It's Saturday Again

 Have I done anything really interesting this week?

No.

I finished a small  book - On This Holy Island by Oliver Smith, he visited places of pilgrimage past and present.

and found book another in a charity shop in town (50p). Colkirk Tales by Alfred Absolon....love the cover.

but otherwise it's been too much TV (still watching Bull) and tackling a 16 x16 Sudoku in a Puzzle book.

Of course there was the usual house work, washing, shopping and Exercise Group. I've put so many batch made meals in the freezer over the month that I've run out of boxes so no more will be made for a while. I now have a choice of Quorn Korma Curry, Nut Roast, Pizza topping and bases, Quorn Spag Bol sauce and Pasta/broccoli/ salmon bake for whenever. 

At least I got some gardening done with planting out two courgettes and the squash plant   (I think danger of frosts really has gone) and putting two cucumbers, one pepper and one aubergine into grow bags in the greenhouse. Plus the Climbing French beans out to the garden.  There will be 4 tomato plants in the other grow bags and more peppers in pots next but they are still a bit small.

The roses in the garden are all flowering so I brought a few in

We are in for a heatwave, with record breaking May temperatures forecast over the next few days - a sunny Bank Holiday weekend will be nice. Bank Hol weekends come around quickly with  Easter, Early May and Late May all happening with a few weeks...........then we have to wait to late August for another one.................which is probably a good thing as  I made scones  for my Bank Holiday treat again!

There are a couple of things I want to go to over the weekend but decided it would be a bit too hot to stand outside selling at a car boot sale, so my boxes of 'stuff' remain in my bedroom.

Have a lovely weekend - don't forget the sunscreen!

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.

Roses

 It's a good year for the roses - I'm sure that's a line of a song?  There are 6 different ones here and I've no idea what they are. I only know that there's white, red  and  shades of pink and orange. There's another that I have to keep cutting down as it's really in a wrong place. Three are climbers. My sister gave me  a yellow rose in a pot for my birthday. I don't think its a miniature - the flowers are bigger - those miniature roses never last long for me.

I think it's wonderful that many people know exactly what varieties they have growing but I'm not a massive fan, and have never gone out to actually buy any anywhere I've lived and I never know how much I should be cutting back each year. But it is nice, at this time of year, to be able to bring in a few  now and again.

Cecily Mary Baker has Flower Fairies for garden flowers too. I expect all roses were scented back in the 1920s. Sadly none of those here have any fragrance.

 And yes, it is a line from a song

Sung here by Elvis Costello

This is the biggest and most showy of all the roses, it's in the front border so gets the most sun.

Back Soon

Random Bits..................

 ....................from this week.

• Haven't had flowers in for a while, it's been so dry there are a shortage in the border but the white rose was blooming well so I cut a few for a small posy.

• After 4 years here I discovered the Bosch induction hob has a child lock, don't know how it got switched on but  I had to search for the instructions for how to unlock it.

• There is a film of The Salt Path book by Raynor Winn. Released on the 30th. Do I want to watch it? Yes, because the book was good, but no because there's a lot of terminal illness involved.

•  Sitting out in the sun was wonderful earlier this week, not too long at a time but even half an hour is so good for mental health. This is what I saw on just one afternoon ...........Way overhead a buzzard circled before disappearing, lower down  swifts were flying round and round - hopefully finding lots of insects, there were several gulls, a housemartin and crows and pigeons of course, a pied wagtail sat on the neighbours roof, a female blackbird came and had a very splashy bath in the birdbath, the sink-pond and then back in the birdbath and then something I didn't recognise stopped on the guttering of my bungalow. Had to get the bird book and decided it was a garden warbler. Only one butterfly - an orange tip but the Ceanothus is covered with bees.

• Why hadn't I had a home made curry for a while? - because there were none in the freezer. I needed to make a batch and had korma paste and coconut milk in the cupboard and a bag of Quorn pieces in the freezer. I started with onions, added potatoes, spinach from the freezer and bought a pack of mangetout peas for some colour. It made enough for 10 meals -  9 boxes to restock the freezer and one to eat straightaway - it was very delicious.

