Well Done Ipswich Town Football Club promoted after a 6 - 0 win back into the Championship (that's the second tier of English football) after some dismal years.
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| Full name | Ipswich Town Football Club |
|---|---|
| Nickname(s) | The Tractor Boys |
| Founded | 16 October 1878 |
| Ground | Portman Road |
| Capacity | 29,673[1] |
| Owner | Gamechanger 20 Ltd. |
| Chairman | Mike O’Leary |
| Manager | Kieran McKenna |
| League | EFL League One |
| 2021–22 | EFL League One, 11th of 24 |
| Website | Club website |
I keep forgetting to say "Hello and Welcome" to more followers. It would be good if a few more people clicked the button, simply because it will move the pictures down and get rid of the annoying gif thing that someone used for their follower picture. It moves and catches my eye every time I open the lap top - which of course in the great scheme of things isn't really a problem at all!
Thank you to everyone for comments yesterday. The reason I've not done a church post recently is because the last three I've visited were all locked. There have been several church thefts lately which always happens when the economy isn't going well so I don't blame the parishioners for keeping their churches closed. I've "done" so many local ones and driving miles only to find a church locked is a bit of a nuisance. I will try again when the weather gets better.
So what was April like?.......Quite chilly but not as wet as March I think sums up the weather. My heating oil tank is down to 7 bars = about 980lts so will be OK well into the autumn. Plenty of wood and kindling still here.
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| image from google freepik |
Frugal things
When I get short of ideas for blog posts and I reckon everyone is fed up with seeing my car boot finds then I look at my bookshelves.
The Flower Fairy Books of Cicely Mary Barker haven't had an outing for ages.
This is the picture I took a couple of weeks ago of the very early pear blossom on one of my new small trees. The flowers on this are now going over but there are still no sign of any on the other pear tree.
This is the illustration from the book Flower Fairies of the Trees
The Song Of The Pear Blossom Fairy
Useful finds among the tat!
BTW. The comments going to spam thing just gets sillier and sillier. There were 51 yesterday even though I'd cleared out loads the day before, most were my own replies to comments going back to 2017 the rest were the proper spam that used to be a problem. Annoying.
..................of getting photos of Grandchildren!
One at a time is not too bad but to get all five in one place, sitting still and all in a good mood is just not easy.
When we were all at my home for my birthday mid month I said I'd love a photo of me and all 5 grandchildren - did we get round to it?........No.
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| One Son, Two daughters, One Daughter-in-Law and 5 Gorgeous Grandchildren |
My sister is really my half sister although she's been my dear little sister all her life! My Real Dad was killed in a motorbike accident (no compulsory helmets back in the 50's) a few months before I was born. Three years later Mum married my Real Dad's older brother - who I always called Dad- and a year later my sister was born.
Yesterday afternoon turned really wet - it probably washed the beetroot seeds that I'd sown in the morning right out of the ground. I'd had enough of snooker so took a break to watch Magpie Murders - the crime series from Anthony Horowitz's book. Much of it is set in Suffolk. It was funny to see the character arrive in Woodbridge Station and then quickly drive to a village that was Kersey - which is actually miles away across country from Woodbridge. I've tried to read the book twice and after watching the series now understand why I couldn't get into it as it's a complicated tale jumping backward and forward in time with two lots of interesting characters, some of them crossing between times. Much easier watched than read, even though the Suffolk accents were dreadful.
This is my painting of Kersey by the late Suffolk artist Brian Lilley- one of my best Car-boot bargains.
When I was at the Art Exhibition at Easter this poster was up in the Community Centre. It sounded interesting so I called in after the car boot sale on Saturday.
Unfortunately there were only a few stalls but I picked up a free one portion rice measuring scoop from the Suffolk County Council stand. The one I got years ago is in the Washing Soda Crystals tub.
I bought two similar but longer net tunnels online - they will go down the length of the vegetable beds - this smaller one is ideal for across the width.
