A Little Bit of This and a Little Bit of That

09 Sun Aug 2015

Posted by Clare Pooley in family, Insects, plants, Rural Diary, trees

Tags

'The Company', beetles, clouds, cream tea, Fruit, harvesting, insects, Lilium longiflorum, moths, purple beans, Sheffield, Suffolk, sunset, The Man in the Iron Mask, trees, wild flowers

I haven’t published a diary post lately so this is a short resumé of my activities over the past month or so.

To start things off I have a photo of a cream tea that Elinor and I enjoyed while out shopping in Bungay before our holiday.

A very brightly-coloured café called ‘Jesters’ at the entrance to Bungay castle. We were going to walk round what is left of the castle when I remembered in time that I had only allowed myself an hour’s parking . The cream and jam scones were yummy!

Elinor and I went by train to Sheffield on the 2nd of July to visit my elder daughter, Alice. The day was hot and the journey quite uncomfortable as the carriage we were in on the train from Norwich to Sheffield had faulty air-conditioning. The ticket collector handed out bottles of water to anyone who wanted some. We had noticed large quantities of water bottles in the waiting room at Diss Station as well, with a notice saying any customer could help themselves to water if they needed it.

We were travelling to Sheffield in order to watch Alice perform in ‘The Man in the Iron Mask’ by Alexandre Dumas. We then stayed the night with her in her single room. It was snug to say the least, but lovely to be all together again.

These are some photos of her that I have ‘borrowed’ from her drama group’s Facebook page.

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Alice (in the green dress) played the part of Constance, D’Artagnan’s wife. She is watching D’Artagnan (on the right) fighting his foe.

The man on the left is an expert in weapons and fighting and has an armoury at his home. He taught all the cast how to fence and fight. It all looked very real.

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I thought Alice did very well especially as she had to wear a costume which gave her a terrible rash for which she needed medical treatment.

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‘All for one and one for all!’

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Dumas will be spinning in his grave at their version of his very sad and doom-laden book. It was a brilliant, funny, well-acted and well-choreographed play with a happy ending.

As we were waiting for our train back home the next morning I saw and heard the piano in the concourse being played. The piano is there for anyone’s use at any time.

IMG_4906Pianist on Sheffield station (640x477)

This young man played well.

Unluckily for me and Elinor, the carriage we were in on our return journey also had no air-conditioning. This time there was no free water but we were able to leave the carriage at Nottingham (I think) and get into another carriage with AC that they had attached to the train.

The following week was busy with preparations for our holiday. Elinor’s laptop stopped working and had to be taken in for repair. She worried that it might not be repaired in time for her to use on holiday. She used my lap-top all week. We were able to collect her’s on Friday :). I shopped with Mum on Tuesday and made sure she’d be alright for food and other necessaries while we were away. My friend Heather came to lunch on Wednesday and we had an enjoyable time chatting about friends and family. She gave me a book – Janet Marsh’s ‘Nature Diary’. Such a thoughtful present. I had an appointment at Norfolk and Norwich Hospital for a rheumatoid arthritis check-up on Friday – the day before going away.

We were surprised to find on our return from holiday on the 18th July that the field of barley behind our house had still not been harvested. The weather at home had been warm and quite dry while we had dripped and shivered on holiday. We did get a superb sunset to welcome us back.

We had another busy week catching up on household and gardening chores and I had two weeks’ worth of washing and ironing to do. On the Monday I had to take Mum to the hospital for her regular eye check which went very well. I collected her shopping list as I would be doing her shopping for her that week. When I got home I started to make a loaf of bread and discovered I hadn’t enough yeast so had to go out again. I bought some other groceries as well as the yeast and was on my way home when I got a flat tyre. I managed to get the car into the town central carpark and got the spare tyre out but couldn’t work out how to remove the jack from the car! Shameful! I’m also not strong enough to take the wheel off anyway so had to phone Richard who had just sat down with a drink. While I was waiting for Richard to come and rescue me I got two offers of help from kind gentlemen who saw my pancake-flat tyre. The age of chivalry is not dead! The tyre had a rip in it and a couple of nails too.

The next day they began harvesting the barley field.

This combine had just off-loaded its grain into the waiting tractor trailer.

The harvesting wasn’t started until late in the day and continued until quite late in the evening.

The countryside at harvest-time is a very noisy, dusty, dirty place to be. It proves at this time of year to be very industrial. Our houses and cars get covered in a thick pall of dust and bits of straw. We all start wheezing and coughing and anyone with allergies or asthma has problems with their health. There is a constant roaring and whining of engines as the combines trawl up and down the fields all day and most of the night too and the tractors with full trailers of grain are driven at break-neck speed along our narrow lanes to the silos and barns at the farms. Woe betide anyone or any creature who gets in their way!

The barley field was only half finished that evening and the combine went off to another field to work on that. Both fields were left with strips of uncut grain.

I am not sure why they left both fields like this. Bad weather was forecast and duly arrived a couple of days later. Perhaps less damage is caused by wind and rain when the crop is in strips.

This is a photo of the other field our local farmer cut in strips. We took this picture while on a walk nearly two weeks ago. The fields were both finished last week – almost a month since they had begun.

This was the first walk we had taken from home in months.

IMG_5294Bee and hoverfly on Spear Thistle (640x480)

A bee and a hoverfly enjoying the nectar of a Spear Thistle (Cirsium vulgare)

IMG_5295Moth Shaded Broad Bar perhaps (640x480)

I disturbed this moth as I walked through the long grass. I think it may be a Shaded Broad Bar moth (Scotopteryx chenopodiata)

I remembered seeing a large patch of Common Fleabane (Pulicaria dysenterica) in the corner of a field last year. It was still there though a large heap of prunings had been left there earlier in the year

IMG_5296Common Fleabane with pollen beetles (640x480)

Fleabane with Pollen Beetles (Meligethes aeneus)

The Field Maple(Acer campestre) was looking bright, not only with its new ruby-coloured winged-fruits and leaf stalks but also with the crimson galls on many of its leaves. These galls are small red pustules probably produced by the mite Aceria myriadium.

