End of September Round Up

Unlike many parts of the Country we had lots of good weather through September in Suffolk. There were some chilly days early and late month but mostly we've had sunshine and the patio doors were open a lot, especially when I was painting. It means the heating oil tank is still over half full since the fill up in February.

The seasonal display on top of the bookshelves looked like this last week after I came home via a backroad and found bunches of Alstromeria out for sale near some allotments for £2  - in lovely autumn colours. All the other bits have been out before but some not for a few years

Not a frugal month due to paying the second half of the money for the living room floor and buying the new rug. Both of which I absolutely love. The room without the grey walls and the brownish carpet looks completely different.

Other spending was all the normal things, Council Tax, electric bill, phones and broadband, charity and bits and bobs for bathroom and kitchen, although I had to fill up the car twice this month. I took youngest daughter and eldest granddaughter out for a meal which was a lovely. Garden spending was a couple of bags of multi purpose compost for repotting things now and ready to start off next year plus a small tray of pansies from a car-boot for £2 ready for when the geraniums finish in my big pot out by the front door. Clothes spending was a couple of new hoodies from Asda to replace much older ones that had got very thin. I may be too old but I like a hoodie, very handy for keeping ears warm when it's not yet cold enough for a woolly hat. Finally I sorted Birthday present for DiL (For today!) which will be a part of her Christmas present too. 

After sending the huge 8-12 seater table off to Son and DiL's I've been looking for a nice second hand much smaller table with no luck, I'm probably too fussy but with the room looking so good and very modern I don't want to spoil it with a dark wood or ugly table. It's odd and frustrating not having a table anywhere so I need to do something about it soon.

My frugal notes are just - 

• Cheap and free cooking apples
• One pensioners discount Fish and Chips meal £5 instead of £8
• Painting the living room myself 
• A Few raspberries from the garden through the month
• Courgettes, leeks and sweetcorn from the garden
• Used one marrow for making Marrow and Apricot jam
• Falstaff eating apples from the garden
• Beetroot from BiL's garden
• Aldi had huge cauliflowers for 99p - one lasted me several days
• Home made bread in the bread machine
• Reading library books and from my shelves for free
• Dishwasher only used every other day
• Washing machine only used two or three times a week
• Tumble drier not used all month again
• Finding greetings cards from car-boot sales for 50p and less.
• Wild bird food off market stall, cheaper than anywhere else (The man being served before me was buying £80s worth of various bird feed!)

Out of the house this month to a charity shop went a few things from the cabinet including an odd covered serving dish, a large cake stand and some smaller bits. Also out into the bin went two very old pyrex quiche dishes - too big and very stained. 

To the bookshelves at the village hall went half a dozen non-fiction books that I've had for years and never read.

Extra to normal spending coming up in October are 3 Birthdays - Son plus two grandchildren, then there is a dentist appointment and I'll probably have to top up the heating oil tank right at the end of the month, so it would be useful to keep other spending small.

Apologies to people whose comments went into spam this month. I forgot to check for about 5 days and there were more than a dozen. Still don't understand it - I've given up trying.

Back Soon

Sue

Michaelmas

   Tomorrow, the 29th, is the Feast of St Michael and All Angels or Michaelmas, a Quarter Day when farm rents were due, annual employment terms ended, local courts were held and children would finally go back to school after helping with the  harvests. In some places it was called Pack Rag Day because the poorest farm labourers would be packing their few possessions to move to a new job.

  Two weather sayings for tomorrow

As many days old as the moon is at Michaelmas Day, so many floods shall we have after.*

St Michael's rain doesn't stay long in the sky

No blackberries should be picked after Michaelmas Day - 

The Devil stands (or pees!) on blackberries at Michaelmas

 A roast "stubble" goose - fattened from the barley gleanings on the fields after harvest, used to be the traditional meal on this day and it was thought that eating goose on Michaelmas Day would bring financial prosperity in the year to come. The Michaelmas goose tradition was once more important  than eggs at Easter.

