That Was March

31 days that seem to have whizzed by and everyone says the same and thank goodness the weather has been 100% better than this time last year and a bit of warmth too.

YD took me and EGD out for a meal yesterday for Mothers Day -what a treat. The hotel had a special Mothers Day dessert - trio of mini things - can't remember what they were called but super delicious. They were giving all Mums a little box of chocolates - another treat. It's small little extras like this that make a person feel happy to go back for another visit.

Library day this week - good news - as I'm reading from my shelves and worrying that I'll run out of books! which is totally ridiculous of course.

March wasn't too 'spendy', with the car service and MOT being the big expense at just under £300, which as Tom the boss said "isn't too bad for a whole year of use". With a diesel car it's oil and filters that need doing every year as well as checking everything else. What a fortune we saved over our 38 years of marriage with Col able to do anything that needed doing before an MOT.

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Saturday 29th - Clocks go Forward

 The last Saturday in March and time for the clocks to go forward by an hour overnight.  Just makes it more difficult to get up early for car boot sales!

Another of the illustrations from the Angela Harding book. Orford is over on the Suffolk coast, the strange buildings to the right were left from the 'Cold War' out on Orford Ness. Boats cross from the quay to visit the nature reserve in summer.

Orford Hares

Reading:-

After finishing ' A Time From the World' by Rowena Farre that I wrote about during the week, I read another book from my shelves - 'Apricot Sky' by  Ruby Ferguson. It's a Furrowed Middlebrow and Dean St Press reprint from a book first published in 1952. Set in Scotland in 1948 it is a lovely story of a family and their visitors and preparations for a wedding. Similar in a way to D.E.Stevenson but very witty and good descriptions of the countryside and weather. 

 They've stopped the 'suggestions to buy' page on the library website due to the changes happening in June - and not knowing what Suffolk County Council will do about anything at the changeover. I wonder if it will mean a whole new computer system - more money wasted.

Watching:-

On the 4 catch up channel I've been watching Jack Irish - a rather violent thing from Australia dating from 2016-2021 starring Guy Pearce - who I remember best from the early days of Neighbours.

Gardening:-

My three veg beds are almost completely covered by the wire-netting frames (which turn into fences later) to keep the neighbours cat off. Before I did this I removed half a bucket of cat s**t, I thought about chucking it back into their garden but of course I didn't.

Now about  a hundred sycamore seedlings have appeared under the frames so I'll need to take them off and hoe out. It's funny that there have never been so many before but now the tree has gone they've all rooted this year, almost as if they know they've got to replace the mother tree - weird.

Pepper seeds germinated eventually, they are growing slowly, should be plenty, and three aubergines. Grass cut again, garden waste bin two days late being emptied but then I pruned some dead bits off the ceanothus and half filled it again.

Socialising:-

 15 people at Keep Moving Group this week which is really good. An odd thing happened. When I was looking in the car glove box to find the book thing for the repair shop to stamp after the service and MOT, I came across a piece of paper with a printed list of exercises that we did with the organisation that started our group in 2022. I must have had it without knowing all this time as I don't remember it being given me.............and why in the glove box? Anyway I'm now going to write out a new sequence  of exercises for us to do for a bit of variety........... as soon as I get a new sharpie pen.

Over 60's group and a guy who volunteers at a workshop for adults with disabilities came and told us all about the workshop and the wooden things they make. If I still had a house with land they make bird-boxes for every type of bird you can think of and I'd have one for each - and bats!. I visited their workshop on a pre Christmas Open Day a couple of years ago.

Eating :-

I got the freezer defrosted on Monday, so that job's done for a year. I'd half forgotten about some of my own raspberries from the summer - better get them eaten - they are a bit sharp when frozen, always better fresh but there were so many last year I froze a few. Shall I mix with meringue and cream and call them a variation on Eton Mess - probably rather too many calories!

What a useful thing a quiche is to make - four days meals without having to think - tuna and sweetcorn this time served up with something different each day it doesn't matter that that it's the same thing for four days.

