Should We Prepare for this Winter's El Nino and Possible Cyber Attacks?

 After last nights Apocalypse programme on Channel 4 (which was just an hour of 20 and 30 year olds arguing) set in an abandoned town in the US which is now used by the military for training,  I'm jumping on the bandwagon!.........

Seems there is a Weather Event about to happen and Russia are planning a cyber attack in Suffolk!

"An El Nino event could disrupt UK weather, laying bare the vulnerabilities flagged by the Climate Change Committee's new report"

There is a factory in Suffolk producing drones for Ukraine which could be attacked by Russia. With a  small airfield in Suffolk being used to train the drone operators. We also have two USAF air bases and a Nuclear Power station. Any could have a cyber attack or an attack on the electric supply. (Although if there was a problem at Sizewell B then we probably wouldn't need anything stored at all!)

 I'm not panicking but can see no harm in being prepared for problems - it's better to have things in the cupboard and not need them than the other way round.

In Son and DiL's village they are actually having a special meeting on the 5th of October

People’s Emergency Briefing, St Mary’s Church

I've not heard about my village being briefed yet.

Anyway, I doubt it's possible to plan for long term problems or a zombie apocalypse! but it feels good to have a few just-in-case items.

I decided to order some more gas cartridges for my small picnic stove. I've used this three or four times since living here when electric has been off for a few hours. It doesn't happen often since a local transformer was upgraded but having a way to heat water for a coffee or a hot water bottle is comforting.

 There are batteries for torch and a radio in the cupboard and I also have a very old wind-up/solar power radio (it doesn't run long either way now but still works a bit). For light I have candles and a lantern that is rechargeable from the mains. I found a camping light that can be recharged by winding and also has a built in solar panel and can also charge a phone and have ordered that also.

In the garage I have a good stock of wood for the wood-burner - logs and kindling, firelighters and matches and BiL will save me some newspapers for fire lighting too.

In the medicine cupboard I always have a supply of paracetamol and ibuprofen, antiseptic and antihistamine creams and plasters and  reorder prescription meds from the pharmacy at the village health centre in good time.

I try and keep the car at least half full of diesel - which is a couple of hundred miles, enough to get out and about to family or shops for several weeks.

There's one thing that went from the shelves early in covid that I've never understood - loo rolls. I'm still getting a box full once a year from the Who Gives a Crap company so no shortage here. 

Then there's food and water as per instructions to have a supply - just in case. There is new government advice due later this month.................

The initiative is intended as a practical, "common sense" approach to enhance household self-sufficiency, which in turn frees up emergency resources for the country’s most vulnerable populations. [1]

What to stock: Households will be encouraged to keep a three-day supply of bottled water and non-perishable tinned foods (such as tinned meat, fruits, and vegetables) that do not require cooking, alongside emergency tools like manual tin openers and torches. [1]
When it launches: While initial reports leaked around August 25–28, the formal guidance and an official "Prepare" website are expected to be heavily publicised later in autumn, with some frameworks pointing to mid-September 2026. [1, 2, 3, 4]
The reasons: The policy update comes in response to heightened risks from hostile state cyber-attacks on infrastructure, severe summer heatwaves causing agricultural droughts, and potential disruptions to power or water grids. [1, 2]
The "War Book": Alongside the public advice, the government is updating its classified crisis blueprint—traditionally known as the "war book"—to prepare civilian and military infrastructure for external threats. [1]

Officials and supermarket bodies have heavily emphasized that this is a long-term preparedness measure and not a call for immediate panic buying

 Years of living miles from a shop means I never let cupboards get low on food and I have a 5 litre bottle of water in the freezer which works like a giant ice pack if the electric goes off (two or three 4 pint  bottles of milk too and they do the same) and a couple of small bottles of water in the cupboard and keep my filter jug in the fridge full. Plus the water butts outside have refilled with recent rain. I don't think there's anyway to have an indefinite water supply unless you happen to have a well or your own supply of spring water. But some of the things suggested to stock for food shortage just wouldn't appeal at all - like baked beans. If I was stressed/depressed without much heat and light they would be way down my list.

One of the frugal you-tube ladies talked about spending £100 on her pre-autumn prepper pantry. She has a supply of  oats and dried milk to last a year, peanut butter that she doesn't like much, jars of fish paste (yuck) and enough canned lentils to last until 2029!

