I don’t seem to have had the time to write a post for days and have got all behind.  So, instead of trying to catch up I will start with today and if I have the time will add in some of the things I have done/noticed during the past week at a later date.

This morning was mainly taken up with housework – boring but necessary.  The weather here, unlike the rest of the country it seems, was lovely.  Bright, hazy sunshine and light winds which dried my washing very nicely.  The wind was a little chilly as it came from the east but nothing to complain about.  I had to go to Bungay in the early afternoon to do some shopping and post a couple of letters.  The improvements to the town’s pavements and road system are coming along nicely and I was able to drive into the centre for the first time in weeks.  When the work is finished there will be fewer traffic jams (I hope!) and the absence of kerbs will mean that those with prams and pushchairs or in wheelchairs or mobility scooters will be able to get about more easily.  The town will look very different and in some ways that is a little sad.  Bungay will have lost it’s timeless look; it will no longer look quaint and old-fashioned but like all other towns with the regulation one-way streets and easy-access shops.

On my way home I nearly collided with another car.  All the lanes are mainly single track with a few passing places.  The lanes are also windy so it is always best not to go too fast.  The driver of the other car came shooting round a corner towards me and had to swerve to avoid me.  She was on the phone.  I am very sorry to say that a lot of the really bad driving I see these days is done by women.  Women used to be reliable, sensible drivers but not any more it seems.  The worst ones are the young girls who appear to be unable to drive at less than 50mph.  They are also the ones using phones:  twice in recent weeks I have been stuck in a queue at a junction behind young women who thought it would be a good moment to sent a text or instant message.  One girl had stopped a couple of yards from the junction to message someone and had opened the driver’s door and was hanging her leg out!  She may have broken down but it didn’t look like it.  Many women don’t know how to reverse and won’t pull into a passing place and to be followed by a woman on the school run in the morning is a terrifying experience!  They are always late and have cars full of children.

My route home was along the road from Bungay to Flixton which has water-meadows on one side of it.  It has been pleasing to see the cows out on the meadows again after their winter stay in the cattle sheds.  The farmer here is one of the few remaining dairy farmers around.  He has recently started selling raw (unpasteurized/unhomogenized) milk from a little stall in the farmyard and this has been exceedingly popular.  Every time I drive past there is always someone there in the little shop.

I took a few photos this afternoon.  This first one (which I actually took this morning) is from an upstairs window and is of a couple of woodpigeons feasting on leaf and flower buds on the top of our hedge.  What is not obvious is that they weren’t the only pigeons on the hedge at that moment and they spent most of the day there too!

 

Birch catkins and new leaves.  Our horrible, tumbledown summerhouse is in the background!

 

A bluetit in the birch tree.

 

Scented narcissus

 

Aubretia

 

Scented daffodils.  These have come out extremely early and have rather thick petals, almost as if fashioned out of wax.

 

A male pheasant.  I took this photo through the kitchen window which accounts for the vague haziness.

 

I drove to Mum’s house this evening at 6.45pm and there was still a lot of light in the sky.  We attended her Lent course lecture in Eye, the subject being Prayer for Healing and Wholeness and given by the Sub-Dean and Canon Pastor from the cathedral at Bury St Edmunds.  A very interesting talk indeed.

A starry drive home with the temperature just above freezing at 1 degree centigrade.