Another Week Rushed By

This week................

June is rushing by so quickly that I didn't even mark the Summer Solstice on Thursday/Friday. It seems impossible that daylight hours will be decreasing when we've only had a week of decent weather this year so far. 

I used the search feature to look up when I last wrote about the folklore and traditions of the Solstice - and found it was three years ago and as it's that long ago I could start doing more of the 'First of the Month' and Folklore posts as everyone will have long forgotten!

I've been enjoying tennis from Queens Club on TV all week - except for seeing poor 'old' Andy M. pulling out through injury and Dan Evans having a bad fall and injuring his knee - maybe putting him out of Wimbledon and the Olympics. Andy still hopes to play at both but his body might not let him.

Then there was excitement on Thursday with two Brits ...... Jack Draper and Billy Harris, the first has been around for a few years while the second has popped up suddenly even though he is 29, both won through to the quarter finals but then they were both knocked out on Friday- It was good while it lasted!. 

The curser vanished on my lap top as I was adding to this post on Thursday. I tried googling via my phone but the ideas I found didn't get the curser back so I had to zoom up to Diss to the computer shop and she pressed one button and there it was again..........Duh! (F6 for future reference) Weird thing is that I tried that and it didn't work when I did it!

 The raspberries are coming along well, took some to BiL on Wednesday as a change from his strawberries. Big bowl full Friday - enough for two days. Just so good. I seem to have kept Crumble cat out of the vegetable beds since Tuesday when I found she'd got under a netting hoop and dug the leeks - AGAIN- B***** cat. I found some tiles and bricks from round the back of the shed to hold down the edges of the netting - it was pegged but still she got in. Maybe now the leeks will grow.

Strange thing heard this week...........Oxford university did a study and found more people are turning off the news and avoiding watching or listening due to so many awful things happening around the world - Well, I could have saved them money and  told them that -  just from the people who say this on blogs and in comments!

Information leaflets through the letter box - one leaflet from Conservatives saying "Look out Labour are only 9% points behind - they could win". From Green Party " Labour can't win in this new Waveney Valley Constituency - confidential insider information shows it's a seat they have already written off". All jolly good fun!

Also through the letter box - an Autumn seed catalogue - I thought NO not yet - please not yet, lets have more summer first.

Have a lovely weekend if you can and I shall return on Monday.

Sue . 

Reading The Seasons - The 2nd Book for Summer

 My second book with Summer in the title was a children's book -  Cuckoo Summer by Jonathan Tulloch. This popped up when I searched for 'Summer' in the library catalogue. As it's set in WWII, I was keen to read it as it's the sort of adventure story I would have loved as a child.

It is summer 1940 and life is about to change for two children living in the Lake District. Sally is a mysterious evacuee living on one of the two farms in Woundale valley in the Lake District. Her best friend is Tommy, living on the other farm with his three aunties. Tommy's mother is dead and his soldier father has been reported missing in action in France.

One day a German plane crashes in the village but one of the airmen is missing and when Sally finds him alive but injured and hanging in a tree in the woods - his parachute caught in the branches -  she races off to tell Tommy. Tommy wants to report him to the police but Sally wants to keep him hidden, especially after Farmer Starcross, who she is billeted with, heads off with his gun to find and shoot the man. She knows how nasty he is as he keeps her short of food, makes her sleep in the barn and she's watched him drown a litter of kittens.

Keeping the airman secret and hidden starts a summer adventure and a chain of events that reveals Sally's past, and changes several lives for the better.

Back Soon

Sue

Well Done That Man!

 Very well done to Jack Draper, new British Number 1, has just beaten last years champion and Wimbledon champion  Carlos Alcaraz! at the Queens Club in the build up to Wimbledon.

Very exciting - the year Andy M is probably going to stop playing and we have a new top player!

750 × 450

Once Upon A Time .....................

.................many years ago, there was a Castle in  Haughley. ( A Mid Suffolk village few miles from home)

This is the sign by the moat - sadly in poor condition for reading.

So I copied all the wiki info onto this page after my photos and intended to type it up properly but haven't got round to it. In case it vanishes all the info is HERE

The three photos below are what things look like today - all that's left of Haughley castle is the outer moat and  a huge mound - the Motte - surrounded by the inner moat now in private ownership and luckily open to view on the day they had open gardens in Haughley village - so I was able to take photos.

You can see the height of the Motte with the pine trees atop of it and the inner moat surrounding it.

Below the remains of the outer moat are still clear to see besides Duke Street  Haughley and I've been visiting here to feed the ducks ever since I was a little girl.