 I don't have the enthusiasm for  stocking up that much so decided to get in just a few items that can be heated in one saucepan on the picnic stove to make a filling meal.

In the end I only got 3 cans to keep in the cupboard. That'll do for now. These are the sort of tins that we used to take camping when feeding 5 and cooking on two gas rings - they were cheap back  then, definitely aren't now. 

I was going to buy some canned vegetables until I discovered the 3 cans of carrots in the cupboard were best before 2022 so maybe I'd better eat those first before buying more!

According to the Labels list there's a post like this back in 2023, in Covid Strange Times too (2020) and back in 2018 when we had storms and power cuts- seems I've been preparing for years and nothing too drastic has happened...................... yet!

    

Last Saturday of the Month

Awful, awful scenes of devastation in Nepal and Tibet. The speed at which that water and mud tore through the valley and so many people missing in one of the remotest places in the world. A tragedy on a huge scale.

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One of the disturbing things I've heard this week was about the number of people going to hospital  A&E this summer for help with  simple insect bites and stings. Apparently this is common (and it's not counting the people who are stung in mouth or eyes or allergic and go into some sort of  shock - obviously they have to go). Of course everyone who shows up at A&E has to be treated, taking up hours of time. Seems many don't know that antihistamine cream or  tablets are available at the pharmacy and usually all that's needed. 

Reminds me of the one time we were in A&E and there was someone there who had fallen and grazed a knee. She came in with 3 drunk friends! The drunk friends were made to wait outside but the grazed knee waited for ages - frequently going in and out to smoke and chat with the friends outside-  before giving up and going. They would have seen her but she was way down the waiting list as  they never turn people away.

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The fruit-bowl has the first of the windfall Falstaff Apples and 4 pears from a friend

It's been a good week in Mid Suffolk, I've seen many more people than usual. 15 at the Keep Moving group which is a good turnout. My sister popped in on her way back from getting her eyebrows done (we are so different! my eyebrows haven't been plucked since I was a teenager and it's not something I even think about). 

Friends from Essex visited one afternoon, they always bring me a jar of proper home made marmalade, which is delicious.  They make lots each January from Seville oranges (A. has more patience than me! I cheat with the ready prepared tin of oranges or lemons.) Although apparently there might be a shortage next January  as Spanish Seville orange trees have also been affected by the excess of summer heat.

Then BiL came round to help me get the sliding door back on the greenhouse. Managed fairly easily with two pairs of hands and him getting down to see what was happening with the bottom runner.

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 Rain and thunderstorms forecast for Wednesday didn't materialise at all and Thursday's forecast wasn't right either - just a shower in the morning and another couple in the afternoon and warm in between which dried it up very quickly and then yesterday was really hot and sunny again until another shower in the evening. Maybe there'll some rain today and tomorrow - but not a high % chance. Everywhere is still brown and frazzled.

And now we are around to the Late Summer Bank Holiday weekend.... seems like about 10 minutes after last year!, but it means it's the annual Flower Festival and mini fete at Crowfield church, which I go and visit due to them always having lots of secondhand books for sale.

Have a good weekend, I'll be back Monday with the end of the month financials.

First Food (Not a Haul) Shop of August + More Heat

 An Aldi shop on the way home after  deciding to have a look at the mid-week car-boot sale for a change last week. Just 20p spent at the boot sale and £22.50 at Aldi.

Cauliflower (from their special 6 offers) 79p; Cheese and onion rolls £1.69; 2 x ground coffee @ £2.49 each = £4.98; 2 x Peanuts @ 59 each = £1.18; 1kg Nectarines £2.39; 3 Tins plum tomatoes @ 43p = £1.29;400g  Extra mature cheddar cheese £2.45; This week's treat - 6 Choc mouses 85p; Egg Noodles 95p; Self Raising Flour 70p; Plain Cooking Chocolate £1.59; Butter  £1.99.

Thinking there were still several left in the fridge when there weren't, I didn't get eggs so had to pop to the village shop on Friday so adding another £2.29 for half-a-dozen.

Total food spend for the first week of August was £24.79

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The East of England is due to be one of the hottest parts of the country later this week with temperatures in the +30℃, possible 36 - yikes! That's very high 90's ℉. This is the 5th official heatwave of the year and is unheard of. I found a fascinating page all about recorded heatwaves on wikipedia. And this is what determines a heatwave here. 3 consecutive days above..................

