A Surprisingly Good Book Find

 This is a book I picked up at the Sibton church book sale back in May. At first glance I thought it was fiction as the front cover is very similar to many of the recently written wartime fiction books, but on reading the back cover I found it was a proper wartime diary, covering the years 1935 - 1947, so it came home with me.

It's actually quite a treasure and different to any other WWII diaries I have. There are plenty of wartime diaries by people living and working in towns and cities, through the blitz etc or by people in the forces but I've not come across another one by the wife of a soldier.

Evelyn Shillington was an army wife, married to Rex who was a career soldier, working in Army Ordnance (now called Logistics) and retiring as a Brigadier. They had no children and all her married life she had moved wherever Rex was posted, either living in rented accommodation, married quarters, hotels or with friends.

The diary starts in 1935 when Eve (then aged 42) and Rex are just returning, by boat, from Hong Kong where Rex had had a 3 year posting. During their time there Eve's mother Emlie Clifford (a well known playwright of the time) in England had died and Eve is dreading the return home without her mother being there. Evelyn is one of those people who is able to make friends anywhere she is and will keep in touch with all she befriends forever. Consequently many entries in the diary are about friends made from many parts of the country and overseas, relations and friends of her mother but luckily there's a list at the front of 'Evelyn's People'.

As well as the book being interesting with a well informed view of life during those years -from the abdication of Edward VIII to the end of the war, it also has an complicated and equally interesting story of how it came to be published.

After Evelyn's death in 1981 a trunk of papers and the diaries were left to a much younger cousin - Elizabeth and after Elizabeth's death in 1997 they were inherited by her daughter Jacy Wall.  Jacy remembers meeting her mother's cousin just a couple of times in the 1970's.

In  the early 2,000's Jacy was contacted out of the blue by someone researching the history of Roger Quilter who had written the music for Emlie's (Evelyn's mother) best known play Where The Rainbow Ends and had tracked down Jacy as a relative of Emlie. This makes Jacy rummage through the trunk of papers that had been stored in an attic for many years but she didn't take any notice of the diaries. 

A few years later Jacy is moving house after the death of her husband and decides to send the trunk of papers off to auction.

Luckily at auction the papers were bought by Shaun Sewell, an author who had an interest in old diaries and he realised what a treasure they were. He managed to track Jacy Wall and an editor - Barbara Fox, who had also published books about wartime and together they were able to edit and publish the diaries in book form in 2017.There is also a page at the end of the book telling what happened to Evelyn and Rex after they returned to England and Rex retired.

A really good story.

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Thistledown and Ice Cream

 Schools are finished for the long summer holiday so I expected the weather to turn wet and horrible this weekend. And sure enough,  thunderstorms are forecast for Monday and showers all next week - I'll get those cards made that were on yesterdays post! Thank you for the comments about them and to the many comments on my post about the Commonwealth war graves. Please go back and read them from around the world if you didn't see them all.

So what's been happening this week (After tennis) promised not to mention it again so it's whispered in small letters.

Last Monday was quite breezy and all day the garden was filled with thistledown and as it was hot doors and windows were open so very  soon there was nearly as many inside. The hedges, shrubs and cobwebs  caught so many and indoors they also found all the cobwebs that I miss - like under the wood-burner!

Here are a few caught on the cobwebs on the whirly washing line

On Tuesday a butterfly that hadn't visited so far this summer popped in. A lovely Comma and then  there was rain in the evening - not a lot but every little helps.

 

Great British Sewing Bee is back on TV. I watch in envy at what they can whip up in 30 minutes - it would take me that long to set up the thread!

On Wednesday I had the last of six in the arthritis management and exercise course. My knee is definitely feeling less painful - especially at night - but stairs will still be a problem - if I had any to use here. Starting in six weeks time I'm going to do another more general exercise thing for another six week course called something like 'move and thrive?' Free again and run by the same young physio fella and same exercises as the eight we've been doing but with a few extras thrown in - cycle and treadmill. I forgot to ask how long it lasts each time - much less than an hour I hope - not sure how I'll get on either. 