 Whoever eats goose on Michaelmas day, Shall never lack money for his debts to pay

And when the tenants come to pay their quarter's rent,

They bring some fowl at midsummer, a dish of fish in Lent,

At Christmas a capon, at Michaelmas a goose, 

                              And somewhat else at New-year's tide, for fear their lease fly loose 

 Goose Fairs used to be held on this day and geese were walked to the famous fairs. There is a record dating from the C16, of over twenty thousand geese being walked to Nottingham goose fair from Lincolnshire and Norfolk. Their feet were prepared for the long walk by being coated by with a mixture of tar and sand.

Picture from the Nottingham Hidden History website

The history of the Goose Fair in Nottingham  is HERE.

Most of this is a repeated post from 2019 - long enough ago for me, and hopefully everyone reading, to have forgotten it!

(*the last new moon was September 2nd so we are due 27 floods this winter - oh dear)

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Sue

Karma?

 You probably don't remember but earlier this year, March I think - from a car-boot sale I bought a presentation box of two packs of very old coffee with a mini cafetière for just £1 (the coffee was dubious so I didn't want to pay any more- although it turned out to be perfectly OK). There were a few comments wondering if the coffee would be drinkable but several other  comments saying  that I should have paid more!

Well, one day this week I accidently knocked the glass jug bit of the cafetière into the sink - the ceramic sink - and of course it broke straight away!

Hey Ho!

I'd better look round the next boot sale to find another - plenty about - but probably without the old coffee.

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Sue 

Very Early Present

 I've bought my Christmas Present from my BiL!  He doesn't know yet.

I've not had a Country Wisdom and Folklore Diary from Talking Trees Books for a few years as they changed the binding so it wouldn't lay flat, but they've now added a gate fold bookmark to the front cover and changed the binding again so hopefully it will stay open where I want it. 

BiL now has to think of  what he would like from me. We'll swap money later!

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Sue

Quickly Read and Enjoyed

My first book read from those brought home from the library van was this........

Have to say it deserves all the good reviews on the back cover by other authors "irresistible." "generous, touching and romantic.........." "........Pure joy............"

I read it almost in one go during Sunday afternoon and evening, really enjoyed it and was sad to get to the end.

In 1945 Corporal Valentine Vere-Thisset is on his way home. Home is Dimperley a vast and dilapidated country house, built in the 1500's, with many odd additions and now up to it's eaves in debt. Following the death of his heroic older brother Valentine is now Sir Valentine and responsible for it all and frankly terrified.

Zena Baxter doesn't see Dimperley as a wreck because, after being evacuated there with her small daughter, it's the first real home she has ever known.

Dimperley is full of characters - Lady Irene Vere-Thissett, her middle son Cedric who suffered a brain injury as a ten year old and now is only able to say one sentence. Barbara, also Lady Vere-Thissett, the wife of the lost heroic son, Barbara's two daughters, who were sent off to America at the first sign of war and have returned as Americans used to showers, refrigerators and central heating - Dimperley has none of those. Then there is Miss Hershey, once Lady Irene's Ladies maid and now the only full time 'servant' having to look after everyone and everything. Finally Alaric, Irene's brother in law who spends all his time researching the history  of the Vere-Thissetts and writing a never ending book. 

Zenas husband is still abroad and after evacuees go home she stays at Dimperley as Alarics secretary.

It is the return of Valentine and the two young girls and the changes that happen that is the main theme of the book.

One of Lissa Evans books was made into a film (Their Finest Hour and a Half- the film was called Their Finest) and had a sad ending but I can see this book being turned into a happy ending film- it would make a good one.

Back Soon

Sue

 

All Saints, Hitcham

 This is a big church at the lower end of a very long village, South West of Stowmarket. The village  must be a couple of miles from one end to the other and the church is tucked away at the end.

It's long and wide and light inside and it's obvious that this was once the Priory of Ely's most valuable church in the past with money spent on it and always a high profile cleric in charge.

The font is very impressive with a carved and decorated cover.

The chancel was rebuilt in the 19th century by one of the rectors - Alexander Grant -  who was there for 40 years. It is equally impressive - very wide and high.

The Dado is the only remaining part of the Rood screen and shows angels rather than saints although they've all had their faces rubbed out by the 16th century reformers

Boards just inside the church tell the story of the lands belonging to the church. The rent from these added to the churches wealth.

Often the Coat of Arms of a king are just on a painted board but here in Hitcham even in 1937 money was spent on something carved and gilded and coloured.  

