After nearly a year of not posting anything on my blog I have decided, at last, that I ought to do something about it. It has been a difficult year in many ways but especially because my siblings, my husband, daughters and I have been dealing with my mother’s death and the associated tasks of sorting out all her belongings and trying to sell her house. I may go into that in more detail in another post. As going out and taking photos has not been a priority recently I haven’t many adventures to relate so I have decided to carry on with my record of our holiday in Brittany when our daughters were very much younger than they are now. Please see here https://asuffolklane.com/2024/03/12/holiday-in-brittany-august-1999/ and here https://asuffolklane.com/2024/03/24/holiday-in-brittany-august-1999-part-2/ to remind yourselves of the holiday so far.
ooOOoo
Tuesday 24th August
When we woke the rain had stopped but everything was very wet. Richard drove to Lanvénégen and bought croissants, pains aux chocolat and two long, thin pains aux campagne for our breakfast.
We had an early lunch at Le Grand Pont on the R. Ellé outside Le Faouët. The inn is next to the chapel of Ste Barbe and became quite busy just after we arrived. Alice had wanted to visit the Witchcraft Museum (I don’t believe this exists any more) but as the key had to be obtained from the staff in the inn and they were so busy we didn’t go in, to Alice’s disappointment.
We then drove to Pont Scorff Zoo which Elinor really enjoyed. We all got very hot and tired as we were not expecting the zoo to be so large or for the weather to get so warm.
We returned to the gîte via Les Roche du Diable so that Alice could take photos for her school art-work. Elinor fell off the low garden wall when we got back. We then ate our evening meal of ham and cheese and finished the bread.
We all admired the beautiful full moon Richard pointed out to us before going to bed.
Wednesday 25th August
Richard went out to get croissants and bread for us again this morning. It really is so pleasant eating breakfast all together – and such a nice breakfast too! We didn’t want to do much today as we had been in the car such a lot over the past few days. We sat in the sun and read and then Richard took Elinor for a walk to see the geese and the horses. We ate bread and paté for lunch and Breton Cake for pudding.
At about 3.30pm we went into Le Faouët to do a supermarket shop and to get more postcards. Richard cooked us risotto for tea. The owls were very noisy after dark. Alice drank a couple of small glasses of red wine tonight and got a bit merry. She swung on the swing and lay on the grass outside for a while. She then came back into the house, did some wiping up while I washed the dishes and then went off to listen to her music in her room. When Richard and I decided to go to bed about 11.30pm we realised we hadn’t seen or heard Alice for some time. She had fallen asleep in her clothes and needed a bit of help in finding her pyjamas and getting comfortable. No more wine for Alice for a while !
Thursday 26th August
We all woke later than usual this morning so we decided to bath Elinor and wash her hair after breakfast. Unfortunately, the bathroom stool broke decanting Richard onto the floor – more bruises added to the earlier ones! Wood glue added to shopping list.
We set off for Quimperlé just after midday and drove along a winding hilly road through little villages. We parked the car near the river in the centre of the town and went to the tourist office to get a town plan. As we were all hungry (when weren’t we hungry on this holiday?!) and as restaurants and cafés in Brittany only serve food between 12.00 midday and 2.00pm we went off in search of somewhere to eat. We decided on a pizzeria; its entrance was a covered bridge over the river. The food was very good but Elinor didn’t eat much.
Elinor with her drink and Pingu comic.
Alice and me on the bridge to the pizzeria.
After lunch we walked round the town going first to the Haute-Ville. On the way, Alice went into a shop to buy post cards and a diary. The shop keeper gave her two chewy sweets! We found a large, well laid-out square, Place St Michel, where Richard posted my postcards for me. We visited L’Église Notre-Dame-de-L’Assomption which had a charcuterie stuck onto the east wall!
The road up to the upper town.
Church with charcuterie.
We then walked down the hill to the river again and the Bas-Ville. We crossed the river by the Pont Fleurie, a very pretty ancient bridge. We saw a tiled fish hall and then went to a park on the banks of the Ellé for a rest. Alice’s feet were suffering as she was wearing high heels. We walked back to the car via the Rue Dom-Maurice which has beautiful 16th century half-timbered houses.
Elinor in push-chair, Alice and me next to the river. The old bridge in the distance.
Alice and me on the bridge.
Timberframed houses.
