The August Library Book Photo

 Collected these books I'd reserved on-line from the mobile library.

An old Rumer Godden that I've not read plus 4 various Non Fiction. 

But, as usual, mostly crime fiction. Two are collections of short stories, two are by authors I've not read before and the rest are by tried and trusted authors.

They should keep me out of mischief for the next few weeks.

 

Four weeks ago I collected these below

I read nine of them. Details on the Books Read 2025 Page.  I've  still got the very fat R F Delderfield book. It's got so many people in the first few pages that I got lost. I have read it before - back in the 1970's - maybe I had more patience then -might try it again if I'm short of reading. 

For goodness sake don't read Nevil Shute's 'In The Wet' if you are offended by language in common use when the book was written in 1953. I looked on a review of it somewhere on line and a person was Horrified and counted how many times a certain word we no longer use was actually in the book! Which I thought rather strange for someone who was so disgusted!

Have a good Bank Holiday weekend - if you are in the UK. I'm doing nothing exciting which will give me plenty of time for reading.

Short Break

 Thanks to everyone for comments on yesterdays post.

Nothing much to write about, so having a few days off blogging. I'll be back with the August Library Book Photo in a few days.

Dragonflies

 It came in the wide open door and crashed around at the window, then it thought it was stuck (the window was just open a fraction) and stayed still for me to take a photo.

It went in a hurry when I opened the window fully.

They really are strange creatures. Years ago when I worked in Stowmarket old library we used to get them coming in all the time in summer. The library was surrounded by trees, cool and shaded in summer. Sometimes people in the library were terrified, no idea why as they aren't dangerous all we could do was  to open all the windows and hope the dragonflies would find their way out.

Did you know there are around 3,000  species, most live in tropical regions with 36 species in the UK. Such an ancient creature that their ancestors were around even earlier than the dinosaurs. Some are incredibly colourful - all that beauty for a lifespan of 7 - 56 days.

 I think this one is quite common -  Ophiogomphus cecilia or green snake-tail (once I started looking at all the dragonfly pictures on different websites, things got very confusing). If I've identified correctly it says the species is viable and stable - there is no concern for population decrease. Although apparently in the last 60 years two other species have vanished from the UK.

More Info HERE on one of the many websites I looked at.

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Boxes, Lids and Coincidences

If you read crime fiction then you will know that at sometime the detective always says  "I don't believe in coincidences".

And I wouldn't have believed this, but it did happen.

This is a blog post I'd written last week right ready for posting sometime this week.

 I've been using these boxes from Lakeland for many, many years. They are so handy as the lids fit all three sizes . They've lasted ages and I've occasionally bought a new pack of one or other of the three sizes over the years when some have split or got discoloured.

But how have I ended up with 9 various sized  boxes in the drawer at the moment but 17 lids??

If they're used to  give away cheese scones to BiL for instance or are in the freezer they would be box and lid.

I know where three boxes are in use without lids.  One large one I use to knock the used coffee grounds into and one medium size is in the cupboard holding the little bottles of food colourings and essences, and another is in the fridge with the latest picking of my mini plum tomatoes. But that still leaves 5 spare lids.

So do I throw out the spare lids or hang onto them just in case?  

 That was where that post ended.

But then I found these at the boot sale on Saturday.

Three more of the larger boxes with lids, thought I might as well add to the collection as they were in one of the house clearance boxes and the lady only wanted 50p for all three.

Writing a post about them and then finding some - coincidences DO happen after all.

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Saturday. Mid August.

The 4th heatwave of the year didn't seem to be as hot as predicted here in Mid Suffolk, although that might be because I didn't do anything much outside after about 10 in the morning!  I wondered what actually constituted a heatwave and found..........................

England has entered its fourth heatwave of the summer, with a number of places seeing temperatures higher than 30C on Tuesday. Areas in South West England, the South West Midlands, North West England and East Anglia met heatwave criteria, by having three consecutive days above a certain temperature.

Tuesday wasn't too hot early on and we managed to get through the exercises at the Keep Moving Group without melting too much and Wednesday there was a lot of cloud. On Thursday a bit of a breeze kept things comfortable indoors but on Friday things got hot, hot, and hotter.

One of these days I'll get a new outdoor thermometer and then I'll know exactly how hot it is.

Temperatures next week should be back to average for  August, many will be grateful.

 I've put 2½lb of the giant tomatoes into the freezer so far - that was just 5 tomatoes, there are  plenty more still to turn red, not quite as big as those first 5 but still a good size. The other things needed for my favourite chutney are red peppers, red chilli peppers, red onions and  red wine vinegar. I've got the vinegar and will buy the other things when I get around to making the chutney later in the year.

Some years I'm able to use my own peppers, but there are so few this year and some will be yellow anyway - when they eventually turn from green.

The climbing green beans have finished and I was going to pull them up but couldn't get them or the canes out of the rock solid ground. That job will have to wait until we get rain although  I did pull up the squash plants - they'd never done well and they had flowers that just hadn't set.