In the wide North Aisle are several boards about the most famous rector here John Stevens Henslow. Funded recently by the Heritage Lottery. 

Below is from the Suffolk Churches Website

Henslow was a remarkable man by anyone's standards. He was Regius Professor of Botany at Cambridge University in the 1830s, and was looked on with enough favour to secure the lucrative Hitcham rectorship. However, rather than send a poorly-paid curate to do his work for him, which would have been the usual early 19th century Trollopeian way, he followed in John Manner's footsteps, and came to Hitcham himself.

It is hard now to imagine what a contrast this remote place must have been with cosmopolitan Cambridge, barely 40 miles away. Henslow wrote in his diary that he had come to "a woefully neglected parish, where the inhabitants, with regard to food and clothing and the means of observing the decencies of life, were far below the average scale of the peasant class in England." It is recorded that his first congregation here in this vast space was insufficient to fill one pew.

Over the course of the next 25 years, he turned his parish upside down, applying his scientific knowledge to the antiquated and conservative farming methods of the local farmers. He increased their prosperity, and that of the poor farm labourers. He started a school, and an institute of adult education. He led outings through the local countryside, and would sometimes take the whole parish on the train to London, including one trip to the great Exhibition of 1851 in Hyde Park. It was said that the entire village emptied on these occasions, travelling by cart and on foot to Stowmarket railway station, and then on to London.

"Everyone is to be in good humour", he told his parishioners, "accommodating to all, and especially attentive to the ladies of the party. If the weather should prove unpropitious, every one is to make the best of it, and not to complain more than he can possibly help."

It is said that, on holiday at Felixstowe, he realised the fertilizing properties of the coprolite nodules in the cliffs there, and interested two local farming brothers so much that they set up a fertiliser processing factory at Ipswich docks. Their name was Fison.

This poster proudly lists the people who rang a peal of the 8 bells here recently. You have to be very fit to stand and ring for nearly 3 hours!

The ropes in the bell tower

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Sue

The September Garden Helps The Purse

 After cutting and giving away the six marrows that had appeared while I was away on holiday last month the courgette plants recovered and I've had 5 more altogether and the sweetcorn are finally giving me some small cobs. Also here is very last tomato from the greenhouse, no green ones to bring in this year - a really poor year. These all came into the kitchen last Thursday.

I harvested a few more beetroot from BiL's garden and took home a handful of windfall cooking apples that one of the Keep Moving Group had brought in.

A week or two ago I bought British Coxes Apples from Aldi and wished  I hadn't, they were nowhere near ready to eat and horrible sour. Picked far too early. So I tried the first of my Falstaff from the garden and they are delicious. Won't need to buy any  apples for at least 3 weeks.

Falstaff Apples from the garden

And finally I've been picking a bowl of raspberries every 2 or 3 days for a couple of weeks  from the late fruiting canes and one last runner bean!

It's handy that the weather is cooperating so far this month, we've had better weather than many parts of the country - lots of sunshine. The raspberries have almost finished and it will soon be the end of them if we get much rain. 

Back Tomorrow

Sue

Mabon/Autumn Equinox

This year the Autumn Equinox happens tomorrow, the 22nd. Mabon, as the Autumn Equinox is called, is a word from modern Pagan folklore, thought to be named after the Welsh god of mythology. It's a turning point in the wheel of the year and means Autumn is really here.

One old weather saying says.............

 A quiet week before the autumn equinox and after, the temperature will continue higher than usual into winter.

Ways to celebrate Mabon according to a website (you can tell by the missing letter 'U' in some words that it was a website from the US!)

1. Create an Altar:  Set up a Mabon altar with symbols of the season. This can include autumn leaves, acorns, pinecones, candles in fall colors, and representations of the harvest like fruits and vegetables.

2. Harvest Feast:  Prepare a feast using seasonal ingredients like apples, pumpkins, squash, and root vegetables. Share the meal with friends or family, expressing gratitude for the abundance of the harvest.

3. Nature Walk:  Take a walk in nature to observe the changing colors of the leaves and connect with the energy of the season. Collect fallen leaves, acorns, or other natural items to use in your rituals or altar.

4. Rituals and Ceremonies:  Perform rituals to honor the changing season. This can involve meditation, candle lighting, and expressing gratitude for the abundance in your life. Consider incorporating elements like water, fire, earth, and air to represent balance.

