Missed the Low Oil Price and All Sorts of Other Things

 I get emails from Boiler Juice - a company that compare heating oil prices and you can order via them too. Yesterdays email tells me that oil prices are at a nine month low - of course I haven't got room for 500L - the minimum order, because 730L were put in in February . It's all a guessing game when it comes to oil prices although the difference isn't hugely massive, just a bit annoying - £490 now against £543 then, and I'd rather fill up when the tank is just under half full than risk it getting really low waiting for a better price and who knows when the next war, pushing up prices, will happen! 

Got my usual pot of Basil to take cuttings and root them in water. Last year it didn't work very well so I'm hoping for better this year but once again the pots are forced so much that the shoots shoot up without any side leaves - which is where you have to snip to get roots growing.

Did anyone watch the first semi-final of the Eurovision Song Contest on Tuesday night? There were some wild and wacky singers, songs and stage effects although I like Olly Alexanders song but not the weird performance. Hope he does well - anything has to be better than last year (25th out of 26!). Did you know that since the first Eurovision in 1956, 52 different countries have taken part and it's watched by a massive audience every year. Love it or hate it or couldn't care less? We always watched when I was little and have ever since although unlike my Mum I don't fall asleep before the end!

This below was a very good read. I wondered what the author would do with this series after the Queen died but she's solved this by going back to 1957. These are great fun to read and totally (almost) believable!

Old men playing snooker is the sport on TV to keep me company this week - Seniors from years gone by, although they're not That old, it's on 5 and 5Action. Surely I can't be the only blogger to like watching snooker, I'm not sure I've seen anyone else mention it. Excited about Tennis and Olympics  in the summer too.

Look what I won! It's a very unusual occurrence for me to win a prize in a draw, raffle or tombola but I still have a go as it's always a fund-raiser of some sort. This lovely box of goodies was won from a church flower festival event last weekend. (Church and flower photos next week). The theme of the flower festival was 'Going to the Movies'  and the prizes in this draw had been gathered by colour into boxes with each box being a film title with a colour in it.

 My Blue Hawaii box had chocolate biscuits, a mug, Cath Kidson tea-towels, hand lotion, wine, a tin of pretty notelet cards and a folding umbrella. I was so pleased even though I will be giving most of the things away!

Thank you to everyone for comments yesterday and apologies as comments keep going into spam without me realising until days later.

Back Soon

Sue

READING THE SEASONS - Spring

My 6th book for Reading the Seasons was  Stone Spring by Stephen Baxter.

It's been a very long time since I read a book like this - with a story set way back into the depths of history - Stonehenge by Bernard Cornwell is one I remember but there were others. The library labels it as historical fiction but it's more fantasy or science fiction.

This story is set in the Mesolithic or Middle Stone Age period  between 8,800 - 4,500BC. Europe is still attached to Britain and the people who live on that fertile plain that is now gone were in the centre of civilisation, trading with other groups for the nodules of flint they had and fishing and hunting.

The author changes the history of that period so that the plain or Northland  (now known as Doggerland) wasn't covered by rising sea levels, and the people have become more settled and not the hunter-gatherers they once were.

This precis is from Wiki and is better than anything I could do...............

The focus of much of the novel is the community of Etxelur. Etxelur begins as a typical stone-age civilisation, remarkable only for its flint, which is prized throughout most of Northland. It is nominally ruled by a figure known as the "Giver", but as Kirike, the current Giver, is missing, leadership falls to Zesi, his eldest daughter. Every year, Etxelur and its neighbours, the brutish "Pretani" (located in modern-day England), hold a ceremony known as the Giving on Etxelur soil. Representing the Pretani leader are brothers Gall and Shade, who share the house with Zesi and her 14-year-old sister Ana. Gall, the eldest brother, has been promised Zesi as a bride by his father, but Zesi instead sleeps with the younger brother Shade, enraging Gall. To make matters worse, Gall kills a member of the neighbouring "Snailhead" tribe during a communal hunt.

Tensions come to a head during the giving, whereupon the Pretani leader (or "Root") arrives and demands that Shade and Gall resolve their dispute by a fight to the death, in which Gall is killed. Kirike also returns to Etxelur, along with outsiders Ice Dreamer (rescued from North America by Kirike during his travels) and Novu (a slave who killed his master and escaped, with a particular skill for making bricks). Kirike resumes leadership of Etxelur, much to Zesi's resentment. Zesi ultimately decides to leave with the Pretani to challenge them in a hunting contest on their own territory.

