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

Elvis is in the Building!..............

..................... I found him at the Sunday car-boot sale.

For the princely sum of 50p, he has joined the other three looking out of my bedroom window.

That's a cobweb on the outside of the window - not cracked glass!

He is one of the originals from dcuk. A company started in 2004 (which must be when I got my original). My second was a charity shop rescue in 2017 and the third was from a boot sale last year. In between then and now I could have bought one for £5, but that would have made me a serious collector! Whereas at 50p I'm just a duck rescuer. 😀

The company are still in business, still using bamboo but now all the ducks have painted wellie-boots - I'm not keen on those, there are lots of copies around too. The originals have dcuk stamped on the sole of their foot.

Read One and Found Two More

Thank you to whoever mentioned this authors crime fiction books. I thought I wasn't going to get into it, as there was a bit of a slow start and I was rather put off by one of the celebrities recommendations on the front cover.......... 

"I am insanely in love with George Cross" says Stephen Fry. Nearly enough to make me not start it!

This is yet another police person with problems, this time Aspergers, and he tends to have no empathy or realisation of how to interact with people. Yet his very insistence at routine and being precise with everything has made him a brilliant detective so his bosses put up with him - he gets results and makes them look good.

The Dentist is the  first story in a series of eight so far which have been around with the covers below since 2020. Now the paperbacks have been reprinted with the cover above and similar.

From the library website

DS George Cross can be rude, difficult, and awkward with people. But his unfailing logic and dogged pursuit of the truth means his conviction rate is the best on the force. An outsider himself, having been diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder, he is especially drawn to cases concerning the voiceless and the dispossessed. Who was the unknown man whose weather-beaten body is discovered on Clifton Downs? Did the tragedy that led to a life on the streets also lead to his death? His police colleagues may dismiss it as a squabble among Bristol's homeless community, but Cross is not convinced. As he delves into the dead man's past, he becomes convinced that to catch this killer, he needs to solve a cold case murder from years before. A murder that someone has spent fifteen years thinking they've got away with. And they have no intention of letting one eccentric, socially awkward detective, change that now.

I was going to reserve the second -  'The Cyclist' -  but couldn't as I already have the upper limit of how many we are allowed to reserve but I  found Stowmarket Library had two others on their shelves so popped in to borrow them ......just in case I run out of reading before the mobile is round again. (There are already 13 (!) books ready for me to collect but the mobile visit is still 10 days away)

Hopefully it won't matter if they are not read in order. It's so good to hear about a 'new to me' crime author who has already written a few books.