New Pedunculate (or English) Oak leaves (Quercus robur) shining in the afternoon sun. There are also tiny acorns on long stalks to be seen.

Interesting cloud formation.

IMG_5307Hoverfly on bramble flowers (640x480)

A hoverfly on Bramble (Rubus fruticosus agg. ) flowers

Bramble flowers are very attractive and blackberries go so well in pies and crumbles!

I saw my first Dewberry (Rubus caesius) last year and was worried I wouldn’t find one this year because of all the hedging and ditching that was done in the spring. I eventually found a small plant under a hedge.

Richard and I like this view across a field

IMG_5312Field view photo-bombed by fly (640x480)

This is another view we like and I’m sure my regular readers recognise it.

When I checked my photos on my return home I was dismayed to see the spot just above the trees at the centre of the photo. However, when I cropped the photo…

IMG_5312Field view photo-bombed by fly (2) (640x374)

Cheeky!

…I realised a bee had photobombed my picture!

IMG_5317Oedemeridae beetle perhaps Ischnomera sanguinicollis (640x480)

An Oedemeridae beetle, perhaps Ischnomera sanguinicollis on a Spear Thistle flower with lots more Pollen Beetles.

We have had our first harvest of purple beans.

These beans sadly lose their purple colour when cooked and end up a rather dull green. They taste very nice and they have appreciated growing in the cooler summer.

IMG_5321Purple beans and spring greens (480x640)

French beans are so quick and easy to prepare and taste wonderful straight from the garden.

My white lilies (Lilium longiflorum) are flowering in the garden. This photo was taken at dusk.

Another sunset – this time with an added rain shower

The rain soon cleared away and as I turned back toward the house I saw the sky to the East was lovely too.

Pretty pink clouds!

Thanks for visiting!

July (mainly) in Suffolk

30 Thu Jul 2015

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

≈ 35 Comments

Tags

birds, butterflies, caterpillar, danselfly, dragonflies, flies, garden, garden flowers, green woodpecker, herbs, hoverflies, insects, moths, Suffolk, wild flowers

This post is made up of photos of things I’ve seen in my garden during the last month. The first few shots were taken during the last two days in June (I did say ‘mainly’!), when the weather suddenly got much warmer and the sun appeared. Summer arrived and we all felt much better!

IMG_2329Painted Lady on scabious (2) (640x416)

Painted Lady butterfly (Vanessa cardui) on a scabious flower

Dog Rose flowers (Rosa canina) next to the big pond

Male Common Blue damselfly (Enallagma cyathigerum)

Four-spotted Chaser dragonfly (Libellula quadrimaculata)

IMG_2340Small Tortoiseshell on pond (2) (640x428)

Small Tortoiseshell butterfly (Aglais urticae) on big pond

IMG_2348Female Emperor Dragonfly (640x408)

Female Emperor dragonfly (Anax imperator) laying eggs on the big pond

We have Ground Elder in our garden. I wish we didn’t but there is little chance of us ever getting rid of it here so we will have to try to weaken it and stop it from spreading further. It is in the ditch between us and the school house next door and also in the ditches at the front of the house and under the hedge. It is trying to spread into the lawn at the front but we strim and mow as much as possible and try to stop it from flowering. We often fail in this.

Ground Elder flower! As you see it is a pretty umbellifer with slightly pink buds.

I eradicated it from a former garden by digging it out over a period of a few years. It was in a flower bed so therefore easier to deal with.

IMG_2351 (2).jpgCommon Backswimmers (640x424)

Common Backswimmers (Notonecta glauca) in the front pond. This pond completely dried up while we were away on holiday but is starting to fill again because of the torrents of rain we’ve had during the past week or two.

Insects on Lavender ‘Hidcote’. There haven’t been as many insects this year as last, but the lavender attracted quite few while it flowered. It is a fabulous insect magnet!

Lavender growing at the front of our house

My herb garden

IMG_4908Bronze Fennel flower bud (640x480)

Bronze Fennel flower bud. When we returned form our week away all the leaves on the fennel had died and the flowers were drooping. I watered the herbs and then the rains and cool weather returned; the fennel is still alive (it has an enormous tap root) but no leaves at all for now. The flowers are fine and are being enjoyed by wasps and hoverflies. A neighbour came in to water the plants in the greenhouse while we were away (tomatoes mainly) but we couldn’t expect him to water all our plants – that would be asking much too much!

A pretty Tumbelina Petunia in the window box. It has a lovely gentle scent.

A very bright pink Verbena in the window box with the petunia. The hoverflies love it very much. I wish it was scented.

IMG_4917Hoverfly Episyrphus balteatus on verbena (640x480)

Hoverfly Episyrphus balteatus (I think!) on verbena

A hoverfly on the Fuschia that is also in the window box. This photo was taken after we had begun to have rain at last after a long dry spell.

A beautiful, tiny green spider on the fuschia. I think this is a Green Orb-weaver (Araniella curcurbitina).

A Six-spot Burnet moth (Zygaena filipendulae) on lavender

One of my unscented Asian lilies.

IMG_2369Sisyrinchium striatum (2) (640x427)

Sisyrinchium striatum. These put on a good show this year. Many years ago I had these growing in my garden and loved them as they seemed to go with all the flowers in the border. We moved to Somerset for 18 months and then moved here in 2006. Three years ago I found a seedling sisyrinchium in the garden which appeared from nowhere. I potted it up and grew it on; it flowered the following year and I let it go to seed. I sprinkled the seed on my border and last year I found lots of plants growing which flowered beautifully this year. Free flowers!

