Local Council Newsletter and ITFC on TV

 Our local District and County Councillor really looks like a member of the Green Party! It's the beard that does it.

He's a good bloke and does what he can for the villages he represents. He has lived in the same local village all his life so knows the area well.

The government wanted to abandon local council elections until they'd decided how Local Government in Suffolk was going to be reorganised. They've been persuaded to let the vote go ahead. Labour and Conservatives are frightened they're going to lose many Council seats to Reform - that won't be a happy outcome. I'm not sure it will happen here - we shall see.

It's quite funny, or it would be if it wasn't costing ratepayers money, but this will be the second local government reorganisation in my lifetime. We might even go back to what it was before it was all changed in 1974.

Anyway Andrew has come up with one idea that I heartily agree with. 

A few weeks ago, when I went across to the coast there were Road Closed signs every mile for 4 miles before the place that was actually closed - no diversion - most people in cars carried on regardless and then did a detour down a tiny lane around the obstruction. I have no idea what large trucks did. 

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I put the TV on  Saturday midday to see what was on in the evening (nothing much except athletics)  and discovered Ipswich Town  were about to kick off -  playing Millwall live and televised - Surprise! and a rare occurrence. I find it hard watching as it means holding my breath half the time! The result was a 1- 1 draw.

Ipswich is on the shortlist for City of Culture 2029 which is odd because Ipswich isn't a City. Last time I went into the town centre there were dozens of empty shops and everywhere looked very sad. I'm not sure what a chunk of money for 'Culture' would do to help.

Back Tomorrow

Another Week Rushes By

January has 31 days and March has 31 days but somehow the March days whizz by at a faster rate than the January days!

Last Sunday I had a lovely Mother's day meal out with the Suffolk bits of the family and lovely gifts too. Cards and flowers, a book and a cool feel  pillow .

On Monday, instead of bread, my machine made a couple of pizza bases. Not round and neat but at less than 20p each that doesn't really matter.

 

After the machine mixes the dough they are shaped, left to rise and baked for 5 minutes to dry them and then into the freezer.

I'm right out of homemade pizza topping so that's a batch make for next week.

Ian, the heating engineer came and got the boiler permanently repaired so now if the pressure drops I can fix it myself, (the bill will arrive next month) on the same day my car went in for it's annual service and MOT and to have the clutch sorted too. Tom, Nathan and Ashley got all that done, the bill arrives on the same day......it was large!

This week I've been grateful for

• My lovely family
• The bread machine
• Sunshine
• Being able to afford to have things repaired!

Hope you have a good weekend - the forecast here in Mid Suffolk is fine and daytime temps between 11 and 15 ℃ right through to next Wednesday, which is not too bad at all.

Spring Has Sprung

 

The Vernal/Spring Equinox is today, the moment with equal hours of daylight and darkness, so whether you think Spring starts on the 1st of March or at the Equinox, either way..............it's definitely here.

Spring has sprung

The grass has riz

I wonder where the birdie is? 

The birdie is upon the wing,

No, that's absurd

The wing is on the little bird

This is the segment from the wheel of the year for Spring from my book 'Ceremonies of the Seasons'.

 The day was once known as Ostara, the Pagan festival celebrating Eostre, Saxon or Germanic Goddess of Spring. There is a story that Eostre found a wounded bird and to save it's life she turned it into a hare, but even though the bird looked like a hare it was still able to lay eggs. As a thank you to the goddess the hare decorated the eggs and gave them to her as gifts. Eostre was often depicted as having a hare's head on a human body. 

The word Vernal comes from the Latin vernare meaning To Bloom

(Resorting to repeating blog posts from past years!)

Horse Chestnut

 After cutting out this page below from last years Folklore Diary for my scrapbook I decided to do some 'Following a tree' posts through 2026.

Horse Chestnut trees (Aesculus hippocastanum). Were introduced to Britain in the late C16 and native to the Balkan States, they can grow to over 120 feet tall. They were often used for ornamental avenues of trees in parkland.