Friends from Essex visited on Thursday for a couple of hours. I don't see them as often as when Col was alive and we were at the smallholding- we had a good catch up as they hadn't been up since November.

Friday I decided on a trip down to the sea before the weather changes- hadn't been this year at all. I underestimated just how hot it was so after a walk along the prom - the big wheel was shut - I'm still waiting to go on it sometime, and  a whippy ice cream  I went into town where it was even hotter and popped into the huge second-hand bookshop where I found an old Nevil Shute book.

Then home again through the horrible roadworks over the Orwell Bridge - which have been holding people up for weeks.

No plans to go to Felixstowe again this year - it's not worth the hassle. The A14 has become a real problem - as busy as any motorway but only two lanes and numerous junctions, frequent accidents and incidents.

At home the garden was once again full of thistledown - I reckon it's coming from the huge field down the road that's going to be a building site sometime next year - unless the company that own it sell it on again. I know of two new new housing estates nearby where building work has stopped -money problems with both is supposedly the reason. The government say how many houses are needed and have to be built but when 100s are built at the same time there's not enough people to buy them! 

Whoop Whoop, new series of Karen Pirie starts on ITV Sunday evening!  based on a book by Val McDermid (I've never been able to get into her books for some reason) . Better re-watch the first series as it was on in 2022 which seems an age ago now.

Back Next Week

I Wasn't Supposed To Be Buying.................

 ....................card making bits.

 

Most of my card crafting stuff went to charity shops or was sold at car boot sales. I've kept my cross stitching threads, aida, some small kits and card blanks, sticky fixers and a few other bits - just in case.

But this, seen at last Sundays boot sale, just appealed and has everything included to make a black, silver and gold owl card.

And then the lady said "there's another nice pack to make more bird cards in the pile too" as she looked through and handed me this pack that has everything to make 8 cards.

and I found myself buying the lot for £2.50.

Bother!

Then I went home before I could be talked into anything else and made a note-to-self  NO MORE CARDS NEEDED!.

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Commonwealth War Graves

 Something I don't think I've mentioned before is that many Suffolk Churches that I visit have signs on their fences or gates telling everyone there are Commonwealth War  Graves there. The grave stones are always the same design and most date from WWII. Airmen were often buried in the villages where their planes crashed or where they were based rather than going back to their home country, city, town or village.

At Ringshall, with it's proximity to Wattisham Airfield there are many military graves. This row below are all from WWII , and it's always sad to see how young the men were, and how far they came to fly here during the war.

There are also a long line of more recent military graves from after the war, with well tended garden.

There must be more of a story for this one below as it says A. A. Bushell was a senior aircraftman -which means ground crew -  but was only 17 when he died in February 1961. 

There are no plane crashes or on site accidents listed for early 1961 so it's a mystery. 
But while looking online I found an horrific list of accidents and fatal crashes of Wattisham aircraft during the early 1950's. Including two pilots  who were killed when they were rehearsing for the Queens Coronation Flypast in 1953.

Ringshall was also the village where my Grandad and the Grandma I never knew had their small farm before the war ( I believe they lost some land to the airfield). It was the place my Dad grew up , but there are no family burials in the churchyard.

This photo has been on the blog before but it shows my Grandparents - on the binder and holding the horse. With my step dad, real dad and aunt on horseback on the Ringshall farm. About 1930.

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St. Catherine's Church, Ringshall

 Ringshall was a small village among fields like so many other villages until a large area of land there was taken for RAF Wattisham at the beginning of the war. RAF Wattisham changed to an Army Air Corps Apache Helicopter force base in 1993 and occupies a large area of land with the villages of Wattisham, Ringshall and Gt Bricett on it's boundaries.

Ringshall church is about two miles from the village centre off the road up a short track on a rise. The tower is unusual as it hasn't had much alteration since it was built in late Norman times.

Stepping in is like stepping into a Suffolk barn with it's rough cut oak beams and rafters, probably reused when the church, like so many others was restored by the Victorians.

Outside you can see the beams and  massive pegs securing the rafters to the walls

and also on the tower you can see where the roof was lowered when it would have been changed from thatch to tiles in the C19

More recently work has been done replacing stone around some of the windows.