We drove back to the gite via Querrien, a pretty village we had driven through on Tuesday. We parked in the square by the church and Richard and I got out to look around. This was a very well-kept village with a mayor’s office, a small supermarket and a number of other little shops – two boulangeries! – and a library. We looked at a restaurant but they hadn’t put up their menu or price-list yet and then went to buy bread and pastries. We decided that if we lived in France this is where we’d live.
We had another bread and cheese tea which we all enjoy and Elinor went happily to bed at about 9.00pm. Richard told me what a lovely, still evening it was so we went out for ten minutes or so listening to the owls, the crickets and the horses. When the farm dog barked we noticed what a wonderful echo there was.
Dear All; and you are all very dear to me and I have been thinking of you a lot over the past many months. Some of you may have forgotten all about me, some may have been wondering where I had got to, others may already know what I have been doing.
If you have been reading my blog for some time you will know that I am married to Richard, I have two daughters – one married and living in Sheffield and the other still at home with us. I have also been caring for my mother for fourteen years since my father died in 2010. My news is that after a short illness my mother died on the 24th of October this year and I was by her side as she passed away.
Since about this time last year I had become more and more concerned about Mum and had been spending more time with her and, when not with her, anxiously trying to find ways of helping her which wouldn’t appear to interfere with her fierce (and I use that word advisedly) independence. Mum was ninety-four when she died and was proud of the fact that she had been able to look after herself in her own home with no carers or home-help until just a very few weeks before her death. She wanted no interference from anybody! (My help was not considered home-help because she wouldn’t let me do any of her housework or cooking and she knew I would normally do as I was told. Her sight was very poor and if I was quick and quiet I often managed to do a couple of things before I was called to order!) I am also proud of her but because of her pride she didn’t ask for help when she needed it and she probably had more discomfort at the end than she should have had.
As soon as I realised how ill she had become I tried to get help for her. This proved difficult at first because Mum denied she was ill when she spoke to the nurse and doctor I had telephoned! I spent a week nursing her alone and trying to get help for her. Eventually, nurses and doctors turned up at her house and then a hospital bed was delivered. Carers then came in twice a day to get her out of bed in the morning and then put her back in the evening. After a week of this increased help it was decided she was too ill to be at home and was taken to hospital. There they discovered she had numerous things the matter with her on top of the rare bacterial infection that had been diagnosed at home. She had pressure sores. Her heart was not working properly and because of this she had been taken off her high-blood-pressure tablets before going into hospital. She had two oesophageal ulcers (which were treated in hospital), she was emaciated because she hadn’t been eating properly for months, though I had tried to encourage her to eat (I knew nothing of the ulcers!), she had bronchial trouble and no strength to cough, her hands and legs were swollen and she had to have her wedding ring cut off, which upset her.
During the first two weeks in hospital we were hopeful that she would recover enough to leave and go into a nursing home. But, it was not to be. She might have had a stroke because her speech became slurred and she lost the strength to move herself unaided. She died in hospital a week later in a side room of the busy, overcrowded medical ward where she had been treated; too sick to be moved to a hospice and with no proper palliative care. My sister and I did what we could to help but it wasn’t enough to make her comfortable.
The funeral took place the week before last and my sister and brother and Richard and I are now sorting out her house and belongings in readiness for the house sale, once probate has been granted. It is sad and weary work.
On the plus side, we have found some fabulous photos of many family members past and present. Mum wrote, but never shared with us at the time or since, two accounts of camping holidays we took in Scotland and the Welsh borders sometime in the late 60’s and early 70’s. This has proved to be a treasure!
We have met up with most of our cousins and we are trying to organise some kind of regular meet-up that isn’t a funeral.
Mum’s best friend’s daughter came to the funeral and we will definitely see more of her in future. When I told my sister on our sibling WhatsApp chat group that Fiona was coming to the funeral her response was “OMG – Moriarty!!” As children we went to Fiona’s birthday parties each year until we were old enough to get out of going to them. Because Fiona is an only child her Mum, who was a teacher, used to invite some of the children from the class she taught to the party as well as Fiona’s special friends, and us. One of the party games I dreaded was called Moriarty. One child (usually the largest and strongest boy) was chosen, was blindfolded and given a cosh made of a roll of newspapers. We all had to lie on our stomachs on one side of the living room. Those of us without the cosh and blindfold had to crawl on our stomachs to the other side of the room without being caught. The one with the cosh bellowed “Are you there, Moriarty?” and then lay about him with the newspapers thumping anyone who got within his reach. This terrified me and I did my best to get up against any wall or underneath the furniture until the danger was over.
