End of June Financials

The usual income of State Pension, Suffolk County Council Spouses Pension and interest on savings.

I'd hoped for a fairly low spend in June with only three known extras. The garden waste bin was up £2 on last year to £66 for the year - they empty every fortnight all year round. The car tax which suddenly appeared last year (previously the age and engine size of my car meant I didn't pay any) stayed at £20.The dentist was for a check up and x-ray and was £84 - he said a nine month rather than a six month check up would do, which is good. The regular expenses were Council tax, charity donations, phones and broadband, one lot of diesel for the car  and monthly electric bill. That lot came to around £550.

Food spending for home -already mentioned- plus  things for doing pickles totalled £106.93. There was also one meal out with YD and EGD, a KFC after the dentist and just the one whippy 99 ice-cream (sadly!)

Personal spending wasn't too bad (no books!), there was the annoying £5 wasted on the  card making kit, a hair cut and 2 new Puzzler books - I ordered a 16 x 16 Sudoku puzzle book online as there is only one of these puzzles in the Take-A Break Puzzler and I always turn to that page first. It takes me days to sort a 16 x16 so I think the new book will last me months!

Incidental spending was mainly small stuff including screen-wash for the car, sunflower hearts for the birds, a new plastic stool for the hallway (£4.99), bits for bathroom and kitchen- including useful car-boot finds - and the window cleaner came round (£10.00). While Amazon had their Prime Special Offer Days I bought Ecover Laundry Liquid and a different sort of Dishwasher Tabs. I'd almost come to the end of my last Smol orders - now cancelled due to their new delivery costs.

Small Savings..............

• Didn't go out much in the heat 
• Bread loaves from bread machine as usual 50/50 Wholemeal/white flour
• Washing machine used only twice a week
• Washing dried outside
• Raspberries from the garden ( had to stop eating them -  they were upsetting my stomach so they're in the freezer for adding to the fruit peel to make 'Compost' Jelly sometime)
• First cucumbers from the garden
• First courgettes   ""     ""  ""
• Dishwasher only used every other day.
• Taking advantage of the Amazon Prime-Days savings for a couple of things.
• Reading library books and from my shelves for free. I read 13 books in June - due to the heat!
• Useful kitchen bits..... scourers etc found at boot sales.
• New sunglasses from car-boot sale for 50p! (Still with their Asda George £5 label)

Next month...............

 July in 2025 was the month with the lowest spend, can I do even better this year? The only known extra is for Virus protection for the laptop - there are no birthdays or other big bills due and fingers crossed I won't need to spend much at all.............especially if we get more very hot weather that keeps me indoors rather than out on adventures.

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An awful start to Wimbledon for British Players and Jack Draper had to pull out as he'd had a return of injury. Then there was the Cricket third test against NZ - another loss. Plus the brilliant Ben Stokes deciding to retire from International cricket.....with test matches against Pakistan still to come. Maybe the English Footballers will do better? 

Not much of a Summer of Sport to write about this year!

Back Tomorrow

Final Food Shop of June

Might as well do another food shop photo to round off the month................

The world and his wife were outside Aldi at 8am on a very hot morning waiting for it to open to get shopping done and home again.

I was there too - lots of empty spaces in the fruit and veg section due to a late delivery but I got the things on my list. I noticed the icecream/ice lolly freezers were decimated!

Left to right. Bunch beetroot £1.39, Tender-stem broccoli £1.45 (their heads of calabrese were looking sad and yellowing just like the week before).1Kg nectarines £2.39; 6 mini apples 99p; mango 69p (one of their on offer special 6 - they are usually 88p); 2  peanuts @ 59p = £1.18; crumpets 45p; 6 medium free range eggs £1.49; 4 pints semi skimmed milk £1.65; ground coffee 1 decaf and one normal @ £2.49p = £4.98; mayo 89p; and off the edge of the photo is a pack of six small packs of mini cheese bakes 99p.

Total for these was £19.19p

For the month ..............£50.42 + £13.35 + £19.92 + £19.19 = £102.88 - Much the same as May even though I'd been hoping for less.

With photos of the food shopping all month I could see what fruit and veg I'd had during the month, seems like a goodly mix.

 A Cauliflower.                                        Apples

Tenderstem broccoli                                Nectarines                                

Beetroot                                                   Strawberries

Potatoes                                                    Mango

Carrots                                                      Prunes

Cucumber                                                 Canned peaches

Salad Leaves

Head of calabrese

Peppers

Onions

Mange Tout

Frozen Sweet potato Fries

Frozen peas

Canned tomatoes

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According to the Met Office forecast the exceedingly hot weather has gone and yesterday's high was 26℃ rather than the 37℃ of Friday. The coming week should be in the mid 20's too but  the long range forecast says we may well get another hot week in July.