A pretty Viola. These seed themselves all over the garden.

I have two Rosa Mundi bushes ( a gift from Richard) and they both flowered well this year. It is sad that they have such a short flowering period but it is worth having them for their pretty, painted petals.

Perennial Sweet Pea

Scabious flower

A pretty rose from Richard’s border

In a former post I posted a photo of a mullein flower infested with Mullein moth caterpillars. Here is another photo taken a week or so later when the grubs were much bigger.

Mullein Moth caterpillar (Shargacucullia verbasci) on what was left of a Mullein flower spike

A Meadow Brown butterfly (Maniola jurtina). Wonderful camouflage!

IMG_2387Fly on Amelanchier (2) (640x429)

A fly on the Amelanchier tree. I cannot identify this one properly though it looks a little like Empis digramma, a fly which hunts other flies in long grass and other lush vegetation and spears them with its proboscis.

IMG_2404Adult and fledgling Green Woodpeckers (2) (640x411)

I took this photo of the Green Woodpecker (Picus viridis) and its 2 fledglings this evening. The adult was trying to teach its young how to find ant’s eggs.

This last photo wasn’t taken in my garden but in the grounds of the Norfolk and Norwich Hospital where I had to go for a check-up on the day before we went on holiday. I didn’t know what else to do with it!

Lady’s Bedstraw (Galium verum)

Thank’s for visiting!

Wyken Hall Gardens

21 Tue Jul 2015

Posted by Clare Pooley in Days out, Gardening, plants, Rural Diary

≈ 30 Comments

Tags

Elizabethan house, garden rooms, Suffolk, Wyken Hall Gardens

Wyken Hall

On 19th June Richard, Elinor and I visited Wyken Hall Gardens in Suffolk. This visit was to celebrate our 21st wedding anniversary of the day before. We never buy each other gifts on our anniversary unless there is something we both would like to have for the house or the garden, for example. We usually plan an outing to a place we’d like to see or we go out for a meal. This year we decided on a trip to Wyken Hall Gardens.

Wyken Hall

Wyken Hall is an Elizabethan manor house owned by Sir Kenneth and Lady Carla Carlisle. The house itself isn’t open to the public but the 4 acre gardens are. The house dates from 1570 with additions being made to it in 1630 and 1680 and then major works were carried out in 1920.

Lady Carlisle comes from the USA and she designed this area to look like a southern veranda. She brought 5 rocking chairs over from Mississippi and then the row of Spartan apple trees were espaliered high so as not to obscure the view from the house.

The Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) says it is one of the best modern private gardens in the country.

The Rose Garden

Lord Carlisle began work on the garden in the late 70’s and created the Rose Garden, the Winter Garden and the other garden rooms near the house. More work was done after his marriage in 1986.

The Quincunx – five equal interlocking circles – inspired by a design for a herb garden by Gertrude Jekyll.

New gardens are continually being created.

The new garden pond with oak pier. The owners hope that soon the chestnut fencing will be covered with white wisteria.

When Lord Carlisle began work on the garden it already had a structure of flint walls and many fine old trees. Hornbeam and yew hedges divide the garden into its different rooms. There is a copper-beech maze and a nuttery; a herb garden, a knot garden and an ‘edible’ garden; wildflower meadows and a traditional English kitchen garden. Many of the old-style gardens complement the Elizabethan house.

View of the house from the Rose Garden

As well as the garden, the Carlisles own Wyken Wood, which is ancient woodland, a large modern farm and a 7 acre vineyard. A large medieval barn has been converted into a country store (which sells exclusive goods) a restaurant and café. As well as different wines they also produce ale from their own barley.

A flower border sheltered by a flint wall in which there is an inviting archway to gardens beyond.

Steps cut into the turf (foreground) and the path through the winter garden

The ‘Bellini Bus Stop’ – a covered seat in the winter garden

A very pretty arch with an interesting variety of plants round it.

The kitchen garden

A supercilious-looking turkey

A peacock

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A slideshow of photos of some of the lovely plants and flowers we saw.

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A slideshow of the plants in the Red Hot Border.

This little hen came and stood under our table outside the café and begged for crumbs. She was given quite a lot of Elinor’s expensive scone!

We had a very enjoyable afternoon at a most beautiful and immaculate garden.

Thanks for visiting!

Quiet Sunday

01 Wed Jul 2015

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

≈ 36 Comments

Tags

Bees, Cotoneaster, gardening, Great Mullein, Mullein Moth larva, purple toadflax, recording of Turtle Dove song, scabious, St Michael and St Felix Church Rumburgh, Suffolk, sunset, The Vapourer Moth larva, Turtle Dove

Grasses growing round the edge of the field behind our house.

I have been doing a lot of gardening recently. Not the gentle-dead-heading, touch-of-light-weeding type of gardening but lots of digging – which always involves extracting large flint boulders from clay soil, lots of watering – carrying heavy watering cans round our large garden and lots of grass-cutting – I do most of this with shears. We have a large area of grass which is planted up with spring bulbs. There are a few trees planted there as well and the ground is very uneven. I think that it was originally a spoil heap from when the house was built; it also slopes quite steeply down to the ditch at the front of the house. We leave cutting the grass until the bulb leaves have died back which means it is left until June by which time it is looking quite unkempt. The ground is much too uneven for the tractor mower and because of the trees it is a very difficult area for Richard to do (he is 6′ 3″ tall). I am a foot shorter in height than he is, so I do this part of the garden. I can’t use the strimmer as it is too heavy for me so I cut the 3′ high grass with shears. We bought a scythe but somehow we can’t get it to sharpen. I like using shears as I can see what I am doing and I don’t cut the wrong things down as I might if I could use the strimmer. A strimmer makes such a mess; shears are tidy. Once I have cut the grass to a manageable length I then rake it up into a number of enormous heaps and then transport it to the other end of the garden in a wheelbarrow and put it on the grass heap. I then use the electric mower and cut the grass even shorter.