There's fireworks over the road in the churchyard tonight - the church have a Patronal Festival thing - something to do with The Assumption of Our Lady. They follow that with hot dogs/burgers and a specially brewed local beer! I've only ever seen the fireworks  once since being here as it was cancelled one year because it was so dry and another year because it poured with rain and last year I was away with the family.  Hope it's not too dry this year as I love a free fireworks  display!

Have a good weekend, not sure what I'm doing apart from standing on my doorstep at 8.45pm!.

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Stitching

 Brownie-Guide badges are all different colours. I sowed 14 onto her Brownie sash for EGD this week - probably a years worth! I try to use cottons the same colour as the edges of the badges. There were two different yellows, three different blues as well as pink edged and red. 

Once upon a time I had a huge collection of different colours cottons but at some time I didn't have room for them all in my sewing box and  must have got rid. So had to use the best match I could find.

Anyway, they are all on ready for the new term in September. 

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Festival of Ceramics................

.........they call it Potfest. 

This happens only a few miles from home so this year I decided to go and have a look.

Perhaps The Great Pottery Throw Down on TV has sparked a bigger interest in beautiful hand made pottery than ever before, because there were crowds there and it was only the first day.

Several large marquees with nearly 100 potters and sculptors showing their wares. They've come from all over the UK.

Just a few photos as there were so many people around.

There was one area with a demonstration of Raku - wouldn't have know what this was until the TV programme.

This below reminded me of a ship's figurehead from Tudor times - very clever but  I'm not sure I'd want any of these large pottery sculptures  in the house

Lovely lot of pestle and mortar. With large storage jars reminiscent of Doulton Ware from the past 

Loved this hare plate, I wouldn't dare have something like this in the house in case it got broken.

There was a competition for potters with their entries all stood on pillars in one area. The theme was "Illustrate a saying" This one was "Plenty More Fish in the Sea"

And this one was "Sitting on the Fence".

I treated myself to a coffee and a lemon cake - very delicious

I didn't want to buy a 'dust collector', jug, mug etc etc and had planned to buy nothing but then I saw these bird feeder saucer-on-a-pole and thought it would be a lovely addition to the garden.

The potter was David Melville from Kent.

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St Nicholas, Oakley

 Just a mile along the road and then up a narrow lane from Brome, the last church mentioned on here is the church at Oakley. Oakley and Brome have long been joined for parish purposes and share a village hall etc.

Like Brome, Oakley church has a Lychgate, and inside it says................. 

Agnes Lady Bateman erected this lytch gate 1908. I wonder why whoever carved this put in the letter T that we don't usually use in the word.

A very typical Suffolk church with a very neat and tidy churchyard

The porch once had an upper storey, but that has long gone.

Quite plain and typically a Victorian restoration.

They've even got a brass plaque which says "This Church of St Nicholas Oakley was restored and bells rehung AD 1876-1879 at the joint expense of the Patron Sir Edward Clarence Kerrison, Baronet, The Rector the Reverend George Mapletoft Paterson MA and the Parishioners."

The font is very plain

But the Reredos behind the altar is quite unusual, being tiled with a picture of the Last Supper included.

This is also a memorial, this time to Captain John Worth and his wife Catherine, and put here by their daughter Dame Mary Catherine Sinclair Walker in 1882.

Alongside the banner for the long gone Mothers Union is an unusual feature - some sort of memorial?

The East window

This plate was high on the wall and I couldn't see what it was, but with enlarging it's showing the 7 churches in the Benefice. Brome, Oakley, Burgate, Wortham, Thrandeston, Stuston and Palgrave. (Stuston and Thrandeston are two I've not visited yet.) These villages are all along the Suffolk/Norfolk border, much nearer to Diss and Norwich in Norfolk than to Suffolk main towns.

These two niches are odd - I wonder what they once housed.

More information is as usual on Simon Knott's Suffolk Churches website

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Saturday's Car Boot Sale

 There is usually no hold up getting into the car park for the big Saturday boot-sale but at the weekend there was a queue to drive in and for some reason everyone toward the back end of the queue starting honking their car horns and it sounded like a foreign country that you see on TV where the streets are full of honking car horns. It was quite strange.

From where I was I could see the driver of the van at the front having an arguement with the man on the gate. The 'No More Pitches Available' sign was up which presumably the man-in-the-van was complaining about, and it was only just after 7am. Anyway, the van eventually went in and the queue soon moved and I doubt it was more than a 5 minute hold-up - Goodness, how impatient people are getting - even in our usually quiet Suffolk.

And this is why I need the 50p coins mentioned yesterday! because I did actually find 3 things this week which is more finds than I've had for ages. 50p each.   Dream Catcher for EGD to make, book of poems and sayings and the box of  chocolaty drinks and bits - it's been an age since I drank a hot chocolate and I bet these will be really sweet but at eight drinks for 50p I thought it would make a change and cheap too.

Then home for breakfast and apart from getting the bread maker going and using the pathetic small aubergines to make an aubergine/pasta bake for 2 days dinners I did nothing else all day. Couldn't make out why I was so tired but realised I'd been out somewhere for a while everyday last week - too exhausting - I really am getting old!

Thanks everyone for comments yesterday.

