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.

And Into October

No sooner had I written about the named storms that might arrive this year and Storm Amy blew into Northern Ireland, Scotland and Northern England, forecast to bring rain and strong winds yesterday and today. As usual not so bad here in Suffolk, just a very, very wet Friday, with rain all day. I didn't even step outside the door .

Instead I got the first jigsaw out of the cupboard and got started on the edges.

I've added the pumpkins onto the top of the bookshelves for October. The white one is a new find - car boot sale of course. It should light up but the light won't stay on but as it was only 50p it doesn't really matter.

At last Saturdays car boot sale  I picked up the box to turn over to see what 'gifts' (junk!) were included inside the Christmas Crackers. The crackers themselves weren't very appealing. But when the lady said 20p -  they had to be bought!

I think it will be me providing the crackers for all our family get togethers this Christmas as there are some previous boot sale finds in the cupboard already. 

Finally had part one of the shingles vaccination and I must make a note in the new diary to organise part two for next April as the health centre can't make appointments that far ahead. 

The garden waste bin had settled so I was able to squash in all the dead climbing bean haulm and get the canes into the greenhouse before we get wet weather. I'm drying some of the pods for the seeds, I don't know what variety they were as the plants came from a boot-sale after my failed sowing, but they were really good and didn't get tough at all. 

The bin gets emptied on Monday and then I start  filling it all over again - too much Buddleia!

Have a good weekend - stay safe if you are up north in the rough weather. There are garage/yard sales in a nearby village here to look round - after the boot sale of course and if it stops raining.

Back Monday

Notes From The Middle of September

• Thank you to everyone who commented on the holiday photo posts. It's lovely to see that they brought back memories to folk who had visited or lived here in the past .

• Decided the large fir cone definitely had to go from the Autumn display so I pulled out the coloured artificial fabric/paper leaves that have been used every year for around 8 years. I gave them a bit of a wipe with a damp cloth to refresh and it now looks much better.  In October I'll add in the few Halloween bits.





• The British Heart Foundation charity shop  in Stowmarket, which has been there for years, closed down with no notice. The volunteers were just told 'This shop is now closed'. I believe they did the same thing in Diss a few years ago. Very odd. The shop is still full of stuff.

• Very mixed Autumn weather this week, very windy on Monday and Tuesday and wet and nasty on Wednesday and really chilly. Then milder on Thursday and positively Hot on Friday. Difficult to know exactly what to wear everyday. 

• I've spent some time this week feeling ugh!  Have I become intolerant  to something I eat that previously hasn't affected me? Didn't have much energy in between jobs, so plenty of reading time. I read two of my own books while waiting for the mobile library to bring my reservations. Also watched the World Athletics Championships from Japan. How they run in that heat I've no idea.

• Because of the weird stats numbers I've been looking more often and  last Saturdays post had a crazy number of page views...........over 7,000 by the time I wrote this post. I hope AI is enjoying my ramblings and adding them to their knowledge of how to speak Suffolk!

• Ed Sheran and his family are deserting Suffolk to go and live in the US - he's the main sponsor for Ipswich Town FC - hope he doesn't abandon them. He says it's while he's touring and writing Country music - so maybe he will be back eventually.

• Now I've reached the right age I've made an appointment for shingles vaccination next week, are there any side effects that I should know about?

• We need some more people for the Keep Moving exercise group, people are not coming as regularly as they once did, some weeks recently we've been down to just 7 or 8 of us. Three ladies are poorly, two more came once and then never again. Perhaps I will put a message on the local face book or next door website pages again, it worked at the beginning of the year. 

• I managed to get through the whole week without seeing any TV coverage of the State visit here from a certain person. That's a win in my opinion.

• Quite a lot of garden clearing done this week, cutting back one of the buddleias and a lot of other bits until the garden bin was full again. Then I got the grass cut on Thursday, it was getting long due to me being away and it mustn't get too long or the battery mower struggles and I have to get BiL to cut it - try not to let that happen as he is always so busy.

And here we are at another weekend, decent weather is forecast - best to make the most of it with the equinox on Monday there's no getting away from the fact that Autumn is really here.

Back Monday

50p Addition to Autumn on the Bookshelves

 I picked up this little bell at the car boot sale a couple of weeks back. It was in one of the boxes of all sorts being sold by one of the house clearance people. I spotted the apple and thought it would be a nice little extra for the top of the bookshelves for Autumn.