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Saturday 27th June

Blog readers from countries that regularly have hot summers must be fed up with reading about our English 'heatwave'! So I'll apologise to them in advance - here are more words from the 'record breaking temperatures' of our unusual  week in June....................................

 It was a shock on Tuesday morning to find the water pressure was really low- down to a dribble - and then I found a text message from Essex and Suffolk Water saying there were problems in the area. That wasn't ideal to read on  what was expected to be a Very Hot day! Luckily when I make my evening coffee I always fill up the filter jug in the fridge so had plenty of water for drinking. Also still have water in water butts so used a watering can to fill the cistern for loo flushing - thankful for  a toilet with accessible cistern when the en-suite was changed.

The water was back to normal by midday for me and earlier in some places. The primary school was closed due to the water problems and the moans on the 'Next Door' website were ridiculous (People saying " they wouldn't have closed the schools in MY day" etc) but having children in school even for a few hours on a hot day without a water supply would have been a nightmare and there was no way of knowing when it would be normal again.

I went to the next village to see who turned up to the Over 60's Keep Moving Exercise group and most of those of us that did arrive decided it was too hot. There were a couple of the new people who reckoned it wasn't too hot but as they don't want to have any involvement with the running of the group they couldn't really complain! They've started their own group in their village anyway............... so can do what they like in the heat there!

The qualifying for Wimbledon (or possibly the Eastbourne tournament - as I'd been watching either/or depending who was playing) might have been affected by the heat too when their automatic line judge machine refused to work for several hours...........it wouldn't have happened if they'd still had human line judges! I do feel sorry for the poor ball girls/boys who have to stand there holding an umbrella over the players at the changeover breaks, it's about time someone invented a sunshade for their seats that could come up and cover them and then fold back down again while they were playing. 

It's been lovely to see Jack Draper back from injury and playing well at Eastbourne, he is the main "hope for the future!" Three British guys got through the Qualifiers for the Wimbledon main draw - well done to them. All together there are 21 Brits in the main draw, mostly qualifiers or given wildcards. Hopefully some will go further than the first round.

It all starts Monday.

Anyone else enjoy watching Countdown on Channel 4? The standard during this week of quarter, semis and final of this series was incredible. How the winner could get the conundrum in 3 seconds every time - I have no idea. 

Thursday was better with a nice breeze blowing through the bungalow with doors and windows open everywhere.  I got the few bits of ironing done and remembered ironing at the smallholding dressed only in underwear. I had the ironing board upstairs then and in a chalet bungalow upstairs was often unbearably hot. There's hardly any ironing now - I don't miss doing shirts.

Friday was the hottest day here for sure - even without a thermometer to tell me. The was no breeze and the air was just like a brick wall.

Wet tea-towels are my new keep cool accessory - draped over head and neck! I still have no fan - I did buy one a few years back when it was hot but it was so noisy and clunky I passed it to Son to sell at their yard sale. I'm sure fans just move the hot air around anyway.

There's a Sale Trail - garden/garage/yard sales in a nearby village today but doubt I'll go to look if it's still 30° +.

So that's the news from Mid-Suffolk-in-the-heat - with commiserations for people in New Zealand who are having a vicious winter.

Thanks for comments yesterday it was too hot to hold the lap top to reply!!

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

Other May and June Car Boot Finds

Apart from the £5 wasted  on the card making stuff, car boot sale finds  have been useful or interesting  and mentioned already but several times I've come home with nothing except knowing I've had a bit of early morning exercise!

There are just a few find photos that got left on the camera............

£1 for two pairs of ladies gardening gloves - Xmas presents for sister and sister in law to add to the hampers.

4 Plastic Sundae glasses were 50p each. 

The grandchildren have had "ice cream sundaes" from ice cream sellers that are just ice cream and a sauce. "That's not  a  sundae" I said, "One day I'll make you a proper ice cream sundae" . So now I can.  ( Except  when all 5 are here at once!)

Pack of razors 50p - I used to have an Electric Lady-Shave but it's recently died - it was only 25 years old! I need a new one.

A new pack of 20 notecards with The Edwardian Lady paintings were £1, from house clearance people again. They will probably be a Christmas present

Almost full pack of sponge scourers 50p.

That's about it.