One of my nieces started a couple of JustGiving sites for two of Mum’s favourite charities, Marie Curie and The Sailors Society and we have been very touched by the amount of money people have donated and by the lovely comments people have made on the sites.
I hope to get back to blogging properly again some time in the near future, probably in the new year. In the mean time, thank you all for sticking with me and following my blog despite the silence from me. I hope you all have a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!
During a lull in the first year of the pandemic we managed to get our loft re-insulated. We cleared the area of all our stored boxes and bags and also disposed of a large amount things we no longer needed as well as spare tiles and other decorating material left there by the previous owner. The firm we employed to do the insulation were extremely efficient, did the job quickly and neatly and cleared away all the old insulation material. We are very pleased with the results as it keeps the house cooler in summer and warmer in winter.
All the time we had lived in this house (we moved here in 2006) I had know that a number of boxes of mine were up in the loft but had never quite felt ready to get someone to help me bring them down so I could sort them out. Therefore, I was very pleased to find my collection of knitting and sewing patterns and a few large cardboard boxes of papers, letters and other miscellaneous odds and ends. I went through all of these things and disposed of what needed to go. One or two plastic crates of papers went back up into the loft but all my knitting patterns stayed where I can find them and a couple of things that I thought might be useful were also kept down in the house. One of those things was a paper bag containing short diaries from two holidays we had had in Brittany with a collection of maps and mementoes. When I read much-missed Susan’s wonderful posts on her travels round Europe I began to think I ought to make a scrapbook of all my holiday memories. Of course, I still haven’t got round to doing it but I also thought I might copy out my holiday diaries into this blog and scan some of the photos I took at the time. The two holidays were in 1999 and 2002 when our daughters were very young and so were we (well, relatively young).
I will begin with our holiday in 1999 and present it in short(ish) installments. I will also annotate it at times to make the meaning a little clearer. Annotations are in brackets. In late August 1999 I was nearly 41 years of age, Richard had just had his 46th birthday, Alice had had her 14th birthday in July and Elinor was 2 and a half years old. At that time we were living in a cottage in Rumburgh just over two miles away from the house we are living in now. Remember too, that in 1999 most people didn’t have mobile phones and digital cameras. At the time, our cameras were the old-fashioned sort with film casettes/reels that needed to be developed by a professional. We didn’t take that many pictures!
o o O O o o
Friday 20th August 1999
Richard packed everything into the car, I took William (the cat) to the cattery and to our great surprise we managed to set off in good time in the middle of the afternoon. We were off on our first ever holiday to Brittany and would be staying in a gîte, travelling by car and crossing the English Channel by ferry.
Thanks to atlasdigitalmaps.com. This map shows the south-east of England. If you look at the top right of the map and you have excellent eyesight you’ll see the towns of Southwold on the coast and Halesworth a few miles inland. Rumburgh is about four miles north-west of Halesworth. Portsmouth is at the bottom of the map, just left of centre and north of the Isle of Wight.
We had to travel a circuitous route to Portsmouth to avoid accidents and delays on the M25 (the infamous London orbital motorway). (Going by the most direct route the distance to Portsmouth from home is about 200 miles and on a good day would take just under four hours). We stopped in Surrey for tea (meal and drink) and then the last leg of the journey to Portsmouth was fairly short and trouble-free. We found the ferry port easily and after an hour’s wait we boarded the ferry. However, through not reading our ticket thoroughly enough and not knowing the layout of the ship we had clambered up to Deck 8 before realising our cabin was on Deck 2! Richard and I left Alice with the six or seven bags on Deck 8 and went to find our cabin. We had also realised we had left Elinor’s changing bag in the car and had to ask permission to go back to Deck 3 to fetch it. We took Elinor with us as she cried loudly when left with Alice. Eventually, everyone was together in our cabin with all our luggage and the ferry had set sail. We went up to a self-service restaurant and we all had a drink. Alice then decided she wanted to see a film so we left her at a cinema and Elinor and I went back to our cabin to get ready for bed. Richard accompanied us there and then went off to have a drink in a bar. Apparently, the bar was very lively with a band playing and then a magician. Both Alice and Richard arrived back at the cabin within minutes of each other at about 11.30pm and were soon in bed. The cabin was small but well laid out with a tiny WC and shower-room attached and we all had enough room. It was an inside cabin, was air-conditioned and lit by electric light so one quickly lost perception of time. I became a little claustrophobic and wheezy (I have asthma) and had some trouble getting comfortable. However, being in a cabin was much better than having to get Elinor and Alice to sleep in one of the lounges as others had to do. Elinor woke for about an hour during the night as her nose started running and she was sneezing. (Elinor didn’t manage to sleep through the night until she was three years old. The first time she did it and we had had our first undisturbed night in years we thought she had died!) I woke again at 5.00am and got dressed at 5.30. Richard woke and dressed at 6.00 and then we woke Alice and Elinor at about 6.30 as we were to dock at 7.00 am. Elinor was a bit upset at being woken so early but soon calmed down when I gave her a Pingu comic.