I've got more bits and bobs for Autumn and Winter in the cupboard than I have for Spring and Summer, so can have different stuff out and this is what I've brought out of the box for this year.

But maybe it looks a bit brown and dull, so may have a rethink.

Last weekend at the bootsale a man had several of the Beswick Birds that I've mentioned before  and now have an accidental collection of 3! Luckily he wanted £7 Each - so I wasn't even tempted as there was no way was I paying that much when my 3 have been cheap (cheep?). The Chaffinch was 50p in June and the Blue Tit and Wren have been around a few years and were either £1 or 50p. I wonder if he sold his for £7 each?

Back Soon

Chaffinch

 I was standing talking to BiL in his back garden recently when a bird started shouting loudly from one of the shrubs. It flew out so I could see it was a chaffinch which made me realise how rarely they are seen now. I've never seen any on the feeders here. BiL's garden backs onto fields and although he only feeds birds with sunflower seed hearts he gets more variety on the feeder than I do here.

In the book 'An Illustrated Country Year' by Celia Lewis it says they are common and they are common in many parts of the country. I remember them hopping around the table when we were having coffee and cake outside at a café in Cornwall or Devon many years ago, like sparrows would have done in Suffolk, now sparrows and chaffinches are both harder to spot .

Then by a weird coincidence at Bank Holiday Sunday's car-boot sale I spotted this and picked it up to look at the base and yes it was another Beswick bird, question was, was the lady selling a dealer and would want a few £ or just someone clearing out? So I asked how much and when she said 50p it had to be bought!

Oh dear, I did say there would be no more but I now have 3 Beswick birds, that's almost a collection. The Wren and Blue tit will come out of the box for spring and the Chaffinch will be for Summer, that way they won't be dust collectors and I won't get fed up with them.

June on the bookshelf looks like this..........

The piece of Poole pottery shaped like a buoy (it's a small bell) was found in a Charity shop in Ipswich in 2022 , it hasn't been out on display before because it got wrapped up and tucked in a corner of the box that I keep all the bits in and kept getting missed . I had a sort out a few weeks ago and found it. About time it was out of the box!

Back Soon

Easter Weekend All Over for Another Year

 The extra Easter bits were added to the seasonal display on the bookshelves, just for the weekend. Nothing 'new' this year and there wouldn't be, because I'd only ever buy from a charity shop etc anyway!

The Surrey family didn't arrive until Saturday due to SiL's late flight back from the US on Friday. But were in plenty of time for getting to the big family meal - for my 70th birthday - at a local (to Son and family) Indian restaurant. 16 of us all together.

It was a very delicious meal, lots of choice with something for everyone to enjoy and DiL made me a gorgeous cake.

"Happy Birthday" was sung to me twice because the 7 sparkler 'candle' lit OK but the 0 wouldn't, so when Son eventually got it going they had to sing all over again!!

Sunday there was an Easter Egg hunt for all 5 Grandchildren in the small garden here and then they hid eggs for us grown ups to find which they thought was great fun so could become a family tradition when we are altogether again at a future Easter.

In the afternoon we had a good walk around a local country park - Thornham Estate - last time we all went was 2019 and there were only 3 grandchildren.

3 small Grandchildren in 2019

                                                        5 bigger Grandchildren in 2025

My children clubbed together to get me a pair of decent binoculars and I also had some other presents from everyone too.

A lovely Big birthday weekend. Thank you to all the family for making it so special.

Back Soon

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 Notes

I've seen two people I 'sort of' know on TV recently. One was on the special Festive editions of University Challenge. Diamaid (pronounced Dermot) McCullough was the son of the Vicar in Wetherden when I was at primary school there although he went to a private prep school. He went onto Stowmarket Grammar School but was three years older  than me. He's now an Emeritus Professor of the History of the Church of England and has written several books.

The other person I saw that I recognised was on the Digging For Britain programme this week where they were at the archaeology site at Leiston where the company that Son works for as an archaeologist and YD works as a site administrator, are working, in preparation for Sizewell C  power station. It wasn't either of them on the programme but the guy who'd been the lucky person to find a hoard of coins is the husband of one of ED's high school friends. 

