Making an Effort

I was moaning last Saturday that the unrelenting heat and the disinclination to do anything was worrying and depression must Not be allowed to creep in just because the weather is too hot to do much. 

So I've been trying to be positive all week and it's been a tad cooler - except for Thursday and yesterday, which helped.

But annoying things kept happening............

• The greenhouse door was very stiff to slide open and when I felt along the metal track at the top I found what I thought was a stone, but it turned out to be a small washer and nut and the next thing I knew the door was right off it's top track, I lost the nut in the grass and  had to lift the door off the bottom track and lean it against the fence. I managed to find a tiny nut and washer and the runner wheel was just on the ground but it needs more than two hands to get another bit off so the door can slide back on again - help needed from BiL sometime. Hope we don't get strong winds to get into my door-less greenhouse and break the glass!
•  One of my plastic watering cans has sprung a leak - seeping out of the joints on the base if it's left standing with water in it. I've got another and a heavier metal one so it won't be replaced.
•  The  indoor slip on shoes/sandals that I wear all the time fell apart and luckily I'd bought a new pair online in the sales last year right ready. They are one of the only  things I can wear  without arch supports.

However...............trying to be positive................

1. The garden is full of baby Blue Tits and Goldfinches chitter chattering again - this must be their second hatchlings of the year. I'm glad I carried on feeding the sunflower hearts as there's probably  a shortage of food for them with everywhere being so dry.

2. I got the two scrapbooks out and went through my loose stamps and pictures to fill up some more pages. Each page has a theme rather than just random and it's sort of old fashioned scrapbooking rather than the newer idea.

Old bikes and motor cycles

Books and reading

Wartime

Night and sunset

People and chairs

Post

It's nearly five years since I started playing with scissors and glue and I like how the pages look, there are still spaces in some places to fill but only 4 more completely blank pages. I'll need to look out for another cheap watercolour book or scrapbook sometime.

3. I'm thinking about hobbies that I used to do and maybe get going on them again - it's been ages since I spotted a half-finished tapestry kit at a boot sale or charity shop - they used to turn up quite regularly. So maybe I'll have a look on ebay to see what's there.

4. I contacted friends in Essex who I'd not heard from for months to see if they were OK and arranged for them to visit later this month.

5. Had the whole week  hardly going out and without even going out for shopping (although I will today) and didn't feel depressed at all!

Being Grateful

• For the gift of windfall cooking apples from a friend at exercise group, although they were a bit wormy and only made two small bags for the freezer - (mustn't look a gift horse  apple in the mouth!)
• Very glad I didn't go out to the shops early Wednesday morning or to the midweek boot-sale as there was an accident on the A140 which closed the road for several hours, even getting a mention on the Radio 2 travel news and sending all the traffic passed my bungalow to jam up through the village - where there is also a road  closed out of the village for water main work. Goodness knows how the huge lorries managed the other small road out of the village.
• Managing to keep cool inside in that extra hot heat of Thursday and Friday.
• Thankful that there have been no field fires nearby - Feel so sorry for the people in the West Midlands who have lost their homes. 

Have a good weekend - it will be another quiet one here, more European Athletics Championships on TV to watch later  after I've been out for shopping.

St Mary's Church, Nettlestead

 Nettlestead is one of those villages that is very small, just scattered houses and farms along small lanes with a population of around 100 and tucked away a few miles south-west of Needham Market. I'd certainly never been there before.

There is a plaque in the church marking the night of 12th August 1940 when the church was seriously damaged as German bombers, returning from bombing raids on the industrial Midlands, unloaded their remaining bombs over the Suffolk countryside

The font is the only thing inside that has survived from the medieval period and has some unusual carvings and many cracks. ( I have no idea what those things are, poking out from behind the font . I didn't notice them when I took the photo)

Very strange animals and creatures on each face of the font

There is no stained glass - it was destroyed by William Dowsing in 1644 on his journeys around the east, ridding churches of anything the Puritans considered too decorative. He wrote a journal of all his journeys around Suffolk, Norfolk and Cambridgeshire. 

When you read of his instructions it's a wonder anything survived in any churches. Often items were plastered over or removed  and hidden before he got to the churches.

In December 1643 the Earl, as their captain-general, appointed him "Commissioner for the destruction of monuments of idolatry and superstition".^[2][6] He was to carry out a Parliamentary Ordinance of 28 August 1643^[7] which stated that "all Monuments of Superstition and Idolatry should be removed and abolished". These were specified as "fixed altars, altar rails, chancel steps, crucifixes, crosses, images and pictures of any one of the persons of the Trinity and of the Virgin Mary, and pictures of saints or superstitious inscriptions." In May 1644 the scope of the ordinance was widened to include representations of angels (a particular obsession of Dowsing's), rood lofts, holy water stoups, and images in stone, wood and glass and on plate.

A 17th century memorial was destroyed by the bombs and just the top half remains and was put on a shelf in the Sanctuary. It remembers Samuel and Thomasina  Sayer 

Brass memorials on the floor have often been removed but there is one remaining here

Horse Chestnut Photos for Mid August

 Still following the Horse Chestnut  (Aesculus hippocastanum) that's at the village hall where we have the Keep Moving Group.

Last month we were "one step below drought" now we are in "official drought conditions" and the 5th recorded heatwave so it's  surprising to see it still green and not too many falling leaves either. The roots must be good even though it's still a youngish tree.

Often by August these patches of the disease are much bigger, turning the leaves very brown. The dry weather must stop the usually quick spread.

Guignardia Leaf Blotch (Guignardia aesculi): A fungus-driven disease.

• Symptoms: Irregular dull brown or reddish blotches, often surrounded by a conspicuous yellow band, typically concentrated at the leaf tips and edges.

The conkers are growing well - again despite the drought and heat. I guess when stressed all plants strive to produce seed to make sure they survive. 

When these trees were first planted in this country they were often used to line the driveways of large country houses.

In 1699 Sir Christopher Wren was responsible for the mile long Chestnut Avenue at Bushey Park ( now a Royal Park) north of Hampton court which was originally intended as a carriage drive for William III. 

Now a special Chestnut Sunday  is held there in May in alternate years.

Oh! There the chestnuts, summer through,

Beside the river make for you

A tunnel of green gloom,

And sleep deeply above

Rupert Brooke (1716 - 83)

All the photos from each month going back to March  ARE HERE if you want to compare.