Saturday 21st August 1999
We found the car and packed everyone and everything into it quickly and waited for permission to leave the boat. It was wonderful to see the bright sunlight flooding into the car deck as the doors were opened.
Thanks to orangesmile.com for the map. This is a map of Brittany and St Malo is at the top right of the map. Le Faouët is at D5.
We eventually drove out onto St. Malo docks and then followed the ‘tout directions’ sign posts out of the town. Somewhere near Dinan Richard stopped for more diesel and we then continued past Lamballe, St. Brieuc, Quintin, Corlay and Rostrenen. By 10.30 we had arrived at the small town of Glomel, all very hungry and needing a break. We parked the car and were getting Elinor out and into her pushchair when we realised that a wedding was about to take place. Cars arrived with little pale blue net bows tied to their aerials or windscreen wipers. Guests were walking about in their best clothes and with blue ribbon corsages on their lapels. We walked up through the town to a café where we ordered drinks; orange juice for Alice and coffees for Richard and me. Elinor had her own drink with her. We heard car horns hooting and looked down the road to see the bride arriving in an old Citroën. We heard bagpipe and reed pipe music playing as she was led into a building for the civil ceremony. Richard went off to a boulangerie and bought pains aux raisins and pains aux chocolat which we were able to eat outside the café (which wasn’t serving food at that moment). We were sitting opposite the church and we saw more guests beginning to arrive. A large 4×4 Mitsubishi pulled up with two besom broomsticks tied to the back and a grotesque blow-up woman sitting in a pushchair tied to the roof. When the civil ceremony finished the bride, groom and wedding party were led up the main street in a procession to the church by two men, one playing a talabard (the reedpipe) and the other playing the bagpipes (a binioù). We left after they had entered the church at 11.00. (I wish that one of us had taken a photo or two but our cameras were packed away in the car and those of you who have had children know how preoccupied with them one can be especially when they are away from home). As we drove out Richard pointed out the large stand for photographs which had been erected outside the church.
Map of Le Faouët in the Morbihan district of Bretagne Sud (south Brittany). This map shows the town and it’s surrounding villages.
Street map of the town. The tourist office kindly marked the route we needed to take.
A postcard picture of the Halle.
We arrived in Le Fauoët about half an hour later and parked in the main square. The large 16th century Halle had a market in it but we didn’t go in. We went to a café and had more drinks and then walked round the town and looked for somewhere to eat. However, everywhere was very full so we decided we’d go to the supermarket and buy everything we’d need for the next few days and go on to Lanvénégen where we would be staying and try to eat at the café there. We called in at the tourist office and got a lot of local information and the directions out of the town to Lanvénégen.
Unfortunately, the café in Lanvénégen was closed until the 5th September so we drove on to St. Thurien, noting where the gîte was, and then on to Bannalec not finding anywhere open for lunch. We had yet more drinks in Bannalec and then agreed to go to the gîte and risk arriving too early. In fact it was gone 3.45 pm by the time we arrived at the Manoir des Lescreant. Annie and Erick were very welcoming and we met their little daughter Emma too. We unpacked the car and ate some bread and cheese. We discovered that we had bought fermented milk by mistake – this is a very runny, cheesey, live yogurt – no good for Elinor or cups of coffee or tea! Richard and I went back to the supermarket and got some sterilised milk (no fresh milk available in Brittany’s shops at that time) and more food for the evening meal.
At last, we settled down for the evening, the only excitement being the horses escaping from their field and finding their way onto the field outside our gîte. Elinor settled down for the night surprisingly quickly and we all slept quite well.
It is over a month since I last wrote a diary post. We haven’t done very much in that time but the days are getting longer and there are signs of spring in the garden and hedgerows.