It says

 "in folklore the horse chestnut is associated with bringing wealth and carrying conkers in your pocket would ensure you will always have money. The beautiful large flowers on a may time horse chestnut tree were known as 'Mary's candles' due to the Catholic association of the Month of May and Mary, Jesus' mother. The tree's name may derive from the base of a plucked leaf looking like a hoof or horseshoe shape."

The only Horse Chestnut I know of locally is in the car park of our village health centre where doctors and pharmacy serving this and several other villages  are based. I still have lots of conkers from this tree on my window sills - and no spiders all winter.

The older Horse Chestnut in February

And there's a ditch between the edge of the car park and the tree so I couldn't get close enough for photos of the trunk.

Then I remembered there's a young Horse Chestnut on the playing field of the village hall where we do the Keep Moving Group, much easier to get to. 

Below is the young Horse Chestnut tree in March 

The trunk of the young Horse Chestnut, the bark is grey brown and scaly.

A not very good close up of one of the 'sticky' buds - I need to take my proper camera

I'll follow this tree through 2026, taking pictures around the middle of each month.....remind me!

Back Tomorrow

Resorting to a Photo of Shopping...

Thanks everyone for comments yesterday. .....the boring boot-sale photo and today because I'm short of blogging topics, I'm resorting to a picture of shopping .......another boring topic! but curiously fascinating to so many people - including me although...................

I looked at 2 minutes of a frugal youtuber unloading her frugal shopping before deciding that I'd seen enough of someone saying she was frugal while buying things that aren't (in my opinion anyway!) Of course they might be vital to her existence, even coca cola!

I don't know who the youtuber was as I couldn't find it again. I really shouldn't watch even 2 minutes of these as mostly they make me cross!

My shopping ...............

Everything from Aldi again. Vegetables were salad leaves, purple sprouting broccoli, celery, mini potatoes(British from Norfolk - well done Aldi), baby plum tomatoes. Fruit in season British apples and pears . Into the fridge -  4 pints milk,  extra mature cheddar, Shropshire blue and 'salad' cheese (aka feta). For the freezer 2 packs of sweet potato fries, petit pois peas and fish in batter. For the store cupboard - wholemeal bread flour, cashews, multi grain crackers, ground coffee, jar of olives and stock cubes. Total spend £30.89.

............with no coca-cola!

Sorry folks, seems I'm getting cranky and boring!

Boot-Sale 'Treasure'?

 It was a frosty morning on Saturday for the car boot sale but nice and dry and sunny, it was good to be out early.  I didn't walk all the way round this week as my back was telling me I've not done any back exercises lately.

All I spent was £1. The pack of dishcloths and pack of Christmas serviettes were both from the same house clearance man and cost me 50p. The book was 50p and is another to add to my collection of country poetry.

I'm still using my own knitted dish cloths, but they don't last forever and I'm out of craft cotton to make more, so 4 cloths for 25p is handy.

 I noticed diesel at the Co-op garage as I passed on my way back from the boot sale at £1.57 a litre and on Sunday when I went over to the coast another petrol station had it at £1.66. It was around £1.37 - £1.43 ish a couple of weeks ago so has gone up but not by the amount that heating oil has shot up. Government are going to help with heating oil costs for the most vulnerable - that's doesn't include me, I'll just be hoping for prices to drop before I need to fill up again in September. 

Back Tomorrow

Wash Day?

 Is Monday still washing day?

This is one of the pages in my scrapbook--------------

I came across some old sayings about wash day

They that wash on a Monday

Have all the week to dry;

They that wash on a Tuesday

Are not so much awry;

They that wash on a Wednesday

Are not so much to blame;

They that wash on a Thursday

Wash for shame;

They that wash on a Friday

Wash for need;

And they that wash on Saturday

Oh, slovens are indeed.

Wash your clothes on New Years Day and you'll be 'Washing for the dead' or washing a loved one away, meaning someone in your household will die in the coming year!

Why is wash day on a Monday? One story says "the Pilgrims disembarked from the Mayflower on a Sunday and the first priority of the women after the voyage was to wash all the clothes, thereby setting a schedule from that day forth that continued for centuries".