It was a gloomy day and a bit dark inside with the only colour being two Victorian stained glass windows in the sanctuary

More about Ringshall tomorrow

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St Swithin's Day

A well known weather saying that has - thankfully - never  proved correct.

St Swithin's Day, if thou dost rain

For forty days it will remain.

St Swithin's Day, if thou be fair

For forty days, twill rain no more.

It was especially wrong in 1976 when there were lots of violent thunderstorms with rain over night on the 15th and then for the next 40 days there was virtually no rain, leading to the hottest summer and worst drought in living memory.

[I was working on the mobile library which was before any sort of air conditioning, so we sweltered in a 'tin box' - day after day].

St Swithin was an English  monk who became Bishop of Winchester in 852 and died 10 years later. At his request he was buried in the churchyard rather than inside. On 15th July 971 his remains were moved to an appropriate resting place inside the Cathedral. This coincided with a period of heavy rain that lasted for 40 days - and that's how the prediction started. 

Another old rhyme, found in one of my folklore books - written in the 18th century

Now if on St Swithin's Feast the welkin lours,

And every pent house streams with hasty showers.

Twice twenty day shall clouds their fleeces drain,

And wash the pavements with incessant rain.

('welkin' is the sky and 'lours' means glowers or  threatens)

The picture comes from The Farmers Almanac website

Back soon.

PS Hooray to the BBC for Quizzy Mondays being ⅔ back - a small crumb after the weeks of tennis watching! and I promise no more mentions of tennis until next year!

All Over for Another Year and Just One Book

 I'm bereft!! The weeks of tennis watching are over for another year. It was sad to see Alfie Hewitt and Gordon Reid lose their wheelchair doubles final on Saturday and then AH must have been exhausted as he lost his singles on Sunday. Good to see wheelchair tennis becoming more important at Wimbledon, playing on main courts with big crowds.

Then it was the men's final, just like the final at the French Open five weeks earlier it was a really good game and this time Jannik Sinner came out on top. The first Italian to win the Wimbledon men's championship.  I think this is how it's going to be for many years ahead - two brilliant young players battling it out at every tournament.

 I went to the Saturday boot-sale early and it was already huge and crowded, it started cloudy but then the sun came through and it was suddenly Very Hot.

Many of the people selling are there every week, so by now I've seen most of the junk about twenty times before.

But I hadn't seen this book before so just spent 50p, nothing else and by the time I'd been three quarters of the way round I'd had enough - it was getting hotter so home for breakfast.

I'd not come across this book anywhere and it turns out to be a collection of short stories "inspired by remarkable trees" written by students of the University of Suffolk Creative Writing course.

Might be interesting or it might not! It's been added to the shelves with my other Suffolk books to read sometime.

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Saturday 12th

 More tennis watching all week. Yesterday's semi's were very different, in the first there was a good fight between Carlos Alcaraz and Taylor Fritz but then Djokovic was knocked out easily by Jannik Sinner, the number 1 seed and so Wimbledon is over 😢 bar the finals but there are the two British guys in the men's doubles final, which is on before the ladies singles finals today and Alfie Hewett and Gordon Reid defending their title in the men's wheelchair doubles final, also today. It's unusual for the Ladies and Men's singles finals to be scheduled later on Centre Court today and tomorrow (not before 4pm it says). Usually they are up first.

There was more heat this week although not too bad Tuesday so there were 10 of us at our Keep Moving group. The temperatures here  weren't as hot as a couple of weeks ago and not as hot as other parts of the country - high 20s ℃ (mid 80s) ℉  rather than low 30s  and  cooler at night so not too bad for sleeping with freezer icepacks wrapped in tea-towels and  gel cool pads working well

Apart from all the normal house work jobs I don't seem to have done much or achieved much this week, although I did make another batch of the Sweet and Sour Cucumber pickle. Strimming round the veg bed edges was quickly done but haven't needed to cut the grass this week. Getting some of the weeds out of the driveway shingle out the front was on the list again - but it was too hot for that job.