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Library Van Cancelled

 I was hoping to pick up at least 7 books from the mobile library today but Rachel rang yesterday to say the van was off the road and wouldn't be round. She's put my reservations ready to go on the delivery van to Stowmarket Library where I'll pick them up next week.

I'd already run out of library books so had been reading from my shelves anyway - and had already finished this very old (1947) small book that had been on my shelves a while - but where from and why?

I answered the first question by looking at my accounts on Amazon and Abebooks and found I'd bought it from the latter last August. But Why? and How did I know or find out about it? Because it isn't even listed in Josephine Bell's list of publications on Fantastic Fiction.

Josephine Bell was a well known author of crime fiction from the 1930's to the 1970s and BLCC reprinted one of her books in 2020 but that doesn't explain how I knew about this book in 2025... it isn't even one of her crime fiction.

After a bit of googling I came across a mention of it on Scott's Furrowed Middlebrow blog  (much missed since he moved to Portugal) about his favourite books of 2024

This is part of what he said then..............

This is the first of Bell's non-mysteries I've read and I enjoyed it tremendously. Tracing the fictional mid-sized town of Haverington through the war, beginning to end, it offers a fascinating glimpse, á la Winifred Holtby's South Riding, of the practical logistics of wartime—accommodation of refugees, rationing, bombs, and all. Its flaw for me, probably introduced by a publisher who felt the logistics themselves wouldn't sell books, is a melodramatic romance element that's rather drab, but it's nevertheless a fascinating read.

That must be where I found out about it.

I enjoyed it too as the details about village life through the war and the machinations of the women in the WRVS is interesting. The in-fighting and back biting reminded me of the much more well known book 'Nella Last's War, The Diaries of Housewife 49'.

Now to pick another from my shelves to read....................

Thank you everyone for comments yesterday on the Art Exhibition. There were over 400 pieces on show so I only photographed a few.

Another hot one today - hope you are all managing to stay cool enough. I had the front door propped open for a through draught yesterday and couldn't believe the amount of traffic going by - I think everyone who would normally walk to school, shop, doctors etc was driving with air-con on to keep cool! Or maybe I don't notice it when doors and windows are shut.

Debenham Art Exhibition

As usual I went to Debenham Church to have a look around this years art .

Also as usual the sun was shining making a lot of reflection - so the photos are poor. I just took a few photos of those I liked the look of.

I went first thing Saturday and there are many red dots so Friday must have been busy with buyers which is good .

First one below  is  Helen Maxfield who always has Linocuts in all the local art exhibitions. Someone has bought several of her work here.

Colin would have liked this one below of horses ploughing - he preferred pictures with people in them rather than just views. These four  are water colours by Jim Lait except for the fishing boats which is acrylics.

Two watercolours below by Frances Barthorpe.

These two below are lino cuts by Gillian Thornton

Below in soft pastel is a very unusual view of trees called 'Just Look Up' by Teresa Seals.

I didn't realise this was paper collage until I enlarged it here and I've missed the number so not sure who it's by.

Love the colours in 'Autumn Squash' by Stella Burgess in Acrylics

Below.............I liked these miniatures in Watercolour and Gouache by Wendy Gooch. Anyone of them would have added nicely to my 'art wall' but not at £160 each. I looked her up online and she is well known in the world of miniature paintings.

The catalogue says this one below is a 'Reduction Lino Cut' . It's called One Sunday in Summer and is by Patricia Woodward.

Three fun chicken paintings. Watercolours by Claire Weeks

So many talented people!

It was so hot on Saturday morning that it even felt really warm inside the church- I was glad I'd found somewhere in the shade to park and glad to get home again.

Back Tomorrow

The Third Food Shopping Trip of June

Filling a blog post with shopping photos seems to have become a regular thing. That's the problem with not going very far or doing anything exciting.

So here it is ..........last week's  Aldi food shop and some things from Asda to get my £1 car park money back.

From left to right - pack of 4 nectarines £1.39;Cauliflower £1.19; Beetroot £1.39; Tin  Sardines 47p; Carrots 1Kg 69p; Potatoes £1.05; Butter £1.99; 400g Extra Mature Cheddar £2.49;  6 Eggs  £1.49. 2 Willow Spread @ 97p = £1.94; Castor sugar £2.25. Not in the photo are 1 dozen small bottles of lemonade that I keep in the car £3.58 - they will last until the end of the year or even longer.