The weather has been more spring-like this week, although with some very cold East winds at times, and I got the grass cut again, several loads of washing dried outside (there's more washing after visitors!) and seedlings have been moved out into the greenhouse now, although I'm covering them with fleece each night just in case. As usual there are far too many of most things although I only have one cucumber plant so far as I'm trying to stagger sowing and therefore production (if it works).
Dear Sue - I'm not sure if you'll ever see this, but many moons ago you were kind enough to review my first book (as above) - A Hidden Home in the Gwydir Forest - and several of your followers made comments and hopefully read the book! In fact, it's now out of print despite having been reprinted once. My second memoir is now out, and tells the tale of our next adventure in Malta. If you're interested, I now have a website with all the details: www.janetcorkebooks.co.uk
I hope you're keeping well and many thanks!
Best wishes,
Janet
It was quite a surprise to find a piece of Moorcroft pottery at the Car Boot sale on Easter Sunday.
A 7 inch tall Planter, Hibiscus pattern and cheap enough for me to buy, much, much less than any bits on ebay and less than my previous big car boot expenses of the 12 plates and the plant stand. I think it's from the 60's as the more recent pieces using the Hibiscus pattern are a different colour.
I now own one piece of Poole and one piece of Moorcroft - I learned all I know about pottery from watching the Bargain Hunt TV programme!
There's lots more about Moorcroft HERE . I don't like their modern stuff at all - too fussy and far too expensive.
And this is definitely NOT the start of another collection!
The three I found were these
'South Facing Slope' by Carla Carlisle is the story of turning a Suffolk Estate and farm into a successful Vineyard and farm shop. 'Ask the Fellows Who Cut The Hay' by George Ewart Evans is now a classic, being a history of a Suffolk village written from the conversations the author had with old people around the village of Blaxhall near the Suffolk coast in the late 1950's. Finally 'Surviving the Iron Age' by Peter Firstbrook is a BBC book that went with a 2001 TV series. It charted the seven weeks a group of people spent living in Iron Age conditions of a hillfort in the Welsh countryside as people would have done around 300BC.
'South Facing Slope' and 'Ask the Fellows' will be turned into posts for the blog at sometime in the future.
*Ramsholt is one of the best locations for fossils in Suffolk, yielding sharks’ teeth, lobsters, fruit and shells from the London Clay, shells, sharks’ teeth from the Red Crag, corals, echinoids from the Coralline, and complete crabs, fish remains and sharks’ teeth from the basement bed.
Way back at the beginning of my month of eating meals based on Supermarket Value brands, someone told me they preferred much better quality - and mentioned enjoying Baron Bigod cheese. Now I already knew this is a brie type cheese made in Suffolk near Bungay - on the Suffolk/Norfolk border. I've never tried it - it's very expensive- but had I'd seen it at a Farmers Market.
This got me wondering how many cheeses does the UK produce? (Sorry I can't get rid of the coloured background without re-typing the whole thing!)
There are over 750 cheeses produced in Britain today, from classic cheddars to more unusual modern varieties.
Another comment about the Value Range Experiment (I do like to remind commenters of the odd things they say!!) said why was I buying rubbish when I'd sold my house and had plenty of money!
So as I have "plenty of money" and there are 750 cheeses to try this struck me as an excellent idea for an occasional series of posts .......... could this be a first for blogland?!
I popped into the nearest farm shop and bought two pieces of the four Suffolk Farmhouse cheeses that are made just down the road at a farm and diary we visited with WI a few years ago.
As well as Suffolk Blue and Suffolk Brie they also do Suffolk Gold and Suffolk Blue Brie.
This is what I wrote about our W.I visit in 2019
Jason and Katherine started their business making cheese with milk from their Pedigree Guernsey cows in 2004 but it was 2009 before they were able to buy this farm and have everything in one place.