5. Divination:  Use divination tools such as tarot cards, runes, or scrying to gain insights into the coming season. Focus on themes of reflection, balance, and transitions

6. Crafts and DIY Projects:  Engage in creative projects that connect with the season. Make autumn-themed crafts, create a wreath, or decorate your home with symbols of Mabon.

7. Bonfire or Fire Pit Gathering:  If possible and safe, gather around a bonfire or fire pit. Fire is a symbol of transformation and can be used for rituals, storytelling, or just enjoying the warmth of the season.

8. Gratitude Journaling:  Take time to reflect on the things you're grateful for. Start a gratitude journal and write down the positive aspects of your life and the blessings you've received.

9. Feeding Wildlife:  Since Mabon is a harvest festival, consider sharing a bit of your harvest with local wildlife. Leave out birdseed or set up a bird feeder to attract birds to your yard.

10. Visit an Orchard or Farm:  Spend a day at an orchard or farm, picking apples or other seasonal fruits. Enjoy the experience of being close to the land and appreciate the hard work of those who cultivate it.

 

I hadn't thought about my seasonal display being an altar! but as soon as I put the room back together I'll be getting the Autumn bits out of the cupboard. 

Then I could bring in the first Butternut squash and cook up something and I need to walk up the lane for the September following a tree photos ASAP. That's numbers 1, 2 and 3 taken care of.

Not sure about rituals and divination? but I looked up 'Autumn Wreath Making Workshops in Suffolk' and there are a couple happening at  £65 for the experience - so I'll pass on that!

Not a good idea to have  bonfires here in my village garden - so that won't be happening and the only journaling I'll be doing is here on the blog.

I've started bird feeding again and not had an invasion of starlings - so that's good and for number 10 my Falstaff apples are almost ready - there are about a dozen decent sized apples to enjoy and lots of smaller ones. I checked their proper ripening time and it's early October but we've had plenty of sunshine so I'll be trying them this weekend.

Mabon Sorted!

Back Soon 

Sue

September Library Book Photo

 A lovely collection of books that I'd reserved were on the mobile library for me this week.

The new Robert Harris which is sure to be good, also here is the only one of the dozens of Donna Leon's books that I've not read. The book by Rob Rinder is his second and I enjoyed the first so this should be equally readable. I've previously read Lara Maiklems other book about mudlarking on the Thames. Hope this new one is good too.

The other two above are 'looking at' books rather than reading but I'm interested to see what recipes Hugh FW comes up with.

Below is the latest Lissa Evans book, her previous novels have all been very good and another BLCC crime story reprinted from 1932.

Below are four books with Autumn in their titles for my Reading The Seasons challenge, apart from the Agatha Christie I'm not sure about these. I read some of Leslie Cookman's books in the past and stopped as they are all more or less the same and very silly. The other two might be OK - I shall see. 

Should keep me out of mischief now the painting is finished.

Back Tomorrow

Sue

Stop Press!

 All four walls are done, the room looks clean and lighter with the almost-white instead of grey. It's miles away from perfect but will be OK . I didn't do the ceiling as it looked fine as it was. There is just some skirting board left to do today.

Curtains are back up, some furniture is back in it's right places, now I need BiL to spare me half an hour to do the fixings for the bookshelves. They need attaching to the wall at the top to keep them safely upright.

Then all I have to do is refill the cabinet and the bookshelves. I shall weed a few things out when I do the cabinet, some bits and pieces haven't been used for several years. 

Back Soon

Sue

The Only Thing I Brought Back.....................

..............from the Isle of Wight  was this (plus photos and memories).

The IOW is well known for being the biggest producer of Garlic in the UK. We didn't go to The Garlic Farm - we didn't think the children would have appreciated it! but I bought this jar of very interesting sounding chutney, made at the farm, from the Quarr Abbey farm shop.

 I might send for another jar to go with the small fig tree I got during the spring from a boot sale. They could make a Christmas present for Col's sister and husband. I only bought the tree because it was cheap, I'd not seen any fig trees for sale locally for years, and I thought it could go with me if I moved but it would be silly to keep it as my original Fig is doing so well and I might Not move! 

I'm not doing hampers this year as I got a couple of things for them and for my sister and her husband last year so just need to add a 'something' to each present and they are sorted.