Total £19.92

The Aldi shop came to several pence more than I wanted to spend because the calabrese that I'd planned to buy looked horribly yellow and unlikely to last long so I got a cauliflower instead (40p more). Their small 44p packs of carrots seemed to be very poor -  small  wrinkled things  - they wouldn't have kept well either and their baby potatoes (75p a few weeks ago) were only in larger packs for £1.05 - in fact their choice of potatoes and pack sizes was well down on the usual.

I'm not sure what had gone wrong at Aldi because as well as the calabrese head turning yellow and the small carrots looking old, when I started to cut into the cauliflower only a couple of days after purchase it was  going mouldy and black inside. I was only able to get one meal from it.

Usually their fruit and veg is pretty reliable - I wonder if they'd had problems with in- store temperatures. If they did last week it will be even worse this week because the extreme HOT 'Amber Alert' weather is due to land on us today. Yesterday wasn't too bad there was a bit of a breeze but  I was glad I didn't have to go far - just a 100yds up the road to get a much needed hair cut and then to the other side of the village to the pharmacy at the Health Centre. I took my bike - it was cooler than walking and it's downhill on the way home.

Stay hydrated folks - we're definitely not used to high 30's ℃

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The Summer Solstice

  I've now written about the Ogham Tree Alphabet and this book  many times on the blog. It's been very useful book for filling blog posts!

But there's one  plant mentioned in the book that I've not written about before...........The Heather.

Heather represents the Summer Solstice, which was yesterday and instead of a bright early sunrise with the heatwave there was mist hanging around and even some spots of rain just after 11.

1,920 × 1,080

Heather represents the letter U in the Ogham Alphabet and the number 18. It also means solitude.

Last September I took a photo of the glorious purple heather on the heath near Dunwich 

And picked a sprig for luck which sat on the dashboard in the car for the next month falling to pieces until I realised it would make a blog post.

Each heather plant looks like a tree in miniature, with a gnarled and twisted 'trunk' up to 18 inches tall. Bees love the nectar of heather flowers and heather honey is prized.

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Under the Weather...............

....................is, when you think about, a very strange saying . Most weather comes from above so we are always under it.

Anyway, I've been under it all week. Just feeling bleurgh...........not seasick (or any sort of sick!) like the original meaning................

The expression has maritime roots. In 19th-century sailing terminology, sailors or passengers who felt seasick or ill during rough, stormy conditions would go below deck to hide from the elements. By doing this, they were literally going "under" to escape the bad weather, which eventually transformed into the idiom we use today.

I even missed Keep Moving Group, which is complicated because at the moment I take the attendance chart, take the money and pass it to the Village Hall treasurer, buy/take the milk for coffees, find the meditation thing on the phone and lead half the exercises. I seem to be the only person who doesn't have holidays or Tuesday doctor/hospital appointments and goes regularly to the Group, so  have been lumbered with all the jobs. I took everything to the hall, apologised, and left it to everyone else to sort out and went home again!

Last weekend I mentioned hoping  the weather would be fine for the men's tennis at Queens club so it was on TV to watch  and it was fine and due to feeling grotty I was able to spend all afternoons watching it - which wasn't really as planned........................ I should be careful what I hope for!

Plenty of reading has been done too. I've now read all of the Inspector Ramsey books that Ann Cleeves wrote in the 90's before she wrote the Vera and Shetland series and read this...........

In this book the author does five walks around different areas of Suffolk and writes about the authors who've also walked/written/lived in those areas, from the C17 right up to date................

"...nor had I made allowance for the endless switchbacks and the roads reduced to single file and the mess being made of this part of Suffolk by the building of the Sizewell C nuclear power station.............the thousands of trees that have been felled............how to restore the generations of creatures that would have lived in them " Did they at least allow the archaeologists to have a look round?" I asked our taxi driver as we went past more skinned earth, more red and white tape curving in the breeze, and he said yes, they did, and very glad he was of it, the archaeologists being the only ones who drank, who needed lifts to and from the local pubs. Those building Sizewell C, he said put not a penny into the local economy:not in the shops, the pubs, or the restaurants. They sit in their block-booked holiday cottages all week then disappeared at the weekends..................."

 (it's the archaeologists who've kept YD in work and partly Son too of course! Local people have had a love/hate relationship with the Sizewell Power Stations since the 1960's. The only new shop to open in Leiston is one selling Hi Viz and work gear - while many others have closed.)