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Loose Change for the Car-boot Sales

 Until the time comes when everybody has their own card-reader, the only way to pay for 'treasure' at boot sales is with good old cash and preferably £1 and 50p coins.

It used to be easy to walk into a bank with a £20 note and ask for a bag of £ coins. Luckily it is still possible in Stowmarket but they have to open a desk which aren't regularly manned (or womaned!), pay the £20 note into your account, put your card into their card reader, tap in your pin number (once you've found your glasses) before they almost reluctantly hand over the coins.

To save having to do this I still use cash - notes from the ATM's - to pay for things in most shops and then hang onto the £1's and 50p coins for the boot sales. The only problem is that I end up with a purse full of much smaller loose change which gets heavy, so I regularly  empty it into my change tin.

But then of course I have to go through the bank rigmarole in reverse to put the change into my account but that's usually just once a year before Christmas. But maybe there wasn't much in the tin last December so I didn't empty it because it's August and the tin was full.

Counting money is never a problem! so that's what I did.

I bagged up £32 which has gone into my account. Some small change that didn't add up to the right amount for the paying in cash bags has gone back into the tin.

Although it was my money in the first place it feels like I've gained £32!

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This Was The Week

After yesterdays post which looked back to an August post of 2018 I thought I'd do the same layout for this week.

Enjoying................The return of lovely summer weather, but I might not say that if it gets above 30℃ next week!

Reading............................ Finished the last few pages of 'Scandalize my Name' by Fiona Sinclair, which is a British Library Crime Classic reprint from 1960. A good story once I got into it, I almost gave up as the first chapter was a bit confusing but after that it was good.

Then I zoomed through 'Death at The White Hart' by Chris Chibnall - his first crime novel but he is well known for writing for TV including Dr Who, Broadchurch, Torchwood, Life on Mars etc. This was very well written and very modern. Now dithering over which library book to read next. 

Watching..................Countdown for brain workout!  The Great British Sewing Bee to be amazed at their sewing skills. The first of the Cricket 100 on Tuesday evening. Two series of 6 programmes of  New Zealand/Irish TV collaboration  police drama called 'The Gone' that ended with a cliff-hanger but if there will be series 3 hasn't been announced, which is very strange after such an odd ending.

Harvesting...................the last 3 very small pathetic aubergines, baby plum tomatoes, probably the last of the cucumbers, 2 courgettes from the one plant that has sprung back to life, a fig or two most days, last of the French climbing beans, first sweetcorn cob and two not quite ripe GIANT tomatoes - 8 ounces each-  that were so heavy they broke the plant! These are the ones I use for chutney/relish. As soon as they are red they'll be skinned and popped in the freezer.

Gardening...........................Filling the garden waste bin yet again. Half from the rest of the Yew hedge and then grass cuttings and bits removed from the greenhouse plants and many weeds from round the back of the heating oil tank.   .

Exercising..................................I think there were 11 of us at Keep Moving Group. We looked through the list of people who no longer come and wondered how to rustle up some more folk although a few are away on holiday. We have two new ladies who are aged 80 and 87! Our oldest lady was 90 last month.

Sorting........................Photos of  a church for a blog post for next week.

Spending.......................This months "second-hand book allowance" on a book I read about on the Furrowed Middlebrow blog - it's always dangerous reading Scott's blog, he mentions so many interesting old books.

Getting Cross with.......................the problems with google photos app and the Photofunstudio link  so I'm having to go the long way round to get photos from my camera to the blog. I'm not sure if it's bad connection or user ignorance!

Food Shopping.....................The usual quick trip to Aldi and Asda and returning library books, nowhere else and soon home again.

Visiting...............A local event which I'll write about next week.

Hearing............ Combines across the fields and tractors with trailers full of wheat going by as the harvest is in full swing again.

Have a lovely weekend whatever you have happening.

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Old Post From August 2018

Short of ideas  for blog posts so this is an interesting post from August 2018 HERE. There were loads of comments, but it was sad to see how many of the people commenting have now died. I wonder how many others are still reading the blog, let me know if you commented back then and are still reading - you certainly deserve a special mention!!

Only 7 years ago, not long after Colin died and life has changed again in so many ways since then.

I think I'll do a similar post tomorrow.

Grimes Graves

 Thought I'd better use my English Heritage membership to visit here. I've been a couple of times before but last time the children were probably under 10 so it was a long time ago.

It's in Norfolk, NW of Thetford just over an hour from home.

The area was named by the Anglo Saxons meaning "Pits of the Pagan God Grim"

From ground level it's difficult to see this very weird landscape of grassy hollows. Below is just one of hundreds. The empty area of Grimes Graves is surrounded on all sides by forest. 

Recently this building has been erected over the entrance to the only pit that is open to view. It involves climbing down a long ladder backwards, which I didn't fancy but there is also a video of everything down there which I sat and watched instead.  

This is a drawing of a cross section of what it would have looked like .

Flint from Norfolk has been found all over the country, needed everywhere so traded widely.

Then along came the Bronze and Iron Ages and mining at Grimes Graves finished

Sheep graze the site to keep the grass down.

The English Heritage Website page  is HERE

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