• Next door neighbours cat was hit by a car and killed this week. Their daughter is distraught as Crumble was her cat and followed P up the road to the school bus stop every morning before coming back when P met her friends. Crumble was a lovely cat but her favourite place for hunting was over the road in the new part of the burial ground and I've held my breath many times when I've seen her dashing back across the road not far from a passing car. 

•  I've just finished  a crime fiction book set in wartime Cambridge (Jim Kelly- Night Raids) and it mentions a lady using a tea-bag - now I'm sure (well I was sure until doubting) that teabags weren't around in the UK until much later. I googled of course and it says "Tetley introduced teabags to Britain in 1939 but paper shortages meant they didn't become common until the 50's and not in general use until the 1960s".  What was used in the first half of the C20, for making one cup at a time were infusers - holding loose tea . My mum said that during wartime rationing, tea was used many times for a cuppa until it tasted of nothing much except hot water.

• Eurovision Song Contest on TV tonight. I half watched the semi-finals - good grief there's some rubbish this year - but people seem to be having a really good time out in Basel and if it brings together people from many parts of Europe and makes a lot of people happy then it has to be a good thing. 

And that's the end of another week. Thank you for reading and  comments  and have a good weekend.

Back Next Week

Sue

The First Few Finds

 The weather was fine and the temperature just below freezing when I went to the first car-boot sale of the season on Saturday morning. There were lots of people selling and shivering and even more folk walking round - not quite as cold as those standing still but blimey it was cold.

My spend total was £1.50

More pegs, after finding the ones in a charity shop I've now plenty to last me years, a new pad of paper for the grandchildren and an almost full roll of greaseproof paper.

I use the cheap greaseproof to line tins when cooking things that don't need baking parchment, saves some dishwashing.

At the boot-sale I looked through lots of boxes of crockery for a spring plate for the Seasonal Display - no luck. A couple of years ago I had a plate with spring flowers but it's vanished. Did I give it away? If so I'm a idiot!

So it's the Country Diary March plate on top of the bookshelves -it's third outing I think, the Beswick wren and blue-tit are there again and the Hare moves here from the big bookshelves for March. The flowers came from the boot-sale too, they should have cost me £2 but a lady was buying up loads of bunches and gathering them all into a bucket and I jokingly said can you save some for me? and she paid for her 10 bunches and then paid for my two bunches which was such a surprise that I think I forgot to say 'Thankyou'!

Back Soon

Sue

Saturday 15th

 Flowers on the bookshelf this week have been a few of the smaller side-spikes from a Foxglove, a couple of pieces of the Spirea and the tall purple spikes are something that popped up un-announced in the shingle bits of the pathway down the side of the bungalow. I think it's Toadflax, which can be invasive in some places but OK where it is now.

Luckily I picked these before the weather changed for the worse on Monday - blimey it was rough, wind and rain - awful weather for June. Also remembered to add the Ladybird book "What to Look for in Summer' to the bookshelf seasonal display.

During the week I had a man out to do a measure of the living/dining room as I want to get rid of the horrible brownish carpet, that sucks the light out of the room and replace with some wood veneer hard flooring. Then I'll get a nice big rug for the living room half of the room. I've lived with the carpet for 3 years and had enough of it.

I'd originally planned to have the patio sorted out this year but the man I got a quote from in October has dropped out of sight and uncontactable so I'll spend the money on the living room instead. I'll have to live with the odd patio slabs and the weeds coming through the joins and the rough bit where the old heating oil tank stood, for a while longer!

I was pleased to find more tennis on TV this week as the grass court season in this country got started with the Nottingham Open on BBC red button (although it kept having to stop for rain of course) while at the same time I enjoyed reading more library books one was the Persephone book  - The Village by Marghanita Laski. An interesting look at the class system that clung on in village life just after the war. The details from their website is HERE. Then I whizzed through The Last Word by Elly Griffiths - one of her lighter crime books but still a good read. She's got a new series on the way about a time travelling detective, sounds curious.

Interesting election stats heard this week..............

70% of American voters don't want to vote for either of the Presidential candidates

58% of British voters think all politicians lie to get themselves out of a tight corner 

Oh Dear.