Witch hazel
Witch hazel
Witch hazel
ooOOoo
The central elements on our old toaster had stopped working so we have bought ourselves a new toaster and this new one manages to toast both sides of a slice of bread at the same time! It has a ‘bagel button’ (though as I have never eaten a bagel I think I would prefer to call it a ‘teacake button’) which toasts one side and warms the other. We can now re-live the old toaster experience, except in reverse.
Snowdrops in bud
ooOOoo
Another excitement has been the emptying and repair of the septic tank. Only those of you who do not have mains sewage can truly relate to this. The tank was well overdue for emptying and we knew it needed repairing a year ago but we have been let down by our usual contractor and have had to find someone new. The new contractor arrived and did what he had to do and was efficient and professional. An added bonus, as far as we were concerned, was the wind direction on the day.
Hazel catkins in the hedge
ooOOoo
We have decided to have all our internal doors replaced and a carpenter has visited and priced up the job for us. He will be doing the work over three days next week. Richard will then have to spend quite a lot of time painting the doors, as well as all the skirting boards and the banisters. We hope to redecorate the hall, stairs and landing and get a new carpet some time in the next few months.
I’m not sure how many hazel nuts we will have on this tree this year. The female flowers have appeared before the male catkins have matured.
ooOOoo
At the very end of January we had a morning prayer service at our church of St Michael and St Felix at Rumburgh. The day before the service Richard and I called in at the church to make sure everything was tidy and to set the heating to come on well before the service. It was a cold day but inside the church was even colder than out in the open!
I found the first rather bedraggled primroses of the year in a sheltered spot in the churchyard.
I also found my first snowdrops of the year
Rumburgh gravestone
This gravestone has a skull engraved on it. Richard was asked to see if it was still in the graveyard recently as there had been a report that it might have gone missing.
The west door, which isn’t used anymore.
The west window
Work will start on March the 20th on the new tower screen in the church. We have been saving for years and years to get the work done and at last it is about to happen. Once the screen is in place the tower will be shut off from the body of the church and we hope it might be less draughty and warmer.
Black Spleenwort (Asplenium adiantum-nigrum) growing in the mortar on the wall of the church
ooOOoo
Elinor has now left the City College but we hope this is only a temporary thing. As I mentioned in my last diary post she wants to enrol on a one year Art and Design course for older students and has therefore filled out the application form. We have been notified that the college has received the form and I hope we will hear that Elinor has an interview soon. At the interview she will be expected to hand in a review of an exhibition she has been to see recently and with that in mind, we went to the Sainsbury Centre in Norwich and viewed an exhibition of 20th century Japanese photography. Photography was not allowed in the exhibition hall but there is a large collection of world art on display in the main gallery, most of the exhibits donated by Lord and Lady Sainsbury.
Below are my favourites from the main gallery.
Edgar Degas – Little Dancer Aged Fourteen
Edgar Degas – Little Dancer Aged Fourteen
A beautiful Benin bronze – the Head of an Oba; early 16th century
Henry Moore – Mother and Child
Whistling bottles from Equador – one in the shape of an owl and the other is a bird sitting on eggs or pods. Both 1000 – 100 BC
Another couple of exhibits from Equador
Sketch for a Portrait of Lisa by Francis Bacon
Standing Jizo Bosatsu – Japan (1185-1333)
The top exhibit with the ram’s head is a backstrap from a sword or dagger hilt – India late 17th century The lower exhibit is an archer’s thumb-ring in the form of a bird – India 17th – 18th century
Left rear – Image of the Goddess Kaumari, India 17th century. Right rear – Shiva as Chandrashekharamurti, South India c. AD 1100. Front centre – Figure of Chamunda Devi, Nepal/Tibet 17th/18th century
Walking Hippopotamus – Egypt c. 1880 BC
The Sainsbury Centre. One of the first major buildings designed by Sir Norman Foster, it was completed in 1978.
It is a steel clad building with one face almost entirely glazed.
By the late 80’s the collection had grown so much that Foster was asked to design an extension. He decided to build underground and this is one of the entrances to it.
The new basement has a curved glass frontage that emerges from the slope underneath the original building overlooking the man-made lake. This new wing can only be seen from the lake but as it was very muddy there and beginning to go dark on a very gloomy day, I was unable to photograph it.
The University of East Anglia’s grounds looking towards the lake
Part of the university. There are many items of sculpture to be seen here.