Shopping was only a quick very early trip to Aldi - don't need many veg now with courgettes and beans doing well here and beetroot from BiL's garden. I found milk had gone up in price again. From £1.45 just a few months ago to £1.55 and this week £1.65 for 4 pints semi-skimmed. That means cheese and butter prices will also rise soon.

Obligatory photo of the first (almost) ripe tomato! Mini Plum variety

and the size of Giant plum variety Big Mama - still green - when they are ripe they'll be made into Red Hot Relish.

I've now done 5 out of the 6 weeks of the arthritis exercise and management course. I shall be glad to finish as going to something that starts at 1 o'clock  -  neither morning or afternoon  -  seems to spoil the whole day! (and THAT surely is a sign of getting old). Next I can either see a physio again, carry on just doing the exercises at home or do another 6 week  general exercise thing. That starts at 11am so a better time.

In between everything else there has been reading of course, two library books were abandoned, so now reading from my shelves until mobile van visit toward the end of the month - there are already nine ready for me to collect.

And that was the week  finished again.

Have a good weekend, not sure what's happening apart from staying out of the heat and watching the last of the tennis. It doesn't seem long ago that I would be sitting out and enjoying the sun but they say skin gets thinner as you age and I certainly feel burnt even with Factor 50, so best to stay in.

Back Monday

Short of Ideas - Have a look at July 2015

 HERE'S a post from smallholding days 10 years ago .July 2015 

For context - this was a year or so after Colin had heart problems and stents done, when we had decided to sell the smallholding and do some travelling while we could. We never got to do that because the smallholding took months to sell and  by November 2015 the first symptoms of  Non Hodgkins Lymphoma had started to appear and it was  diagnosed properly in March 2016.

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Found One!

 I knew I would find one at a car-boot sale eventually. A very small plate stand for that very small  Brambly Hedge spring display plate. Now I'm ready for March  next year.

 

It cost me all of 20p. 

Well, there might have been many seeds going out in the Men's singles early on at this years Wimbledon but three out of the  four men left in the semis could have been predicted from the start.

Just have to hope Carlos Alcaraz can go on to win .

There are still two Brits in the Men's Doubles and Gordon Reid and Alfie Hewitt are through to the semis in the wheelchair doubles, hoping to defend their title.

Both those matches are today.

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Wasps

 Who invented wasps? and why? What nasty trick was God playing that day!?

There were three pears on my young pear tree ...................

............................now there are none.

And this is why. A friend said they sting the pears which gives them a way in to the flesh, but they don't. - they just nibble their way in, especially when the weather is dry and they are looking for moisture as well as food.

Actually on closer inspection the critter on the pear above could be a young hornet, it flew away anyway so didn't get killed. I'm sure it's not one of the invasive Yellow Legged or Asian hornets - thankfully.

Definitely smaller common wasps below on a blurry photo as I didn't get too close for this photo of dozens of them on the pear that had fallen off.

I'd already killed dozens more the day before that were on the ground drunk and dazed after they'd had their fill of the first pear.

I've not been stung yet this year - thankfully, but there must be a nest not too far away for there to be this many all at once, so it may yet happen. 

Yes,  they are good for pollination and some feed on aphids and carrion. But I'm still not a fan.

And isn't it odd that if a cat, dog or human gets stung in the mouth by a wasp it can be a nasty business, but birds eat wasps with no problem. A young Thrush was picking up the wasps that had fallen drunk from pear juice onto the grass, giving them a good shake and eating with no ill effects.

The wasps will be needing moisture over the next few days - as will the humans- the temps are set to rise for another mini heatwave ....that's an English heatwave not a Hot Country heatwave!  

Back Soon

More Cucumbers Than I Thought and Tennis News

 Yesterday there was a good match with the young good looking 23 year old Italian Flavio Cobolli (I'd never heard of him 'til this year) beating Cilic. Both had knocked out British players previously. Then I turned over and found Djokovic was a set down - losing it 6-1 !- did that last? No! He won.

There are a large number of Italian men playing nowadays, when I was a teenager the tournament had mainly American and Australian players, now it's Spain and Italy who seem to be bringing on new young players all the time.

