A Good Weekend

 The Saturday swimming session was good, only 2 people in the slow half. Somehow going every 5 days rather than once a week has really helped up the fitness levels - or that might just be wishful thinking! I undid any good by stopping at the Chinese takeaway in Eye on my way home for a treat.😋  First time since March. 

Saturday night and I settled down to watch the return of the glittery, sparkly and happy Strictly Come Dancing. It was interesting to see how they had worked out a way to bring it back and thank goodness all the pro-dancers were willing to isolate themselves from family for a few weeks to pre-record all the group dances. I never thought I'd be so excited to see a bit of happy TV!

Then on Sunday I went mad and visited TWO car boot sales. It was the last day for both which is probably a good thing as both sites were muddy. I nearly didn't stop at the small local one as the car park looked like somewhere my Fiesta would get well stuck in the mud! but at the last moment found a parking space right by the road out.

At the first boot sale I found this fairly heavy brand new casserole/frypan with lid for £8. It's by Crofton which is the name Aldi sell their cookware under. Not  huge heavyweight cast iron like Le Creuset

- had one of those once - a long time ago - it was too heavy to lift - but this lighter one should last a while. Also got given the free Slimming World Magazine with FREE chocolate cereal bar - promoting a local Slimming World group. Free is good!

At the 2nd boot sale (it was getting a bit late by boot-sale standards) my spend was 20p for the two Christmas books which will be added to the heap I have in the cupboard for youngest Granddaughter and £1.50 for a big bag of eating apples .

In a dry bit of Sunday afternoon I hooked the trailer onto the mower and shifted some of the heap of road-planings down the lane to fill in the worst of the holes that have appeared after the recent rain, then  used some more in my gateway. There's still quite a good amount left - hopefully enough for more hole filling as the winter goes on.

Back Tomorrow

Sue

 

Ensuring Our Electric Supply

 I felt sorry for the men replacing the electricity poles in the pouring rain this week. They arrived here up the end of the lane just as I'd lit the wood-burner so were accidentally smoked out for a little while too.

It's interesting watching workmen working - seeing something done that they do all the time but I'll only see once, but as they were so close to the house I didn't like to stand and stare too much. If Colin had still been alive he would have stood out there talking to them for ages - I just made them a cuppa!

The old pole that was taken down was riddled with woodpecker holes, it's been on the list for replacing for at least 3 years but was now being done as part of a much wider programme of up-grading, across the fields for over a mile.

Arriving up the end of the lane, 2 Trucks, One van and 4 men

The new pole nearly upright

Woodpecker holes in the old pole.

I also think Col would have said "you can leave the old pole here - it might come in handy for something" although it would be too tarry for cutting up for the wood-burner so no idea what it could be used for. Thankfully they took it away.

 3 hours later they were all done, the new pole in and wires reconnected. Electricity for this bit of the village has been supplied all week by a huge generator, installed several fields away out of hearing distance - but will be switched back to mains later today.

They don't use big pottery insulators anymore, the man told me the new ones are a sort of rubber mixed with something that doesn't rot, an invention from the USA, much lighter and less likely to break. He said the pole should last 40 or 50 years although nowadays they have to replace more because of woodpecker damage than they do due to rot.

Back Tomorrow

Sue

Up the Lane Then and Now

It's been a while since I took photos of the track where I live - at the end of a Suffolk lane.

Thought I'd compare to older photos

Standing on the road looking up the lane

May 2017, two months after moving in and  we'd just had the lane re-surfaced - it was in a very bad state and had had nothing done to it for several years. We shared the cost with one out of the 4 houses because one house was empty and the other people had just put their house on the market.

 Not much difference in June 2020, grass is growing up the middle - pot holes have been filled in again since that first photo, all 4 houses sharing the cost this time. It gets in pretty bad condition each winter as the trees drip, holes are formed, which fill with water, which loosens more stones. Cars go up and down through the puddles, loose stone is pushed out and Hey Presto A Pothole!