Meanwhile, back in Etxelur, rising sea levels result in a tsunami, known to the locals as the "Great Sea". Most of Etxelur is destroyed, and many of its inhabitants are wiped out, including Kirike. With Zesi absent, Ana becomes the de facto leader of Etxelur. During the tsunami, Ana witnessed seabed formations resembling Etxelur's religious symbols, and, believing them to hold spiritual significance, ultimately resolves to build a dyke to hold back the sea and enable the formations to be reached once again. Novu, who has the most experience, obsessively oversees the construction of the dyke, and Ana adopts increasingly Draconian measures to ensure construction continues.

When Zesi returns to Etxelur, she violently opposes Ana's work. She breaks one of the giant pools which holds water that is meant to flow back into the sea and kills a Snailhead child. This ultimately results in her being exiled and her child taken from her. Vowing revenge on Ana, Zesi ultimately returns to Pretani territory, where she convinces Shade (now the Root of the Pretani) to help her destroy Etxelur. Together, they plan to offer slave labour to Etxelur, with the intention of organising a slave uprising and then attacking Etxelur in the chaos. Before this can be done, however, Ana uncovers the plan and frees the slaves herself. The Pretani attack is beaten back, and Zesi is killed during the fight.

The novel ends some years later, where construction of the dykes is finally complete, and the undersea formations Ana sought to uncover have finally been reached.

What I didn't know when I looked for books with Spring in their title is that this book is the first of a trilogy and is followed by Bronze Summer and Iron Winter - how very useful for my Reading The Seasons challenge!

I enjoyed this book, it reminded me that I once read much more  widely....... not just crime fiction. 

Wiki also has a quick round up of the pre-historic stone age periods HERE

Back Soon

Sue

Our Lady Of Grace Church, Aspall

Aspall is a tiny village (population approx 60) just north of Debenham and you may have heard of it because this huge collection of factory buildings is where Aspall Cider and vinegars are made. The company belonged to  the Chevallier family of Aspall Hall, but after 290 years it's now owned by the people that make Coors  Lager.

The church is on the other side of the main Debenham to Eye road down a small dead end lane and has always had a lot of input from the Chevallier family who as Lord of the Manor did much restoration here as well as providing the vicars for many years.

The porch has interesting timber frame and brick patterns

Down the nave to the altar, a very typical small Suffolk church.

But there are a couple of more unusual things, like this large memorial, a terracotta relief made in 1966 by Edwin Russell. It remembers Raulin Guild, son of a Chevellier daughter. He lived in North Rhodesia, contacting an illness and come back to die here, just 26 years old. 

Another plaque is to Lord Kitchener. One of the Chevallier women married into the Kitchener family  and her son became Lord Kitchener - secretary of state for war at the beginning of WWI and responsible for sending to war three of the young boys on the war memorial.

These memorials are all to members of the Chevallier family

There are some interesting bench end carvings

The font and cover are also carved and decorated.

Despite the few services held here and small population there were lots of flowers around the church

This is the sad sight of the lych gate - falling to pieces - hopefully to be repaired soon.

I found the leaflet about the church with lots more details is HERE

Back Soon

Sue

ITFC, Old Photos and Back to Daily Posting?

 First of all have to say WELL DONE to Ipswich Town Football Club , automatically promoted to the Premiership - the top tier of English Football. It's 22 Years since they were last there. This time last year they were promoted from the third tier to the second so it's an amazing turn around in two seasons after some very dismal years. Being in the Premiership brings many bonuses - mainly money and recognition. Ipswich really needs this as I've mentioned before about how sad the town is looking. This might herald a turn around for our County Town.

******************

My photo sorting is providing lots of old pictures to share to local Facebook village and town history groups.

The hamlet of  14 homes where I lived for my first 20 years - Although I wasn't there when this photo was taken! definitely before my time! The 'busy' road was actually the A45 which has become the A14 main road from Felixstowe to the Midlands so thank heavens the hamlet was bypassed in the early 70's. Our house was the one just left of centre and facing forward. Behind it you can just see the roofs of a row of 6 cottages that were condemned and unfit to live in when Mum and Dad bought everything in about 1951.

