggs hatch and then we’ll see how many goslings there are. While I walked round the pond I heard not only frogs croaking but also what I assume to be toads as well. We do get toads in the garden but I’ve never noticed them in the pond before. I also saw flower buds on the marsh marigold in the big pond that has never flowered before as well. I was really quite pleased about this as the pond has looked so awful since we had the work done to remove most of the willow scrub. What willows we have left are full of pussy willow flowers and alive with so many bees.

The wild damson or bullace tree is in flower.

The wild or bird cherry is also just coming into flower too.

Our greengage tree has its first flowers. We planted it the autumn before last and it didn’t flower at all last year but grew very well. My mother-in-law had asked us if we would grow one as she likes greengages so we got it especially for her and we call it Joyce (her name).

The blackthorn at the front of the house is now in full flower. The tree at the back of the house has finished flowering and the tree by the front gate hasn’t started to flower yet. The front of the house is colder than the back and the gate is coldest and shadiest of all.

My pieris ‘Forest Flame’ has new leaves on it.

The saxifrage has started to flower.

The new Frittilaries under the crabapple are flowering. I am pleased to see that there is a white one.

Primulas.

Cowslip.

Daffodils at the front of the house at the edge of the ditch.

A seven-spot ladybird on a daffodil. A lot of our daffodils suffered in the hail and rain we had last Wednesday and they also have to put up with all sorts of wild fowl trampling over them.

An orange-red cowslip.

Jonquils.

Lathyrus vernus ‘Spring Beauty’. This is an ornamental vetch – a member of the pea family.

A Walk Across the Fields.

29 Sat Mar 2014

Posted by Clare Pooley in churches, Gardening, Rural Diary, walking

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All Saints church, bird scarer, gargoyle, gravestones, rookery, round towers, stained glass, verges, wood carving

Last Sunday afternoon R and I decided to go for a short walk across the fields and take in All Saints Church on the way. All Saints was a member of our benefice until the 1970s when it was deemed redundant and is now looked after by The Churches Conservation Trust which is a charity which helps to protect historic churches at risk. The churches remain consecrated but no longer have regular worship in them. I think we have a couple of services a year in this church, notably a Songs of Praise service in midsummer in which we sing a lot of favourite hymns or perhaps a collection of hymns with a common theme. If people wish to hold a funeral there for example, special permission has to be sought before it can take place. Many locals were upset when the church was closed and some would love it if it were in use again. This would not be practicable unfortunately. Our poor Rector has eleven churches to look after virtually on his own as it is, and bringing All Saints back into the benefice would not be a viable proposition.

The lichen and moss on top of our gate post.

The view of our garden from the gate,

and the view from the gate of the verge on the other side of the hedge. This is common land but we try to keep it as tidy as we can. Looking at the blackthorn suckers round the telegraph pole we really ought to do something about those quite soon.

We walked a little way down our lane and saw the church across a field of oil-seed rape.

We turned down another little lane off ours and noted someone mowing their verge. Some people make their verges so neat and tidy they look like little lawns, with not a weed in sight. They must get very disappointed when a tractor drives all over it. We don’t mow our verge mainly because it is such a large area and also because the ground is so uneven and slopes down to our deep ditch. R strims it every now and then and we try to keep the tree seedlings to a minimum.

We then walked through a yard and then through a gate into a field with a footpath at the side.

The view across the fields from the path.

Our rookery at St, Nicholas.

The strange looking bird to the left of the photo isn’t a bird but a bird-scarer kite.

A couple of cloud photos.

All Saints church.

A gargoyle waterspout. This one looks like a lion.

A stained glass window. Holes in the window have been patched with fragments of other stained glass.

Carved bench ends. I’m afraid the third one is very blurred but I had to include it as it is the only one I have of the horse.

A beautifully carved door.

The font.

The altar.

Etched glass in the porch.

A gravestone with a very worn death’s head at the top left.

A view of the graveyard from a comfortable bench in the sun.

Tiny lancet windows in the tower. Round towers are usually Saxon towers and East Anglia has more round towers than any other part of the country.

We then had a chat with friends who live in a farm house next to the church and who keep the church tidy and clean.

We had a lovely day today (29th March) and I was able to spend a little time in the garden this afternoon. I won’t have time tomorrow as we have church, then I will be cooking lunch for us and my mother and then spending time with her during the afternoon.

Being Thankful for Small (and Great) Mercies.

29 Sat Mar 2014

Posted by Clare Pooley in churches, cooking, Rural Diary, trees, Uncategorized

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Mothering Sunday, simnel cake, Thankfulness, The Woodland Trust magazine

I have a lot to be thankful for. Today especially, I am grateful for

R’s safe return from a five day working trip away from home.
The fact that E has started to look forward with hope instead of with fear.
Mum having a lift to her church this Sunday so that I can go to mine with R.

Mum got a phone call the other day from a friend at church who asked if she was going to provide a Simnel Cake as usual on Mothering Sunday. A Simnel Cake can be made either for Easter or Mothering Sunday (which is this Sunday coming). It is a fruit cake with not only a marzipan top but a layer of marzipan baked in the middle. The top is decorated with eleven marzipan balls representing the eleven faithful apostles. Mum said she would be providing it if she could have a lift to church and, of course, she will be getting her lift. Hooray! I am very grateful for this as I wanted to invite Mum to lunch and if I had to take her to church I would not have the time to cook lunch for her as well. I am doubly grateful for this as not only will Mum’s church be holding the Mothering Sunday service but there will be a Baptism and a First Communion too! I am mighty glad to get out of that! I can now go to a service in my own benefice and see all my friends, be a wife and mother and sideline the daughter bit for an hour or two and get home in time to cook a decent lunch for the family.

I belong to The Woodland Trust – a charitable organisation which is trying to conserve our rapidly depleting woodland. It also works to educate people about trees and woodland and among other things, is trying to find ways of combatting all the diseases attacking our native trees. I received its quarterly magazine today and was looking through it while R and I were drinking a cup of tea when he got home. I was disappointed to see that, like most organisations, it has decided to ‘dumb down’ its magazine. It is now aimed at the weekend environmentalist – the better-off, liberal, middle-class urban dweller wanting something to do on holiday. Lots of pictures and lots of bite-size snippets of information instead of informed articles written by and for reasonably intelligent people.

There was an article about a writer and environmentalist who has spent a whole year climbing trees across Europe. He has tried to climb one tree a day and often persuaded other people, often complete strangers to join him. There was a short interview with Elton John who has planted many trees on his estate near Windsor. There was an article about geocaching – ‘a global phenomenon’ that The Woodland Trust has decided to join in with. It’s a game of hide and seek using GPS technology where items are hidden in remote spots and people scamper about moors, mountains and woodlands trying to find little prizes in cache boxes. I read out the instructions to R and we had a laugh when we found we had to ‘winkle out the trove’ from among roots and branches. R said it sounded like a cue for a Rambling Sid Rumpole song. People of a certain age from Britain will probably remember Rambling Sid and his ‘folk songs’ and if you don’t, Radio 4 Extra repeats all the ‘Round the Horne’ programmes regularly which featured him.

I will end my post with a photo of the misty sunset yesterday evening.