The field of barley behind our house.

As a result of this work I am extremely achy and stiff but I have developed some good muscles in my arms and shoulders! I was glad we had a little rain on Sunday so I excused myself from working outside. I read my book, talked with my husband and daughter and generally had a relaxing day.

IMG_4891View across pond to field (640x480)

View across the pond to the field beyond.

We had an Evening Prayer service at St Michael and St Felix Church in Rumburgh where Richard is one of the church wardens. We left home at 5.45 pm to make sure the church was tidy and ready for the service. There had been a big wedding there on Saturday so the church is full of beautiful flowers.

The decorated Rood Screen. This is very pretty but it would be better if people didn’t decorate it as the screen is hundreds of years old and falling apart.

Posies on the pew ends. I think the top of the poppyhead (the carved pew end) looks like a clown with a bowler hat.

Flowers at the East Window

Flowers round the Font

Flowers in the porch

The path has been regravelled and the fence panel at the side of the church has been repaired.

Fresh gravel and new fence panel.

The bride’s family live at the farm which surrounds the church and the church is in their back garden. I have never walked all round my church because that would mean walking through someone else’s property. However, it is so nice to have kind people who decorate our church and repair our fence and path because their daughter wanted to get married in the church!

Our evening service was taken by Maurice and we concentrated on the Trinity. It was a pleasant, peaceful and thoughtful service.

I’ll use the rest of the post to show you a few more things I’ve seen on my travels and in the garden recently.

This is a Great Mullein (Verbascum thapsus) and I noticed the other day that it was looking a little ragged.

This is one of the culprits – a Mullein Moth larva (Shargacucullia verbasci). The plant was covered in the caterpillars which will probably eat most of the plant and leave a blackened stump.

I had noticed that a few of my plants and tree seedlings had been damaged and on Sunday I found a few of the caterpillars that were responsible.

This is a Vapourer Moth larva (Orgyia antiqua), and it is eating a Laburnum seedling.

The Vapourer is often found in towns and often defoliates street trees. I’ve never seen it in our garden before – perhaps they found their way here on a plant from the garden centre in town. Vapourers are tussock moths which are all rather hairy. The Vapourer female moth doesn’t have functional wings and will stay close to her cocoon after hatching out. The Vapourer larva, along with other members of the Tussock Moth family, has tufts or tussocks of often colourful hairs (the Vapourer’s are yellow). The hairs on adults and larva are usually barbed which makes them unpleasant and painful to handle.

A bee on a scabious flower.

I am not very good at identifying bees. I never seem to notice or photograph the key feature mentioned in the ID guide. The bee above could be a cuckoo bee.

I try to grow as many plants as possible that are liked by bees and other insects.

Bee on Cotoneaster.

Bee on Purple Toadflax.

A rather lovely sunset I saw last week.

Lastly, I have another video to share with you but it isn’t the video that’s important just the soundtrack. I would like you to ignore the video! It’s rubbish! I was taking photos in the garden next to the pond, when the Turtle Dove started singing. I switched the camera to film so I could record the song and vaguely pointed the camera in the direction of the pond. The video is very shaky as I didn’t have a tripod with me. I only managed to record a very short part of the song. It is quite a quiet purring sound and the other birds in the garden were singing very loudly!

Thanks for visiting!

June Flowers and Insects

27 Sat Jun 2015

Posted by Clare Pooley in Insects, plants, Rural Diary, trees, weather

≈ 39 Comments

Tags

azure damselfly, Bittersweet, Black-tailed Skimmer, blue-tailed damselfly, common knapweed, Common Marsh-bedstraw, Common Sorrel, Creeping Cinquefoil, Cyperus Sedge, damselflies, dogwood, dragonflies, Elder, Four-spotted Chaser, garden, greenbottle, Hoverfly, insects, Meadow Buttercup, Oxeye Daisy, pond, Pyracantha, Suffolk, White Water Lily, wild flowers, yellow iris, Yorkshire Fog

Until this week we have had a very cool summer indeed which has meant that there have been very few insects about. The common garden pests, greenfly and blackfly for example, seem to cope with chilly weather but the insects that eat them don’t! Some of the flowers are continuing to flower a little late but a few are flowering at about their usual time which has made for unusual combinations.

Meadow Buttercups (Ranunculus acris) on All Saints’ Common

We have a number of ‘commons’ here in East Anglia. A common is an area of land either owned by a group of people or one person but it can be used by the general public in certain ways such as walking your dog or playing sport. Some commons and village greens have ‘rights of common’ where it is possible to graze livestock on the land. If you want to use the common for anything other than walking on it or having a picnic, (for instance, if you wanted to camp there), you’d have to ask permission of the land owner.

This is another view of the common showing one of the unusual flower combinations. This didn’t come out as well as I’d have liked.

The Common Sorrel is flowering at the same time as the buttercups and for a while it looked as though the field was alight with red flames above the yellow.

Common Sorrel (Rumex acetosa)

Common Knapweed (Centaurea nigra) is also in flower on the common.

IMG_4810Possibly Yorkshire Fog (2) (510x640)

As is Yorkshire Fog (Holcus lanatus)

The Elder (Sambucus nigra) is in flower.

The Dogwood (Cornus sanguinea) is in flower too.

Many people dislike the scent of the Elderflower; they describe it as smelling of ‘cats’. It isn’t a pleasant smell but it is preferable to the smell of Dogwood flowers!

Bittersweet (Solanum dulcamara), also known as Woody Nightshade, is flowering in the hedgerows.

The Pyracantha in our garden is covered in blossom. This is another plant with a strange scent but the bees love it!