Considering the number of people who take part in TV programmes and the number of people we know or meet in a lifetime seems it's rare to actually see anyone we know on TV - the only other I can remember was about 15 years ago when someone I knew in the 70s was on Bargain Hunt. Or it might just be me I guess, maybe everyone else sees people they know all the time!

As well as Digging for Britain on TV this week. Both Silent Witness and The Good Ship Murder were back for new series and something new, another police thing, called Patience which is about an Autistic woman helping the police. It was a bit odd and contrived I thought. When I googled it to see how many episodes there were (6) I found it had been completely slated by some of the critics for the depiction of someone with Autism.

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I was on a really good run with Wordle, with 60+ correct in a row and then this Wednesday for some unknown reason I completely forgot to do it - Very Annoyed with myself! So now there's a long way to go to overtake my best run of 86 - Grrrrr! I do the mini crossword too and attempt the connections - but usually fail.

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Hello to penfriend Peggy! 👋 in Canada.  Had a lovely Christmas card from her this week,

 they've had postal strikes there so it took a while to get here. We used to write often but now I'm a bad penfriend who writes rarely but Peggy reads the blog. I used to have several penfriends but with the cost of postage and blogging being so easy I'm now the lazy and hopeless penfriend!

The card has a painting by Thomas Kinkade whose pictures can also be found on very difficult jigsaw puzzles - I'm glad my House of Puzzles January jigsaw was easier and is now finished so will be a Spot the Difference post next week.

Peggy said in her card that they didn't have forest fires close to where she is during the summer last year, thankfully, sometimes they get frighteningly close. The devastation of the Los Angeles fires in the US have been on TV news here, so many people have lost everything, it's heart-breaking to see and still goes on, even houses right down on the beaches have gone. Several people have died, looting has started and someone was  illegally flying a drone that hit one of the planes spraying fire retardant - what a crazy world.

Hope you have a good weekend, keep warm, especially if you are 'up north' in the snowy bits of the UK, down here in Suffolk it's just been frosty but with sunshine so hasn't felt too bad.

Back Monday

Sue

Advent 2024 and The Top of the Bookshelf

 I've put autumn away and got December out of the box for the top of the bookshelf.

I love my wind-up snow globe which I bought the Christmas after Colin died, I called it my present from him, it plays Jingle Bells, the grandchildren love it too, although I still have heart failure when any of them think they are big enough to pick it up!

The plate is Johnson Brothers School House from their Friendly Village range, which was made for the US market. I found in a charity shop when we were on holiday many years ago but it hasn't been out since I got the ' Edwardian Lady Months of the Year' plates.

The snowmen are very old and also from charity shops as is the bell. The Lilliput Lane  Frosty Morning Cottage was one of the few things I rescued from mum and dad's house when my sister threw so many things in a skip after Dad died.

I'll be adding a bunch of flowers here later and a jug of greenery.

Back Tomorrow

Sue

End of September Round Up

Unlike many parts of the Country we had lots of good weather through September in Suffolk. There were some chilly days early and late month but mostly we've had sunshine and the patio doors were open a lot, especially when I was painting. It means the heating oil tank is still over half full since the fill up in February.

The seasonal display on top of the bookshelves looked like this last week after I came home via a backroad and found bunches of Alstromeria out for sale near some allotments for £2  - in lovely autumn colours. All the other bits have been out before but some not for a few years

Not a frugal month due to paying the second half of the money for the living room floor and buying the new rug. Both of which I absolutely love. The room without the grey walls and the brownish carpet looks completely different.

Other spending was all the normal things, Council Tax, electric bill, phones and broadband, charity and bits and bobs for bathroom and kitchen, although I had to fill up the car twice this month. I took youngest daughter and eldest granddaughter out for a meal which was a lovely. Garden spending was a couple of bags of multi purpose compost for repotting things now and ready to start off next year plus a small tray of pansies from a car-boot for £2 ready for when the geraniums finish in my big pot out by the front door. Clothes spending was a couple of new hoodies from Asda to replace much older ones that had got very thin. I may be too old but I like a hoodie, very handy for keeping ears warm when it's not yet cold enough for a woolly hat. Finally I sorted Birthday present for DiL (For today!) which will be a part of her Christmas present too. 

After sending the huge 8-12 seater table off to Son and DiL's I've been looking for a nice second hand much smaller table with no luck, I'm probably too fussy but with the room looking so good and very modern I don't want to spoil it with a dark wood or ugly table. It's odd and frustrating not having a table anywhere so I need to do something about it soon.