A Suffolk village school photo from 1913 with my grandmother in the centre - someone in the past put an inked circle round her head and the boy in front who is someone I've not heard of - perhaps a friend.

My grandparents (on the binder and holding the horse) and their children, my Aunt, her twin brother = my Real Dad and Step Dad on their farm in Mid Suffolk around 1930ish

Outing to the beach - Sunday School probably or perhaps Cub Scouts. That's Colin in the front and his brother on the far left.

My Mum was a Cub Scout Leader In Stowmarket - in the years just after the war, she's on the left. Her younger brother - my Uncle is the  third boy from Mum.

Colin's  Primary School photo, same school that our two eldest children went to for a few years before we moved to the coast and the same school which two of my Grandchildren now attend.

My primary school had no school photos while I was there which is disappointing.

Still lots more recent photos to remove from old albums...........It's taking a while! especially after posting the very old photos on Facebook Groups as I then have to go back and answer the questions asked.

Blogging..........I might go back to 6 days a week posting, it depends where I go and what I do to write about. If I don't appear some days it will be because there's nothing to mention. So instead of saying 'Back Tomorrow' I'll say 'Back Soon'!

So................

Back Soon (although I will be back tomorrow as I have some church visits in drafts)

Sue

The Early May Bank Holiday Weekend

For Star Wars fans........................ May the 4th be with you! - and if you aren't a fan then you'll wonder what the idiot woman is talking about!

I can't remember what Easter Bank Holiday was like weather wise without looking back on the blog, but it was probably cold and wet.

Hopefully  this Early May Bank Holiday weekend is good as there are several things happening in villages around that need dry weather to be successful. A bluebell wood open, a flower festival, a Tudor reconstruction day, car-boot sales (of course) and village yard sale. Not sure I shall get to all of them and after it poured with rain all day yesterday some might be a bit soggy underfoot.

Other than yesterdays wash out, this week has been a good week, much better than the week before when I felt a bit under the weather on a couple of days and missed the Over 60's meeting and wasn't able to look after the Grandchildren after school one day - very annoying.

The World Snooker Championship on TV has been interesting as so many of the top seeded players were knocked out, and only one - the 12th seed-  got to the semis. More importantly in the World of Sport is the chance this weekend for Ipswich Town Football Club to get automatic promotion to the Premier League - that means a lot for the Town in many ways. If they end up in the play-offs for the the chance to go up then I fear a match against our Norfolk rivals - Norwich City FC - in which Norwich will win, get promoted and be able to gloat for another year!

Thursday evening was eventful as a fire engine raced by the bungalow and then 30 minutes later two more with blue lights went through the village, then an ambulance went by one way and another a few minutes later going the other way. I wondered what on earth was happening. Heard later that the fire engines were for a fire in a commercial building  a few miles away but no idea what the ambulances were doing - don't think they were connected to the fire.

I've been grateful this week for.............

• Some good fine, sunny and warm days at last
• Being able to get the pots for the greenhouse plants filled and ready
• Planting out the two squash plants and getting them cat and bird proofed
• More leek plants found in the pet/garden shop in Diss, planted out and protected as above
• Getting the sweetcorn seeds sown in their peat pots in the greenhouse. 
• Lots of good reading
• Finding a church open to visit after finding one locked
• Getting a 'foot lady' to sort out a problem - no more info on that one - Ugh!
• Sorting more photos from their old albums into the new storage boxes.

Here's a favourite - me on my big trike aged about 4. I didn't have a two wheeled bike (and no such thing as stabilisers)  until quite late as there was nowhere to learn to ride it. Our house was right beside a busy A road and the back yard was a rough builders yard - as you can see in the photo.

I'm  shall return on Monday with some more old photos - you have been warned!

Have a good Bank Holiday Weekend for everyone here and a good ordinary weekend for those elsewhere.

Sue 

Early May Library Book Photo

 Collected from the library van yesterday, these are all books I'd reserved. Only 8 in total and two of these are just 'looking at' books - one cookery and one craft. Definitely a reading shortage this month

Another nine are in transit to the mobile library depot but didn't arrive in time to come out on the van so I will have to wait another four weeks to get them.