3 photos from Summer 2017 and  November 2018 the land opposite next door but one house, was covered with Golden Rod etc and Meadowsweet






The old pump base was hidden in a tangle 




  Now 2020 it's been cleared, leveled, tidied, grassed over and Rob has planted some Lime trees

(I know which I preferred!)

The bit opposite their house was cleared and newly planted by the new neighbours who moved in during 2018. She'd already reorganised all her own garden and spread out onto the lane....... this is what she started off with in 2019.




 And this year June 2020. It takes her days each spring to weed and tidy

but at least there is lots of stuff for birds, bees and butterflies - unlike Robs' plain flat grass.

Below June 2020 Opposite my house between track and ditch I've left it wild! It's only a narrow strip, can't see any point in clearing it.

June 2020 There's still water in the ditch for the Moorhens. It will all dry up before the autumn and then fill up again through the winter.

Back Tomorrow
Sue

Around Joe's Lane and Back Down the Road

Sunday was so gloomy and grey indoors and out, so after making the Cattern cakes, mixing the Christmas pudding and getting the breadmaker to make me a loaf of bread I thought I'd better get some exercise in the damp daylight.

The farmer hasn't used his quad bike yet to put the line of the footpath back across the field which is very muddy. You can just about see where a few people have walked across, but I decided to go round the edge.

Looks like a deer .....probably a Muntjac went the same way

Then along Joe's Road and I've no idea who Joe was

Onto the proper road and I passed the hard standing which was full of sugar beet two weeks ago

All that's left is a big heap of soil which fell off the beet when it was loaded, I expect it will get shifted sometime

This barn was up for sale a while back for conversion to a house, but nothing has happened yet
 

 Someone's been round with a can of yellow spray marking the pot holes and these kerb-stones that need repairing because they've been pushed away from the road edge, so I guess we'll have a road closed sign sometime while they do the work.

The brown signs are the Heart of Suffolk cycle route- about 50 miles round Mid-Suffolk, and the green sticker is for the new Hakluyt 6 mile cycle ride round the different parts of the village

 Between this photo and the one below I talked to Simon and Andrea who pulled up in their car beside me to say hello, they live in a house on the road opposite the end of the lane and then to Ruth who lives in the house beside the post box, she was gardening out the front of her house. They were the only people I talked to all day so it was a good thing I went out.
And the postbox at the end of my lane has been painted - a rare occurrence.

Bright red and easier to see now

Then I went up the lane and home to light the fire.

The electric is off here all day today......a planned outage while they do repairs somewhere nearby. Think I will be lighting the fire much earlier than usual.
(edited  in at 8.30 - just had a text message to say electric outage has been cancelled for today - bother - I shall have to do the hoovering after all!)

Back Tomorrow
Sue

Gated

This is the top of the lane and before the gates were done anyone could drive straight  up the lane, right around the Turkey oak and out via the other entrance. My new gates have stopped all that.

 Now anyone driving up the lane is stuck............Ha! they have to reverse back down again.

Rob, my next door but one neighbour who runs a family business doing gardening type stuff had one gate already- that's the dark one already "weathered". The little gate to the left of it has the footpath signs on it and a spring so that it shuts by itself.

There's still another job to do - just need a  couple of rolls of willow fencing, which will go from the gate post, around the hedge, making the spot under the Turkey Oak very sheltered and filling in the gaps . The posts are here and Rob will put the willow fence up when it arrives.

I think it's defined the boundaries and put people off getting into the garden behind the house or driving to the workshop and it's made it obvious to people using the footpath that they are on private land.

Thanks for comments over the last couple of days.

Back Tomorrow
Sue

The Lane and Meadow in July

A picture-heavy post from a sunny day last week.

Green is the word that first comes to mind when standing on the road looking up the lane. Shades of green all the way up the lane.

 The bramble/blackberry flowers are late appearing in the shady part of the lane

 Here is the land on the ditch side of the lane opposite next-door-but-one, all levelled and cleared. I wonder what will appear and grow. The old pump base in the foreground.