And here's the information from Wiki

Haughley Castle

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Coordinates: 52.2226°N 0.9633°E

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Haughley Castle
Suffolk, England
Part of the moat of Haughley Castle
Haughley Castle
Coordinates	52.2226°N 0.9633°E
Grid reference	grid reference TM025624
Type	Motte and bailey
Site history
Events	Revolt of 1173-4

Haughley Castle was a medieval castle situated in the village of Haughley, some 4 kilometres (2.5 mi) north-west of the town of Stowmarket, Suffolk. Prominent historians such as J. Wall consider it "the most perfect earthwork of this type in the county," whilst R. Allen Brown has described it as "one of the most important" castle sites in East Anglia.^[1]

Details[edit]

Haughley Castle was built in the late 11th century by Hugh de Montfort.^[2] The castle had a motte and bailey design, with a very large motte, 210 feet (64 m) wide at the base and 80 feet (24 m) tall.^[3] D. J. Cathcart King in his summary of mottes in England and Wales questioned this measurement, and suggested that the motte was probably closer to 40 feet (12 m) in height.^[4] The bailey is rectangular, 390 feet (120 m) by 300 feet (91 m) across, with the entrance on the west side.^[3] Both the motte and the bailey were protected by a deep ditch, fed from a diverted stream from the west to produce a wet moat.^[3] Earlier investigations suggested that a stone shell keep had been built on the motte, but the foundations of this, if correct, can no longer be seen.^[5] A further bailey may have originally surrounded the surviving earthworks, enclosing the local church as well.^[6] The dimensions and scale of the castle has led J. Wall to describe Haughley as "the most perfect earthwork of this type in the county," whilst historian R. Allen Brown considers it "one of the most important" castle sites in East Anglia.^[1]

Plan of Haughley Castle

The castle formed the caput, or main castle, at the centre of the Honour of Haughley.^[2] The honour was sometimes known as the "honour of the constable", because the owner was obligated to provide castle-guard soldiers and knights to the constable of Dover Castle.^[7] Hugh de Montfort became a monk in 1088 and the castle passed through his family until the mid-11th century.^[7] Towards the end of King Stephen's reign the castle was given by the king to Henry of Essex, one of his supporters.^[7]

By the late 12th century the Bigod family had come to dominate Suffolk, who held the title of the Earl of Norfolk and who were in competition with the Crown for control of the region.^[8] Henry II had taken the throne after the death of Stephen and Henry d'Essex lost favour after being accused and convicted of cowardice during the 1157 Welsh campaign - Haughley Castle was seized by Henry II in 1163, and by the mid-1170s, the castle was controlled on his behalf by Ralph de Broc and a garrison of 30 soldiers. Conflict broke out again in 1173, during the revolt of Henry's sons and the Bigod's ally Robert de Beaumont, the Earl of Leicester, landed on the East Anglian coast and marched west, placing the castle under siege.^[9] Ralph surrendered the castle, which was then smoked out by Robert's forces, although the revolt subsequently failed. The castle was fully rebuilt after its destruction in 1173 and a Manor House was built within the Inner Bailey and the Outer Bailey gradually filled. The remaining parts of the keep tower still standing were removed by Richard Ray in 1760. The circular foundations of over eight feet in thickness are visible today.^[10] A major excavation in 2011 cleared the site and revealed extensive foundations and many remnants of intricately carved and dressed stone.

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Sue

Greetings Cards From The Art Exhibition

 I didn't buy any of the paintings from the Debenham church art exhibition  but I bought 4 greetings cards, three to use for birthday cards and one to keep. All the artists had full size art works on show.

These first two have an interesting story

They are textile collage. I had a go at this craft many years ago - but like a lot of crafts I've tried I didn't have the patience!

This is one of her original pieces of textile collage - not for sale.

A card from an original by Felicity Tack. She works in watercolours.

I rather liked the colours and shape of this artist's (Jackie Dommet) work below, so won't be giving it away. It's part collage and part painting which seems quite a popular thing. I'm going to see how much it will cost to have a proper mount cut for it, then I can easily find a frame at a boot sale or charity shop - plenty of rectangular frames around but finding a second-hand square frame for the card I got a few weeks ago is more difficult so I'll probably use it for a card after all.

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Sue

Debenham Church Art Exhibition

 This exhibition from local artists is always well supported, according to the catalogue there were 102 artists showing 524  paintings. Lots of people visiting too.

Hopeless for good photos due to all the light flooding into the church from outside, where it was actually sunny for a change, so I only took a few photos of some I found interesting.

Mixed media collage by Jackie Dommet

Gorgeous colours in these abstract trees by Barry Fox in acrylics 

Linocuts by Gill Thornton

The four small prints in black frames below are by Deborah Key. I have two by her  -an owl and a hare - on my Picture Wall, which weren't framed when I got them and seeing these in black I wish I'd had mine done in black frames too, they look better.