My frugal notes are just - 

• Cheap and free cooking apples
• One pensioners discount Fish and Chips meal £5 instead of £8
• Painting the living room myself 
• A Few raspberries from the garden through the month
• Courgettes, leeks and sweetcorn from the garden
• Used one marrow for making Marrow and Apricot jam
• Falstaff eating apples from the garden
• Beetroot from BiL's garden
• Aldi had huge cauliflowers for 99p - one lasted me several days
• Home made bread in the bread machine
• Reading library books and from my shelves for free
• Dishwasher only used every other day
• Washing machine only used two or three times a week
• Tumble drier not used all month again
• Finding greetings cards from car-boot sales for 50p and less.
• Wild bird food off market stall, cheaper than anywhere else (The man being served before me was buying £80s worth of various bird feed!)

Out of the house this month to a charity shop went a few things from the cabinet including an odd covered serving dish, a large cake stand and some smaller bits. Also out into the bin went two very old pyrex quiche dishes - too big and very stained. 

To the bookshelves at the village hall went half a dozen non-fiction books that I've had for years and never read.

Extra to normal spending coming up in October are 3 Birthdays - Son plus two grandchildren, then there is a dentist appointment and I'll probably have to top up the heating oil tank right at the end of the month, so it would be useful to keep other spending small.

Apologies to people whose comments went into spam this month. I forgot to check for about 5 days and there were more than a dozen. Still don't understand it - I've given up trying.

Back Soon

Sue

Bigger Spend at a Charity Shop

When I got the set of Edwardian lady months of the year plates from a boot sale more than two years ago  I made room for them in the cupboard by getting rid of a couple of other plates (also boot sale finds) that I'd previously used in the seasonal display on the bookshelf, which was a daft thing to do as I'll never see them anywhere again. They were two from the Villeroy & Boch Four Seasons collection and very pretty.

Idiot!

Anyway, when I saw this in the glass display case of the Hospice charity shop I liked it even more than the two that had gone.

I bought it. It's by Royal Worcester and called 'The British Countryside in Summer'. Being in their glass display case means it cost more than I usually spend at a boot sale/charity shop but at least I can count it as a donation to charity!

Back Soon

Sue

The First Week in June

 Summer is on the book-shelf. These are the things that have come out of the box for every summer recently. The 'Summer Haze' Lilliput lane cottage and two old flowery jugs. Plus the June plate of course. 

Thank goodness for a bit more warmth this week and much less rain.

I've enjoyed watching the French Open Tennis on TV all week, some good matches and Djokovic, who I'm not a fan off, dropped out due to injury. Wonder if he will be fit for Wimbledon? That will open the tournament right up. Interesting to see the difference in the crowds watching - at Wimbledon usually all seats are pretty full up for all matches - not so much at Roland Garros.

Where did I get the details of the Globe-Watch Airplanes Live website? Thank you whoever mentioned it. I now know that one of the huge planes that goes round and round above the village every Monday and some other days is a U.S Military Boeing Strato-tanker flying out of USAF Mildenhall in West Suffolk and going across to Hungary and back. Although why it goes round and round so much before landing is a mystery! Most of the other larger heavier and lower/slower aircraft are USAF military too.  I'm very glad I don't live anywhere near a busy airport, so many holiday companies in and out all day they are quite high when they come over here so not a noise problem, most are coming or going to Birmingham or Luton.  Where we lived on the Suffolk coast we saw many more because there were also planes from London airports and Stansted.

This website is great fun until you zoom out and see just how many planes are in the air at any one time  - more than 11,000- scary stuff! 

On Wednesday morning I met up with Rachel-in-Norfolk at the restaurant in the garden centre not far from Diss, although most of the huge building is full of 'stuff' - nothing to do with gardening. Walking through all the 'stuff' made me feel quite sick at what a incredible consumer society we live in (and who buys all those patio seating sets for £2,000 each). It would be a good place for people watching as it was very busy in the restaurant with old people going in for huge cooked breakfasts and later queueing for carvery lunches. It's not a place to go if you are in a hurry, I think they need more staff. I had my usual cheese scone and cappuccino.

I finished the week having a haircut - a proper trim and much thinning with the thinning scissors this time, not a six all over with clippers. I want to keep it a bit longer to cover my ears as they seem to be getting bigger - thought that was just an 'old man' thing!!