I was reminded of this old song that used to be on children's radio 'Listen with Mother' in the late 1950s

Back Tomorrow

Saturday 14th

Two Goldfinches on the Niger seed

The plastic bag over the starling proof sunflower hearts feeder was supposed to be stopping water getting in through the top where the hanging loop is.  It isn't working. I'll try duct tape next.

Thanks to everyone for comments yesterday, sorry I didn't get round to replying at all.
 

Great excitement last Monday! The two new recycling bins arrived (three if you count the mini indoor one as well).They are ready to use when the new system starts in June. Unfortunately the larger of the two food waste bins had a lid that was completely broken. I rang to request a new one and the lady at the council said that so many have been broken in storage or during handling. That doesn't hold out much hope for them lasting very long once they are in use.

The same day the 500lt of heating oil was delivered. It was ordered the day before war started . The guy said he'd just done a short order emergency delivery of 500 litres that had cost someone £600! (almost double what I paid). He said they weren't even quoting definite prices now as the cost between the time they take an order and the time they've been down into Essex to get the oil from the terminal on the Thames and back into Suffolk and Norfolk the price will have gone up again. Then on the local Nextdoor website pages many people were saying they had ordered oil, paid for it but then had a email saying the company wanted more money or the order cancelled! Goodness knows how they can get away with this. Seems I was lucky to get mine at the price I paid.

This week I have been grateful for 

• Arrival of 500 litres of heating oil without problems, enough to see me through until Autumn.
• More people at the Keep Moving Group so that we can have free weeks or pay less each week.
• Our free NHS health checks (mammogram last month and the bowel cancer testing pack this week)
• A windy day without rain to get the grass dry enough for cutting.

In the wind of windy March,

The catkins drop down,

Curly, caterpillar-like,

Curious green and brown

With concourse of nest-building birds

And leaf-buds by the way,

We begin to think of flowers

And life and nuts some day.

CHRISTINA ROSSETTI (1830-1894)

Have a lovely weekend, hope all Mum's are treated to a nice day on Sunday. I'll be back Monday, although at the moment the week is a bit blank for post ideas.

Cheese Tasting

 Last week I had a random text message from son " Have you tried the Stratford Blue cheese from Aldi?" 

I hadn't but as I was going shopping in Aldi it had to be tried. I think it's new to Aldi as I'd not seen it before.

Stratford Blue is another cheese made by Butlers Farmhouse Cheeses in Lancashire........ A soft and creamy blue cheese.

From their website............

Something of a dark horse (not literally!), Stratford Blue is really delicate, really creamy and perfectly rich. The blue bite develops with warmth but soon mellows in a sea of creaminess making our Stratford Blue cheese truly unique and unbelievably moreish.

A dreamy blue cheese, smooth in texture and with a distinctive taste.

Using traditional handmade methods, our Stratford Blue cheese it is crafted in open vats, then poured into individual moulds, turned by hand and matured under the watchful eyes of our cheese experts.

There is no escaping it, we are a family business. That’s what makes things exciting, and these family values are the bedrock of our culture. Richard and Annie started it, Jean and Tom nurtured it. Gill and Colin opened it, and the history page is just turning for Matthew and Danie

 

 

After trying it I texted back to son " It's nice, but I think  I prefer Shropshire Blue" .

He said 👍!

We're not great conversationalists in our family!

Violets

 How did Victorian flower sellers sell bunches of violets " Vi'lets, Sweet Vi'lets,  Luv'ly Vi'lets" ?

 It would take an age to pick a nosegay of these tiny flowers and the stems are so fragile - how were they bunched?

And what is the difference between Dog Violet (Viola riviniana) and Sweet Violet(Viola ododrata)?

And which of the two are this year growing well on the bank just along the road from home or are they the result of  hybridisation and not how violets would have been 100 years ago?

I don't think these violets have any scent. Impossible to check properly, and, as they are by the road they are more likely to smell of car fumes or dog wee!

The Romans made wine from violets and used a wreath of the flowers to cure insomnia, gout and wounds.

When I was young violets were common  in the lanes near home, but certainly not so profuse as these here, we used to pick some to put in a meat paste jar, but we always looked out for white violets  that were more unusual to see.

