End of July Round-Up, Frugal and Otherwise.

 Lots of my blog posts through July seem to have been about books and also tennis until mid-month, hardly any car boot finds but I did get out on some church visits - and found them open which is always useful.

The usual income was the state pension and Suffolk County Council spouses pension and some interest on savings.

On the frugal front the month started well as on the 1st I sold my cycle for £10, it had been standing in the garage for over two years, ever since I somehow fell off while getting on. I gave it a wash down and stood it out the front chained to a tree with a price ticket. It sold in 3 days. Falling off and 'the knee' and the busy roads here had put me right off something I'd been doing and loving since I was little. Sad. When we bought the bike about 25 years ago I said I wanted a good one to see me out. I cycled miles with it when we were at the smallholding, because for many years we only had one vehicle which Colin used for work. I often came home loaded up with shopping in the back and front baskets. I'm annoyed at how I lost confidence so quickly - never thought that would happen. Perhaps an electric trike would get me out again!

Outgoings were the usual fixed ones of Council tax, phone and broadband and charity plus the variable monthly electric bill and the annual renewal of virus protection which all totalled  £337. I filled the car up with diesel twice this month but the second time was just on Tuesday so it will last me most of August unless I have more than the usual adventures.

Other spending was mainly just small things like a couple of new dish-wash brushes, dish washer tabs, screen wash for the car, Niger seed for the goldfinches and the window cleaner was round again.

My personal spending was some second-hand books, card making bits, exercise group, jigsaw puzzle, puzzler book. Underwear from Morrisons for £5.The Yaoh hemp based  lip balm that I use is now difficult to find and has really gone up in price - it's the only one I've found that doesn't irritate - and believe me I've tried all sorts. I ordered two and will keep one in the fridge until needed.

Food spending would have been low if  I'd not treated YD and EGD for a pub lunch, had coffee out once and breakfast at Greggs twice (their £2.95 bargain) plus pensioners discount Fish and Chips meal from the local chip shop!

I thought of a few frugal bits that have happened this month to make up for those spendy extravagances!

• Beetroot from Brother in Law's garden. I gave him the packet of seed and he sowed an extra row so I can share all summer.
• Lots of green beans all month, enough to put  a few in the freezer
• Courgettes all month
• And Cucumbers
• And mini plum tomatoes although they have tough skins which I'm not enjoying
• A few figs - rescued  before they are really ready, to avoid the wasps.

Slightly under-ripe but still very tasty and beating the wasps!

• Put away several jars of sweet and sour cucumber and celery pickle for winter.
• And a couple of jars of cucumber Bread and Butter pickle
• Made 6 jars of marrow, apricot and ginger jam.
• Used my very poor examples of aubergines + one bought to make 10 portions of aubergine and tomato pasta sauce which worked out at less than 40p each.
• As usual dishwasher only used every other day or so.
• Washing machine usually just twice a week
• Washing dried outside all month
• Got first lot of diesel for car when visiting YD as it was 9p a litre cheaper than here.
• Eggs from farm gate stall still £1 for half a dozen
• Free Physio exercise course
• Nothing spent on garden, bathroom things, laundry, 'products', gifts or postage this month.

All in all a low spend month.

So what does August look like? Again there shouldn't be too many extra big expenses - the only one I know being the half year water and sewage bill.

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St Andrew's Church, Barningham

 Across country to the Suffolk/Norfolk border to St Andrew's Church Barningham.

I opened the door and a voice from inside said " you're rather early for the wedding!". A lady was busy inside tidy things away and getting ready for a wedding which was a couple of hours later. I had plenty of time for photos and the lady was able to point out some of the special features.

Difficult for a good photo of the whole church as the churchyard surrounding it isn't very big

View down the Nave to the chancel and altar. The pew ends were decorated with flowers for the wedding.

C15 Rood screen,  the gates were added in the 17th Century 200 years after the screen was constructed. The step has been raised and lowered over the years because at one time steps up to the chancel were thought to be Popish and superstitious.  

Unusual to be able to see the steps that would have led to the rood loft where candles were positioned. Often the steps are more inside the walls. 