Hopefully the weather will be dry this weekend for boot sales and I'm visiting some open gardens in son's village (although they are busy with other things so they won't be coming round with me). Maps of which gardens are open are available in the church which oddly, I've not done a post about for the blog, so I'll  remedy that while I'm there.

Have a good weekend

Back Soon

Sue

 

Added For Easter and Easter Crosses

 I've added a few extras to the seasonal display on the bookshelves.

Just for my benefit, unless I get any unexpected visitors.

Stowmarket Church has a Festival of Crosses for Easter, so I popped in to have a look. Lots of groups and organisations taking part.

A different idea to encourage people into the church at Easter.

Back Tomorrow

Sue

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A Little Bit of Spring............

...........has arrived on the top of the bookshelf and in the garden.

At the moment it's the Diary of an Edwardian Lady March plate. The Wren and the Blue Tit which are my only bits of Beswick and the Ladybird book 'What to Look For in Spring'. With a Camellia from the garden.

The new fence that belongs to my neighbours between me and them has been finished, it looks very solid but rather shows up the age of the back and the other side fence. Not that I'm thinking about replacing. I know somewhere on the information I got when I bought the bungalow it told me if they are mine or shared ownership but both are still OK. The man doing the work made a lovely job of tidying up on my side where he'd been standing to do the work. It always strikes me as odd that the person who owns a fence only gets to see the side with the posts, while I get the nice finish!

The Flowering Cherry is now covered with flowers, despite the pigeons who sit there and peck off the buds.

Thanks for comments yesterday - I shouldn't have said I'd nothing to blog about as there's always something.

Back Tomorrow - probably!

Sue

Halfway to Halloween

Time to add my Halloween bits to the top of the bookshelves. Pumpkins, bats and battery lights.

 I've made more space for my seasonal displays as I picked up a small nest of 3 pine side tables from the nearest second-hand furniture place. The tiniest table fitted into the small space between bookshelves where the plugs are and I've moved my radio and lamp there.

Back Tomorrow

Sue

Finished at Last

 The long stitch tapestry started in January is at last finished .

And it's a perfect fit for the frame found at a boot-sale. I've added it to the seasonal display, swapping it for the  Edwardian Lady plates this autumn.

I bought this kit last year after doing the A-Z thing in November when E was for embroidery, cross stitch etc and that gave me the nudge to do another picture. It was supposed to be my present from Brother-in-Law but we didn't even get round to swapping money for each others presents last Christmas so I bought mine and he bought his!

 I had a look for something to do next and found this. It's much smaller and stitched with embroidery threads rather than wool - it will be fiddly to do - need to get a new pair of reading glasses before I start.

I stopped in at B-in-L's house on my way to exercise group this week - he's rarely at home, always out mending things for people or getting wood ready for delivering all winter- but as he was there  I stopped to tell him I'd bought  my Christmas gift from him already and he'd better think of something he wants. He said he wasn't sure he could afford that much this year!! Ha!

Back Tomorrow

Sue

June 1st - It Should Be Summer.

 Summer? Only if the weather improves here in East Anglia soon!

But as it's June 1st I'd better put Spring in the cupboard and get Summer out.

Summer is very sparse on the top of the bookshelves as I forgot about the flower jugs until I looked at last summer's blog posts.

Another beautiful Summer illustration from the book "A Sparrow's Life's as Sweet as Ours." by Carrie Ackroyd.

These are Skylarks - not seen so much now I'm in a village but at Clay Cottage they were always singing above the neighbouring field when I walked across the footpath.

 In 2018 there were about a million pairs in this country but at one time there were 10 million Skylark pairs - enough to eat -  as they were a delicacy until they became a protected species in 1931. In the late 1800's up to 40,000 birds were delivered by railway to London markets every day. If prices fell then the males would be kept as caged songbirds.

Thank goodness that doesn't happen now.

Thanks to everyone for comments yesterday  and apologies for not replying- I was out all day at the Suffolk Show - photos next week.

Back Tomorrow

Sue

March 1st

 Winter has been put in the cupboard.

Spring is on the shelf with the March plate having it's first outing. At first I could only find the two Beswick birds, then remembered the hare usually sits here for March ( the rest of the time he is on the other bookshelves), it still looked a little bare so after a bit of thinking I remembered the Flower Fairy book from the children's book shelves.....that'll do.