Back Next Week

Sue

Looking Back At The Week Just Gone

 Bank Holiday Weekend last weekend was more or less a wash-out. I ventured out on the Saturday for two church visits but Sunday it poured almost all day so I stayed at home and moved furniture!

The aim being to get rid of the very, very old pine and now very tatty TV stand/chest of drawers without buying anything new to replace it.  I emptied drawers, chucked things out, moved other stuff  into different places and wiggled large pieces of furniture around - hoovering all the dust from behind each bit as I went along. Then I took two ibuprofen for the aching back, ate lunch and collapsed on the settee to watch world rowing championships from Lucerne. 

The weather was slightly better on bank Holiday Monday but I couldn't be bothered to go out, I finished the furniture moving and tidying, read, watched tennis, cleared a few weeds from out the front and spoke to no one all day - actually I spoke to almost no one all weekend!

Only 10 of us at exercise group, I do hope people are not dropping out but it might just have been because it was half term and holiday week.

Flowers in the house this week were just a couple of rose buds and some colourful Spirea.

This week I've been grateful for

• Finding out, thanks to google, how to remove the cover to change the back-up battery in the bleeping mains powered smoke alarm out in the garage (needed due to the boiler being in there) and still being able to climb 3 steps up the stepladder to reach the darn thing!
• Having the home made batch made meals from the freezer, making for easy meals
• Eventually working out how to get the French Open Tennis on TV
• Sorting out how to put a new cassette of cord into the strimmer.
• Getting the sweetcorn and runner beans planted out ............
• ..........and I suppose all the rain saves watering the outside veg.
• Sorting through and chucking out lots of old paperwork
• Library van bringing me my 17 reserved books 

Back Monday with the photos of the library books I collected.

Sue

Saturday Again

 There was some wild weather this week - high winds, torrential rain storms, ordinary rain and hail. We did have sun on a couple of days but not enough for my liking. I keep peering over the fleece fence at the French Climbing Bean plants - all OK so far.

Thank you to everyone for comments all week and 'Happy Birthday' wishes on Tuesday and apologies when I don't see them until next day and don't get round to replying. 

I think I have to be thankful that it's just one cat damaging the garden and not deer, rabbits, wallabies and wombats as many people have to garden around in other parts of the world! And I heard something about Fire Ants in parts of Australia -they look devastating. 

Thank you also to people who say they enjoy reading the blog - writing it keeps me going through good and the bad days.

 My 5th book of Reading The Seasons was a fail. It's a diary written through the spring of 2020, with the best spring weather for years and the virus moved through the country. It's by 3 different nature writers in different parts of the country including one in West Suffolk.

I started it and it was quite readable but I really didn't want to be reading about the coronavirus and its effects on everyone - it seems a long time ago now and I just didn't want to be taken back to that time again. 

Flowers in the house this week are my own - a few late tulips from the garden and some bits of Spirea and Perriwinkle.

Just as we were packing the chairs away at the Keep Moving Group this week we had a visit from a  very young policeman. ....It's true what they used to say .........he looked about 18! We told him he was too young and too late for the exercise and the coffee. But he'd seen the cars parked outside so thought  he would just drop in to tell us to be aware that there were some aggressive people door knocking in the area claiming to be from a charity. I'm always wary opening the door nowadays which is sad. Funnily enough the only person I've struggled to get rid of was a milkman wanting to deliver me milk!

Another weekend to enjoy with definitely more reading- but only one library book left- car boot sale probably - dry weather would be good. Stowmarket Town Council are trying to re-launch a monthly Farmers Market in town today - they tried in 2017 and it never really got going. Stow is going through a difficult patch with the banks closing and lots of empty shops and I found even the Oxfam Charity shop is closing. You know things are bad when a well established charity pulls out of the town. 

Have a good weekend in your bit of the world.

I shall be back Monday

Sue

There Was Some Sun

 A much better week weather-wise - at last. The sun shone on more than one day - which is an achievement for this year so far.

I went swimming this week for the first time since October but it was crazy busy. The only other public swimming pool in the North Suffolk/Norfolk border area is in Diss and is closed for a year for complete rebuilding so more people are using Stradbroke and it's not very big!