The East window

On the wall in the sanctuary. The lower brass is for one of the clergy, William Goche from 1499

Behind the altar is this huge painting of the Last Supper

This is an oddity - it is a painted wooden board with the inscription Flagellatus est IHC sancta trinitas unus deus. Sepultus IHC. These are words from the Catholic liturgy for Holy Saturday and could be part of a movable Easter Sepulchre of the 15th or 16th Century. If it is, it would be a unique survival in East Anglia. (info from Simon Knotts Suffolk Churches website)

Something made for the church a few years ago

There are many interesting medieval carved pew ends, real animals and the weird and mysterious,   many have become damaged over the last 600 years

Font and cover

I hope the wedding went well.

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Suffolk Churches Visited A-Z

Apologies! ............This post is really just for me.

 It's an A-Z  list of the Suffolk Churches I've visited since 2018. It was a book published to celebrate 100 years of the Diocese of St Edmundsbury and Ipswich called '100 Treasures in 100 Suffolk Churches' that started it all, and I still haven't been to all 100 in the book but have visited many more, especially those local to home,  that aren't mentioned.

There are over 700 churches in Suffolk so a long way to go as yet.

Now this post will be in Labels and makes it easy to check where I've been!

Sometime - when there is time - in winter maybe - I'll make links so that clicking on a church will link to the actual post written about it. It'll take days!

1. Aldeburgh
2. Alderton
3. Aspal
4. Bacton
5. Badingham
6. Badwell Ash
7. Bardwell
8. Barningham
9. Battisford
10. Bedingfield
11. Blythburgh
12. Botesdale
13. Bramfield
14. Bramford
15. Brantham
16. Brent Eleigh
17. Brome
18. Brundish
19. Burgate
20. Burgh
21. Bury St Edmunds Cathedral
22. Bury St Edmunds St Johns
23. Bury St Edmunds St Marys
24. Buxhall
25. Chelsworth
26. Chillisford
27. Clare
28. Coddenham
29. Combs
30. Cotton
31. Cratfield
32. Creetings - lost churches
33. Crowfield
34. Debach
35. Debenham
36. Dennington
37. Earl Stonham
38. East Bergholt
39. Elmsett
40. Eye
41. Eyke
42. Felixstowe
43. Felsham
44. Finningham
45. Framlingham
46. Friston
47. Gipping
48. Gislingham
49. Great Ashfield
50. Great Barton
51. Great Bricett
52. Great Finborough
53. Great Livermere
54. Grundisburgh
55. Hadleigh
56. Haughley
57. Hepworth
58. Hemingstone
59. Hessett
60. Hinderclay
61. Hitcham
62. Hollesley
63. Hoo
64. Hopton
65. Hoxne
66. Iken
67. Ipswich St Mary Le Tower
68. Ipswich St Mary At Elms
69. Kenton
70. Kettlebaston
71. Lavenham
72. Little Finborough
73. Little Saxham
74. Mellis
75. Mendlesham
76. Monks Eleigh
77. Needham Market
78. Oakley
79. Occold
80. Old Newton
81. Orford
82. Palgrave
83. Pettistree
84. Playford
85. Preston St Mary
86. Rattlesden
87. Redgrave 
88. Rickinghall Inferior
89. Rickinghall Superior
90. Ringshall
91. Rushmere
92. Saxmundham
93. Shelland
94. Sibton
95. South Elmham
96. Southwold
97. Stoke Ash
98. Stonham Aspal
99. Stonham Parva
100. Stowmarket
101. Stowupland
102. Stuston
103. Swilland
104. Theberton
105. Thorndon
106. Thornham Magna
107. Thornham Parva
108. Ufford
109. Walsham le Willows
110. Westhorpe
111. Westleton
112. Wetherden
113. Wickham Market
114. Wickham Skeith
115. Wilby
116. Winston
117. Woodbridge
118. Woolpit
119. Worlingworth
120. Wortham
121. Wyverstone
122. Yaxley
123. Yoxford

The July Library Book Photo

Brought home from the library van last week, all except one were books I'd reserved online.

There are a four here by authors I've not read, including the British Library Crime Classic and three others were read so long ago they hardly count as re-reads (R F Delderfield and two by Nevil Shute). The others are crime fiction by authors read before.

Among the crime fiction are the first and second in a series by Christina Koning that I mentioned back at the beginning of July I read the 8th which I'd reserved because of its title and the Bletchley Park wartime link and regretted not realising it was the 8th. Since collecting the new library books last week I've now read the first - 'The Blind Detective'  so now I can make sense of the story of how a man who is blind is friends with a police detective and is able to help with crime solving.