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My two cucumber plants are growing well but I've not really left them enough space - I'm used to growing in pots rather than the growbags I got to use this year to save shifting heavy pots later and to save money on compost. I can just about get the watering can nozzle between all the leaves and into the compost for watering and even though I nipped off some growing tips the plants are still heading across the floor and will soon be out the door!

There were definitely two cucumbers hiding among the leaves but turned out there were 5. [These are the two plants that I bought at a boot sale and are they shorter rather than longer variety].

Plenty enough to make some of  the Sweet and Sour Cucumber pickle that I enjoyed so much last winter. The recipe is on the separate recipe page but I decided not to use onions in it this year as I like the chunks of cucumber and celery but the small bits of onion are a pain to fish out of the jar ( I need a Victorian pickle spoon - those Victorians had something for every eventuality!). I also don't use the cloves.

It made just 3 and a bit 12oz jars, which won't last me long through the winter so I'm hoping for another good flush of cucumbers to make more.

Back Soon

St Mary's Church, Little Finborough

It was about time I visited another Suffolk church and I'd read that this one is always open during the day in summer.

 This is a tiny church in a small parish south west of Stowmarket, there is no proper village, just farms and houses dotted in the middle of undulating arable land..

To get to the church you have to park at the gateway of the neighbouring farm house and follow the track to find the church hidden among the trees.

A Simple two-celled building with a bell-cote with origins in the C14 but it's been restored as so many were by the Victorians 

The church had no electricity until about 30 years ago and the tiled floor was restored very recently when the original tiles were found to be early C20.

Very Simple font and cover

This large panel below showing The Lord's prayer came here from the redundant church at nearby Wattisham.

About 20 years ago part of an original 14th Century wall painting was uncovered, it's impossible to see but it's a figure in red and yellow ochre with one arm raised

Thankfully there's a description

Up above where nave and sanctuary join is the coat of arms of George III. Royal arms were set in this position by decree of Elizabeth 1st but usually they were moved to the back of the church during Victorian restoration

The church is only used for a service once a month in winter and twice a month in summer but there are colourful kneelers for the worshippers.

Back Soon

Extra

 Cam Norrie has just won and is in to quarter finals - last Brit in singles.

The rain rained hard and fast and the water butts are full!

Back Tomorrow

The Week

 Hot, even hotter, a few spots of rain, cooler but humid and then sunny and hot but not too hot ............... we love our English weather and talking about it!

After deciding it was too hot for our  Keep Moving Group on Tuesday thank goodness it was cooler for the Arthritis Management and Exercise group - couldn't really drop out of that one. 

The tennis watching has taken priority over everything else all week - except doing the necessary things, even the  shopping trip was very early to get home again in plenty of  time for the start. 

Got myself a new Take-a-Break puzzle magazine while I was out- I always start with the 16 x 16 Sudoku -  but never get to finish it by the time I've done almost all of the other  160 different puzzles in the book. Word-searches are my least favourite but I do enjoy the codewords and piece words. There must be a trick to the big Sudoku  that I don't know.

In between watching tennis I've been reading 'The Wild' by Kristin Hannah - it is a good read, although it keeps making me cry so I'm not reading much at a time. I've only gone and ordered another of her books that the library don't have. Luckily abebooks had a cheap copy. I decided one second-hand book a month is 'allowed' (unless I  go to a charity book sale then there is no limit!)

So many jobs undone and too much heat meant that Friday morning I really had to get outside early and get on with some garden stuff. Scraping weeds out of patio joints - Again - pouring boiling water on the roots remaining - Again. I cut all the dead heads off the huge red rose out the front border too, hope it will encourage more to grow. The front border is as hard as concrete - the grass in the back garden is getter browner. No rain forecast to help either.

Beans, cucumber and courgettes from the garden - so all is well in Suffolk!

And Cam Norrie and Sonay Kartal both got through to the 4th round. Emma Raducanu was still playing when I turned off the lap top so I hope she got through too. There are several Brits still in the doubles , they don't get much of a mention.

Have a good weekend - I'll be back Monday.

About the Books I've Been Reading

 A couple of weeks ago I wrote about a book that annoyed me as it seemed to give wrong details about how much people would have known about what was going on at Bletchley Park during WWII.