I liked these birds made of sea glass and perched on corks, someone had bought it already. Artist is Donna Jackson. 

These two below are by Penelope Conway and are glass and glass powders on a ceramic tiles. Really lovely but I think they way they are mounted on a piece of rough white board spoils them. £75 each and again  one is sold, the others hadn't.

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Sue

Two Sides of June

The lightening flashed, the  thunder crashed, the rain came straight down in torrents and the wind blew the trees every which way.

But I'd got the first bowlful of raspberries from the garden and some long life cream in the fridge so summer was inside even if it wasn't outside.

Good job I picked the raspberries before the storm.

Back Tomorrow

Sue

Saturday 15th

 Flowers on the bookshelf this week have been a few of the smaller side-spikes from a Foxglove, a couple of pieces of the Spirea and the tall purple spikes are something that popped up un-announced in the shingle bits of the pathway down the side of the bungalow. I think it's Toadflax, which can be invasive in some places but OK where it is now.

Luckily I picked these before the weather changed for the worse on Monday - blimey it was rough, wind and rain - awful weather for June. Also remembered to add the Ladybird book "What to Look for in Summer' to the bookshelf seasonal display.

During the week I had a man out to do a measure of the living/dining room as I want to get rid of the horrible brownish carpet, that sucks the light out of the room and replace with some wood veneer hard flooring. Then I'll get a nice big rug for the living room half of the room. I've lived with the carpet for 3 years and had enough of it.

I'd originally planned to have the patio sorted out this year but the man I got a quote from in October has dropped out of sight and uncontactable so I'll spend the money on the living room instead. I'll have to live with the odd patio slabs and the weeds coming through the joins and the rough bit where the old heating oil tank stood, for a while longer!

I was pleased to find more tennis on TV this week as the grass court season in this country got started with the Nottingham Open on BBC red button (although it kept having to stop for rain of course) while at the same time I enjoyed reading more library books one was the Persephone book  - The Village by Marghanita Laski. An interesting look at the class system that clung on in village life just after the war. The details from their website is HERE. Then I whizzed through The Last Word by Elly Griffiths - one of her lighter crime books but still a good read. She's got a new series on the way about a time travelling detective, sounds curious.

Interesting election stats heard this week..............

70% of American voters don't want to vote for either of the Presidential candidates

58% of British voters think all politicians lie to get themselves out of a tight corner 

Oh Dear.

Back Next Week

Sue

The Chutney Cupboard Was Nearly Empty

 Nothing ready in the garden yet for chutney making so I bought some red onions and a bottle of red wine vinegar from Aldi  for a batch of red onion 'marmalade' chutney. The 3 large red onions didn't weigh much so I added some ordinary onions too - just under 2lb total. That's about as many as I can peel at once without dissolving into tears. 

This is an easy chutney. Once the onions are peeled and sliced - and I do the slicing in the processor attachment to my Kenwood - then it's just dissolving sugar in vinegar, adding the salted, rinsed and dried onions, some caraway seeds and cooking until thickened but not until all the liquid had gone.

3½ jars made. Only problem with making this is it somehow tends to leave bits of onion all over the kitchen!

Cucumber Sweet and Sour Pickles next..............there are 4 cucumbers in the greenhouse that will be ready all at once very soon.

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Sue

The Church of the Assumption, Haughley

 Haughley is another village I know very well, I lived just a couple of miles from the village centre and  spent many evenings hanging around there and going to youth club when I was 13 and 14. Oddly though, because I didn't go to primary school there, I'd never been in the church until Son and DiL moved there and I went with them to Christmas Fairs and other fund raising events held in the church..

This time I remembered the camera to take some photos, but  because of the flower arrangements and teas and cakes being served and many people inside I didn't take as many photos as usual.

 Haughley church dedication is  to The Assumption of The Blessed Virgin Mary, usually just known as St Mary's as are so many in Suffolk and is one of a few in Suffolk with a the tower on the South side where it acts as a porch and entrance too.

Most of the church dates from before the C14 although money was left in wills for improvements later including some for a north aisle that was never built.

It has a tall and wide nave, full of light with no stained glass in the main nave windows and a south aisle too, which may have been a chapel.

The ceiling of the chancel is barrel vaulted and this was done apparently to improve the acoustics when a new organ was installed. It is thought this covers an older beamed ceiling.

The beams of the south aisle ceiling have angels playing instruments. Luckily these didn't get destroyed in the C16 when many others had their faces removed 

Only the two windows in the south aisle have stained glass

Just a couple of the flower arrangements that were in the church at the same time as the open gardens event around the village

The war memorial has been refurbished and cleaned recently with new paving all around

Back Soon

Sue