50/50 Granary/ White bread in the bread maker this week - my favourite.

And that's my week.

Have a good weekend, I'll be back next week - if I have something to write about?

Almost Money Wasted

Thought I might as well go and look at the Model Railway Exhibition- it was at the site of the nearest boot-sale so I looked round there too beforehand.

Should have known really that there wouldn't be as much there as promised, their Antiques Fayres are always smaller than they could be - I don't bother to go and look anymore.

At least I was able to take a few photos to make a blog post..............

I like 00 gauge best, they can fit more buildings and interesting bits into their portable layouts. My sister had an Hornby electric railway for a while and I made lots of the kit buildings for it- although it didn't have a permanent layout. I made some out of the cardboard printed kits and some out of airfix - which I didn't like painting.

Huge layout with O gauge track and much bigger trains. Must have taken them quite a while to set this up.

 There were also several stalls selling all the bits and bobs used to make the layouts more interesting. 

I didn't find anything at the car-boot sale and was soon home again.

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Last of the Old Photos (For Now Anyway!)

Just to fill another blog post here are a few more of the old photos.

First is me and my Grandma - on Dad's side. Sadly she died before I was a year old. She had a heart attack and was found laying by the pond on their farm. I would have loved to have known her, she was a practical person, living on a farm, making butter and cheese etc.

As a bridesmaid aged 7 - on the right. The wedding was one of Dad's cousins.

 I didn't know I had this photo below among a bundle of loose photos - it's a bit random. On the back it says 'Michael Hailes wedding Horringer'. Michael Hailes was one of the younger blokes who worked in Dad's building business for many years. This must be about 1968 ish.

There's me, Mum and Sister in front and Mrs Kerry, Mr Kerry and Dad at the back heading into church I guess. Mr Kerry was the Carpenter who worked for Dad for as long as I can remember. He smoked a pipe all the time, his teeth were pipe-shaped! - a true London family who had come to Suffolk after the war. As well as always having the pipe on the go he also whistled through his teeth and pipe- tunelessly!

After Mum died in 1999 and with Dad being totally lost after being a carer for Mum for 10 years my sister took him round churches and family looking for family history. They had some help from someone who put lots of family photos onto a computer CD. Later Eldest daughter had the CD and printed off these two photos below, which along with a photo of my grandma (the one above) as a young woman, she put into a frame for a present.

Definitely family, but I have no idea who they are or where the CD is now.

That's the end of the old photos for now.

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Rowena Farre

 Rowena Farre wrote this, her second book in 1962. Her first book -'Seal Morning' - had been published in 1957 and had become very popular, translated into several languages.

At one time both 'Seal Morning' and 'A Time From The World' were thought to be works of fiction rather than autobiographies and no one really knows much about the author and her life.

Different people have pieced together some of her story. She was born in India (although one source says London) in 1921 (or 1922 or 1930!), her real name was Daphne Lois McCready and she was the daughter of an Army Medical Officer. She was sent to Britain to live with an aunt when she was about 10 years old. 'Seal Morning' is the story of her life with her Aunt on a remote croft in Sutherland, Scotland. They lived with all sorts of pets including the seal. BUT later when people tried to find the croft or people who had known the Aunt and Niece - nothing was found. When her Aunt married Rowena moved south and became a typist.

During World War II, according to some sources she was in the WAAF, although if she was born in 1930 and not 1921 she would have been too young.

Then at some time in the 1950s she got a grant to go to Art School but spent much more time and all the summers travelling and working with the gypsies around Scotland, Wales and the west counties of England, the story of this time is the subject of 'A Time From the World'. She met a gypsy man and fell in love and moved in with him but after a while felt she couldn't settle to one way of life, she wanted to travel more widely and to write.

She went back to London and moved from job to job, living in lodgings and writing. When 'Seal Morning' was published she left the lodgings and disappeared for almost 4 years to avoid the journalists and the fame. Her publishers eventually tracked her down after advertising in the personal columns of newspapers, she was spotted on a ship and HERE is a newspaper report about her being found.