The internet dropped out for several hours on Tuesday - a problem for several villages around I discovered and  I'm still without a heating boiler. The family business (Ian who does repairs, his wife who does the paperwork and their son who does servicing of boilers) - who usually sort out my boiler have a had a 'few' problems that rather put things into perspective - death of Ian's father, whose empty farmhouse was then ransacked and trashed on the day of the funeral, at the same time as their son needed some help moving house which all happened at the same time as the wife was injured by a horse - when I heard all that my boiler didn't seem a priority! I'm planning on having a new boiler as I'm fed up with all the repairs that have been needed since I moved in, although Ian and son only do new boilers in summer so I might go elsewhere.

It's been easy to keep warm enough in the living room and I bought a cheap oil-filled radiator to have on low in the hallway ready for this weekend when the temps are set to drop. It will keep the rest of the bungalow just a little warmer. I'm thankful that washing machines and dishwashers work from cold water inlet but going back to old fashioned ways of keeping myself clean isn't much fun! So although my electric bill will be bigger, the heating oil will be lasting longer - looking on the positive side - and a new boiler will be more energy efficient and will put off having to have a ground source heat pump for longer.

More garden tidying has been done this week and my seedlings in the propagator (aubergine, 2 types of tomatoes, and peppers)  were big enough to prick out into modules. I sowed 3 cucumber seeds, which I discovered were all I had. If all three come up that will be plenty but one failure and they'll be a shortage, plus I wanted to sow a seed later for late cucumbers so I'll need to buy some more seeds. Also sowed some Climbing French Bean seeds, they are on the windowsill beside the propagator.

 The flowers on one of the young pear trees are about to open so I hope we don't get frosts. The big Magnolia flowers are open but the petals are falling like confetti from the flowering cherry.

Flowers on the table (bookshelf) this week are my own tulips -lovely to have enough to bring in. 

Indoors, much reading has been done including a very poorly written book - 'Murder in Paradise' by Ann Cleeves. 

Published in 1988 -  ten years before starting her Vera and Shetland series - The George and Mollie Palmer-Jones books are a struggle to get through. They are written in an odd way with many short sentences and are quite confusing. All eight have been republished recently.

Much better was this children's book

"Set in Devon in 1941, 'Digging for Victory' tells the story of twelve-year-old Bonnie Roberts who is desperate to play a valuable part in the war effort. For her, tending the family vegetable patch just doesn't cut it; she wants to be a hero like her RAF pilot brother, Ralph. But when the mysterious Mr Fisher is billeted at her Devon farmhouse, and Ralph is reported missing in action, she starts to question what heroism actually involves. And as Bonnie attempts to find out who Mr Fisher really is, she embarks on a life-changing and emotional voyage of discovery. 'Digging for Victory' is an adventure-filled story, with beautiful verse and a very satisfying ending."

That's about it for my week

Hope you have a good weekend, I'll be back Monday. 

Sue

The Flood/Car Saga is Over

I looked after the MG and YGD on Saturday so that Son and DiL could go and find a new-to-them car. Second-hand cars are crazy expensive nowadays - now that 'they' want everyone to buy electric which most people can't afford and will be impossible to charge for the majority who don't live in homes with driveways and room to park and plug -in. 

 Thankfully they found something suitable so my car is all mine again and if it had been fine on Sunday I would have gone to the Woolpit boot-sale ........but of course it rained YET AGAIN - All Day.

Stayed at home instead and decided to craft a few cards using up some more of my craft stash. After 3 Easter cards I remembered why I don't enjoy card making much anymore....rather be reading or writing.

The cookery section of the Bacton Fayre and Produce Show in August is organised by the WI and I've been helping for the last few years. So I spent some time searching through the WI Cakes and Biscuits cookery book for ideas ready to send off details to  the Schedule editor. I seem to have volunteered to assist the judge on the day as I have done for the last couple of years. Not sure I'll enter much this year, it makes a very tiring couple of days, baking the day before then on the day having to pick fresh vegetables and  get there early for putting entries in and then 3 or 4 hours helping and then looking round the Fayre and going back again to collect entries at the end of the day -  I'll see nearer the time - I'm probably too competitive NOT to enter something!