Another Henry Moore sculpture
The University has an excellent creative writing department and many well known writers have studied here. Tracy Chevalier; Kazuo Ishiguro; Ian McEwan; Rose Tremain – to name but a few.
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.
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!
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.
My point-and-shoot camera stopped working and we didn’t think there was much point in taking it to be repaired. A replacement probably costs what the repair would have cost – if it could have been repaired – so we ordered a replacement which arrived yesterday. Richard kindly said I could borrow his small camera while we waited for the replacement, but I never used it. There haven’t been many opportunities for photography during the past week and the camera only took a couple of days to arrive.
Acer leaves at the beginning of November
After a chilly week or so in October, the weather this month has been fairly warm for the time of year. We have also had a fair amount of rain. I have managed to do a little garden-tidying, though as usual, not as much as I need to do or as I would have liked! There may be a few more days this year when I can finish off the work so I am not too worried. We had a couple of storms with high winds last week which ripped most of the leaves from the trees and Saturday was cold with wintry showers.
Mahonia this November
Mahonia flowers
We had a gardener/landscaper and his assistant come to do a few jobs that Richard needed help with. Almost all our hedges have been cut and tidied by them and the front ditch has been strimmed. The hedges between us and our neighbours on either side of us have been left for now and will be done at a later date. Both of those hedges (like the front one) are on the far side of deep ditches which are fast filling with very cold water and are difficult to do.
Copper Beech at the beginning of November
Copper Beech in the sun in the middle of the month
Another job the gardener did was to dismantle our old summerhouse and extend the concrete pad on which it stood. When I say ‘dismantle’ I use the word quite loosely as all he did was lean on it and it fell down. With the winds that blew last week it probably would have fallen down without anyone’s help. Richard is still deciding which summerhouse to buy to replace the old one. We will be able to keep a few things in it that are needed for that end of the garden and Richard will be able to use it as a little home-from-home – a place to escape the hurly-burly of life in the house – a ‘shed’ with a view (of our big pond). I am sure a comfy chair and coffee-making apparatus will be making their way down the garden and the bell on the wall of the house will be put to good use when summoning him for meals!
Spindle berries beginning to split
Spindle berries
We got a couple of quotes from local replacement-window firms and have made our choice. The work to replace almost all the windows in the house, both garage doors and the back door and window in the garage will be done in January. I just know the weather will be freezing cold when the work’s done and I will have a miserable time of it! However, it will be worth it in the end as the house will eventually be considerably warmer and our heating bills will be much reduced.
The path round our big pond earlier this month while we still had some leaves on the trees
A new reed that has appeared next to our large pond this year
Richard spent a couple of days staying with an old friend in Manchester a few weeks ago. His friend had to retire early through ill health (heart attack) but is much better now and is enjoying not going to work. Richard came home after a very pleasant break much happier about his own retirement.
Lots of little bracket fungi found on a dead branch
Richard and I went to the Rectory coffee morning at the beginning of the month and enjoyed seeing all our friends from church. We came home with cakes, pains aux raisins, marmalade and a book – no prizes in the raffle this time. This month we also went to the Remembrance Sunday service at St James’ church which was quite moving. Representatives from all the villages in the benefice read out the names of all the people who lost their lives in some of the wars we have taken part in – the two World Wars as well as the Korean and the Boer Wars. The American airmen who lost their lives during WW2 and who were stationed at Flixton airfield were also mentioned.
Crabapple ‘Evereste’ covered in fruit . This photo also shows part of the front hedge and ditch before we had them both trimmed and tidied.
Alice came home the Saturday before last and stayed until the following Tuesday. This was only the second time she has been able to visit this year but we hope to see her at Christmas as well which will be fun! Mum came to lunch that Sunday and she enjoyed chatting with Alice and catching up with her news.
The church of St Michael and All Angels
The sundial on St Michael’s wall
Some of the sheep in the field next to the church.
(The three photos above were all taken with my new camera. I think I will need to adjust the settings to get clearer pictures.)
Richard and I had been to the 9.30 Morning Prayer service at St Michael’s church the Sunday before last. Maurice, one of our Benefice Elders, took the service and spoke about St Edmund, Suffolk’s Patron Saint whose feast day is the 20th of November. I had been due to take Mum to her church that day but couldn’t because of lunch-cooking duties. Instead, I arranged to take Mum to church this Sunday just gone. It was very icy with snow still on the ground in the morning and we assumed that it would be as bad at Mum’s house and at Eye; Richard said he would drive us in his 4×4. Unfortunately for Richard, the further inland we got the less snow there was and he found that he needn’t have driven me and Mum after all! He had to sit through a High Church service at Eye church with bells, incense and a procession to boot, because he had been gallant. Richard doesn’t like High Church services – his Methodist upbringing revolts against them. I was brought up going to High Church services and I can worship anywhere really, but do prefer my own local church with my friends and Richard by my side. I think I’ll be left to drive Mum to church on my own as usual in future, whatever the weather!