The chutney taste test? Very delicious but mainly apple - I was expecting a bit more ooomph!

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Sue

 

Still Painting................

 Lots more painting done over the weekend and yesterday. 

Very cross with myself as I forgot to do Wordle last Saturday, hence ending a streak of over 60 correct -in reality I'm not really bothered - don't take it that seriously.

Of course it was the painting that made me forget  Wordle as I did the second coat on two walls, it's not perfect but will do. 

Saturday afternoon Son + the two grandchildren popped round to take some oxygenating pond weed and water snails from my sink pond - they were so excited to see frogs in my pond a couple of weeks ago that Son decided to sort out a mini pond for them. He knew a friend had an old sink and quickly got it sunk into their garden - I hope they will get frogs too very soon. 

Sunday morning I sanded and cleaned up the third wall then went to visit Youngest Daughter and the EGD. I took them out for a pub meal and had a very unusual but delicious Chicken, Mushroom and Pancetta Lasagne. When I got home I sanded down wall # 4. That was enough for the day.

Yesterday I got first coat on walls # 3 and 4. I can see the end of the job thank goodness - although not today - other stuff to do.

Back Soon

Sue

'"Tis But A Thing of Straw"

 I unpinned my corn dolly from the top corner of the bookshelves when they were emptied ready for moving when the floor was being done and bits fell off it. It's looking very faded too.

This is how it looked when new

 So I had to look back on the blog to see how old it was and turns out I got it in October 2020 because of the connection to the Ogham Tree Alphabet which has Wheat Straw representing October to November.

The Wheat-straw Page from Karen Cater's book" Ogham Sketch Book"

Later I was shifting more books from the living room shelves out of the way and re-found a sort of scrap book I started with great plans about 8 years ago. (This is a different scrap book to my two old fashioned scrapbooks started in 2021!) It has cuttings about the seasons and weather folklore taken from the pages that I wrote for the Suffolk Smallholders Society newsletter and cuttings from Country Wisdom and Folklore Diaries but not much else. Trouble is they are all stuck in with glue and can't be taken out.........Anyway, while I was flicking through a loose cutting fell out -taken from an old Folklore Diary all about Corn Dollies. Ah Ha I thought - I can make a blog post from this. ............

From the diary

Twisting and plaiting straw to make effigies and other objects has been practised all over the world and is closely linked to harvest thanksgiving. In the British Isles, the men who brought in the harvest traditionally made a human-like form out of the last wheat standing. This tradition developed to become a decorative pastoral craft often practised by women. Crafting these symbols of good luck and fertility, which reflected superstitious beliefs also enabled them to earn a small extra income. In it's purest form, the corn doll was used to than Mother Earth for the harvest.

'Tis but a thing of straw' they say,

yet even straw can sturdy be

Plaited into a doll like me.

And in the days of long ago

To help the seeds once more to grow

I was an offering to the gods.

A very simple way indeed

Of asking them to intercede

That barn and granary o'erflow

At harvest time, with fruit and corn

To fill again Amalthea's horn.

Minnie Lambert 1957 

(Amalthea's horn is another name for a Cornucopia)

From the book Cattern Cakes and Lace by Julia Jones

Great ceremony was always attached to the harvesting of the last sheaf  and a great Harvest Shout was raised by the reapers as it was cut. It was treated with special respect and used to make the corn dolly which would be carried home atop of the last load from the field. In the following year the Corn Dolly would be planted in the first furrow on Plough Monday, so that it's spirit would be released and ensure another good harvest.

Many parts of the country gave names to the dolly made from the last sheaf. In Devon the 'Crying The Neck and Kirn Baby'. In Hertfordshire 'The Mare'. In Shropshire ' The Old Hare'. In Hampshire 'Kern Baby' and in the Highlands of Scotland it was called 'The Maiden'.

I may have a morning out sometime to Corncraft  in Monks Eleigh for a new corn dolly, a look around their shop - and a coffee and cheese scone of course!

Back Soon

Sue

This Week

 Proper Autumn weather now and when a frost got mentioned,  my Money Plant - which is the only house plant I manage to keep alive - has come indoors after it's summer holiday outside. It's looking very well considering how neglected it is most of the time, actually I think it ought to be re-potted but if I do that it won't fit into the pretty Portmeirion planter it lives in on the bathroom windowsill.