Mother's Day pressie from Son and DiL made me smile - hanging here until I find a hook

and lovely flowers for this weeks Flowers On The Table

And more good news, my car had it's annual service and went through the MOT on Monday, so that's sorted.

Back Tomorrow

Sue

Tulips Again, Shopping and Books

 The daffodils at Aldi looked as if they'd been packed in a box for weeks so I left them where they were and dithered by the flower stall on the market. Daffs or Tulips, Tulips or Daffs?

The tulips were gorgeous colours - so tulips it was. If it's grey skies all week I have a bit of colour right beside me in the living room.

Second shopping trip in February and another week of replacing things used, to build up a useful store in the freezer and cupboards (prep for being snowed in for weeks or WWIII!?) Cabbage, tomatoes, pears, apples and grapes. Butter and Willow spread, cheese and milk. I'm building up a stock of ground coffee to use in my new machine, so 3 different packs. I looked for savoury biscuits to eat with cheese that had the fewest ingredients and came home with Aldi oatcakes. Also there are a packet of cashews, two sachets of cheese sauce powder, a jar of olives and the tube of 'guilty pleasure' Pringles....sometimes I just crave something crunchy!

Not in the photo are two packs of frozen sweet potato chips/fries - they went straight into the freezer.

 Still  no meat as I'm still eating mostly my batch made meals from the freezer, and only a couple of things that could be called a UPF. Total spend £30.17

I picked up two books from the For Sale shelves in Stowmarket library. They sell off old books and get books donated to sell too.. On the left Rumer Godden - Peacock Spring. I know I read Greengage Summer many moons ago and I just liked the cover of this one. On the right is a follow up to Ring of Bright Water, which I was sure I'd read but it's not in my Book-of-Books-Read. Maybe we read it at school?  But I have read Island of Dreams by Dan Boothby which is all about Maxwell and his home and writing.

Wordle Tuesday = SCRAM in 2 = well chuffed! 

Back Tomorrow

Sue

Flowers

 I felt in need of flowers last week, there were so many dull days and I hadn't bought any since Christmas and nothing in the garden.

Tulips from Aldi cheered things up - and by golly we've had enough grey days and rain to make anyone depressed.

In one of my moves, for reasons now forgotten, I cleared out some vases and now I never seem to have the right size/shape. Something for the "what to look for at boot-sales" list I think.... Not that they'd look any better in anything different as my method of flower arranging is to shove-them-in-the -vase.

Sadly the flowers only lasted a week - the rain and grey skies are lasting much longer.

Back Tomorrow

Sue

December 24th - Christmas Eve

 Come and Join the Celebration.

This is the happiest carol of them all! It was written for children but grown-ups can sing it too.

I first heard it at Cotton Methodist Church in the 1980's where my late Father in Law had been a member since a small boy and was a preacher/lay reader in the Methodist Circuit.  Our two eldest children went to Sunday School there before we moved away and we always went at Christmas.

From wiki...........

Valerie Collison (born 23 March 1933) is an English organist and composer of hymns and carols.^[1] Her best-known work is "Come and Join the Celebration" for which she composed both the lyrics and tune. This was first published in Carols for Children in 1972 and is now performed in services throughout the UK. She also wrote "The Journey of Life",^[2] popular in English primary schools as part of the Come and Praise hymnal.

I hadn't heard this anywhere this year until I popped into the Co-op after my car boot visit last week and they had a small choir of about 8 ladies singing carols in the foyer. I sang it all around the shop!....quietly......didn't want to frighten the other customers.

When T was for Treats in November, I didn't mention another that sometimes happens - depending on circumstances................. A bunch of flowers for Christmas - something a bit bigger than the occasional £2 bunch from Aldi.

The pine cones, ting and fir-cone were from one of the pre-Christmas craft sales and they've been added to the Asda roses, chrysanth's and ornamental cabbage hearts etc. All in the biggest jug on the kitchen window sill for me to enjoy.

Thank you for comments yesterday, the home-made remedies have worked and I'm up to 99% now!

Back Tomorrow - briefly

Sue

The Last Bank Holiday Weekend Before Christmas!

 Sorry about that title, but it's the frightening truth!