Nowadays they could be crystallised to use for a cake decoration, something I don't have the patience or enthusiasm to try!

Crime on TV

 I read crime fiction and I watch crime fiction on TV but thankfully I don't think I've ever committed a crime! Although driving home from the coast after the Opticians last week I took a different route to avoid a road closure and came across a speed detection van - I was probably driving over 30mph, not by much although even 31mph counts as speeding and there was a car in front of me - I've got my fingers crossed. Colin used to say "they can see you long before you see them", he spent all his time driving and never drove over the speed limit, never got points on his licence, or fined or had to do a speed awareness course and he often told me off when I moaned about 30mph limits in places that didn't need them!...Or more accurately where I didn't think they were needed!

I'm remembering him especially today as it would have been his 69th birthday. It still seems all wrong to me that some people die aged just 61.

Crime on TV is a new series of 'The Capture' on BBC starring Holly Grainger. I know I watched some of the previous series but couldn't remember much about it, so I checked them  out.......Oh yes, it was that weird thing about Deep Fake - very violent. HG is also filming a new series of Strike coming later this year and there will be a return of the twisting turning Line of Duty  but maybe not until 2027.

On ITV Forgotten comes back sometime and the 26th series of Midsomer Murders although I've not watched series 25 yet, it doesn't seem to be on ITV X.

Ellis season 2 on Channel 5 started yesterday.

The 29th series of Silent Witness has finished, I think it was good but not as good as in the past and the set up of Jack in prison seemed a bit odd.

On the free U channel there's a new series of Bergerac and The Marlow Murder Club coming up. Plus there are lots of crime series from abroad with subtitles on the World Drama, Walter Presents section on the 4 catch up channel.

I found a huge list HERE although a lot don't have definite dates and some are not on free TV.

It's not just crime that I like............... I watch some sport and quizzes too! (but never soaps, true crime, wildlife stuff or period dramas).

Possible Spring Reading?

The pages that introduce the Spring part of The Country Commonplace Book by Miranda Mills. 

And above is another page from the same book . There are several similar pages through the book with ideas for reading at various times of the year. I'll share more as the year progresses.

Out of the 6 listed, I have a copy of 'Rain' by Melissa Harrison - found at one of the second-hand book sales last Autumn and I've read The Lark by E. Nesbit - one of her adult books that Dean Street Press/Furrowed Middlebrow reprinted in 2017 although I didn't keep it as it was a very light romance type book. The library had ' The Place of Tides' by James Rebanks (who also wrote the bestseller 'The Shepherds Life'), so I  reserved a copy, which arrived last week. I looked up details of the others but they don't appeal - is 'Darling' an updated version of 'The Pursuit of Love'? Sounds like it. 

And So It Starts

 First car boot sale of 2026 - nearly as big as a summer day - but a lot chillier. Plenty of sellers and buyers.

This is one of the house clearance people, impossible to rummage through the boxes for very long without getting a bad back! A huge stack of dressmaking patterns there on the left, perhaps someone will snap them up for reselling on line. 

I didn't spend much. £3 on two bunches of flowers and 50p for the washing soda (which I use along with a Smol capsule in the washing machine) and 50p for the full roll of baking paper. 

There is no sign at all of the crocus and tulips bulbs that I replanted last year in the big pot out the front of the bungalow, so I also spent £3 on a pack of 6 Primula plants to cheer things up.

I popped them out in the top of the pot when I got home............... after I'd had my breakfast.

Saturday Round-Up

Sunset out the back of the bungalow............too many houses! - luckily they're all hidden when the trees leaf up

How good it was to see the sun here in Mid Suffolk on Monday, Tuesday and Thursday and a bit of warmth ....especially through  glass. Pity about Wednesday and Friday.

 I trundled off back to the opticians at the beginning of the week and had the tests that involve eye drops, bright lights and no driving for a couple of hours. No problems were spotted and I went and had a coffee and sausage roll  in the Co-op and read a book while waiting for the effects to wear off.  I'll now have a check every year instead of every two years which it was before.