Lots of notes this week............

The flooring was done on Tuesday by two guys who didn't stop talking to each other all the time they were here - overheard such a lot about their families, friends and people they didn't get on with - much more than I wanted to know! They were working at the same time - thankfully - and didn't even take up my offers of coffee/tea etc - very unusual.

Had to re-think my plan for painting the living room. I really wanted to sand down and clean up the whole room all at once but then all the furniture would be in the middle of the room leaving me nowhere to move - and live. So two walls prepared and painted - only to find the Dulux Timeless isn't covering the grey very well. Two coats will be needed but I can't keep moving the plastic floor covering so will have to do second coat on the two walls before I get to the other half of the room. - Watching paint dry! Might take me a bit longer than I thought especially as my energy runs out after about 4 hours work. Oh well - I guess it doesn't really matter how long it takes.

Essex and Suffolk Water came and fitted me a smart water meter on Monday - replacing the one which was also quite smart  - but wasn't smart enough apparently, even though it was only fitted 2½ years ago.

I picked up a carrier bag with 3lb of cooking apples from last Sunday's car-boot sale for £1 but when I came to peel and chop the whole darn lot were full of codling moth maggot damage - UGH, only got a couple of small bags to put in the freezer. Shan't buy from that lady again. Her eggs are good though and apples and eggs were all I came home with. At our Keep Moving exercise group someone brought in a small box of windfall cooking apples and we all helped ourselves to a handful. I added a pear and made a crumble which was a nice treat for 4 days. I hope they bring some more next week.

If there was a prize for worst ad on TV at the moment it would have to go to  The Pure Cremation company ad with a fat man in a bath - it's quite revolting!

I've been watching some of the US crime series on 5USA ever since I found and watched all of NCIS but hadn't watched Blue Bloods because of Tom Selleck's moustache! Anyway I finally got round to watching despite the facial hair - but someone please explain to me how they can get away with the bloke playing T.S's father being only 5 years older than TS himself. Of course if they had to find an actor the right age he would need to be 105!

Strictly Come Dancing starts tonight - that's my Saturday nights sorted from now until Christmas.

I'll be getting on with the living room this weekend, visiting youngest daughter and maybe a car-boot sale early. It is Heritage Open Days weekend but nothing I really want to visit without travelling halfway across the County - so I probably won't bother this year.

Back Monday, when we will be into the second half of September............already!

Sue

First Book For Autumn Reading the Seasons.

 Someone mentioned this book when I said there are a shortage of books with Autumn in the title but  there was no copy to borrow at the library.  I've read several others by Barbara Pym so didn't mind buying a second-hand copy and Abebooks had one for a couple of £s.

So this is my first for Autumn for the Reading the Seasons 'not really a challenge'.

 

1970's London and four elderly single people work in the same office but live separate and lonely lives. This is the quiet story of their day to day life, the things that annoy them, which seem so trivial and the things that worry them as they get to the end of their working lives.

Like most of her books this explores relationships with a touch of humour and sadness too.

Published in 1977 after a 15 gap this was her 7th novel and was originally turned down by her publishers. She almost gave up but in 1977 the Times Literary Supplement had a list, written by writers and academics, of the most underrated authors from the last 75 years and Pym was mentioned twice. Interest in her was revived and Quartet in Autumn was published and nominated for The Booker Prize.

She died in 1980,  when cancer returned seven years after treatment, she was aged just 66.

Back Soon

Sue

 

New Floor + Painting Diary Day 1

 When I painted the big living room at Clay Cottage during July 2017 I charted my progress on the blog (very boring for readers but kept me on track!) - so here we go again - you'll love hearing about it all!!

 So I've  now started the living /dining room here at the bungalow - been wanting to get rid of the grey for 3 years but no way to do it while I still had carpet and couldn't move the furniture. 

I bought some felt 'slider' mat things to go under the furniture so that I can move things on the new hardwood flooring which was done Tuesday by two cheerful blokes who were happy that I'd emptied everything so they could do half the room at the time. They put the felt mats under the furniture for me.