The say don't judge a book by it's cover - but the covers of this series are very appealing I think.

 

I wondered what the covers were like when they were originally published over 10 years ago with different titles and when she was writing as A.C. Koning,  and found this. It's new title is the second in the series ' Murder in Regent's park'  which I also have here to read. 

It's interesting (to me anyway!) to track down the whys and wherefores of how books are republished, change titles, covers, publishers and become popular when they were previously almost unknown.

So unknown that the Fantastic Fiction website only has her listed with the new editions and published dates - no mention of the originals.

 The original title and cover doesn't really explain what the book is about so I think in this case it was a good idea to change titles and covers.

I've now reserved the 3rd, 4th and 5th but weirdly the library haven't got the 6th or 9th and the 10th is  being published (or republished?) in November. 

Looking back and these were the books I brought home in June, 4 out of the 6 were read - details on the books read 2025 page.

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The Last Saturday in July

 Thank you to everyone for comments on the post about Persephone Books that I didn't see until the next day as I must have turned off the lap top very early. It always seems too late to reply by then. Do people go back to day old posts to see if the blogger has replied to comments? 

What a different week of weather. The huge heat went and instead humidity and rain moved in, there was  rain nearly every day at some time except yesterday and Thursday was a real dismal drizzley day.

It didn't matter as I was in the kitchen using up 3 courgettes that had become long thin marrows which made six jars of marrow, apricot and ginger jam and was glad I'd brought in the marrows from the garden and the jars from the storeroom the day before while it was still fine.

I'm very fed up with the mini plum tomatoes this year, they look lovely but the skins are so tough that eating them means being left with a mouthful of tomato skin- which is really horrible. If they were bigger it would be best to skin them but being less than an inch long that would be a very fiddly job. The giant 'Big Mama' plum tomatoes that I want to use for my red hot chutney are still stubbornly green. I remembered to get red wine vinegar so that's ready for later.

The wasps that ate my 4 pears are now on the figs, I'm having to pick the figs just as they soften before fully brown. So annoying. Just hope they don't move into the greenhouse after the tomatoes.

Also fed up that I got to a run of sixty in the NYT wordle then had a fail yesterday, there were just too many five letter words with  ? O ? E R. I tried LOVER, SOBER, JOKER and even ROWER but not the word that it was - a weird one - GOFER . Ho Hum, still on 98% wins over 868 played so not so bad. Now need to start a new run. 

Another weekend with no plans, there doesn't seem to be much happening in any villages around about. Family are busy or away so guess I'll have to amuse myself again! You really do need to get used to doing things alone when widowed. 

Back Monday with the July Library Book Photo     

Two Saints Remembered on Their Day

 You know I'm short of ideas for blog posts if I get out the Saints Days book!

St Christopher and St James were both celebrated today 25th July.

Not much is known about St Christopher, he was probably first called Reprobus and was martyred in the third century. The  well known story is of him transporting travellers across a river and finding a child getting heavier and the river faster until the child said" I am Jesus Christ, the king who you serve in this work and on my shoulders I bear the burdens of the world" So Reprobus took the name Christopher which means 'Christ- bearer'.  He became the patron saint of  wayfarers and his image with child was often painted on the walls of churches in the middle ages.

From the book A Calendar of Saints this is part of a triptych by Dieric Bouts in a Munich museum.

Way back in history in London this would have been heard today, St James Day.............

Please to Remember the grotto,

It's only once a year.

Father's gone to sea,

Mother's gone to fetch him home,

So please remember me.

Children would make little grottoes, mainly using shells, pieces of broken glass and pottery and anything decorative they could find. Sitting by these they would chant the rhyme. The shells were used because the Scallop shell was the emblem of St James - one of the Disciples who later took Christianity to Spain.. Legend says when he was put to death by Herod Agrippa his remains were taken to Spain for burial. The site, Santiago de Compostela became the most important place of pilgrimage for Christians after Jerusalem and in the Middle Ages they would return wearing a scallop- shell emblem. 

It is just as popular today

The Camino de Santiago (Latin: Peregrinatio Compostellana, lit. 'Pilgrimage of Compostela'; Galician: O Camiño de Santiago),^[1] or the Way of St. James in English, is a network of pilgrims' ways or pilgrimages leading to the shrine of the apostle James in the cathedral of Santiago de Compostela in Galicia in northwestern Spain, where tradition holds that the remains of the apostle are buried. Pilgrims follow its routes as a form of spiritual path or retreat for their spiritual growth. It is also popular with hikers, cyclists, and organized tour groups.