She wrote one other book 'The Beckoning Land' in 1969 which is about a spiritual pilgrimage to Ceylon and India.

She died in Canterbury in 1979. A very private person and estranged from her family, her life is much of a mystery.

Seal Morning was made into a TV series in 1986 with the location moved to Norfolk.

I first read 'Seal Morning' and 'A Time From the World' way back in the 1970s when I started work in libraries. The copy of  'A Time From the World' that I have now was reprinted in 2013 by Little Toller Books. The front cover photograph is by Bert Hardy from 1951. Inside are illustrations by Alice Pattullo.

The book is a wonderful look at a time completely gone when gypsy travellers were welcomed at farms all through the season for fruit and hop picking.

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A Thank you and a Norfolk Cheese

First of all must say thankyou for all the comments yesterday about that little bit of embroidery, you just never know what will be lurking in the boxes on the ground. I loved all the different stitches to make the flowers -  C. Mason certainly had more skill than I've ever had!

 Haven't done a cheese tasting since Christmas. This came from a new farm shop/cafe that has opened not far from home. I hope they survive as that village has no other shop so somewhere that sells fresh fruit and veg. will be good for the people who live there.

This is the cheese I found to try, it's called Wensum White and is a goats cheese made from pasteurised milk.

Produced by Sam Steggles at Fielding Cottage in Honingham, near Norwich. Fielding Cottage began making cheese in 2009 and now has a flock of around 800 goats, mainly Saanen, Alpine, and Toggenburg breeds, which are raised for both meat and milk used in cheese and skincare products.

Indulge in a seriously good cheese that looks like brie but is made with creamy goat's milk. This brie-style goat cheese is rich and creamy, with a deliciously unique flavour that will tantalize your taste buds

No goat taste and actually not much taste at all. It was nice and soft and very white but spread on a plain cracker had no flavour. So I googled for a recipe with brie and found an idea to use it with bacon for a simple spaghetti sauce.

It made a tasty, albeit fairly expensive, meal with the brie making a very rich sauce. I had a piece of my homemade focaccia bread with it.

I was glad to have some fruit afterwards for a refresher. 

  

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Rescued A Piece of Old Needlework

 On Saturday I found a piece of embroidery to rescue and to put on my wall along with all the other small pictures.

It was in a small frame and when I took it out and turned over I found this on the back.

Whoever C. Mason was they were very good at embroidery in 1953 - and pleased with their work!.

I'm going to take it to the framing shop to cut a card mount to fit the picture which I freshened up by dabbing with a damp cloth and a bit of washing up liquid and then with warm water. Most of the foxing - brown spots - are on the material surrounding the actual stitching so a mount will cover the worst of it. Then I can search car boot sales for a frame which will need to be a wee bit wider than the one it was in.

I also picked up a couple of small click  lock  boxes from the same house clearance people and spent a grand total of £2.

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Sue

Saturday 22nd - Keeping Accounts

The decision was made - Suffolk County Council take back the running of Suffolk Libraries from June. No doubt things will stay the same for a while and then we will see what happens. 20,000 signatures on a petition meant nothing.

Meanwhile...............

Two letters arrived................... Council Tax up by £70 a year for 2025-2026, electricity probably up by about £30 a year? and an email - Broadband/phone  up £3 a month. 

More frugalling needed in some places to afford all these!

I keep quite detailed accounts of what I spend, it's very useful when letters like the above arrive and I can look back at how much things were costing in previous years. I divide my page into these categories and can see how much I spend each month. Some can't be avoided or changed, some can be altered . This is the way to work out which is which and where spending needs to be cut to take account of price rises.

Council Tax - with 25% single person discount 

Phones and Broadband 

Charity Donation

Water/sewer (based on water meter readings)

Heat and Light (electricity and heating oil and boiler service)

TV licence

Food - This one I Must try and spend less - stop offering to pay for meals out when the family are here! 