These next photos were taken by Richard on his phone on Sunday morning.
View of the garden from the conservatory
The greenhouse seen from the conservatory
The garden on the south side of the house from the conservatory
I went out for the evening twice last week. On Tuesday evening I took Mum to a performance of the opera ‘Don Pasquale’ by Donizetti. It was performed by the Glyndebourne Touring Company at the Theatre Royal in Norwich. We loved it very much indeed. The singing, the costumes, the orchestra and the stage set were fabulous. A really enjoyable evening out only spoiled by a gale blowing and making driving and walking difficult – Mum was nearly blown over a couple of times and I had to hold onto her tightly. Clouds of leaves were swirling about in front of the car and bits of tree were falling onto the road all about us. As I drove along I was aware of loose branches swinging to and fro just above the car and hoped I could get out of the way before they fell. Fortunately I got my mother and myself safely to Norwich and then back home again.
Wild Rosehips in the hedge.
On Saturday night Richard and I went to see ‘Uncle Vanya’ by Chekhov performed by the Open Space Theatre Company at The Cut in Halesworth. We both enjoyed the play very much which was acted and directed well. On leaving the theatre we found it had started snowing and as Richard had left his hat in the car he got quite wet and cold on our brisk walk to the carpark. The snow was falling heavily as we left the town and Richard found it very difficult keeping to the road once we left the street-lights behind. Most of our lanes have deep ditches running along next to them and there is always the risk of driving into a ditch in the dark. We were glad to get home again and into the warm. The snow didn’t last long and by morning most of the roads and paths were mainly clear but icy.
All photos in this post were taken either in our house or in the garden except for the ones of St Michael’s church.
My musical choice is performed by Emeli Sandé and Jules Holland.
We have had some very cool nights already and lots of rain. Autumn has arrived! The nights are drawing in and when I get up just after six o’clock in the morning on Mondays and Fridays I have to wait for well over half an hour before the sun rises.
Chrysanthemum
Chrysanthemum
Chrysanthemum
Chrysanthemum
I have no news to give you about Alice – I haven’t spoken to her for about a fortnight so I assume she is busy and coping alright.
Morning Glory
Dahlia
Dahlia
To our surprise, the day after I mentioned in this blog that it would take weeks for probate to be granted, it was granted! Richard has spent two days in Manchester with his brother sorting out all their mother’s finances. They also went to a place that Joyce was fond of and scattered her ashes. Richard was hoping to spend three days with Chris and wanted to travel up in his new car but unfortunately his windscreen was hit by a stone chipping last week which left a four inch crack and it needs replacing! The insurance company is sending someone to our house to carry out the replacement today (which is when Richard had hoped to return home). He came home yesterday instead (Thursday). He will have to go back to Manchester in a couple of weeks to finish going through all Joyce’s belongings and deciding what to do with them – a very difficult business.
Dog-rose-hips (Rosa canina)
Blackberries (Rubus fruticosus agg.)
Pyracantha berries
Cotoneaster berries
Black Bryony (Tamus communis) growing through Cotoneaster horizontalis
Cotoneaster horizontalis
Elinor has almost completed two weeks at college, is working hard and her tutors are very pleased with her. She is enjoying the course but finds the social side of college life very tricky. She is very insecure and worries all the time that she is saying or doing the wrong thing. She has also been badly affected by her grandmother’s death and funeral. She is afraid of going to sleep in case she doesn’t wake up again and she is frightened of being left alone both now and in the future.
Eating apples ‘Saturne’
Pears ‘Concorde’
Figs ‘Brown Turkey’
Crabapple ‘Evereste’
Crabapple ‘Harry Baker’
Crabapple
I have been busy in the house and with my mother; Richard has had a lot to do in the garden and has also been arranging our finances now that he has retired. We have had no time for a walk recently and in fact have done very few walks together during the whole year. We hope that in the next week or so things will have calmed down and we will be able to find time to go out together.
