The Church of St Mary, Framsden

A path from the village street crosses a bridge and then through this lych gate with lots of texts and carvings.

Unusually, the outside of the church is plastered and painted white on this side

In through the porch

Into the light church that has a South aisle. The nave isn't used for services, there is a huge curtain in the chancel arch and just the chancel is heated to use for the congregation.

It looks as if this old stove is sometimes used in the chancel to keep everyone warm but there were electric heaters too.

The old coffin bier and extra chairs stored in the south aisle

Like nearby Helmingham church there are many painted texts.

Very little stained glass, just  the red borders to some windows and a few pieces of older glass mixed in.

The pulpit and stairs to the long gone rood loft

These are what many people visit the church to see, probably damaged on purpose during the reformation

 Much more HERE on Simon Knotts' church site.

Thanks for comments yesterday, I think I'll resell the shelving, it's not going to last long outside with or without drainage and waterproofing.

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An Unwise Car Boot Sale Purchase?

It was back in 2021 that I found this plant stand from a car-boot sale for £20.

Since then it's been painted twice, had plants on and off and  seems to have been mentioned in 15 blog posts!

After it's new paint and update this was it in May last year.

It's tied to the trellis and is a bit rickety now, all the shelves are sloping forwards rather a lot but it's still just about usable and everything - mainly various succulents, survived the winter.

But when I spotted this at Stonham Barns car-boot sale on Sunday and the lady wanted £5 I bought it. It's very sturdy  and I thought it would be a good replacement................BUT it was only afterwards that I wondered if it is actually made for standing outside as it has solid shelves!

With no drainage on the shelves maybe it would be better to re-sell it as I'm sure it's worth more than £5.

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Trying, Not Finishing and Persevering

 Seems I give up easily!

I really tried with the one on the left 'The Crooked Cross' by Sally Carson until it got too depressing. It's a 2025 Persephone publication originally published in 1934 by an English author who spent a lot of time in Germany pre war. The story is an account of the fictional Kluger family, including daughter Lexa, who at Christmas 1932 is engaged to be married to a young doctor with a Jewish name - Moritz Weissman and how their lives are changed  during the rise of the Nazis.

Persephone have now published the follow up to this story 'The Prisoner'. I won't be reading it.

Then I tried the middle book, which is  2013 crime fiction by a American author but set in the UK despite misgivings, as sometimes US authors have not bothered to use our English words for various things that have different names across the pond. This story is the 13th in a long series featuring American Dorothy Martin who lives in the UK with her retired British Chief Constable Alan. I was getting on OK with it and then the author starts to mention several times that Dorothy hasn't had time to floss her teeth! For goodness sake - talk about padding the word count!

Having abandoned two books quarter of the way in, I hoped to actually finish the book on the right 'The Weather Watcher ' by Claire Anders. It turned out to be a lighter than I thought read, a coming of age story about a young Scottish girl, who, when her mother decides she ought to marry the son of a family friend just before the War starts, decides instead to join the Women's Auxiliary Air Force and train as a Meteorology  Assistant.  I might have given up as it's leaning towards being a romance but persevered as the details about a 'Weather Watcher' were interesting and hopefully researched and accurate. There was information of something I'd never heard of despite it happening in Felixstowe - Operation Outward.  I've read so many books about  WWII but never heard of this.

Picture from Wikipedia of balloons being released on the east coast for Operation Outward

I've still got 6 other library books to try before the library van is round again at the end of the month and only one of those I definitely know to be readable, so there may well be another post about trying and failing to finish!

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