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Anyway, I'm fine again now but still doing nothing because the much, much warmer weather that had been predicted for a week arrived yesterday. Positively HOT. I got the grass cut early and then stayed inside with the doors and windows wide and curtains closed. I watched young Arthur Fery get knocked out of the tennis. If I go out over the weekend it will be early - to an Art Exhibition in Debenham Church  and car boot sales too of course. The  semis and finals of the tennis to watch and I'm looking forward to seeing some of the Wimbledon qualifying and the Eastbourne tournament on BBC red button next week .................by choice rather than necessity.

The June Horse Chestnut Photo

 A month on from my last photo of the Horse Chestnut tree and the flowers have become conkers, very small still of course.

Sadly there are early signs of the disease which now affects the leaves each year - brown splodges starting to appear. In another month they will be even more widespread. The odd thing about this disease which is relatively new here (last 30 years maybe) is that it doesn't have any effect on the actual tree.....thankfully. Having lost Elm trees and Ash trees to disease we don't want to lose Horse Chestnut trees as well.

Guignardia Leaf Blotch (Guignardia aesculi): A fungus-driven disease.

• Symptoms: Irregular dull brown or reddish blotches, often surrounded by a conspicuous yellow band, typically concentrated at the leaf tips and edges.
• Impact: Mostly an aesthetic issue, though severe attacks cause the leaves to shrivel entirely. Raking up and destroying fallen leaves in autumn helps limit the spread for the following spring

The fungus was introduced accidentally into the UK from North America in the last century and has gradually spread around the country. 

 

Here's a reminder of how the tree looked a month ago

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Dunnock

 Years ago when we saw one of these in the garden it would have been called a Hedge Sparrow but it's properly named 'Dunnock'. (Prunella modularis).The only British member of this family.

They are common and widespread except for the very North of Scotland. Seen in woodland, hedges and gardens. They build a nest close to the ground somewhere really well hidden in thick hedges, evergreens or bramble thickets, so don't normally use nest-boxes.

Quite shy little birds I don't often see them here but that might be because they are usually at ground level, hopping about under the feeders rather than up on the feeders or in the shrubs that I would see from the window more easily.

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I Was Duped .....................

 I picked this craft box of card making bits at a boot sale a few weeks ago and when the lady selling said she wanted £10 for it I quickly put it down again. 

Then last weekend I saw it again and asked the price and got it for £5. I thought £5 for the makings of 24 cards wasn't too bad and they looked quite unusual to make. The lady said it was new - never been opened and it was certainly sealed and looked new.

You can guess what I'm going to say..........BUT when I got  home and found a way into the box, I discovered it HAD been opened and the only things inside were three lots of different sized card blanks and envelopes - six of each and some coloured paper and card. There should have been a whole lot more - I'm so cross with myself.

I wasn't even meant to be buying anymore card making bits anyway!

Ho Hum!

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Stinking Rose!

 What a wonderful name for a cheese!

Here's another from Croome Cheeses - a company based in Worcestershire, that I wrote about earlier this month .

150 grams for £3.65

The Co-op had 10 of their cheeses (I counted!) but I  passed on all the fruit/cheese combos and avoided that Hop one tried last time and landed on this 'Mature Cheddar with Garlic and Parsley'.

It's rather good, a lovely creamy texture with good strong garlic flavour. 

I ate the first piece with the Aldi multi-grain crackers plus cucumber and fresh cooked beetroot. Both of those were good too as I'd not bought either for months........... Not a massive salad fan through the cold months. The next cucumber I eat will - hopefully- be from the greenhouse.

I was glad I'd not bought either beetroot or strawberries from the car boot sale on Saturday as both were much, much cheaper at Aldi half an hour later. It pays to sometimes be wary of car-boot 'bargains'.

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Halfway Through June

 Well, the weather didn't warm up much for the weekend, which was the promise earlier in the week, there was  a really cold wind on Saturday. Maybe by the end of the this week it will be better.

 I hoped for a fairly low spend June and at  half way through, how's it going?. 

The garden waste bin had gone up £2 for the year but thankfully the Car Tax was still £20 - I had visions of them moving more goalposts from it being free two years ago to anything they fancied charging!

So all the main expenses have been paid and the total spend including charity donations, dentist, garden waste bin, phones and broadband, car tax, one lot of diesel for the car, incidentals including multi surface cleaner for floors, sunflower hearts for the birds and a new stool for the hallway (for sitting on for all ages to put on shoes) plus the one big food shop (and the two fancy cheeses and taking YD and EGD out for our regular Sunday lunch).And that totals just over £600. There will be more odds and ends of course and Electric bill at the end of the month.

Then I did  the second food shop of the month at Aldi on Saturday after a quick tour round the car boot sale where all I found were some Maltesers. (There are some Eastern European guys who somehow seem to have a stock of cheap chocolate every week!?)