'Stone Spring' is  for the 'Reading the Seasons' challenge and  is Very  historical - Mesolithic in fact - which makes it almost fantasy and not my normal reading at all. The small book on the left that I've missed is  very old crime fiction by Cyril Hare

I'll be back to reading from my shelves again this month.

In April I brought home these.........

I read the five at the bottom but didn't get on with Miss Mole at all and soon gave up on it. I went and picked another Donna Leon off the shelves at a village library not too far away and also read some of my own books. Everything read is written about on the separate Books Read 2024 page. 12 books were read in April - proving what a cold and wet month it was.

Back Soon

Sue

Brexit's Import Controls

 More checks have just started on food and plants coming in from the E.U. After carrying on with virtually free movement since Brexit, now trucks have to have more inspections. 

I listened to The Food Programme on Radio 4 about this a while back. You might hear it HERE

There are surely going to be shortages and delays and definitely price increases.

One of the oddest things I heard was that omelettes sold in some of the big restaurant chains  are imported ready made - What? 

Back Soon

Sue

The Ins and Outs and the Few Frugal Bits of April

Nothing to do with anything frugal but our MP has decided to opt out of the Conservative party and into Labour - I think it's wrong  that they are allowed to stay on as an MP when they change parties. Dr. Dan Poulter says he can't carry on as a Conservative MP with the state of the NHS being so bad that he can't face his patients and colleagues. I was always told the way to change something is from the inside. He is standing down at the next election anyway (as are many other Conservative MPs who are afraid they might be on the losing side!)but  this village will be in a different constituency for the next election and could have a Green MP - not that it will make an iota of difference to us common folk!.

image from google freepik

In my end of March financial round-up I said April's projected expenses were horrible and came to £870 without eating or spending on anything extra. So I was very happy to make my biggest saving by moving my Home and Contents Insurance from a local broker to a well known company but online only - a saving of nearly £200 compared to the local brokers quote. (I only started with the the local broker because they were a new business and giving away a £50 Amazon voucher, but that was about 6 years ago so it was time I checked and changed!)

The Dentist did  a check up and x-ray and I was only in the chair for about 15 minutes but still it cost me £74! There have been no NHS dentists taking patients in Suffolk for many years and the lack in Suffolk and Norfolk has made the national news several times. Years ago we would have struggled to pay for private care so I'm glad I'm able to now.

No way of saving on the TV licence  -£169.50 this year - except to go without a TV but that's not going to happen, especially as I've been enjoying the snooker world championship for the last couple of weeks. 

Then the bill arrived  for the boiler repair in March.- I'd nearly forgotten about it.

Other than those big chunks of cash going out there were all the usual monthly direct debits - Council Tax, Charity, Phones and Broadband. Plus the monthly electric bill, food and diesel for the car of course and wild bird feed and £5 on new underwear.

I spent a few pounds on the garden at car boot sales by buying 3 strawberry plants, 2 butternut squash plants(I only had two seeds left and they've not germinated) and a couple of bags of cheap multi-purpose compost from Aldi. 

Having already bought a new sandpit for the two nearest Grandchildren as a joint birthday present, I was able find to a few craft things in the cupboard - from boot sales- for YGD's 6th birthday. (As yet the weather hasn't been good enough since February for son to put the sand pit together and fill it up!) Finally I sent the ED her birthday present ready for next week.

I get an A* for personal spending this month! - as there's been virtually nothing found at boot sales  and  just a second-hand Donna Leon book from charity shop. Haven't been swimming either as they've altered all the session times again and it's so busy.  So only other spending was entrance to an antique fair (spent nothing there) and the £1.50 a week for exercise group - and we had enough in the kitty for a free week .

Income was the usual two pensions but the savings bond I had has stopped paying monthly interest into my bank - I was using it to top up the monthly pensions, so now will have to wait until year end to get the interest.