I discovered a new plant at the edge of our big pond the other day – a Cyperus Sedge (Carex pseudocyperus), also known as Hop Sedge.

The plant is quite large and must, I suppose, have been there last year without me seeing it. Its leaves are strap-like, similar to Iris leaves, so I might have thought it was an Iris. The flowers are unmistakable though.

The flowers are pendulous, like catkins.

Yellow Iris (Iris pseudacorus)

Another new plant to our garden is this Common Marsh-bedstraw (Galium palustre) growing by our corner pond.

One of my favourite flowers is this little one – Creeping Cinquefoil (Potentilla reptans). Its petals are heart-shaped and such a pretty shade of yellow. The creeping refers to its trailing stems that root at the nodes as it grows.

I love Oxeye Daisies (Leucanthemum vulgare) too.

A White Water-lily (Nymphaea alba) on our big pond.

Elinor saw the Kingfisher at the pond a couple of days ago and since yesterday we have all heard the purring of a Turtle-dove in the trees round the pond. The temperature has risen to 25 degrees Centigrade and I think it has been too cold up til now for the Turtle-dove.

IMG_2270Female Blue-tailed Damselfly (2) (640x427)

Female Blue-tailed Damselfly (Ischnura elegans)

IMG_2276 (2)Male Blue-tailed Damselfly (640x445)

Male Blue-tailed Damselfly (Ischnura elegans)

IMG_2271Male Azure Damselfly (2) (640x420)

Male Azure Damselfly (Coenagrion puella)

IMG_4824Male Four-spotted Chaser (640x478)

I believe this is a male Four-spotted Chaser (Libellula quadrimaculata)

IMG_2283Greenbottle on Hogweed (2) (640x417)

Greenbottle (Lucilia caesar) on Hogweed (Heracleum sphondylium)

IMG_2294Helophilus pendulus Hoverfly (640x472)

A brightly-patterned Hoverfly (Helophilus pendulus)

IMG_2298Male Black-tailed Skimmer (640x485)

Male Black-tailed Skimmer (Orthetrum cancellatum)

I hope to see some more insects now the weather has warmed up.

Thank-you for visiting!

Day of Dance 28 March 2015

23 Tue Jun 2015

Posted by Clare Pooley in music, Rural Diary, Uncategorized

≈ 38 Comments

Tags

Day of Dance, Folk dancing, Halesworth, Halesworth Day of Dance, Morris dancing, Suffolk

Poster for the Day of Dance

The weekend before Easter Richard and I took Elinor in to Halesworth so that she could go to the hairdressers. We had a couple of things to buy and had arranged with Elinor that we would meet her back in the car park. When we got to Halesworth we discovered that a Day of Dance was taking place in the town.

Oxblood Molly, a Molly dancing team were hosting their first Day of Dance in Halesworth and had invited a number of other dance teams to come along and take part. Richard and I were delighted, as we love to watch Morris, Molly and Sword Dancing. Elinor isn’t so keen and we got a couple of messages from her telling us about the difficulty she had in getting into the hairdresser’s salon past a large group of dancers, musicians and also a man wearing a horse’s head ( the Hobby Horse).

This is the Oxblood Molly side (or team) dancing in Halesworth Thoroughfare. All the dances were performed outside the pubs in the town. The pub here is just out of shot on the right – The White Hart.

Molly Dancing originated in Cambridgeshire and is traditionally danced on Plough Monday, the first Monday after Epiphany when the agricultural workers went back to work after Christmas. A decorated plough was dragged through the streets and the farm workers accompanied it with blackened faces asking for pennies to help the poor plough boys. They disguised themselves so that their employers wouldn’t recognise them. During harsh winters the farm-workers were often close to starvation. The dance team went with the farm-workers; one of the dancers (all male) would be dressed as a woman, hence ‘Molly’.

This is Molly.

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Here is a selection of photographs of Oxblood Molly.

Danegeld Morris dancing in the yard of the White Swan pub.

There are six main styles of Morris Dance – Cotswold Morris, North West Morris, Border Morris, Longsword Dancing, Rapper and Molly Dancing. There is another less well-known style called Ploughstots (or Vessel Cupping, or Plew-ladding!) from the East and North Ridings of Yorkshire.

Danegeld Morris dance in the North West style and wear clogs on their feet. This style was developed during the 19th and 20th centuries and came from the mill towns that had sprung up during the Industrial Revolution.

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This side is called Pedant’s Revolt and they dance in the Border Morris style. This is also the White Swan pub yard. Richard filmed a few of the teams on his phone. He only filmed short excerpts of three dances. The video below is of Pedant’s Revolt.

Here they are again outside The White Hart.

I like the pheasant’s feathers they wear in their hats

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This is Chelmsford Morris Ladies, another North West Morris group dancing in the White Swan pub yard. Below is another video.

Kenninghall Morris side – a Border Morris dance team relaxing after having performed outside the Swan.

They traditionally blacken their faces, though some of them had whitened their faces instead! A couple of the Oxblood Molly side are with them here.

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This side is Bows ‘n’ Belles and they are dancing outside the White Hart. They are another North West Morris team and their video is below.

We weren’t able to see all the groups dancing that day as we had promised to visit my mother that afternoon. It has made us want to go to more events like this!

Thanks for visiting!

A Wet Weekend

17 Wed Jun 2015

Posted by Clare Pooley in family, Rural Diary

≈ 40 Comments

Tags

azure damselfly, chaffinch, flour, guinea fowl, Pakenham Water Mill, scarlet pimpernel, Suffolk, sunset, topiary, watercress, Waveney District Council Parks and Open Spaces, white campion

This weekend marked the start of my break from driving every day to Norwich. Hooray!! Elinor finished her exams on Friday and we are so pleased with her and, I suspect, she is very pleased with herself.