After the big shop at the start of June I didn't need much. From left to right...........Salad Leaves 65p; Strawberries £1.99; 4 Nectarines £1.39; Bunch Beetroot £1.39; Cucumber 99p; Pack 6 Mini Apples 59p; Pack Fruit and Nut mix 59p; 2 x  Peanuts @ 59p = £1.18; 1 Kg Onions 99p; 6 Eggs £1.49; Tin Peach Slices  45p; 4 Pints milk £1.65.

Total £13.35

During the rainy weather last week I got around to looking at some of the 'Frugal' youtubers again. I really can't understand why some people go food shopping every couple of days - and it's not because they don't have a car to use. It's mid month and I've only food shopped twice - apart from buying the special cheese last week.

And some people picked up on one frugal blogger who seemed to have a real muddle in the kitchen cupboards so had no idea of what was there, but reckoned she was a 'prepper'! The comments recommending she sort her cupboards and write a list were soon deleted. 

Of course I have no right to criticise - as I haven't the patience to be a you tuber myself! Better shut-up!

At least the weather was fine for the women's tennis final at Queens Club yesterday. Emma Raducanu played well - but only in the second set, but she still lost out. I've looked at the weather forecast for the week ahead and there shouldn't be rain which is good as I'd really like a few afternoons of watching the Men's matches. There will definitely be one Brit in the second round because Arthur Fery  has drawn fellow Brit Toby Samuel for the first round. Cam Norrie has the hardest first round match against the  4th seed.

Back Tomorrow.

Saturday 13th

It's been week of dreary weather, the heating clicked on most  mornings - which means it was very chilly. It soon went off again and wasn't needed for evenings - thank goodness.  I turned on the Queens Club Tennis on Monday but it was raining down in London so no play and a fair bit of rain there and here too on and off for much of the week. The water butts are all full and everything has had a good watering. Yesterday afternoon the sun came out at last and things warmed up to a proper June temperature.

BiL kindly came over to refix one of the curtain pole fixings that was pulling out of the wall. Glad to get that done - it was a two person job. If it had pulled right out it would have landed on my head while I was sitting in my armchair...........I might not have been found for weeks!

I finished reading this book of short crime stories - over 20 authors of crime fiction wrote new short stories in honour of Simon Brett's 80th birthday. He was president of The Detection Club between 2000 and 2015.

 The cold and wet weather means that as well as the baby Blue Tits on the header photo, who are now feeding themselves- I've seen Great Tits feeding their young and there are Goldfinches on the feeders almost all the time. I couldn't be bothered to go into Stowmarket  for market day to get sunflower hearts to refill so just popped to Debenham for the hardware shop (won't do that again - the sunflower hearts were a lot more expensive) and  returned the five library books I'd  finished as some had waiting lists. I also went in the Co-op and got another of the cheeses from the  Croome cheese company to taste test too. (They didn't have the Charcoal flavour........ maybe rural  Suffolk isn't ready for something that weird yet!) 

Hope to get to one or the other of the car boot sales at the weekend - it should be dryer and warmer.

With luck  I'll find something to write about for Monday.

Nothing to Write About

 Sometimes finding something to write about is easy, but today I can't think of anything! 

Yesterday was wet and cold nearly all day - not conducive for anything interesting.

Tennis was rained off most of the week  so I'm now watching my way through 'Elementary' - quite an old US series now, back to 2012 - it's a bit odd.

Next week is looking rather empty for excitement too.

But I will come back tomorrow and round up the week, I'll probably talk about the weather!

A Bridleway

  Having a cycle again means I can go a bit further than I can walking and recently I biked to the entrance of a Bridleway that I'd never been down before.

If I'd got a suitable off-road tyres and was 40 years younger I could have cycled down it as Bridleways are OK for horse riders, cyclists and walkers of course. But it was too bumpy and strewn with small branches from the hedges so I pushed the bike. I didn't go all the way down the track as after a mile it turns into a small road with houses that are accessed off the main A road - and there's no way I'm cycling on an A road with so much fast traffic!

We are so lucky to have so many footpaths and bridleways in the countryside of Suffolk and on the whole they are kept clear.

Haven't been far on my new bike in the last week - the on/off rain is hopeless for getting washing dry, cutting grass and getting out and about on foot or by bike. More thunder storms - with and without rain -than we've had for years. I haven't even been to a boot sale for nearly two weeks - I shall be getting withdrawal symptoms  at this rate!

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We Are Gathered Here Today....................