The small savings I can think of

• Only using dishwasher every other day
• Using more of my batch made meals from the freezer
• Using the two bags of last years fruit from the freezer for a crumble
• Home made bread and malt loaf
• Finding greetings cards at boot sale
• One present for next Christmas found at boot sale
• Presents for Granddaughter found at boot sales previously
• Found £1.01 pence in the Asda car park
• Reading library books for free and books from my shelves
• Small garden mister/sprayer ½ price from the discount hardware shop because it's closing- sadly.
• Bulk purchase of 1kg of Bicarb for cleaning sinks and basins - will last a year.
• Batch made Salmon, broccoli and pasta bake to freeze - made 8 meals for approx. £6
• Only ever use second-class postage stamps
• No make up etc bought

Out of the house this month went................ 4 bags of things to charity shops. Gone are a small book rack, some odds and ends from the garden shed, some toys and books including all 7 of the huge C.J.Sansom Mathew Shardlake historical series. The first written in 2003 and the 7th - Tombland in 2018. I've been hanging onto them just in case he writes another but decided they might as well go. (Coincidentally  the first book/s have been made into a TV series - it's on Disney+,  although I won't get to see it until it moves to somewhere free!)

Into the bin have gone some rusty garden tools (why did I still have the small completely rusted up pruning saw!  since I bought a new one last year) and old photo albums.

May has fewer big expenses thank goodness - the car breakdown insurance is the only definite extra .

Back in a few days with the May library book photo  after I've collected my reservations from the library van. (Now I've said that it - hope it's not off the road for some reason!)

Sue

 

Last Saturday in April

It's been really cold all week. We had the 'Blackthorn Winter' and now 'The Cowslip Winter'....about time we had some spring.  On some nights the temperature forecast was so low that I brought the greenhouse plants in to stand on the floor just inside the patio doors, other nights I just covered them with fleece. And of course it rained, not all day everyday but sometime on most days. It's really getting me down and I've had several days feeling well under par hibernating on the settee with snooker on TV and book in hand.

Anyway...........when I went up the road for the Following A Tree post last weekend, at a moment when it wasn't raining, I took this photo of the view over the village.. The Barley or Wheat is growing well.

On the other side of the road this huge field is recently drilled - Barley? Wheat?  I looked but couldn't find any seed in the drill lines so it might be a spring sowing of Oil-seed Rape as the seeds of this are tiny.

Buds on the Hawthorn waiting to open.

I've been sorting photos on and off all week and putting them into my new photo storage box, found some very old ones to share on local Facebook Groups. But looking at some of the photos is making me so sad for a life lost that I may have to stop!

Talking about local internet sites - on the Nextdoor website someone was moaning (People moan about the strangest things!) about low flying aircraft over their village and someone else offered this website to see more  https://airplanes.live/ https://airplanes.live/. What fun! Transport plane flying in from China and a Chinese registered huge airbus flying the other way. Ryanair, Tui, and Easy jet holiday planes coming and going across Suffolk from Luton and Stansted airports and lots of little  planes buzzing about over small airfields, Apache helicopters from the Army base at Wattisham going round and round in loops and a plane registered from the USA but coming from the East. Then a massive French registered Hercules coming out of Mildenhall and the East Anglian Air Ambulance took off  and went round in circles near Cambridge and a Coastguard plane came into the area from up north........... I could spend too much time watching this site!

No boot sales this weekend as rain is forecast both mornings - what a surprise!

I've been very bad at reading and commenting on other blogs just lately and answering comments, making me feel very guilty so I'm taking a few days off blogging although the end of the month frugal month  notes is almost done for Tuesday and I'll do the library book photo on Friday or Saturday.

Be back then

Sue

Pied Wagtail

I recently mentioned the Kestrels unusual behaviour of perching on the gravestones in the burial ground over the road - rather than where they are normally seen - higher on a telegraph pole or a wire.

Looking out of the patio doors the other day I noticed a 'something'  on the neighbours roof. I zoomed in with the camera and found it was a Pied Wagtail and that's unusual too as they are usually seen on the ground walking and wagging their tails.

The Illustration from the book" A Sparrow's Life's as Sweet as Ours" by Carrie Ackroyd. 

They were once considered a bird that lived close to water and are often seen on sandy beaches but now can be seen anywhere from city streets to country gardens. It's ability to adapt to urban living has made it more successful than other Wagtails - The grey, which is also a permanent resident and the yellow which is a summer visitor . Numbers of the yellow seen in this country have halved in the last 30 years (I've never seen either).

No one knows why they are constantly tail wagging but it makes them easy to spot on the ground.

John Clare, the nineteenth century poet wrote a poem for children

Little trotty wagtail he went in the rain

And tittering, tottering sideways - he never got straight again

He stooped to get a worm and he looked up to catch a fly

And then he flew away e're his feathers they were dry.

