September 11th

 25 years ago today I was doing the ironing and listening to local Radio Suffolk when the two presenters suddenly stopped talking. 

After that everyone watched their televisions in horror as the events unfolded.

I rang my penfriend in the US even though she lived miles away in Michigan, just needed to check her family were OK and tell her people here in the UK were just as horrified at what had happened. 

The after effects of that day are still rumbling on.

Sending condolences to all blog readers in the States who are remembering those events today

The Country Pie - At Least the 20th Vegetarian Taste Test

 Another frozen veggie concoction to try. From Asda £2.50 for two

I followed Sue in Lancs advice to heat up a baking tray in the oven before putting the pie on it to avoid a soggy bottom!

As usual there is a long list of ingredients, a few weird things. I wonder why they need to use both palm oil and rapeseed oil?

Ingredients : Water, Wheat Flour (calcium carbonate, iron, niacin, thiamin) rehydrated textured soya protein (11%). palm oil, maize starch, rapeseed oil, brown sugar, salt, yeast extract, maltodextrin, dried onion, garlic powder, tomato powder, wheat flour, palm stearin, onion powder, malted barley extract, thyme, black pepper, white pepper, red wine extract, emulsifier:mono-and diglycerides of fatty acids.

I served it up with fresh carrots and frozen peas and sweetcorn. It was actually quite tasty and the pastry was good and crisp - top and bottom.

I might buy again - much better than some of the other frozen veggie bakes I've tried, and handy to keep in the freezer for something different.

St Catherine's Church, Pettaugh

 I've driven past this church hundreds of times but someone who lived in the village had told me that it was always locked so I'd never bothered to stop.

But when I did stop recently I found it open.

Just a small church for a small village that unfortunately suffers from having the A1120, a busy cross county road, passing through it which has two horrible corners between the old houses which were originally a pub and a shop.

Walking up the path I hoped the gate across the porch wasn't padlocked...it wasn't. I like the flint and brickwork pattern.

The view down the nave towards the east window, it's light and bright here

Apologies, the photo of the font is very dark and gloomy

The lovely East window dates from 1936

Christ the Good Shepherd stands at the centre, with two simple tales of redemption flanking him, the raising of Lazarus on the left, and the calling of Zacchaeus on the right. Townshend and Howson were important figures in the Arts and Crafts movement of the early 20th Century, many of whom were women. Like a number of her fellow artists Caroline Townshend was also involved in the suffragette movement, which brought her into friendship with the stained glass artist Mary Lowndes, designer of the suffragette banners and co-founder of the Glass House. In 1913 she met Joan Howson who became her apprentice and later her partner. This is the only Townshend & Howson glass in Suffolk, though they were also responsible for organising and setting the great scheme of early 16th Century glass a few miles off at Gipping.

The other windows are plain except for the blue and yellow edging and dedications at the bottom