My lovely new flooring and the cupboard with the felt sliders

Sanding, hoovering washing down, settee covered and  everything in the middle of the room

Started by sanding down the short wall with the door to the hall, using sand paper round a block of wood, hoovered up the dust and washed down the wall. Then I had to rest for an hour! 

So I went and found the electric sander- and looked at the old tatty sanding sheet on it, cut some sandpaper to fit  and did ¾ of the long wall right up to the wood-burner, had lunch and then finished that wall. The electric sander has a thing that is supposed to collect the dust but with my cut down sandpaper it didn't - never mind -it's still easier on the shoulder - although just as hard on the wrist. Hoovered up again and washed down and didn't feel so exhausted. Decided that was enough for one day.

Today I'm going to get some proper sanding sheets for the sander and then I have to work out how to get the curtains off the curtain rail - it was blinkin' hard work getting the rail fixed and curtains up when I moved in - will be the same in reverse I reckon, at least there's hardly any painting to be done on the window wall and wall #4 has the patio doors in it but heavens knows how I paint behind the weird radiator......when I get to it.

Back Soon

Sue

A Picture For the Art Wall, Books and Birthday Cards

 Found this little print at the Stonham Barns car boot sale on Bank Holiday Sunday.  

It was disgustingly dusty and dirty with thunder flies under the glass but as I seem to have two or three duck/geese/swan pictures on the wall it will make a nice addition. I took it apart and gave the glass a good clean. The signature says Penny Cox and the title is 'Coming Out To Play George'. I looked on line and there are several pictures of her other work - and more of George, but mostly for sale in the US. I'm not sure that this is a genuine print from the artist as the 'George' looks to have been added later. But no matter - it fits in well. £2 spent.

Haven't got it on the wall yet - painting to do first.

Picked up 4 more greetings cards for future for 10p each - handy.

I then went a mile or so down the road to Crowfield Church where they have a Flower Festival and fundraising stalls every August BH weekend. It's something I usually visit because of the good second-hand book stall. It's had a mention on the blog every year.

There was a service in the church so I didn't take photos of the flower festival this year but I found 3 books for 50p each that looked interesting, one might be a bit too cosy crime but Apple Tree Cottage was the name we gave the house we completely renovated back in the early 1980's so I had to buy it!

Back Soon 

Sue

Library Book Photo etc.

 The Isle of Wight holiday clashed with the library van's August visit - a bit of bad planning there!

To fill in the gap I redirected a few books to pick up  in Stowmarket but the rest will be there for me when the van comes later this month.

I've already finished them! Coffin Island by Kate Ellis - it's another in her DI Wesley Peterson series set in Dartmouth Devon which she calls Tradmouth. Have to say it is very similar to all the others in the series. Always using a 'discovered' journal from the past mixed in with murders in the present. 

'Four French Holidays' is non-fiction, I borrowed it because of the link to  "Greengage Summer" by Rumer Godden which I read last month. It is also about three other authors and their books written about French holidays - Daphne Du Maurier, Stella Gibbons and Margery Sharp. The part about the background to Greengage summer was interesting but the rest wasn't so much because I'd not read the other three books . It didn't make me want to read them - not at the moment anyway.

On the top is another British Library Crime Classic - 'Tour De Force' by Christianna Brand - a popular author in BLCC's reprints and another good story- also set in a holiday destination.

Last week I also picked up this from Stowmarket, haven't had a good look at it yet but it's about people who live in places around the world that have diets that help long life and happiness.

The mobile library with my other reservations isn't due for nearly two weeks so I'll be reading from my shelves until then. Really I should say "reading from the spare bed!" as all my books are now off the living room shelves and laying on the double bed (and piled on the floor) in the spare room, ready for the flooring in the living/dining room being done tomorrow.

With the Paralympics finishing Summer of Sport 2024 is over - don't know what I shall do now. It's a long wait until the 31st January when Six Nations Rugby starts!

I suppose I'd better get on with painting the living room.

Back Soon

Sue

WI and the Rest of The Week

 I hadn't been to WI for months, since April in fact, not sure why really, but July was the Garden Party - and I'm not a fan and August when I'd lost my voice after talking too much at the Bacton Fayre a couple of days earlier!

But as I was down on the rota for cakes and kitchen I thought I'd better turn up for the September meeting and anyway the speaker was talking about Scouting. Then the President rang and asked me to give the vote of thanks as she knew I'd been very involved in Scouting in the past so I really had  to be there.