It's the weekend when they have the flower festival in the little church at Crowfield - I think I've been most years since finding out about it, not because of the flowers but because they have a rather good amount of second hand books for sale. Discovered Crowfield hasn't been "done" as a proper church visit although it gets mentioned every year. Must rectify that.

The Athletics World Championships have been good to watch on TV this week although I puzzled at the decision of the GB Athletics Association to only take people who had could get into a final. It meant there were several events with no representative from here which seemed a shame.  

Haven't had flowers for a while but spotted these for sale for £2 on a roadside stall near where we have the Keep Moving group. Gorgeous colours.

After my shelf shifting there's no room now for much of a seasonal display on the smaller shelves in the living room. But the room seems to be looking bigger without the other big pine shelf unit which is what I was hoping for. The books that are not used so often, which were on the bigger shelves, are now in my bedroom waiting to see if they are really needed any more.

That Roberts Radio was a charity shop bargain while we were on holiday in Somerset many, many, years ago - £4 I think because it had no electric lead but we had one at home and it can use batteries too which is useful in a power cut. Come to think of it everything there is second-hand except the flowers and the plate stand! 

More garden clearing this week including one Huge courgette plant which had finished - I'm still eating courgettes several times a week and thought it was nearly the end but after removing the one plant I discovered the second plant has put out new growth and there are still babies appearing - more fritters/courgette pesto pasta/courgette crumble next week I think. I've had 2 handfuls of Runner Beans so far and I'm hoping for more, the plants have gone up to the top of the canes and are now coming down again with more flowers than they had before. 

My garden waste bin had settled a bit so I managed to shove everything in and it will be emptied next week ready for me to fill up again when I cut back the Buddleia that's smothering the sweetcorn plants. I'm trying to think of a way to squeeze in another compost bin of my own, I have two - one to fill - which is full-  and one rotting down. The rotting down one could be emptied onto the garden now but there's not a spare patch of soil to empty it onto......I'll puzzle it out somehow.

Have a good weekend.

I'll be back Monday or Tuesday

Sue

The Week Just Gone

 I started the week by cutting my own hair again for the first time for ages. The price keeps going up at the hairdressers  in the village so I decided to DIY. ....I do a 6 all over with the clippers. Very glad that I kept the trimmers because I'd thought about getting rid.

Middle Grandson- the 3 year old dinosaur expert - helped me sow the sweetcorn seeds when I looked after him a couple of weeks ago - he was ever so excited to see how they'd grown. Hope I can generate a bit of interest in him for gardening as it's completely by-passed all 3 children.

In the Greenhouse first week of June. The things I have too many of are still here!

 

 Flowers on the Table this week are a few bits from the garden - Lady's Mantle and Valerian with some Spirea to fill in

WI was interesting and will be a post on Monday. Keep Moving Group had a new person plus two people who first came weeks ago and were then not seen again so even though a few were on holiday we still had a good number.

Then it was really good to meet up with a friend in the Osier Cafe in Stowmarket Church who I've only seen a handful of times since we both left school in 1971. How to catch up on 50 years news?? Think we'll need to meet up again! 

(The bells have been re-hung so should be ringing out soon)

Friday was swimming and another week has zoomed by again. 

I know what I'm doing this weekend as I'm finally getting round  to touching up the paint in the hall way. The removal men knocked an over-radiator shelf off the wall when moving stuff in and I filled the holes but got no further with it until it dawned on me the other day that the left over paint from the en-suite would do the job. And that idea spurred me on to go and get a small can of paint mixed to cover some holes I'd filled in the living room (I'd been carrying a paint match card around with me for weeks). I'd like to paint the whole living room really but it's a difficult job with a carpet and nowhere to move the furniture. While I was there I also bought some Gorilla glue to fix down two loose ceramic tiles on the front doorstep. 

Should keep me busy! And of course there are car-boot sales, gardens open days in Eye or Old Newton and Yard/Garage Sales all round son's village too.

And that NE wind will be gone and we are due sunshine and warmth - WONDERFUL! 

🌞🌞🌞🌞🌞🌞🌞🌞🌞🌞🌞🌞🌞🌞🌞🌞🌞🌞🌞🌞🌞🌞🌞🌞🌞

Hope your weekend is full of interesting things too.