There are so many weather sayings in March. The time when farmers would have started to sow and prepare for the years growing they would be eager to have an idea of what the weather held for their crops.

 A peck of dust in March is worth a kings ransom

So many fogs in March, so many frosts in May 

A dry and cold March never begs for bread

These are the first lines of John Clare's Shepherd's Calendar for March

March month of many weathers wildly comes

In hail or snow and rain and threatening hums

And floods: while often at his cottage door

The shepherd stands to hear the distant roar

Loosed from the rushing mills and river locks

The long range forecast for the second half of March here says

"Confidence becomes very low for this period. However, the preferred scenario is that blocking high pressure will remain mostly dominant, increasing the probability of colder conditions compared to average. Spells of rain are more likely than of late, especially at first, with a chance of snow in some areas. Some wintry episodes may be disruptive due to the potential combination of snow and strong winds"

1st .......St David's Day and the first day of meteorological spring

Upon St David's Day

Put oats and barley in the clay

17th...........St Patrick's Day

St Patrick's Day, the warm side of a stone turns up,

and the broad-back goose begins to lay.  (??)

19th Fourth Sunday in Lent ........Mothering Sunday

20th........ Vernal Equinox, the start of Astronomical spring and the pagan celebration of Ostara

If a storm arises from the east on or before the spring equinox

or if a storm arise from any point of the compass about one week after the spring equinox

the summer is generally dry four out of five times.

25th..........Lady Day

 

An East wind on Lady Day

Will keep on till the end of May

26th.............Clocks Spring Forward for British Summer Time and it's Boat Race Day

Happy St David's Day to all my blog readers in or from Wales or Dydd Gŵyl Dewi hapus!

Back Tomorrow

Sue

February Days

First time out for the February plate

One month is past, another has begun

Since merry bells rang out the dying year,

And buds of rarest green began to peer,

As if impatient for a warmer sun,

And though the distant hills are bleak and dun,

The virgen snowdrop, like a lambent fire,

And in dark woods, the wandering little one

May find a primrose.

The poem above and on the plate is by Hartley Coleridge, who was (I discovered by googling) the eldest son of Samuel Taylor and sister of Sarah who wrote ........

February brings the rain

Thaws the frozen lakes again.

February  was the Roman Februaruis  and comes from the Latin verb februare  meaning to purify because the Roman festival of purification took place on the 15th.

February 1st .......... Imbolc (pronounced imulk) - The ancient Celtic feast day held to celebrate a stirring of life after winter and fertility at the beginning of the lambing season. The word Imbolc may derive from old Irish meaning 'in the belly'. The celebration  was presided over by the Goddess of youth and fertility -Bride who became Bridget.

February can bring any sort of weather and has many weather sayings attached. It is often cold around the third week

When gnats dance in February, the husbandman becomes a beggar

A February spring is not worth a pin

Fogs in February mean frosts in May

                                                                 Double faced February

There is always one fine week in February 

February usually speeds by. For me this month there are 2 WI meetings, 4 Exercise group meetings, 1 WI Knit and Stitch group, some swims, Middle Grandsons 3rd birthday, a Rural Bygones Sale, Six Nations Rugby starts on TV, A Craft Fair Coffee morning to visit and I'm having the trellis replaced. 

Busy, busy - but with plenty of time for reading too.

Back Tomorrow

Sue

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For Winter Days

 The tree is down, the decorations are down, winter has replaced Christmas on the top of the bookshelf and Christmas has been put back in its box. I had a sort out of tree decorations and decided some that I'd not used for a while will be next years tree trimmings......if I remember.

I love the January Country Diary plate - one of the best .

Almost forgot I'd bought myself a cheap treat for gloomy winter afternoons in January. When I bought two boxes of wafer rolls from Poundland (although they were £2) for the sisters hampers several weeks before Christmas I got an extra one for me and the mini marshmallows came out of the reduced out-of-date box at Grape Tree.(There are a lot of things that are fine when out of date and something that's mainly all sugar will certainly be OK) The squirty cream was bought for boxing day but didn't even get opened .

Very  Yum!

(Also good for winter days ..... Countdown Champion of Champions is back on TV for 3 weeks and Silent Witness back for a series)

Back Tomorrow

Sue