Christmas. (Cut this by £100 last year from the year before)

Birthdays/gifts and cards (5 adults and 5 grandchildren for gifts and several more for cards)

Grandchildren (things I find at boot sales)

Postage

Car (includes diesel, MOT and service, Insurance and Breakdown cover - No road tax to pay)

House expenses (other than below)

House buildings and contents Insurance

Laundry

Bathroom (soap, shampoo, toothpaste, loo rolls etc)

Kitchen (dishwasher and anything used in the kitchen etc, etc)

Garden (seeds, plants, compost)

Wild birds

Personal Spending (includes exercise groups, haircuts, swimming, books, memberships, outings) 

Clothes/shoes

Health (includes dentist, paracetamol etc, cholesterol reducing drinks )

Miscellaneous - any thing else. 

There was a section for holidays but I'm not having any this year.

Two expenses this week, first I had a haircut, it seemed to be growing like crazy and I thought it was only a month since I'd had it cut - but it was actually 8 weeks, really needed doing. I'm not having the trimmers anymore, makes it a bit too short.

Then the car went in for it's annual service and MOT, thankfully not much needed doing although there is a note on the MOT certificate to say the car has an outstanding manufacturers recall on it for something. I rang a Ford dealerships to see what the problem was and it's nothing drastic and done for free but would be about 2 hours to update something to do with transmission? - haven't a clue. None of the dealerships are close to home and none anywhere to do something while waiting so I'll be hanging around a repair shop for a couple of hours sometime - oh lovely!

The forecast for the weekend is OK, not quite as warm as Thursday or yesterday but should be dry enough for my early morning walks with a purpose (car boot sales!). There's a model railway exhibition on locally - the layouts fascinate me. I might go and look although there is an entrance charge............and if I'm cutting expenses can I afford it?

Another photo of a print for spring from the Angela Harding book - A Printmakers Year

Have a good weekend wherever you are and whatever you're doing and I'll be back next week.

 

Useful Things Again

Spring Sprung yesterday for the Vernal Equinox, the warmth was lovely. I pricked out a dozen tomato seedlings and cut the grass. Now it'll probably turn cold again!

 Many of the  things I buy at car-boot sales are to save me money on items that I would usually be buying anyway.

From one of the house clearance people who are now going to the Sunday boot sale as well as the Saturday one I got these. Simple Soap is what I use and dishwasher salt plus Christmas gift tags with sticky backs will be handy. £2 for the lot.

Back Soon

Sue

 

Two Books

 Rory Clements writes so well that I always know it will be a good read.

This is the 8th book of his series about American Professor Tom Wilde, a Cambridge University History Lecturer  who has been working with MI5 all through the World War II.

It is 1947 and Wilde hopes to return to just lecturing and university work when he gets called to help again. Freya Bentall, a senior MI5 officer no longer knows who to trust as it seems Soviet leader Joseph Stalin has decided to send in his master of 'Special Tasks' to create chaos in MI5 and to protect his communist super-spy who holds all the secrets of the Atomic bomb, which every country wants.

She calls up Wilde, whose loyalty is unquestionable, to ask him to get close to three people she has doubts about which means getting involved with criminal gangs and  the world of the artistic elite. All the action takes place during the winter of 1947 when the temperature never rose above freezing for weeks, the snow fell and put paid to almost all transport movement and there were frequent power cuts.

Wilde's wife is in London studying to be a doctor - she has to pretend to be unmarried - and their 6 year old son is being looked after by a new nanny and soon his Cambridge home and university rooms are threatened.

The second book was non-fiction by Patrick Grant , best known for being a judge on The Great British Sewing Bee since 2013.

 

' This is a passionate and revealing book about loving clothes but hating the way they're made, about everything wrong with the fashion industry today, and how to set it right'

This was an interesting read by someone who knows the fashion industry so well after his years of working in clothing  factories, tailors and then owning  a clothing business.

He had some interesting facts 

• The Average person has five times as many clothes as they did just 50 years ago
• 100 billion garments are produced worldwide each year
• 30% of garments made are never sold
• One bin lorry full of clothing is dumped in landfill or burned every second
• Despite having clothes that are never worn most people still buy more 

He was preaching to the converted here as I've never liked buying clothes new although sometimes there is no choice. With Eldest Daughter once working as a textile print designer for a couple of big clothes companies and getting disillusioned by the waste, I knew some of this anyway.

