Saturday 27 April 2019

Another Week in Suffolk

What a glorious Easter weekend it was for family get-togethers. Sunny and warm.

There were a plethora of one year olds at Willow's birthday party last Saturday as DiL had invited some of the families she had met at NCT classes. So interesting to see them all the same age, bar a week or two, yet all so different.

This was my Easter Mantelpiece, the light up chicks came from the charity shop on my last morning there. (The clock doesn't usually live there, but had been moved out of reach of three small people and not moved back)

On Sunday it was my turn and all the family came for an old fashioned Easter Sunday tea and an Easter egg hunt.
Son, AKA Uncle M hid the eggs and had just as much fun as Florence and Jacob helping them find them again. (Why does it make me feel very old to have a son who is an uncle, seems even older than a son who is a Dad as my Uncles always seemed so old!)
 The two older grandchildren had huge fun together and in a year or so Willow will be tagging along behind while Jacob and Florence who are almost two years older will be getting her into mischief too.(My next job here is to organise some fencing and gates!)

Colin's sister and husband and Col's brother came too so all of us together did the scattering of Col's ashes around the trees in the birthday wood.  It wasn't too sad to do because the Colin I knew for 38 years isn't the ashes but the memories in my head, although family times is when I miss him most and after everyone goes home it can be really difficult.

But enough of all that..............

Monday was spent finishing the clearing up, not too much as the grown-up children had cleared the toys and washed up and Sister in law had done another heap of washing up after tea.
I planted out the Elder saplings and sat out with a book. Unfortunately the book I was finishing "Three Things About Elsie" by Joanna Cannon is so sad in parts that it was no help in cheering me up. (It's on the Books Read 2019 page now)

The electric was off all day on Wednesday - a planned outage- I got a text message to say the UK Power Network had a "Welfare Van" parked down in the village which would make hot drinks and provide free wi-fi etc for anyone who wanted to call in - never had that message before - must be a new thing. I didn't need to use the welfare van as I went out  to visit Youngest and Florence in their new home. It's in a much quieter spot in Leiston than anywhere they have lived before, but further out of town so Youngest is planning on a bike with a bike seat to get to work and childminders.

Shopping - not much needed although two Cadbury's Easter eggs reduced to 50p somehow jumped into my basket. (That's my brexit store restocked!! along with the Lindt Lindor Youngest gave me for my birthday).
Swimming, housework and a haircut and that's another week gone.

This weekend I need to go and get some decent multi-purpose compost as the stuff I got from the Wyevale-that's-now-a-Dobbies is the weirdest looking compost I've ever seen. Then the tomatoes need potting on again  they are not really big enough for their final large pots. The aubergines that I thought had had it due to cold nights have recovered and growing well, as are the peppers and cucumbers despite the cat attacking them. I also need to get dwarf beans and sweetcorn sown, suddenly I feel all behind with the growing season.


This week I am grateful for
  • 2ml of rain - in the hope that every little helps?
  • My children and grandchildren - as always 
  • Vegetable plants still growing in the greenhouse
  • More tulips from my cutting-garden




Have a happy weekend folks
Back Monday
Sue





22 comments:

  1. Morning Sue. Having a cutting garden is such a good idea. I had some lovely tulips this year....unfortunately, Betty's broken most of them, grrr. I'm looking forward to all my shrubs I planted last year putting on lots of growth and filling out the space this year, meaning Betty won't be able to jump all over the flower bed! Lovely idea to scatter Col's ashes in his birthday wood.

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    1. I'm so glad I paid a bit extra for good quality tulip bulbs as the colours are gorgeous and the flowers are huge.

      Sadly last summers dry weather plus Muntjac deer have really made some of the young trees look very sad. Most are still surviving and growing and one day they will be big enough to call a wood

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  2. So glad to read that you had a lovely family Easter weekend. Are Wyevale selling off some of their centres? Our nearest is Was-Wyevale-Now-InXcess (that's a local discount chain)

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    1. Seems like it, Ang - our Wyevale is now Blue Diamond (or something like that!).

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    2. Around here there is still a Wyevale in Bury st Edmunds and somewhere else that I can't remember but the Woodbridge one is now run by Dobbies and their own brand compost was like fluff!

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  3. What a lovely Easter you had with the family and you have a name for your wood, Elaine at Parsonage Cottage has called hers Owl Wood so maybe I really need to think about naming ours something more than the upper and lower wood!
    We had an Easter Egg hunt in the garden too - I was still finding some missed eggs on Monday.
    Wyevale is changing - it has stopped its reward points and now you get 10% discount for pensioners on a Tuesday and 5% at other times for anyone.

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    1. When I used to hide eggs for our children at the smallholding there were always some that didn't get found because I couldn't remember where I'd put them!

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  4. A lovely photo of the little ones and pleased you had a nice Easter and I think everyone had lovely weather. Well the weather has really change here, very strong winds and the rain was wanted. Going to tidy up and then shorted some curtains. Have a good day Sue.
    Hazel c uk

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    1. Horribly cold and windy here today but still hardly any rain. Have a good day

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  5. Your tulips look lovely; but please make sure they are not in a place where cat can eat them - there was a recent story in my local newspaper of a cat who unf died within seconds after eating tulips that were in a vase inside. I hadn't heard of that before.

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    1. I knew the bulbs of tulips were poisonous didn't know about the flowers and cats. Luckily the only things Polly is interested in is grass, young cucumber and courgette leaves. Strange cat

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    2. It is very rare for cats to start chomping on flowers in a vase thank goodness. I have tulips in all the time and have done so for the past 45 years with cats all through that time, both inner city and country cats, and none have ever taken a bite out of a vase of flowers.

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  6. Happy Spring, Sue!

    It is a rare day that my Google name appears and I can comment (strange Internet or perhaps technology challenged me) so I’ll say Hello.

    I enjoyed your post a few days ago about St. Mary’s in Burgate. “My” church that I visited in Somerset is also St. Mary’s.

    We need rain in my part of the world also (Florida) and received 1/2” this week. Not much but I’ll take it.

    Your Easter looked lovely. I understand your feeling about Colin’s ashes. I have similar feelings about my mother.

    Enjoy your weekend.

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    1. Strange about your not being able to comment sometimes. you should be able to under anon. I thought.

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  7. lovely tulips...
    Have a wonderful spring

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    1. Very dull today - not springlike at all - sadly

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  8. It seems you had a wonderful family Easter, just how it should be. Most of my family were away this year, and that is always difficult. On holidays I long for the "old days" when everyone was together and the children were little.

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    1. They are all helping me get through holiday times without Col

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  9. What a wonderful Easter you had. We only had one son home this year as the other was with students in Italy (for the second time). Really miss having the whole family together.

    God bless.

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    1. It was a special weekend for us all together

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  10. What a lovely family Easter weekend you had and what a change in the weather since! I've never heard of a 'welfare van' before. Good idea though!

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    1. It must have been a wide area that the electric was off as the van was two miles away in the main village. I'd not heard of a welfare van before, maybe it's only used when they have to have the electric off in a big area

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