On the latest series, which has just finished,  of the  Radio 4 programme Clare Balding presents, called "Ramblings" , she has been  walking and talking to people with connections to the pilgrimage walk. There is a link HERE if you are in this country. I'm not sure if it works elsewhere. I often listen if I'm awake early on Saturday mornings.

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It's Just Another Book Post

 I popped up to Diss to the computer shop so they could update my virus protection, I'd planned to do a tour of the charity shops while there but it started to rain five minutes after I parked - wasn't expecting that so no brolly with me. I dashed into the nearest two charity shops and had a lucky find with a Persephone book I'd never seen before, and only £1.

Love the cover of this.......... 'Girl Reading' by Harold Knight 1932

It's a very short book, won't take much reading.

Persephone Books  are few and far between second-hand, my last one found was in October at the Westleton Charity Book sale. They only seem to be publishing two new books each year now, often reprinting books from their back catalogue with new covers instead. Now way more expensive than a few years ago. I get an email newsletter from them a couple of times a year but since brexit they've got a bit political which is a shame, but I still scan the shelves  of charity shops for their grey cover books.

While waiting for  mobile library day,  with another 12 books coming for me, I looked on the library website to see which of Val McDermid's   Karen Pirie series were on library shelves anywhere around and found a copy of 'Out of Bounds', the 4th in the series, was on the shelves at Needham Market so called in there after the church visit last weekend. It was a good story which I enjoyed and as they seem to be filming a new TV series of only one book in three years it might be 2031 before this book gets made, I'm sure I'll have forgotten the story by then!

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St Mary and St Lawrence, Great Bricett

Despite living in Suffolk for 70 years there are many parts of the County that I don't know so well and I'd no idea there was once a priory in this village. 

What is left is now the church of St Mary and St Lawrence in the village of Great Bricett. Looking very different to other Suffolk Churches.

The notice board has some information

The Priory of St Leonard was established around 1110 - 1114.It was a daughter house to the Church of St Leonard at Noblat in Limoges, France. The clergy were Canons who came here from France (that's why they were know as Alien).

 

There were guidebooks in the church so I bought one for a better look at the history, which is complicated but the Wiki page is HERE

The front cover of the information book has an old painting from 1850 - the porch must have been added later.

Inside there are many signs of the age of the building. The font dates from the Norman period.

Looking down the nave, the plastic is protecting things from bats!

The bottom part of the window also had stained glass until it was damaged in WWII. Great Bricett is another village on the edge of Wattisham Airfield, which was RAF Wattisham at that time.

The stairs up to the long gone Rood Loft that would have separated nave from chancel

This window below is made up of sections from other windows.

Information boards about the Priory and it's history

The house on the left is attached to the church and is more of the remains of the priory

The Chancel end from outside once had side chapel attached

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It Really Did Rain

 There was plenty of rain yesterday morning to make up for the weeks without any. It came down hard early morning and the guttering was overflowing, maybe it was full of the moss washed off the roof. I'll need to get out with the step-ladder and gloves sometime to scoop out what I can reach.

It was a really good day for getting things done indoors and I turned cucumbers and onion into 3 jars of Bread and Butter pickle. A bit different to the Sweet and Sour Cucumber pickle already made. The first has sliced cucumber and onions and the Sweet and Sour has chunked cucumber and celery.

Then I blanched and froze a big bundle of French green beans and meanwhile the bread-maker was chugging away making a 50/50 wholemeal/white bread.

I like the Met Office website where you can see the rain clouds coming in from the west and then moving away.

I didn't get to see part one of the new Karen Pirie series on Sunday night as I was watching the golf highlights (suffering sport withdrawal symptoms from the end of tennis so watching The Tour and The Open Golf to make up!) So yesterday afternoon I watched the first part of K.P.. It only needed a quick look at part one of series one to remind me about it. I picked up one of the books from Needham Mkt library when I was out Sunday to see how I get on with it.

 Why do  we have such short series over here? A series run of crime drama in the States could be 22 or more - here it's 6 if we're lucky. ITV have several other crime dramas returning this Autumn - seen the trails but can't remember what they were

In the evening the other third of quizzy Mondays was back which is good. Only Connect is my favourite of the three.

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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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