We sometimes get up to 16 people at the exercise group but for several weeks in winter we've been down to just seven or eight . So I put information about the group on the facebook pages of some of the local villages and we got a shock this week when suddenly 8 new ladies, who all knew each other, appeared, all from the same village a few miles away. It was a bit overwhelming! Altogether there were 22 of us -  A record. Just have to see if any of them will  come regularly now they've started. The only problems is that it's difficult to learn names with so many new people all at once and we can't fit around the tables at coffee time!

It seemed like a good plan to keep the car topped up with diesel due to the 'happenings' in the Middle East which the UK seems to have been dragged into whether we like it or not. So even though I filled up last week I put in another  £16 worth  to top right up again  and according to the dashboard reading that should do over 500 miles - although I'm never sure how accurate that is. I'm glad I got the heating oil ordered before prices rise. Still waiting for delivery, they are probably suddenly extra busy. Someone said it's doubled in price in a week! - No price cap on oil - we're out in the country so don't count in the minds of politicians.

Once upon a time I used to write a little list of the  things I had been grateful for during the week. Why have I forgotten to do that for 17 months? 

I want to note the small good things - the opposite of the news we hear every day.

• A few days of sunshine and dry weather after the wet Winter
• A goldfinch on the birdfeeder
• The mobile library and good books for free
• The winter Paralympics are on TV now for the week - should be interesting to watch. 

Have a good weekend, I'll be back Monday

March Library Book Photo

Thank you to everyone for comments yesterday. Apologies for not replying properly - the day got away from me.

 Brought home from the library van this week, all books I'd reserved on-line. A drastic shortage of crime fiction!

Left to right.................Someone must have mentioned 'The Potting Shed Murder' - it sounds a bit cosy crime - I'll try it and see. When I did a blog post about smugglers pubs in Suffolk a couple of people mentioned 'Moonfleet' something I'd not read. Next is a book by James Rebanks 'The Place of Tides'. This is mentioned on a page of ideas for spring reading (I'll post about this next week). The very small book 'The Serviceberry' is from the US, not sure why I reserved it. Next is a very old reprinted crime book by Nicholas Blake 'The Abominable Snowman'. NB was the pseudonym of Cecil Day Lewis. Mick Herron is a new-to-me author to try. 'London Can Take it' is a book about the blitz by Valerie Braunston and finally a book I know I'll enjoy 'Appointment in Paris' by Jane Thynne.

I'll be reading from my shelves for sure, long before the van is round again.

Last month I collected this lot below and only read five of them - details on the Books Read 2026 page. I skimmed through a couple, abandoned one and hardly glanced at another. Not exactly a successful collection and I was glad to have other books here to read. 

Charity Shop Shopping?

 On one of the rainy days last month I was watching a few youtubers - I'd been looking at Railway Cottage Rebecca - she's so enthusiastic! Anyway I popped into a vlog of someone who setting out for a charity shop 'haul'. She said "I don't want to spend much............not more than £50!" Blimey! I love a good tour round the charity shops but I've never set out to spend money, definitely Not that much!

Perhaps she was buying to resell - I suppose it's still a thing, but with postage prices and so many others doing the same thing it must be difficult to earn much. I didn't stay to the end to see what she found - it was extremely boring to watch and  listen to.......as are many youtubers!

My tour round the 6 charity shops of Diss recently (there are 7 but I forgot about the Big C on my way out of town) wasn't a haul - just one thing - something that will be a Christmas present.

It's a very pretty tin holding  hand-creams for gardeners and was £4. I'd keep it myself just for the tin if I had a use for it but don't need it and the hand-creams are probably too scented for me so I will be good and put it in the cupboard for December.

 

How The Countryside Has Changed

This is such a well written book, I really enjoyed it once I got into it.

The story of Miss White, a woman who lived in the author's village 80 years ago, a pioneer who realised her ambition to become a farmer during the Second World War, and how she worked to become accepted within this community. Nicola Chester, too, dreamed of becoming a farmer but working with horses was the only path open to her. Was it easier for women to become farmers in the 1940s than it is now? Moving between Nicola's own attempts to work outdoors and Miss White's desire to farm a generation earlier, Nicola explores the parallels between their lives - and the differences. Miss White buys a derelict farm and begins to renovate and modernize it. As ghost (barn) owls flit between these two worlds, Nicola draws connections with farming and rural life in both times, from the role of women in rural communities in the modern day to Miss White's experience in the 1940s.