...............to make a Thai red fish curry

 2 tins coconut milk, 1 tin of plum tomatoes, 1 green pepper, 1½ onions, few small potatoes, ¾ pack mangetout. Most of the jar of Thai red curry paste and a pack of Basa fish fillets.

Approx costs £1.50 + 43p + 36p +12p + 25p + 80p + £1 + £1.75 = £6.21 ÷ 8 = 78p each portion

Another choice in the freezer.

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British Library Crime Classics

 One of BLCC recent reprints was a new author for them - Leo Bruce.

It's always interesting to read Martin Edwards introductions to these books and their authors. Leo Bruce was the pen-name of Rupert Croft-Cooke (1903 - 1979) who also wrote poetry, plays, novels and non-fiction including 27 volumes of memoirs. Apparently in his obituary in The Times there is no mention at all of his crime fiction which is odd as there 23 titles featuring his school teacher/detective/criminologist Carolus Deene and before that he'd had a successful series featuring Sergeant Beef.

Edwards says that Croft's  Deene series (1955-1974) seem to have never been published in paperback and some  had been out of print for decades. Maybe because they were written in Golden Age style at a time when other authors were writing grittier and more psychological stories.

In Jack on the Gallows Tree (originally published in 1960) Carolus Deene is recovering from a bout of jaundice and is sent off to a health spa type hotel at Buddington. No sooner has he arrived and settled in and there are two murders only linked by a lily being left on the bodies. Deene has been told by the headmaster of his school Not to get involved with any murders again as it will give the school a bad name. But as usual Carolus Deene does get involved and manages to work out the who and the why before the police.

I wonder if BLCC will publish more of this authors books - hopefully they will as it was a good read.

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Forgive Me for Boasting!

 I grew up in a home where we weren't praised for anything. I don't remember anyone saying "Well done" when I passed the eleven -plus and O levels and found myself a job in a library and  Mum often moaned about her sister and brother who liked to tell her how well their children were doing. "Always boasting" she would say. 'Showing off' in any way was also discouraged.

The problem with that upbringing is it then becomes hard to praise your own children.

So sorry about this showing off and boasting! but I'm putting that right..................

I'm so proud of my eldest daughter. After working as a Textile Print designer for Monsoon, Phase Eight and other fashion designers she had just become a freelance textile print designer so as to be at home with her small son when covid struck and that put an end to that but she decided to start her own business and it's doing rather well. Artful Kids UK is her children's party and workshop business based in Surrey and roundabout encouraging children to create and enjoy making and doing. And as well as doing that she's also working lots of hours a week for a friends garden and landscaping business, doing their publicity and organising all sorts of admin. A wonderful Mum to my eldest and youngest grandsons too.

I'm so proud of my Son. Lots of people do an Archaeology degree but not so many end up with a full time and permanent job in the sector. At one time every County had it's own Archaeology department but now almost all work is contracted out and son worked for a couple of companies, including moving round the country, before getting his job, based in Suffolk, at Oxford Cotswold Archaeology  He doesn't dig anymore now he's in management. Such a good Dad to middle grandson and youngest granddaughter.

I'm so proud of my youngest daughter who decided not to follow her siblings to university and went out and got herself a job at age 17. Working at an Opticians as a receptionist and then optical assistant for many years until covid and a new owner downsized his staff and she found herself out of a permanent job with a 5 year old. She'd also fought through cancer before EGD was born and wasn't sure if she would be able to have children. She did several part time jobs before getting a job on short term contracts also working for Oxford Cotswold Archaeology in the site offices organising all the accommodation and logistics for the people working on the digs at Sizewell C power station sites. The end is in sight for those contracts but now she has a permanent admin job with them which is really good news. Coping so well and being the Best Mum on her own now to my eldest Granddaughter.

Three wonderful children - their Dad was and would have been proud too!

[This post came about because Aril at Eccentric Amblings and Ramblings blog mentioned the Tunsgate Centre in Guildford. ED had been running workshops there regularly but the new centre manager hadn't booked her for a while. ED thought they'd had a change of plan for family events there. I looked on her website to see if she'd been booked there for the summer hols, they hadn't but she is busy, busy elsewhere and that made me very proud!]

First Week of June

 I went to the dentist during the week (check up and Xray only - thankfully). I go to Ipswich as that's where they moved to during covid. While I was on the right edge of town I decided to pop along to Dreams and see about a new mattress, something I keep putting off as it's such a faff.