 This is where next-door neighbour has planted all sorts of native plants on the ditch side opposite their house

 There will be Elderberries but who will get them first....me or the pigeons?

 I think this rough prickly thing below is Bristley Oxtongue. Not something to grab and pull up by hand. It's popped up en-masse where the caravan was stood until last December.

 Among the hogweed, cow-parsley, grasses and other weeds wild growth on my meadow I spotted just a few Yarrow. These were so common on the grass verges near the smallholding and noticeable too in the dry coastal area because they are very drought resistant.........staying green when everything else turns brown.
I was watching the coverage of the Hampton Court Palace Flower Show where they were talking to someone breeding the garden version of Yarrow - Achillia - so many colours in the garden version. I had one pink plant in the quarter circle flower garden but this year it has vanished - too many Aquilegia I think.

 This is the Ash down the bottom of the meadow that I thought looked very sad - almost dead - earlier in the year. Now looking much better although rather sparse in places.

Some of the new trees in Colin's Birthday wood are looking sad but there is new growth on this Pine

 Looking North from the meadow, through the poplar trees onto the neighbouring farmland.

At the end of the meadow the footpath carries on across the field - Wheat this year. The farmer has sprayed the pathway earlier in the year - not all farmers are helpful with keeping the footpaths clear across their land, even though it's something they are supposed to do. Look how dry the soil is - like concrete.

  And from the same spot, turning round and looking back onto my meadow. I like to keep the grass path short............it's easy with the ride-on mower..........so people can see exactly where the footpath is.

 I then spent half an hour trying to get a photo of the dozens of brown butterflies on the meadow..........they wouldn't cooperate,  facing the wrong way or moving just as I focused or not waiting for me to focus!

 and not opening their wings when I asked them to............




Although I got enough of a photo to work out they are Ringlets.

Photo from website of Ringlet  underwing

Later I saw a Meadow brown and managed to just about get a photo of it on the house wall, it has a torn wing.

Photo from website of Meadow Brown Underwing

I've noticed a Red Admiral and Large Whites in the garden but I couldn't get near them at all.

Thanks for comments yesterday - I'm still doing as little as possible.

Back Tomorrow
Sue

Up and Down the Lane in May

It was a beautiful blue sky day when I took photos up and down the lane this week

From the road end of the lane, everything is looking very green and glorious. The only trees not yet in leaf are a couple of Ash on the left

The sky was so blue I just kept looking up. In one of the gardens at the road end of the lane is a Red Chestnut and a Scots Pine

And this big tree............ I have no idea what it is?

Honeysuckle on the hedge

A Walnut tree in the garden on the other side of the lane another beautiful colour against the sky

The plants my neighbour put in opposite her gateway are beginning to flower, I'm pleased that they are mainly native things like Foxglove, Red Campion

A few weeks ago a lady from UK Power Networks was round looking at which trees needed trimming away from the power lines. Then I came home from swimming last week and couldn't get home due to two trucks and the big tree-chopper-up thingy whose name I can't think off were in the lane. He said they'd taken bits off the oak out the back and a branch off the Turkey oak and were cutting this willow right down, heavens knows why, it only needed a couple of metres off the top to take it away from the power lines. It will grow back, but has left a gap.

From the house house end of the lane looking down to the road.

"My" Turkey Oak.
 I had to look it up when Mrs F (who we bought the house from) told me what it was, info  HERE

Turkey Oak, house and the lane

Looking down the meadow, the footpath is easy to cut with the ride-on mower. I wouldn't want to cut it with a push mower!

The Poplar trees, again the colour against the sky is wonderful.

I'm so lucky to have all this to enjoy every day.

BUT oh dear, this Ash is looking decidedly sad. It was alive last year and parts may still have leaves later in the spring but I think the majority of it looks very dead. I may have to get it cut down, it might be affected by the Ash Tree Die Back Disease that arrived in this country a few years ago.
Wood for the wood-burner if it does need removing

Back Tomorrow
Sue