IMG_4802Traffic island Halesworth (640x480)

I thought this might be a good opportunity to show you a beautiful traffic island on a roundabout on the outskirts of Halesworth. The Parks Department have been creating wonderful floral displays all over the district. This island looks like a cottage garden.

The previous weekend was very pleasant as Alice came to visit for a few days. We went to see Elinor’s college artwork on display at a gallery in Norwich on Friday 5th June and then had a very enjoyable Italian meal before returning home. The day had started with thunderstorms and heavy rain but the sun came out in the afternoon and we then had some gorgeous warm weather for the rest of the day. We haven’t had much warm weather and it didn’t last.

A beautiful sunset I saw a few days ago.

We went out for another meal that Sunday for lunch to celebrate Alice gaining her PhD. My mother came with us too – I had taken her to church that morning and we all met at the Fox and Goose restaurant in Fressingfield. We returned home and were relaxing with some tea and coffee when my brother arrived. He had gone over to Mum’s house expecting her to be there as he wanted to try out his new lawn-mower on her grass. He did a little mowing and then came over to our house hoping she was with us. She wished she had been there while he mowed, as he cut down her cowslips and bluebells that she had been carefully mowing around while they set seed and died down. She can’t say anything to him about it as he had been so kind but she has spoken a lot on the subject to me. If bluebell leaves are cut before they die down the bulb isn’t fed and the plant may not survive. She quoted a part of ‘A Shropshire Lad’ to me and said she also may not have many more bluebell springs and it would be sad if hers had gone for ever. (I will have to replace her plants if they don’t grow next year!). My brother has recently moved into his new home in Saxmundham, not far from us. He seems to be settling in very well. He got a job transfer from Surrey where he used to live to Suffolk and is getting on splendidly here. He teaches in open prisons and has already been able to put some of the men in for exams which they have passed. It has been very nice for me to see Andrew more regularly. There is only a year and 9 days difference in our ages and we were very close when we were young. He left home at 17 to become a police cadet and then married at 21. We then didn’t seem to have much in common any more and only saw each other about once a year.

A male Azure Damselfly (Coenagrion puella) I saw in my garden yesterday.

The past week was very busy with Elinor’s exams, two shopping trips for Mum and a visit to the eye clinic at Norfolk and Norwich hospital with her for a check-up and of course, my usual chores.

A Scarlet Pimpernel flower (Anagallis arvensis ssp. arvensis) in my garden yesterday.

Richard has been taking Fridays off recently, cutting his working week down to four days in preparation for his retirement at the end of August. He came with Elinor and me when I took her in for her final exam on Friday morning and while she was in college we did a little shopping. It was a lovely bright day and not too cold for a change. When Elinor met us we took her to buy some converse trainers she wanted and then went to a coffee shop for a drink and a sandwich. The afternoon was dry so I managed to get some gardening done at home.

Pakenham Water Mill with Richard walking up the lane.

Saturday was mainly rainy and cool. Richard and I decided to go out and buy some more good flour from Pakenham Water Mill. We have had two tours of the mill already and it was much too wet to walk in the gardens, so we settled for a cup of tea/coffee and some cake in the tea room. The lady who runs the tea shop wasn’t expecting many people to turn up because of the foul weather, so hadn’t made any of her wonderful scones. There were plenty of other cakes to chose from and the tea and coffee is good there. We bought two 5kg bags of flour from the shop and took them to the car. Before returning home we had a look at the outside of the mill and at the river on the opposite side of the lane.

A wider view of the mill showing the millers house where the tea shop is situated.

This is the river on the opposite side of the lane to the mill. You see the water that has just been through the mill powering the wheel, flowing into the river.

I think this may be Watercress (Rorippa nasturtium-aquaticum). I haven’t been this close to Watercress that’s still growing before so I may be mistaken. I used to see it quite often when we lived in Somerset but I couldn’t get this close to it. This is wild Watercress and not cultivated.

This is a close-up of the flowers.

We saw this monstrous beauty in the field on the other side of the river.

Topiary crocodiles. We discovered that a business specialising in topiary had created all sorts of creatures and put them along the river bank.

More topiary.

And more. This is the Pied Piper of Hamelin .

A wet Chaffinch (Fringilla coelebs) singing from the top of an electricity pole.

A pair of Guinea Fowl walking quickly through the field.

A wet White Campion (Silene latifolia) next to the gate.

These were the things we saw before we went back home.

Sunday morning was a very gloomy and chilly one. We went to Morning Prayer at St James’ church. We had rain at midday but the afternoon gradually became dryer until at last, the sun came out at tea time.

IMG_4801Green lane at St James (640x480)

This is an un-tarmacked lane that goes past St James church.

Thank-you for visiting!

Minsmere – 8th May 2015

31 Sun May 2015

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

≈ 37 Comments

Tags

BBC Spring Watch, black slugs, blackcap, bluebells, Common Vetch, crabapple, Minsmere, oak, oak moss, ponds, red campion, RSPB, Suffolk, woods

Elinor took her Art exam over two days at the beginning of May and on the Friday of that week she and I decided we’d go to the RSPB (Royal Society for the Protection of Birds) reserve at Minsmere for a relaxing walk. Richard was away in Manchester visiting his mother and brother and helping his brother clear his Mum’s house before putting it on the market.

We go to Minsmere very often and know all the walks. Elinor decided she wanted to walk through the woods instead of going to the shore. I was hoping to hear a Cuckoo and a Nightingale. We had a drink and a cake in the café before we set off.

IMG_2203Something on Birch tree Minsmere (640x427)

The first thing we saw was this and I have no idea what it is. Is it a canker, a fungus or is it a nest of some sort? It is on a Birch tree.

We saw this very pretty Crabapple blossom.

This is Common Vetch (Vicia sativa)

Red Campion (Silene dioica). The wind was blowing quite hard and I found it difficult to get anything in focus.