Back Tomorrow

Sue

A Very Small Strawberry Patch

 I had no intention of growing Strawberries because Brother in Law Andrew has a big strawberry patch that seems to produce loads every year without him doing much to them, and being a type 2 diabetic he shouldn't eat too many - that's what I tell him before I go and raid the patch several times every summer!

But my sister brought me a little gift for my birthday of 3 of her strawberry runners, which needed repotting and I thought three wouldn't  do much so bought three more plants from a boot sale.

So now I have the smallest ever strawberry bed!

Will I get enough for a bowl of Strawberries, that is the question.

Back Tomorrow

Sue

Following A Tree

 The April photos of how the Oak trees along the Quiet Lane change through the year. It's odd to see that despite these two Oaks being just a few feet apart and both the same size one of the trees is slightly ahead of the other in leafing up.

Curled and furled, the tiny oak leaves just opening and their catkins  are both acid green in colour

And a closer look at the leaves and catkins. We don't really think about Oak trees having catkins but they do, along with Alder, Hazel, Willow and Silver Birch 

The Woodland Trust website HERE explains all.

The Ivy and deep fissures of the bark on the trunk of the oak can be home to all sorts of tiny creatures. 

Previous monthly photos are HERE.

Back Tomorrow

Sue

St Georges Day

 The Irish celebrate like crazy on St Patrick's Day but us English have virtually forgotten about St George's Day. It's not surprising really as there is nothing much known about him or even if he ever actually existed. Yet somehow he has become the Patron Saint of many countries and organisations. Including Scouting - and I had photos of St Georges Day Parade on yesterdays post.

The picture below comes from my book 'A Calendar of Saints' by James Bentley. It's a painting by Raffaello Sanzio (1483 -1520) and is in the Louvre.

The legend seems to date from the C12, when crusaders returned from battle and historically he might have been a high ranking Roman Christian soldier martyred in Palestine in AD 303. Edward III made him our patron saint in the mid 14C when he founded the Order of the Garter.

For centuries the day was celebrated with feasting and jousting and mumming plays on the theme of St George and the Dragon . The traditions carry on in a few places.

Where the dragon story comes from is another mystery...........

 This is something written by John Aubrey in the 1680's ( an English writer and philosopher)

"To save a mayd, St George the dragon slew,

A Pretty tale if all is told true,

Most say there are no dragons;

and this say'd there was no George;

Pray God there was a mayd." 

G.K Chesterton (1874-1936) wrote.......

St George he was for England,

And, before he killed the dragon

He drank a pint of English Ale

Out of an English flagon.

This is the traditional day for picking dandelions to make Dandelion Wine (but only if the sun is shining so the flowers are fully open)

Pick 2 quarts of flower heads, (about 1lb in weight) discarding as much of the green as possible.

Place in a food safe bucket or non metal bowl and then pour a gallon of boiling water over the flower heads and leave to steep for 2 days AND NO MORE. On the 3rd day pour everything into a big pan, add the peel of 4 oranges and boil for 10 minutes. Add 3lb of sugar and stir until dissolved. When cool add the prepared wine yeast and nutrient starter. Strain through muslin into a demi-john. Fit an air lock. Rack into bottles when clear and it should be ready to drink at Christmas.

I made Dandelion wine once......never again!....It was deadly!

There are certainly plenty of Dandelions about this year

 and they are really useful as an early food source for bees which is probably a better use for them. 

Back Tomorrow

Sue

Photo Sorting

 A birthday present from the family was this photo storage box that I'd put on my wish list.  I have 8 photo albums and lots of loose photos, the albums are falling to pieces or those old type with sticky pages that have turned the photos a strange colour. 

The box is supposedly fireproof and water proof and has room to store more than 1,000 photos in separate plastic boxes, which can be labelled and sorted into years or subjects. 

My wedding album and my late mum's two photo albums I'll keep as they are.

I started emptying an album full of old Scouting photos that I would show the new Cubs to give them an idea of what we did. Shared those below on the local Facebook page but only heard from one former Cub Scout.

My Cub Scout football team - we took part in the District Football Tournament each year and won it once.

I used to 'train' them - using the same way that we practised Hockey at School many years earlier. I think this is about 1978 or 79.

The tournament had to stop a few years later when some parents took everything far too seriously and started bullying the boys and the refs and leaders. What a sad situation.