The book tends to say the same thing in different ways so was  perhaps a longer book than it needed to be.

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Sue

How many Grandads?

 I'm short of ideas for blog posts so thought I'd share a few more old photos. Most of the photos I have come from my Dad's side of the family, they were all country people - farm workers and then farm owners.

First is my Grandad F. My Dad's Father. Photo is probably sometime in the 1960s. He died when I was about 18 so I do remember him, although Mum wasn't a fan so I'm not sure he visited often and even less after he remarried someone Mum also didn't like. 

My Grandad's Father in Law, wish I knew more about this picture

Below is Grandad's father, he died in 1955 the same year as I was born. 

And the grave of my Grandad's Grandfather over the road in the churchyard 

In comparison there are hardly any photos of Grandad W. on my Mum's side of the family. Always living in town, working in factories, totally different to Dad's family.

Just this one, where he is far right on this photo at my Mum's wedding. I just about remember him, he died when I was in my early teens after being very unwell for several years. The results of working in a dusty factory, smoking un tipped cigarettes and being in the fire brigade during the war.

No photo's of anyone further back on this side of the family, I don't think any exist.

Back Soon

Sue

Future of Suffolk Libraries - Decision Day

 Dear Customer,

 

Last week I wrote to you about Suffolk County Council’s (SCC) plans to take the library service back from our charity. 

An online petition independently set up to oppose this move now has over 20,000 signatures – thank you to everyone who has shown their amazing support for Suffolk Libraries. You can also write to your county councillor or MP to let them know your views on the county's council's proposal.

Suffolk County Council has now published its Cabinet paper which provides more detail about the reasons for the proposal. It’s clear to us that the figures simply don’t add up so we’re really concerned that this decision is being taken for the wrong reasons.  

We feel it’s important for the community to have sight of the full picture before it’s too late. 

Our Chair Sylvia Knights has recorded this video which outlines our concerns and our questions for the county council which are also outlined in the table below

They meet to decide today but I expect the decision has already been made. SCC own many of the library buildings - if they were to sell them off it would make SCC a lot of money. The silliest thing is we might not even have a Suffolk County Council in a few years - the government want to change some local authorities - AGAIN. They did this in 1974. LEAVE US ALONE is what I say!

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Sue

Mainly Market Traders

 It was too cold on Saturday morning for ordinary individuals to be selling stuff at the car-boot sale but it seemed more and more market traders are there selling big piles of not very interesting random things. 

It was warm enough walking round and the sun was out. I came home with a huge cauliflower, a pot of mini daffs to put on Mother and Father in Laws grave and this craft pack for one of the granddaughters.

Oh, nearly forgot - from the cake lady I bought a giant piece of chocolate flake cake  because I've not baked lately! It divided into 3 pieces and was very sweet.

I went and put the pot of daffs on the grave later but the pot of cyclamen, which I'd put there a few weeks ago had vanished - I was going to bring it home and plant it.

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Sue

Halfway Through March

What's been happening this week?

Apart from finding some old photos to share.... 

A builders yard was a fun place to play, there was nowhere tidy, there were heaps of sand to dig tunnels into for toy cars and a heap of sawdust under the saw bench to make puddings! That big block of wood under the window was my "kitchen" - didn't need one of the special 'mud kitchens' that are available now. All I needed was sand, sawdust and water and a few old dishes and spoons.

On my trike and in a pedal car

I've brought in a few daffs from the front border, I can't see them from indoors so might as well cut them and bring in. They are so late compared to some on the edge of the graveyard up the road. Very short of colour and flowers in the garden here, almost everything I plant gets smaller rather than spreading. The rhubarb has disappeared again - the third crowns I've planted. Not trying again.