I'll be back Monday

Sue

First Saturday of the Month

Sorry to keep going on about the weather here but I want to shout very LOUDLY to the weather Gods - please can we have less of the NE wind and some of the sun and warmth that you have given to everywhere other than us in East Anglia. Lack of sun is making the greenhouse tomatoes very lanky and making me very cranky!

Managed to find a few roses not attacked by green/white fly to bring in for my flowers on the table this week.

Two new people came to the Keep Moving Group this week which is good - the more people we get, the less we will need to pay to cover costs, so I hope they come again next week. 12 of us going regularly and hardly anyone misses a session and we all think it's very beneficial.

Then there was the Suffolk Show. It's a massive show and I love it, but it was really cold there and of course ever so busy. More children than ever I reckon - children get in for free and there's plenty to see that doesn't cost any extra. So if you take your own food the only cost is adult entry as long as you're not tempted to buy all the nice things in the clothing and gardening shopping avenues.

 I'll sort out the photos I took ready to post on Monday. 

The only other things I did during the week were going to the mobile library and shopping.

Hopefully I shall get to car boot sales this weekend, not sure if anything else is happening. But there's plenty of weeding to do.

Have a good weekend. I'll be back Monday

Sue

Another Bank Holiday Weekend

 With the Coronation Bank Holiday as well,  this is the third Monday BH of the month. Why did he have to get crowned in May - any other month would have spread out the BH weekends a bit better!

We get less days off than many other countries anyway- very unfair I used to think when Colin was working for the County Council - of course once retired, every day is a holiday?!  

Some Stocks bought off the market have been my Flowers on the Table for part of this week ,although they didn't last long, with some lovely Spirea from the garden to fill up the jug.

I keep hoping that something will grow for me to have my own Flowers on the Table but don't really have enough of anything and the roses are covered in greenfly again.

Had an annoying letter this week telling me that Barclays Bank in Diss is closing in August. They've already closed the one in Stowmarket (and Eye and Debenham and almost every other several years ago) so where on earth do I go now if I want a bag full of £1 coins for car boot sales! I opened my bank account with them when I started work at 16 and hadn't changed simply because they had branches everywhere we lived and it cost me nothing to have an account there. Now the only Building Society/Bank in both Stowmarket and Diss is Nationwide and they've annoyed me too by changing rules on their Savings Bond so that monthly interest money can't be paid into any other account - which I was using to top up my monthly pension. Seems to me nowadays they just think - "B*g**r the customer!

75p was spent on a pot of Basil from Aldi this week to do my usual thing of persuading the cuttings to root in water and turning them into plants which is so much easier than growing from seed. (I'm grateful every year for finding this tip on a blog)

I also bought a pot of Parsley for the same price and have divided the seedlings so some are in the ground and some in pots. They should grow and last all summer.

This week I've been grateful for

• Seeds sown
• Plants growing
• Spending a day with Middle Grandson - the 3 year old dinosaur expert!
• Good books

Hope you all have a good Long/Short weekend - depending on where you live.

I'll be back on Monday

Sue

Coronation Weekend

 

Here we are on a special day for our country and I wonder how many people will be watching the Coronation? It's funny to remember than when Elizabeth was crowned back in 1953, hundreds of families went out to buy their first ever TV - now there are almost as many TV's as people! 

Also wonder how many people won't be watching. Brother in Law said he was glad to be heading out to stock car meetings so he didn't have to hear about it or see it. .....I called him a grumpy old man but if the weather was hot and sunny perhaps I'd be at the beach or out in the sun rather than watching TV - 6th May is probably too early for that.

It might be a one-off event in my life-time (if Charles is as long-lived as his Mother) but I can't get up much enthusiasm for the whole business although it might be interesting to see 7,000 members of the armed forces from here and the Commonwealth marching through the streets of London. A bit like they do regularly in communist countries!

Because a Village Street Fair had already been planned for last weeks Bank Holiday Monday (before the Coronation date was announced) there are only a few things planned in the village for This weekend - a 'Royal' scarecrow competition, a special Church service on Sunday morning and live music and dancing on Sunday night, with a family fun afternoon on Monday. None of which make me feel very excited. I think I shall just have a quiet weekend. 