St Georges Day Parade probably around 1982. Colin is the Scout leader in the centre of the photo. Later he helped me as a Cub Scout Leader.

Me and my Cubs the same year getting ready to parade

A few years earlier this is the Scouts at Cromer in Norfolk - Colin is the one in the shades on the right. I think it's the second year I took half a dozen older Cubs for a couple of nights to Scout Camp in 1979 - the summer before we got married.

I can see this photo sorting is going to take me several weeks!

Back Tomorrow

Sue

Saturday Again

 There was some wild weather this week - high winds, torrential rain storms, ordinary rain and hail. We did have sun on a couple of days but not enough for my liking. I keep peering over the fleece fence at the French Climbing Bean plants - all OK so far.

Thank you to everyone for comments all week and 'Happy Birthday' wishes on Tuesday and apologies when I don't see them until next day and don't get round to replying. 

I think I have to be thankful that it's just one cat damaging the garden and not deer, rabbits, wallabies and wombats as many people have to garden around in other parts of the world! And I heard something about Fire Ants in parts of Australia -they look devastating. 

Thank you also to people who say they enjoy reading the blog - writing it keeps me going through good and the bad days.

 My 5th book of Reading The Seasons was a fail. It's a diary written through the spring of 2020, with the best spring weather for years and the virus moved through the country. It's by 3 different nature writers in different parts of the country including one in West Suffolk.

I started it and it was quite readable but I really didn't want to be reading about the coronavirus and its effects on everyone - it seems a long time ago now and I just didn't want to be taken back to that time again. 

Flowers in the house this week are my own - a few late tulips from the garden and some bits of Spirea and Perriwinkle.

Just as we were packing the chairs away at the Keep Moving Group this week we had a visit from a  very young policeman. ....It's true what they used to say .........he looked about 18! We told him he was too young and too late for the exercise and the coffee. But he'd seen the cars parked outside so thought  he would just drop in to tell us to be aware that there were some aggressive people door knocking in the area claiming to be from a charity. I'm always wary opening the door nowadays which is sad. Funnily enough the only person I've struggled to get rid of was a milkman wanting to deliver me milk!

Another weekend to enjoy with definitely more reading- but only one library book left- car boot sale probably - dry weather would be good. Stowmarket Town Council are trying to re-launch a monthly Farmers Market in town today - they tried in 2017 and it never really got going. Stow is going through a difficult patch with the banks closing and lots of empty shops and I found even the Oxfam Charity shop is closing. You know things are bad when a well established charity pulls out of the town. 

Have a good weekend in your bit of the world.

I shall be back Monday

Sue

Groundsel

 The plant known as Groundsel can be spotted almost anywhere, in many countries around the world mostly on cultivated ground or like this patch below on the road edge.

It's one of those plants that everyone knows but I thought I could find out more to fill a blog post!

Groundsel (Senecio vulgaris) belongs to the Asteraceae family which also includes dandelion, thistles and sunflower. It is called a 'winter annual' because the seeds germinate from late autumn through to early spring, and one of it's other names is  'old-man-in-the-spring'.

It's name comes from an Old English word grundeswilige meaning 'ground swallower' as it grows profusely wherever it gets a chance.

We used to pick it for feeding to the budgie and to rabbits many years ago but  it is poisonous to humans yet once used in medicine as a purgative and a diuretic.

In country folklore in the Fens it was thought it grew where witches had stopped for a pee and when it grew on a thatched roof it marked the spot where the witch had landed!

Of course Cecily Mary Barker had a Flower Fairy and his song for Groundsel.

The Song of the Groundsel Fairy

If dicky-birds should buy and sell
In tiny markets, I can tell
The way they'd spend their money.
They'd ask the price of cherries sweet, 
They'd choose the pinkest worms for meat
And common Groundsel for a treat,
Though you might think it funny.
Love me not, or love me well;
That's the way they'd buy and sell.

I'd forgotten we used to say 'dicky-birds' when talking to small children! 

Do you remember that way to entertain them "Two little dicky birds sitting on a wall, one named Peter one named Paul, fly away Peter, fly away Paul, come back Peter, come back Paul". With bits of sticky paper stuck on fingers with their names, hidden behind the back and reappearing with different fingers and then back with names again...................or is it just me?

Funny what writing a blog post made me remember.

Back Tomorrow

Sue