After my post about laundry and how many 'add ons' there are now -  with fabric softeners, fragrance boosters, dryer sheets etc, I saw an ad for another new idea that someone has invented. This time for the dishwasher. Some dish washer tab ads make a great thing of not needing to pre-rinse or pre-soak or re-wash but the ad I saw was for a special spray to use on oven ware before it goes in the dishwasher. (I think it was a Fairy Liquid thing.) Which is the opposite of what they've been saying for years!............... I'll not be buying it.

I've done a couple of batch meal makes for the freezer this week, even though I really wanted to get it defrosted first, but I'd run out of choices for quick home made meals so rustled up some Bolognese sauce using a packet of quorn mince - that made 5 portions  and then  7 portions of salmon, broccoli, pasta bake. The freezer looks much better but still needs defrosting sometime - a job I don't enjoy.

There was one nice note through the  post this week with a letter from one of the building societies saying they'd taken over another bank and I'd be getting a £50 bonus paid in soon - that was good to hear - every little helps. 

Plus lovely news about 7 year old youngest granddaughter who has won a national story writing competition. I know it was done through school but haven't heard more about it yet.

Then finally I went to the funeral for my Auntie. 100 years old - amazing, out living all her younger siblings and her daughter. I arrived a few minutes late after finding a road closed sign on the road where I wanted to drive down, turning round to go another way and then finding where the road was actually closed and had to turn round and go back again down the original road! Road Closed signs never actually say Where the road is closed which can be so annoying. Luckily they were singing the first hymn so I was able to slip in unseen! None of the other cousins there so I only knew my Aunties son - he's now the oldest in the family - just a few years older than me.

Have a good weekend. Fingers crossed for fine weather.

Back Soon

Sue

Bought for Christmas - Another Vegetarian Bake

 These were in my freezer, bought from Aldi before Christmas so about time at least one was tried. So yet another taste-test.

A hand finished blend of butternut squash, sweet potato, cashew nuts and parsnips, with an indulgent melting brie and cranberry centre.

I served it up with fresh cooked carrots with frozen green beans and a dollop of my red hot relish

Surprise, surprise - It was actually very tasty, which makes a change. 318 calories and rather too high in the fats, sugars and salt % for  regular eating but as they only had them at Christmas and may never have them again, that's not really a problem.

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Sue

Old Photos of an Old House

 It's not surprising that my Grandma was horrified when her daughter and new husband bought this cottage in  1952 for £500.

Front of the cottage, with my Grandad - centre- but even with a magnifier I can't tell who it is sitting on the step

Side of the cottage with the pump for water

After renovation to the side, and the pump still stood for many years, long enough for me to remember it.

The cottage came with nearly one acre of land, a separate vegetable garden - just along the lane but it had these condemned cottages below out the back.

My dad (real Dad) and his brother (later my Step Dad) had just started a builders business and the land at the back was ideal for their new business. Room for sheds and heaps of bricks.

What a shock to everyone when my real dad was killed in a motorbike accident a couple of years later.

The lean-to kitchen out the back

The old lean-to kitchen was replaced with this kitchen on the left and bathroom to the right. It must have been wonderful for my Mum after a few years with an outside bucket and chuck it privie and a tin bath in the kitchen.

I was surprised to have a closer look at this photo of 7 month old me below, about a year after my Dad was killed and to find the old condemned cottages were still there.

Years later you can imagine the 'treasure' we dug up in the land behind the house, after those cottages had been cleared. With six families burying their rubbish - before rubbish collection was invented. There were bits of clay pipes and broken pottery, old bottles and if we were lucky the marbles from Codswallop bottles. 

( just a PS edited in to say thank you for all the comments about doing the washing yesterday, apologies for not replying. Seems no one likes those scent boosters - so I wonder who is buying them?)

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Sue

Doing The Laundry

 The nearest boot sale started on Sunday and of course I went to look round and came home with just half a bag of Soda Crystal's for 50p from one of the house clearance people selling random bits.

 I use these  in the washing machine because as well as helping to clean clothes they do a really good job to keep the washing machine and drains clean - no smells. A bag used to be 99p for 1kg when I could get them from Wilkinsons in Ipswich, now, since the small hardware shop in Stowmarket closed, the only place that sells them seems to be a hardware shop in Diss and now they are £1.99 a kg.