Then I read the first by a new- to-me author - Christina Koning - that was also about Bletchley Park and in this story there is much more about how secret it was and how no one talked about what they were doing. ( I reserved it because of the title, without looking to find out about it )

 The main character in this book is Frederick Rowlands a man who was blinded in WWI but is able to be a "detective" and help the police with murder enquiries because he has an excellent memory and uses all the senses that he has, noticing things that other people don't.

This is the 8th in a series.

Spring, 1941. The Second World War has entered a dangerous phase, with British ships being torpedoed in the Atlantic and nightly bombing raids on major ports. At Bletchley Park, top secret home of the nation's code-breakers, the race is on to crack the German Enigma code and thus prevent further naval and military losses. This endeavour is suddenly very close to home for Frederick Rowlands, blind veteran of the Great War, when his daughter, Margaret, who works at 'the Park' as a cryptographer, is arrested on suspicion of betraying secrets to the enemy

.

Now I've just read another, the 7th which goes back to 1939 in the lead up to war when Frederick is asked by an old friend to go to Dublin, where her husband has been getting death threats.

What surprises me in these books is how well a man who cannot see, except to tell light from dark and to make out vague shapes, is able to move around - even in places he hasn't been before but I can't get annoyed with this because I've never known anyone blind so have no idea how real this is!

The Fantastic Fiction website has more information and from this site it looks as if the author has written 9 books in two years which would be a fairly amazing feat, but delving deeper I discovered that actually the first books were published over 10 years ago and have just been republished by different publishers in a new format, which is how and why they've only now appeared in the library.

Really it would have made much more sense for me to have started at the beginning - if I'd realised there were 7 to read before the Bletchley one! The first  - The Blind Detective [Originally published as 'Line of Sight']- is now reserved and will be waiting for me at the end of the month when the mobile is next around. Then maybe I'll find out more about Frederick and his family and his blindness.

Back Tomorrow

PS............... Happy 4th of July to readers across the pond!

PPS - Guessed Cilic would beat Jack Draper - sadly. Although Cilic always seems a good bloke, nicer than some others. 19 mens seeds out  leaving things to Carlos, Novak the misery and Jannik (who is the most un-Italian looking Italian - if you follow )

 All on Cam Norrie today then!

The Good and the UPF

 The contrast between the good and the weird.

From a couple of weeks ago........... a home made quiche - very rough looking shortcrust pastry case - my pastry cases would never win a prize -  filled with  vegetables (onion, peppers, sweetcorn, peas and tomato) and cheese, egg and milk. Because it had so much filling it fed me for 5 days rather than 4 which is good - no thinking needed.

And the Weird ........the cheap 53p sponge mix from Asda that I'd seen mentioned as a good bargain. It doesn't appear online either in ' Baking' or 'Just Essentials' but it was on the shelves in store. .

The ingredients seem to be mainly flour, sugar and oils with some complicated raising agents.

How can this small amount possible make a cake I wondered and would it be edible with only an egg and water added? Only one way to find out.

This is what it looked like, using 6 inch cake tins as specified. I mixed up a small amount of buttercream icing and the very last from a jar of strawberry jam made two years ago for a filling. 

Tried a slice (⅛ )with my afternoon cuppa - it was edible but a slightly artificial taste although lighter and fluffier than my home made sponges which always seem to come out more solid than light. Useful as an occasional  quick and  cheap  tummy filler I guess or a cheap way to make sponge for an old fashioned trifle.

It actually tasted better on day two for some reason, not sure how dry it will be by day 8!.

Tennis news...........................There were 4 British men playing yesterday, all predicted to lose which wasn't surprising considering they were playing people seeded much higher, especially Oliver Tarvet playing Alcaraz, although he put up a good fight . But Cam Norrie played really well and beat Tiafoe.

(I'd scheduled this post and switched off the lap top before Arthur Fery played so he might have been a winner. ) I don't take much notice of women's tennis as you can tell!

Weather news........cooler but Mid Suffolk missed out on heavy rain with just a few showers, water butts now empty. I'll be using mains water for watering for the foreseeable as there's no rain forecast for a week at least.

Back Tomorrow