The difference between the wildlife on the farmland then and now is quite frightening. Nicola is fighting to help preserve the few birds that remain, fighting against Big Business - which is what most farms are now. Living as a tenant in a farm cottage neighbouring the farm where Miss White farmed during the war Nicola  finds all the information Miss White left in the record office and finds the stone that marks her burial in the churchyard.

March Full Moon and The Garden

 The March Full Moon tonight  seems to have  had lots of names in history- the Plough Moon, Lenten Moon, the Worm moon - when worms emerge, the Sap Moon, Crow moon or Storm moon. We are not in the right place on earth to see  the moon's total eclipse happening, although the moon hasn't been very visible lately with so much cloud every night.

 March weather can be as cold and unsettled  as February, but the sun is rising higher and it's now just 17 days until the Spring equinox and 26 days until the clocks go forward. At this latitude Suffolk gains two more hours of daylight by the end of the month and the week ahead is looking to be fine here in the East of England which is very good news. 

Yesterday was the first mild day of March......I had the patio door open to let the fresh air in....lovely

It is the first mild day of March:

Each minute sweeter than before,

The redbreast sings from the tall larch

That stands beside the door

There is a blessing in the air

Which seems a sense of joy to yield

To the bare trees, and mountains bare,

And grass in the green field.

William Wordsworth.

Last week BiL kindly came and cut the grass for me, it's hardly stopped growing all winter but also hasn't been dry enough to cut with my battery mower for weeks. He also pressure-washed the patio which was getting very slippery. I can get the weeds out of the cracks but the mould remover I tried for the slabs was useless and pressure washing is the best.

I had to move all the pots off the patio for the pressure washing, most things have survived the winter but the few strawberry plants in two planters that were OK last year have almost vanished. I emptied one compost bin onto one of the veg beds, there's still another to empty but I need to do some serious weeding everywhere..

The  summer fruiting raspberry canes didn't get watered enough last summer they haven't put up many new canes, I think it will be a poor year, not sure about the other canes some fruit early and some late, I cut most of them back in the autumn as it's impossible to know which are which.

The slab under one  of my water butts that collects off the greenhouse had tipped backwards so I emptied it in the autumn and need to level the slab before I can put it back. 

So many jobs to do as soon as my gardening mojo returns properly - it always happens -  sometime.

Yippee! Car Boot Season is Almost Here.

 My new header is Spring on the bookshelf, I don't have many things for Spring compared to Autumn and Winter and everything has been out of the cupboard before except for the small Brambly Hedge plate which I found from a car boot sale in June last year. What the shelf really needs are flowers. My daffodils still aren't out - weeks behind everywhere else.

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Weather permitting car boots should have started yesterday at the Sunday one furthest from home - 14 miles. I only go to that one about twice a year and as the weather was rather grey and cold yesterday and probably not many selling I didn't bother to go (and a good thing I didn't as later in the day a facebook message said they'd cancelled.)

The smaller Sunday boot sale that's nearest to me is on land at Stonham Barns - a leisure and retail complex with campsite, holiday caravans, lodges, fishing lake, golf centre, teapot pottery, showground, lots of retail units and the Owl Sanctuary. The people who own the land have gone into administration although all the things on the site are still running. Hopefully someone will buy the whole thing. Must be worrying for people who've splashed out thousands of £s on a holiday lodge there.

They have to wait for really dry weather to start the boot-sales at Stonham as the site is completely flat and gets very water-logged.

The usually much bigger Saturday boot sale at Needham Market  gets going next Saturday, they are on dryer sandy heath land on a slope and rarely get rained off,  they'll have Wednesdays boot-sales as well from mid month.

This year I'm looking for.............

• A pickle draining spoon!
• Interesting books
• Christmas wrapping paper
• Useful things from the house clearance people like parchment paper, foil, half started packets of washing soda etc
• Things that will make Christmas Presents

Not much needed at all, but it will still be good to get back to that early morning walk with a purpose.