For years I bought Ecover non-bio Laundry Liquid in 5L container (a 15L container when there were 5 in the family)which was fragrance free and mixed a small amount with the soda crystals. Ecover got more expensive and then the Zero Ecover became the only one with no fragrance and was even more expensive. I'd been using Smol dishwasher tabs for  3 years and decided to try their fragrance free Laundry capsules, they do a special offer of a trial for £1 (then, now £2) and then they are delivered through the letter box in a cardboard pack at regular intervals which are easy to change if needed. That was a year ago, so I can now work out what doing the laundry costs me.

Since spring 2024 = £18.40 for the Smol capsules. And £3.98 for Soda Crystals.  Making a total of approx £22 for the years laundry. Apparently the average cost for one persons laundry for a year is £60 to £100. So either I do less washing than average or my way is a lot cheaper.

I don't use any fabric softener or - heaven forbid - 'fragrance boosters' - which to my mind are just a gimmick to get people to spend more money.

And as the BBC always (almost) says -"Other ways of doing laundry are available"! This is just what I do and it suits me fine.

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Sue

The Runners Run By

On Sunday I was just about to walk up to the post box to get a letter off when I discovered it was the Stowmarket Half Marathon. There were dozens of runners, running down the footpath and  heading past the bungalow just like last year. Last year they had horrible wet weather which was probably better for running than the lovely  sunshine of this year.

This year a few guys were dressed as colouring  crayons - long dress-like wear with pointy coloured hats. They looked a bit 'warm'. I was yet again surprised at the ages of some of the people - and all the different running styles.

It's organised by Stowmarket Striders running club but there were runners from all parts of Suffolk and on googling I discovered it costs the runner around £21 to enter if they are a running club member and up to £30 if not. There were around 270 runners who finished the race last year but there didn't seem as many going by this year.

As they go past my bungalow and up the lane they pass the 7 mile mark - so just over half way. Supposedly running is addictive - it's never been something I could do!

As I said last year - nothing much happens here so even a road race is exciting!

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Sue

A Jigsaw for Autumn

 The Saturday car-boot sale was Huge, the weather was good and it seemed like the world and his wife were there looking for bargains.

As usual there was a ton of tat, toys, clothes and probably enough ornaments for everyone in the country to have one! 

I found a jigsaw to pop in the cupboard for Autumn. This is another one from House of Puzzles that I'd looked at on-line and decided it would be a good one to do.

Have to hope the lady selling it was telling the truth about it being complete.

The other things I bought were a pair of socks in a box that will be a lightweight gift to post for Xmas. 3 cards - all for ladies unfortunately - as I really need some for men, and the small aluminium scoop, which I will use for flour, and hopefully not spill so much. ( You know what a mess it makes when you gently tip the flour bag onto the scales and it goes 'kerlumph' and comes out all at once- well, it will never happen here again!).

 I spent £5 in total, a good walk round and home for breakfast.

Back Soon

Sue

Another Quiet Week in Suffolk

A week of sunshine - I'm sure it was the most sun seen since last summer. Even had the patio door open for a couple of hours on two afternoons and I got the grass cut. Last year I managed to keep it short so as not to need BiL back to cut it with his motor mower. Hope to do the same this year again after he first cut it for me two weeks ago.

The sunshine fired up the 'growing food' bit of my brain! and I brought in the windowsill electric propagator to make sure it's still working, and it was, so I filled up 5 small seed trays and popped them in to warm the compost ready for seed sowing today or tomorrow.

During the week, after falling asleep with the Radio tuned to Radio 4 which switches to the BBC World Service after 1am, it was a  horrible shock to wake in the night to that man giving his State of the Union speech. Turned off radio PDQ.

Couldn't understand one blogger saying the Oval Office spat last week was funny and another saying they all went off to dinner together afterwards. Really? I'm trying to avoid being worried about everything but it's hard when what the loudest voices say is all bad news.