The speaker was Stuart - a local man - he is one of the few people paid to work in Scouting. He is based at Scout HQ - Gilwell Park, North of London in Epping Forest, where he is in charge of risk assessment. He told us all about his involvement in the 25th World Scout Jamboree (WSJ) which was held in South Korea in 2023.

Postcards that the Scouts were given for sending home and to people who had sponsored them. It costs £4,000 each for people to attend - Leaders fund themselves, Scouts have to raise money from sponsors and holding fund raising events and are often aided by their group or District.

About 43,000 young people and their leaders attended from 158 countries. He told us how his group of 36 Scouts - aged 14 - 17 and 4 leaders were chosen from Essex Scout Groups and the preparations they made in the 16 months up to August 2023. 

The WSJ got some very bad publicity, as after just a few days flooding on site then a heatwave, poor preparation, lack of sanitation facilities, lack of drinking water and the approaching Typhoon forced the participants to be moved off site to Hotels in Seoul. The UK contingent were the first to evacuate followed by the US and then many other countries. But thanks to the Korean officials who worked to organise different events and visits, Korean people who had heard about the problems,  Leaders and the Be Prepared motto everyone had a brilliant time.

Stuart was also involved in organising Scouts to help with the Laying in State for the late Queen and again for the Coronation for Charles.

It was a very interesting talk and slides.

And later in the week it was so good to hear who is the new Chief Scout. There's never a shortage of boys but always a shortage of leaders, perhaps he will inspire more adults from different backgrounds to get involved.

I've really enjoyed watching the Paralympics all week - it's been amazing to see all the medal winners. Sarah Storey getting an 19th Gold - incredible! The 19th won by an inch! So pleased to see Alfie Hewitt and Gordon Reid get the Gold in the wheelchair tennis, they've won many, many grand slams but this was their third try at winning at the Paralympics. The wheelchair basketball was really good to watch too, the men's team in the finals today after beating Germany 71/43 on Thursday and so many medals won in the pool and on the track.

 Encouraged me to look and see if there were any suitable times for swimming and I found a session that will later be used for schools but wasn't this week due to them only just being back. Hadn't forgotten how to swim despite it being months since I went and it might be a while before I go again as the other pool in the area at Diss is still closed for refurbishment until at least December so making Stradbroke extra busy and schools use the pool a lot this term and next. The few lane swimming sessions are really busy and public swimming sessions are very early or very late - neither are any good for my tired old body!

 

Tomorrow would have been our 46th wedding anniversary, we only made it to 38. 

Goodness me, how I miss that man.

Have a good weekend whatever you are doing - I'm planning a church visit and a Macmillan Coffee morning and perhaps a car boot sale.

Back Monday

Sue

Following A Tree 2024

 My walk up the lane to take photos of the Oaks happened right at the end of August, a beautiful sunny morning, blue skies all round. Things were starting to look Autumnal with acorns now a good size and the barley and  wheat all harvested.

Leaves were beginning to looks old, spotted with brown and some with mildew

In the hedgerow a few blackberries beginning to ripen and the red comes from the poisonous Woody Nightshade. Rose Hips are still mostly orange and very oddly I didn't notice any Hawthorn berries.

A few blackberries - my least favourite fruit so I leave them for the birds

Rose Hips

Pretty but Deadly!

The barley field is just stubble, probably to be ploughed later. Further up the lane the wheat field had been disc harrowed so maybe it's been sown straight in with something as there were bird scarer guns  set up on the other side of the field.

That green field in front of the houses, which is bigger than it looks in this photo,  will have houses  built on it very soon - a 'consultation' evening is being held for villagers to go and look at the plans. Complaints and comments won't make any difference as it's already been agreed by the Council!

Stubble field

The Sugar Beet field is looking well, several more months of growing still to come before it's harvested

I've never seen so many of these Robin's Pincushions on the Dog Roses before, there were so many. It must be a very good year for the gall wasp.

 "The Robin's pincushion is a red, round, hairy growth that can be seen on wild roses. It is caused by the larvae of a tiny gall wasp that feeds on the host plant, but causes little damage."

It really will be proper Autumn next time I go up the lane for photos

Back Soon

Sue