Chinese Lanterns (Physalis alkekengi)
Japanese Ornamental Cherry ‘Fragrant Cloud’
Acer palmatum ‘Atropurpureum’
Spindle (Euonymous europaeus)
Hazel new catkins (Corylus avellana)
Elder (Sambucus nigra)
Fungus
Fungus
Fungus
The photographs in this post were mainly done during one afternoon this week.
This is the entrance to one of the three wasp nests we have in our garden. They took over an old mouse or vole hole.
Crane fly (Tipula paludosa)
Buzzard (Buteo buteo)
Greater Celandine (Chelidonium majus)
I saw this plant just inside the stone wall that surrounds St Mary’s church in Bungay.
Greater Celandine
This plant is no relation to the Lesser Celandine we see in the springtime. It is a type of poppy, similar to the Yellow Horned-poppy I found on Dunwich beach a few weeks ago. Its orange-coloured sap has been used in Asia for burning away warts and corns since the beginning of Chinese civilisation. This caustic liquid was also used to remove soreness and cloudiness from the eyes! It uses an oil gland on its seeds to ensure they are taken a distance away. Ants feed on the oil and then carry the seed off.
Juvenile Common Lizard
For the second week running, I discovered something hiding under our wheelie-bin. Obviously, rubbish bins are the go-to shelter for small creatures.
Elinor and I admired these clouds as we neared home the other day.
I would like to say a big thank-you to all of you who responded so kindly to the news of my mother-in-law’s death. I was quite moved by all your comments and I have duly passed them on to Richard who also sends his thanks.
Chris and Richard cannot do anything now until probate is granted and that may not take place for some months as there is a queue. We will probably meet up with the family in Manchester as usual just before Christmas and have a meal together in memory of Joyce.
Cymbidium Orchid. I repotted this Cymbidium many years ago when it became terribly pot-bound and split it into about six new plants. I gave away two and kept four and this one plant has decided to flower again at last.
Cymbidium Orchid. The flowers are so exotic!
Richard is slowly getting used to being retired – a difficult thing to do after having worked continuously for many decades. He has taken possession of his new car, done a fair amount of work in the garden and he is taking turns with me driving Elinor to college.
Elinor is coming to the end of her first week back at college. She is finding it all quite challenging but so far has coped bravely with all the changes to her routine.
Elinor’s Art. When Elinor attended her enrollment day she was asked to produce a piece of art work that gave some idea of what she was like or what kind of things she liked. She loves fairy tales, myths and legends.
Elinor’s Art. The students were supposed to find an old book and use it in the project – either cutting it up or sticking things in it. Elinor couldn’t damage a book even an old already-damaged one, so she inserted her pop-up picture into a book of myths with paper-clips.
I am trying to get on with the back-log of household chores I should have been doing through the summer. I had had such plans, but somehow the time slipped away and I still have two freezers to defrost and lots of cupboards to sort out. Having two one-week holidays to prepare for and then get over is definitely more work than a two-week break!
Great Crested Newt? (Triturus cristatus)
When I moved my wheelie-bin full of rubbish from it’s spot near the house in order to take it to the end of the drive for emptying, I saw this creature had been hiding underneath. It obligingly waited while I ran into the house to collect my camera. Great Crested Newts are a protected species throughout Europe as they are becoming quite rare through loss of habitat. If this is a Great Crested ( or Great Northern or Warty) Newt, and I suspect that it is, we will have to be very careful how and when we do any pond maintenance.
Perennial Sow-thistle (Sonchus arvensis)
I have been seeing a lot of these big shaggy flowers as I drive about the countryside. The flowers are about 4 or 5 cms across and are such a bright cheerful yellow – not a common colour at this time of year. They are large plants and can grow to about 2 metres in height.
Perennial Sow-thistle
Common Toadflax (Linaria vulgaris) with Yarrow (Achillea millefolium)
This is a verge by the side of a fairly busy road on the way to Norwich. I saw a lot of these little yellow Toadflax last year but never managed to photograph them. I was determined to get a photograph of them this year and parked off the road and walked back to see this group, dodging fast-moving articulated lorries as I went.
Common Toadflax
I hope you agree with me that it was worth the trouble I took to get this photograph. I think these little flowers are really special. They are little yellow snapdragons and can grow to about 50 cms in height.
Before I finish I thought I’d let you know that I will be adding a little music now and then to my posts. It will be up to you if you choose to sample my choices; they will be quite varied and you may find something you like!
A Suffolk Lane 