Back to Suffolk and better news............. a tin of pre-prepared lemons for marmalade  getting used this week. I didn't realise it was way past it's BBE date (Sept 2023) but it was fine, made 6 jars. With the Orange/Whiskey marmalade and the marrow/apricot jam both made last autumn I've got plenty to last me for a year at least. 

 

I went to both exercise groups again, we ran through our usual sequence at our Keep Moving Group but the other group, for a one-off session, had a lady leading exercises who works at hospices, they were all sitting down exercise  again. She also talked throughout the exercises about 'bodily functions in older age' - she said she loves to talk to her older clients about "wees and poos"- it was all very odd - although I do know lots of elderly people end up in hospital due to urine infections - so perhaps she has a point. Hopefully next week will be more energetic. 

 The weather is good for car-boot sales both Saturday and Sunday and there is European Indoor Athletics Championships  to watch on TV this weekend as well as the Six Nations Rugby penultimate weekend. That's me sorted!

 Here's one of the beautiful spring illustrations from the book I borrowed "A Year Unfolding; A Printmakers View" by Angela Harding

Have a lovely weekend whatever you are doing and I'll be back Monday, although at the moment I have nothing to write about.

Don't Panic Susan!

The March Library Book Photo

 First of all big Thank you for all the comments on yesterdays post about the future of Suffolk Libraries. Have to hope that things will carry on much the same for a while at least. Suffolk County Council are well known for out-sourcing all their services so it's odd that they want to take back control of libraries. Although if they were to take back the Highways department we might get more potholes repaired!

 These are what I collected this month, all books I'd reserved.

Lots of crime fiction as usual, should I be worried that four titles begin with 'Murder' ?  Ang at Tracing Rainbows suggested ' Less' , the book by the Great British Sewing Bee judge - Patrick Grant. Then I borrowed a book to read  about lowering blood pressure naturally - but after a quick look I see it has some strange food ideas, don't think it would suit me. Two of the crime are short stories but the best of the books there will be the one by Rory Clements - he always writes well.The book 'Fatal Isles' sounds odd - not sure where the idea for borrowing it came from. I've re-borrowed the book of Angela Harding's prints to take some photos of her lovely illustrations to use on the blog . 

Last month I had these below. I didn't get on very well, only reading four out of the nine. I started and gave up on all the others.

Details of the books I read are on the Books Read 2025 Page.

Back Soon

Sue

Suffolk Libraries

Possible worrying news about our library service in Suffolk. Suffolk County Council want to take back the complete running of libraries after the 12 successful years  of it being run by Suffolk Libraries IPS Ltd. In the 12 years - all libraries have stayed open, many have more hours open, volunteers have been a big part of the service, and libraries are being used for more events each week. Supposedly no agreement could be arrived at when discussions happened at the end of the CIC period ready for the next 12 years. I hope I'm not being cynical to say SCC have obviously seen how well things are going and can see a way that they might make extra money from libraries! 

SCC say “The future of Suffolk’s 45 libraries will be in safe hands as part of our plans to protect and enhance the service". 

 We wait to see what happens. THIS is an open letter to Suffolk residents . According to our local councillor - some of the information given to SCC was wrong and therefore their plans  based on this are misinformed.

Just hope they don't start charging for requests!  Which reminds me..................Some book news - Ann Cleeves - author of the Vera and Shetland series of books is writing about Jimmy Perez again, but now he has moved to Orkney.....new TV series sometime perhaps?

Back Soon

Sue

St Peter's Church, Felsham

After finding Rattlesden church open a couple of weeks ago I went a couple of miles further to Felsham

The church is quite plain and simple inside.

I'm puzzled about the traffic cone - I didn't notice it until it appeared on this photo!

There were lots of spring flowers to cheer things up

Two lovely embroideries 

All the windows except the east widow have these squares of pale stained glass, quite unusual.

East window

A memorial from WWI

The font dates from C15 but is standing on the remains of an older font.

HERE is the link to the Suffolk Churches website for more history of this small village church.

Back Soon

Sue