We had a look round the farm. Saw the cows and the robotic milking machine - installed in 2017 and Jason told us about the care of their milking herd, their feeding regime, health checking (Katherine is a vet- handy!) and how the computer chips on collars around their neck works just like a fit-bit relaying information to his phone day and night. (Not a new concept for me because at the smallholding we lived just a mile from one of the first farms in Suffolk to install a robotic milking parlour, although they retired and sold up before we moved away). By using a robot machine the cows can wander out to the fields, in and out of the barn and then through the milking parlour whenever they like day and night. The machine recognises each cow and automatically washes the teats and fits the vacuum pump. If the cow has decided to go through the robot machine too soon after it's last milking then the gates open again, the cow gets no feed and soon wanders off........clever stuff.
They also keep a Hereford bull. Jason uses Artificial Insemination for the dairy herd to get pure bred cows - the females are added to the herd and the males kept for veal. But if A.I. doesn't work on some cows he lets them run with the bull to produce a cross breed calf which can be grown on and sold as beef.
Their first cheese they produced was called Suffolk Gold, quickly followed by Suffolk Blue. Then they started making a Suffolk Brie and just in the last few weeks now also a Suffolk Blue Brie.
As well as the cows he also keeps a few pigs, which are fed partly on the whey left from the cheesemaking and they send them off to a local butcher who makes sausages of all sorts plus gammon and bacon.
The couple have a farm shop which is open through the week to sell their cheese, pork products, veal and beef but they also have a self-service vending machine to sell their fresh pasteurized milk. So you can go almost any time to buy milk and eggs.
Jason was very excited to tell us that they are in the process of importing butter and cream making machines from Eastern Europe so that very soon they will be adding fresh Guernsey Butter and Cream to the farm shop. They will be one of only 2 farms in East Suffolk making their own butter to sell and he said the other farm's butter is Very Expensive.
I had tried the cheese before but not recently and I've tried the delicious butter when doing the Eating Local Challenges - but it's expensive for every day use.
When I un-wrapped the Suffolk Blue to eat a piece with my home made cheese straws it didn't look like other blue cheeses and was a mild and creamy blue rather than strong and tangy.
I'm looking forward to seeing what other artisan cheeses from other parts of the country I can find for sale.
When I went to Needham Lake for photos on that cold and foggy morning back in February, the only birds I saw were swans and ducks.............. Common Mallards (Anser platyrhynchos)
The Easter Saturday Needham Market boot sale was huge, as big as they used to get on Bank Holiday weekends before Covid.
I bought a bird box to replace one my sister gave me just after I moved here, when I tried to clean out that one, it was soggy wet inside because it was just made from pieces of bark stuck together - no real wood. This one cost me just £3 and it unscrews at the base to clean it out. The grandchildren bits were £3.50, a new to me balloon whisk as my ancient one had gone rusty = 50p, an almost full pack of food bags =50p- always handy for all sorts of things and a few new bic biros also 50p.
The boot sale was so big that I went halfway round, adjourned to The Duck and Teapot Café for a coffee and cheese scone before going round the other half - the perils of heading out early without breakfast!
I've got Eldest Daughter and the two boys here for a few days so may not get round to commenting or replying to comments - apologies in advance!
Every Easter there is a big Art Exhibition at Needham Market Community Centre but I've not been there since before we moved away from Mid Suffolk to the coast.
It's always difficult to photograph paintings with light shining in from the roof lights onto glass. Below are photos of just a few of my favourites. I didn't buy a catalogue so can't tell you the artists and how much they were selling for.
A collection of nature paintings in watercolours
I'm so easily tempted to buy plants at car boot sales. They are so much cheaper than garden centres.
With almost all boot sales cancelled in March due it either raining on the day or - at Stonham barns - waterlogged field. It was good to get to one on the first weekend in April although there weren't many people selling there were several plant stalls.
I got tempted by drum-stick primroses, Eryngium and a pot of tiny creeping Thyme which is for the plant stand.
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| Patio needs weeding again! |
I wonder where my love of plants and books comes from? As I'm sure my Mum or Dad never bought either.