I drive into the carpark and all the lights were off in all the big warehouse stores but the doors were open and it turned out they'd all been flooded out on Tuesday with huge downpours and hailstones - Dreams and Bensons for Beds are both there - both shut. Back in my village on Tuesday we didn't even have enough rain to fill the water butts. Now I'll have to go back specially sometime - no doubt I'll put it off a bit longer.

The first handful of raspberries were ready this week - the seeds in them seem a bit hard again - like last year - lack of rain I think. . 

From the few old strawberry plants in two tubs I've had about a dozen strawberries and they've quickly finished and I'll empty the tubs now and start again next year.

Disappointed to see that the Commonwealth Games won't be on free TV in the summer - only available on a pay to view channel. Channel 5 will have a highlights catch up in the evening. They weren't even supposed to be in Scotland anyway but Australia backed out. So with a reduced games and no free exposure to the public it could be the end for them.

BUT Queens Club tennis - the start of the grass court season and the build up to Wimbledon - is still on BBC and starts next week , with Nottingham on BBC iplayer the week after and Eastbourne the following week and the first of six Cricket Test Matches for England's men has also started and there's still an hour of highlights each evening on the Beeb. But if England and NZ were both as hopeless at batting but as brilliant at bowling as they were on day one then there won't be many 5 day tests - It was almost a one day thing!

On Thursday there was a thunderstorm - it rained a bit! I tried again with the camera and you-tube. I'm sure the way I get it loaded to the blog is probably the long/wrong way.

Have a good weekend - a very wet Saturday is forecast here - I'll be back Monday

Big Shop

 Filling a post with food shopping again!

Two weeks after my last proper food shop and the first one for June was a big shop. Restocking cupboards, buying lots of lovely summer fruit and all the ingredients for making a big batch of Thai red fish curry as most of the 12 portions of Quorn Korma curry made way back in January have been eaten.

Almost everything was from Aldi but then I popped into Morrisons to get a couple of things that Aldi don't have.

From left to right.............. Salad leaves 65p; Large pack of nectarines 1kg £2.39; strawberries £2.15; 2 x packs of 6 mini apples @ 59p = £1.18; carrots 500g 44p; mini potatoes 75p; head of calabrese 79p; Large bag wonky peppers £1.69; mangetout 200g £1.19; pack of 7 mini cheese biscuits 99p; 2 x peanuts @ 59p = £1.18; 2 x tins plum tomatoes @ 43p= 86p; tin peaches 45p; spaghetti 500g 33p; pack 6 cheese/onion rolls £1.75; 4 wholemeal burger baps 69p; 1.5kg plain flour 70p; 2 x tins coconut milk @75p = £1.50; 400g extra mature cheese £2.49. 1 decaf ground coffee £2.49; 2 x ground coffee @ £2.49 = £4.98; shortbread biscuits 95p; fig roll biscuits 59p; 2 x Dried prunes @ £2.79 =   £5.58; Thai red curry paste £1.29; 2 x Lemon meringue pie mix @ 85p = £1.70; Flora  cholesterol lowering Proactive spread  £3.75; 2 x Frozen Sweet potato fries @ £1.99= £3.98;  Icecream £1.35; Basa fish fillets £1.75.

Total spend was £50.42  blimey! hopefully not a lot else will be needed for the rest of June except eggs and fresh stuff. 

As the photo didn't really show all the shopping very well I decided to video it  then took me an age to remember/find out how to upload to youtube and now I've no idea if it works or not. I'd forgotten I even had a you-tube channel! It's just a couple of short bits from the meadow at Clay Cottage, a tour round the garden there in 2019 which is only 7 years ago but I must have aged since then ( errrr yes Susan you are 7 years older!) as I doubt I'd manage all that gardening now. The most recent video -  an even shorter bit of the view over the village is from 2024 and I don't even remember making it.

I would never have the patience to have a youtube channel that's for sure.

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Hummingbird Hawk Moth

 The problem with Hummingbird Hawkmoths is that they don't sit still for photos.

The hummingbird hawk-moth migrates to the UK from Southern Europe each year. It can be seen hovering over flowers, feeding with its long proboscis; its wings move so quickly that it 'hums'.

This is only the third time in all my years of having a garden that I've seen one. It was on the Valerian which is one of those plants that just arrives and spreads.

Red valerian was introduced in the 1600s from Europe, but is now naturalised in the UK. Its pinky-red flowers grow from old walls, roadside verges, railway cuttings and cliffs, and provide nectar for insects.

Hooray for patches of garden where anything is left to grow and to being in the right place at the right moment to spot this intriguing creature.

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