And this is one of the many ponds at Minsmere.

Another pond.

The weather, which had been quite pleasant in the morning, quickly deteriorated once we began our walk. It got quite cold and then a drizzly rain started as you can see by the raindrops on the pond above. Any hopes of hearing a Cuckoo or a Nightingale evaporated away.

There are Adders (Vipera berus) living on the reserve and we had been hoping to see them. We were told by another visitor that they were sleeping out in the open but unfortunately, by the time we arrived at the area where they are to be found, the rain had started and very sensibly they had gone under cover. The area is fenced off for their and our protection. They are Britain’s only venomous snake.

Reeds and water. We could hear Bitterns (Botaurus stellaris) booming in the reeds but we didn’t see any water fowl at all.

There was plenty of Oak Moss (Evernia prunastri) to be seen.

It is very attractive with its flat, curled branches. It isn’t moss at all but is in fact a lichenised fungus.

Air quality in the East of England isn’t as good as in the West of the country because the prevailing wind blows across the country, including London, before it gets to us. We are pleased when we find any kind of lichen as they are often indicators of clean air.

This dandelion plant had a couple of slug visitors.

We saw very many white bluebells in the wood

An Oak tree (Quercus robur) with new leaves and flowers.

This is the building that was constructed last year for the BBC Spring Watch team. This is as near as us members of the hoi polloi can get to it. The BBC are currently filming at Minsmere though they weren’t when Elinor and I visited.

The next six photographs are of a male Blackcap (Sylvia atricapilla) that I found singing next to the path. The photos are not cropped. This warbler didn’t appear to be at all nervous and at each pause in his song he seemed to look at me to judge my reaction! He filled his throat with air and used it like the bag on a bag-pipe to sing.

I was very pleased to get these pictures.

Thank-you for visiting!

A Visit to Captain’s Wood – 4th May 2015

29 Fri May 2015

Posted by Clare Pooley in plants, Rural Diary, trees, walking

≈ 24 Comments

Tags

Alexanders, bluebells, Captain's Wood, Climbing Corydalis, coppice, foxglove, Suffolk, Suffolk Wildlife Trust, veteran Oaks, wild cherry, wood sorrel, woods

Captain’s Wood is owned by Suffolk Wildlife Trust and is found next to the village of Sudbourne which lies south of where we live, about 40 minutes drive away. The morning had been beautiful and bright but by early afternoon the skies were beginning to cloud over and by the time we got to the wood the sun wasn’t shining much at all.

This was the first time we had visited the wood. We had heard that the bluebells there were wonderful and hoped that we would see some. We parked the car in a small car-park a few hundred metres from the entrance to the wood and walked down the lane towards it.

Both sides of the lane were covered in Alexanders (Smyrnium olusatrum) which had been in full sun all the morning and as a consequence were giving off a perfume redolent of rotting spinach!

Alexanders is a very attractive umbellifer and until recently has only been found within a few miles of the coast. I am not sure why, but in the last couple of years it has spread very quickly further inland and I have seen it in Norwich this spring for the first time.

I remember including it in one of my posts last year but can’t remember which so I’ll repeat what I said then. The name Alexanders refers to its origins as a herb of Macedonia (Alexander the Great’s country of birth). Its black seeds were sold in the 17th century under the name of Macedonian Parsley and Nicholas Culpeper the herbalist noted that among other things, Alexanders could cure not only flatulence but snake bite! The whole of the plant is edible and the generic name Smyrnium refers to its myrrh-like taste.

We walked along a short entrance path between gardens towards the wood.

Bee hives in someone’s garden

The first part of the wood we walked through didn’t really look like a wood.

This is newly acquired land consisting of 17 acres of small fields, scrub and a little area of woodland in-between the village and Captain’s Wood proper. This land has not been farmed for many years and was largely left fallow. Part of the land stays wet for most of the year and apparently has Marsh Orchids and other wetland plants growing there.

On entering the wood I saw this beautiful moss.

Most of the wood looks like this.

Captain’s Wood consists of mainly open woodland with Oak and Birch. There is a large stand of Hazel, clumps of mature Scots Pine and lines of planted Sweet Chestnut. Herds of deer roam at large through the wood and seven different types of bat live here.

There were a few Violets on the woodland floor. I didn’t check to see which violet this was but I think it may be Sweet Violet (Viola odorata)

New bracken.

Climbing Corydalis (Ceratocapnos claviculata)

Bartholomew of Glanville was an English friar living in the 13th century. He wrote an encyclopaedia of natural history and in it he said that, despite its ‘horrible savour’, the roots of this plant could be made into a potion for dispelling melancholy. Later on Climbing Corydalis became known as a cure for intestinal diseases. This plant, along with fumitories, has flowers that resemble clovers and vetches though with fewer petals. The flower’s peculiar shape has been likened to the head of a crested lark; hence the name ‘corydalis’.

Wild Cherry (Prunus avium)

The Foxgloves (Digitalis purpurea) were growing well.

Woodland floor under the pine trees.

A ‘Witch’s Broom’ in a Birch tree.

These ‘Witch’s Brooms’ are caused by a type of parasitic fungus which induces galls in its host.

Bracket fungus

One of the veteran Oak trees in the wood.

A close-up of the lichen-covered trunk of the Oak tree. A lot of the bark has disappeared and it no longer looks like a tree trunk anymore.

These veteran trees support many different species of fungi and invertebrates that are dependent on the slowly rotting heartwood of the tree. Most notable is the Oak Polypore fungus which is known from only six other sites in Britain. The Oak Polypore fruits for only a very short time in the summer.

New Oak leaves and flowers

One of the several ponds in the wood

Wood Sorrel (Oxalis acetosella). A flower which indicates ancient, undisturbed woodland and hedges. The petals are white or pink with lilac veins.