I hope everyone had a good Easter weekend, the weather was good until yesterday when it was Very Wet here in Suffolk - which was probably a good thing as I stayed at home to get jobs done that had been abandoned for several days.
Not many books to collect from the Mobile Library Van last week.....5 crime fiction, one ordinary fiction and one non-fiction. Clare Mackintosh is a new to me author among the crime. New Donna Leon and Elly Griffiths -Lovely!
As there were fewer than usual it was handy that I still have three and a bit left from the March books - photos below.
If you didn't see yesterday's post it was a round up of the total costs of my month of eating meals mainly based on a limited range of supermarket Value/Essential products. It got me back cooking some things I'd not done for a while (like doing myself a roast chicken or toad-in-the-hole meal) which I'll carry on with as well as eating my frozen batch made home made curries and pasta sauces. I shall be making pizza dough myself using the bread-maker now I know it freezes well after just 5 minutes in the oven. I'm also going to do a batch of the fish curry as that's different to the Thai-red and the squash/spinach curries that I usually make in bulk. Chicken thigh joint meat used as a stir-fry wasn't as good as chicken breast meat which is what I normally use and the value frozen mixed vegetables were too bland and tasteless to use again.
Thank you again to everyone who commented over the month.
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Easter Saturday and this is a first...............There are NO Easter eggs in the house! I stopped eating chocolate last summer when the weather was so hot and haven't started again so didn't bother with an Easter egg - even though it was my favourite sort of chocolate.
So...........what have I been up to this week?...........well, the regular every-three-years mammogram last Saturday and dentist on Monday, so bits of me have been examined! Then bits of me got exercised at the Keep Moving Group, it's going well with two new people joining .
WI was interesting with a lady from the Charity Medical Detection Dogs coming to speak to us. They train dogs to detect disease and infections from samples in a lab and also train dogs to do medical assistance for people with things like Type 1 Diabetes who could be prone to problems during the night. Just so incredible how clever these dogs are. After the talk there was coffee and cakes of course and as it's my birthday month it was my turn for a Birthday Posy.
Next was an early drive over to the coast to pick up Eldest Granddaughter for a couple of days while youngest daughter was working. I think we did every craft suitable for a 6 year old that I could think of! And then a round trip to take her home again.
Hoping for decent weather for the rest of Easter weekend although I've got nothing much planned apart from recovering from having Granddaughter here - she wakes up much earlier than I usually do! and preparing for arrival of Eldest Daughter and the Surrey Grandsons at the end of the week. There are car-boot sales - if the weather is OK and an Art Exhibition to have a look at.
Have a good Easter Weekend, I'll be back Tuesday.
Sue
This is how it started...........
Out of curiosity I thought it would be interesting to see what Value/ Just Essential ranges were available in Supermarkets again after many disappeared during covid. I went to AL = Aldi. M = Morrisons. AS = Asda. My plan was to see what recipes I could come up with and what it would cost eating meals based on these things for a few weeks. Some items I've bought are not Value Range but the best value I could find.
But first I have to admit to making a mistake!
Looking online I found the following figures quoted
The average grocery bill for 1 person in the UK sits at around £140-£150 per month. This means that on a weekly basis, the average grocery bill for one person in the UK should be around £35.
Figures in surveys dating to January 2023 say an 'average' person spends roughly £47 a week on food including £13 eating out
The only really bad thing was the Asda Value Range minced pork - never bought before and will never be bought again! (In normal life I usually buy local sausages and bacon that are produced about 15 miles from home and rarely buy any other pork products or lamb or beef) . Some products were rather bland or tasteless but not inedible.
I did have coffee and cheese scone out at the church a couple of times and a coffee at the Suffolk Wildlife Trust Booksale but I've put all those in the Charity part of the accounts!!
And I can cheerfully say that despite the comments that said............and I quote..............
"I would be so depressed if I had to eat like this". and "I too would be depressed if I had to eat so much processed rubbish. Life’s too short."
I didn't get depressed at all!
Now I shall go back to normal and will probably treat myself to a Chinese Takeaway in celebration!