Thank goodness car boot sales are still happening - weather permitting of course and it looks a bit iffy.

********************

If only I'd found this new Birthday card a few weeks ago before I did the post about Mallard Ducks I could have included it on the post and written more about the famous train from the 1930s. But only spotted it at last weekends car boot sale along with a couple more - 20p each again. Another handy card for a man.

Flowers on the table this week have been a £3 bunch of Irises off the market to which I added 3 late tulips and a few bits of greenery from the garden - they look better than the photo!

And on the subject of flowers, please can someone tell what these are? A perennial, forming a large spreading clump - pink buds on arching stalks about 12 -15 inches tall that then open as white. I tried a recognition app which told me it was Rhubarb!! errr no, but it's something I've not had in any previous garden. It's spreading so well that I'm hoping it's not an invasive weed that I don't know about.

I've looked through pages of perennial pink/white flowers but can't find it. I'm sure someone will know.

I did my duty and voted in the District Council elections on Thursday- the only posters I'd seen were for Andrew Stringer who has been our Green Councillor now for several years. The only leaflet through the letter box was hand delivered by the man himself. He was voted back in and many other Green Councillors were also elected in the other Wards - It looks as if Mid Suffolk District Council will completely Green rather than sharing with the Conservatives as they have done for the last 4 years. I have no idea what difference this will make to the services the District Council are in charge of - but perhaps it might slow down some of the planning applications for huge housing estates in our villages which come without any increase in much needed facilities.

Fingers crossed for fine weather for the weekend, especially in London for the procession and the 1000's watching in person. Enjoy whatever you have planned for this extra Bank Holiday and I'll be back Tuesday.

Sue

Saturday 25th + Day 19

 Flowers on the table this week have been a beautiful bunch of roses from Son and DiL for Mother's Day.

Son texted me Wednesday to ask if I was OK because DiL and both children had been poorly since Monday and I'd been there Sunday, but I seem to have avoided bugs again.

 Day 19 of the Value Range Experiment

A potato, bacon, onion and tomato layer bake served with cabbage. This is something I'd not made since the children all lived at home when it was something we often had as it's a way to stretch a little bacon. The first time I came across it was when Colin's Mum made it. 

Sliced potatoes are par-boiled for a few minutes and chopped bacon and onion fried but not too crispy, then layer up everything with a couple of tinned tomatoes and some of the juice from a can of tomatoes and plenty of pepper.

It's a bit of a faff to make for one person but used minimal ingredients from what I'd bought for the experiment.

I took a photo but it was only when I came to upload that I found the camera dial had accidently been on an odd setting and the photo was almost dark.

It's there somewhere!

It was good to have a mild and dry morning on Tuesday to get a bag of onion sets planted. After not planning to grow any this year until one morning I woke early and switched the radio on the farming programme where they were saying that last years' drought had put some farmers off growing onions this year and there might be a shortage. Despite the poor growing conditions and my onions being smaller than they should have been I've only just come to the end of what I grew last year so probably saved myself several pounds. So the sets are in and covered with one of the solid net frames that BiL made for me - hope it will stop the birds pulling them up or Crumble, next door's cat, digging them out. Something has already nibbled the leaves on the two new rhubarb plants.

I'm sending off for some small net cloche tunnels because I reckon it's the blasted pigeons. They've been sitting in the flowering cherry pecking the flower buds for weeks, it's a wonder there are any left for the header photo.

Pigeons are not my favourite birds!

Back Tomorrow

Sue

V.R.E. Day 6

 A brief Sunday post with a plate of food! (I never wanted to be a food blogger - what's the matter with me for goodness sake!)

Day 6 main meal. The 4th and final piece of quiche with tinned potatoes (as I've got to the end of the fresh because of using them in the fish curry, twice roast with the quiche and mashed which are in the freezer) and tinned tomatoes.

These Morrisons Basic Value Range tinned spuds were actually OK, better than I remember when we used to use them on family camping holidays.

Have had Rainbow Tulips from Aldi as my 'Flowers on the Table' this week

Back Tomorrow

Sue