Wood Sorrel

A Beech tree (Fagus sylvatica) coming into leaf

IMG_4597Green river of Dog's Mercury (640x480)

This bright green, running like a river through the woods is Dog’s Mercury(Mercurialis perennis)

A coppice stool. The wood from the coppice is harvested every few years. New shoots are protected from deer and then left to grow until they are ready to be cut again.

At last we reached the part of the wood where the bluebells were, but found we were just a little too early to see them at their best.

Bluebells (Hyacinthoides non-scripta)

There were a number of white bluebells.

Bluebell potential was good….

….but if we had visited a week later it would have looked heavenly. Unfortunately, a week later we were doing other things.

We got back to the car and discovered we had a puncture. Richard tried to change the tyre himself but we were unable to get the tyre off. We had to call a rescue company and after just under an hour’s wait the mechanic arrived. He managed to remove the tyre by sitting on the ground and kicking it with his left then right boot alternately.

Captain’s Wood is somewhere we would visit again. It has plenty of plants and a variety of trees. The walk through the wood would be pleasurable at any time of the year.

Thank-you for visiting!

May’s End – Part 2

26 Tue May 2015

Posted by Clare Pooley in plants, Rural Diary, trees, wild animals

≈ 37 Comments

Tags

Brown Hare, Bugle, Common Comfrey, cow parsley, Creeping Buttercup, Dandelion clock, field maple, garlic mustard, Greater Stitchwort, ground-ivy, Hawthorn, Hedgerow Crane's-bill, Herb-Robert, Meadow Buttercup, orange-tip butterfly, red campion, rowan, Suffolk, trees, Tufted Forget-me-not, wild flowers, Wood Avens

This post will be featuring the wild life photographs I have taken away from home, either on short walks to the postbox for example, or when I have stopped the car having seen something special.

The Cow Parsley has been spectacular this year and especially so on the lane I drive down on my way to Norwich each day via Bungay. I was glad I took the following photos a couple of weeks ago as the road is now closed for road works and I hate to think what has happened to all these lovely flowers.

IMG_4679Cow Parsley and Red Campion (640x480)

Cow Parsley (Anthriscus sylvestris) and Red Campion (Silene dioica)

The Red Campion has never been better in all the time we have lived here too.

Cow Parsley and Red Campion

Red Campion

Male and female flowers are borne on separate plants.

Greater Stitchwort (Stellaria holostea)

This plant is a member of the Pink family and is a shade lover. It shines luminously in the twilight. Its stems are very weak and need the support of other plants to gain any height. The stems snap easily too, and according to the ancient ‘doctrine of signatures’ this means that the plant was thought to be able to help heal broken bones. The Greek words for whole ‘holos’ and bone ‘osteon’ are incorporated in the botanical name. The common name of Stitchwort refers not to mending but to another kind of stitch – the horrible pain in the side and similar ailments. A preparation of stitchwort and acorns taken in wine was a standard remedy. Stitchwort was regarded, at one time, along with White Campion and Field Poppy, as a ‘thunder flower’ – the picking of which provoked thunder and lightening.

Herb-Robert (Geranium robertianum)

Herb-Robert has orange pollen.

IMG_4685Herb-robert and Ground-ivy (640x480)

Herb-Robert with Ground-ivy (Glechoma hederacea)

Bugle (Ajuga reptans) seems to be growing everywhere this year too. I don’t remember seeing any at all last year.

Bugle was thought of as a cure-all by medieval herbalists. It healed all kinds of wounds, thrusts and stabs, as well as ulcers and broken bones. It was also highly recommended for delirium tremens brought on by too much alcohol. It has been called one of the mildest and best narcotics in the world. The Latin name Ajuga and the common name Bugle appear to be corruptions of one or more of the plants earlier names of ‘abuga’, ‘abija’ and ‘bugula’.

Jack-by-the-Hedge or Garlic Mustard (Alliaria petiolata)

This is the only British member of the cabbage family to smell very strongly of garlic. The smell of the small white flowers isn’t particularly pleasant but it attracts midges and hoverflies. The plant is self-pollinating. In June the pale green caterpillars of the Orange-tip butterfly can be seen feeding on the long green seed pods from which they are almost indistinguishable.

IMG_4695Orange Tip on Cow Parsley (640x480)

This is a photo of an Orange-tip butterfly feeding on the nectar from Cow Parsley. The camouflage is very good!

Creeping Buttercup (Ranunculus repens)

This plant spreads very quickly with long-rooted runners.

This is one of the fields next to the lane I drive down every day. It has a lot of buttercups in it (probably Meadow Buttercup (Ranunculus acris) )

Another view from the lane.

This shows the mass of Cow Parsley on the verge of the lane with two grand-looking Horse-chestnut trees (Aesculus hippocastanum) on the corner.

Common Dandelion (Taraxacum officinale agg. ) fruit or ‘clock’.

Wood Avens or Herb Bennet (Geum urbanum)

I think this may be Tufted Forget-me-not (Myosotis laxa)

This is the lane as it goes up a gentle rise towards St Margaret’s church.

Common Comfrey (Symphytum officinale)

Common Hawthorn (Crataegus monogyna)

Hedgerow Crane’s-bill (Geranium pyrenaicum)

Hedgerow Crane’s-bill with Cow Parsley and Ground-ivy

Field Maple (Acer campastre) flowers.

Rowan or Mountain Ash (Sorbus aucuparia). This is a photo I forgot to include in Part 1 as this is a tree in our garden.

Lastly, I include a couple of photos (not good) of a young Hare, or Leveret (as young Hares are called) that I saw in our garden yesterday. It was very curious, investigating everything. It kept on the move all the time, which made photographing it very difficult, suddenly racing off in one direction only to come racing back again next minute. It appeared to run for the joy of running!