28°C: London and parts of southeast and central England

27°C: Parts of the Midlands and East Anglia

26°C: Lincolnshire down to Dorset and parts of Cheshire

25°C: Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland, southwest England, and northern England

The rain that was forecast for the 17th has gone from the charts - nothing there until 21st now and that's less than 50% chance.

I think any food shop I do this week will be Very Early morning!

Into August

 I wonder how much rain we'll get in August? There's not much in the forecast for the first 12 days - maybe just one thunderstorm if we are lucky.......... Seems so odd to say that.

 Usually it's  a mixed month but this first old bit of folklore is so wrong this year as harvest has more-or-less finished. The combines, balers and grain carts were backwards and forwards "making speedy carriage" past the house through much of July.

Dry August and warm

Doth harvest no harm.

If weather be fair and tidy thy grain,

Make speedy carriage, for fear of rain.

Grain lorries from farms further afield also go through the village (although they aren't supposed to) to the huge grain drying and storage facility nearby.  Flour prices are sure to rise again...........

"During the extreme European heatwaves and drought of harvest 2026, intense heat and parched soils have caused cereal crops to dry down rapidly—sometimes below 10% to 12% moisture. This creates severe financial loss from reduced crop weight, high physical brittleness, and commercial rejection by mills"

Looking back at previous August posts, I found all this post about one of my books from 2021....... five years ago and long forgotten!

The lady who painted all the wildflowers did it for a friend who wanted to learn the names of the flowers she saw. She started in 1943 and carried on painting even after her friend died, until 1999, traveling widely and painting wherever she went. She then donated 150 pages of paintings to the Kendal Natural History Society who published the collection as this small book in 2016 - such lovely paintings.

She was a Modern Languages Graduate before WWII when women studied for degrees but were not awarded them but was finally awarded her degree 40 years later. She taught Modern Languages in Kendal and died in 2009 aged 94.

Looking through the book there are so many flowers that I've never heard of. On the August pages above I puzzled over the Ploughman's Spikenard - such an unusual name and something I'd not come across. It should be around everywhere except the North of England and Scotland but only grows on chalky soil. So maybe  not  growing much in our Suffolk clay soils.

Then I looked up the word "Spikenard" and it's also called Nard, an amber coloured essential oil from a flowering plant of the honeysuckle family from the Himalayas.

It's even mentioned in the Bible...............

 

And being in Bethany, in the house of Simon the leper, as he sat at meat, there came a woman  having  an alabaster box of ointment of spikenard, very precious; and she broke the box and poured it on his head. Mark 14:3

There's lots more about this plant on the Wiki pages here.

Now, how about this for a weird coincidence...........I wrote this post several days ago, copying over the piece about Spikenard from 2021, a word I'd never come across before or since. Then on the evening of writing the post I'm reading  the British Library Crime Classic book "Puzzles of The Parish" a collection of short crime stories featuring members of the clergy. One of the tales in the book is a Cadfael (the medieval Monk) short story by Ellis Peters, and it says........ 

Brother Jerome was scandalised "Has he not given them to Our Lady herself?" he lamented indignantly. "Beware of the sin of those apostles who cried out with the same complaint against the woman who brought the pot of Spikenard.............

 Coincidences seem to happen more often than you'd think!

Rain!

 The weather forecast was for possibly a few showers but actually we had several minutes of proper rain on Sunday morning.

Enough for it to run off the living room roof into my water butt. I filled up two watering cans and a bucket while it was pouring in.

Enough for it to run down the road - although not for very long

And then it moved away to the East, it looks as if further South and North missed out. Son and family were camping with friends in Norfolk, I hoped it stayed fine for them there.

After the rain stopped things warmed up again and now it's back to near heatwave conditions for the foreseeable - high 20's℃ all week and into next week too.

After my lunch as I was feeling better than I'd been for a  couple of weeks. I thought it was about time to up my game and went out for a bit of church visiting to make some future posts for the blog.

Random Round Up of a Hot Week.

First of all apologies for the comments I didn't get around to replying to....The day just went.......whoosh!

It's quite strange in this country to go to bed knowing the next day and the one after and another after that will be dry and sunny and even more unusual to know it will be really hot. 

This week has been like that and more the same for next week too - I am thankful to be able to do very little - even avoided going out really early for shopping. I was sad to have to cancel a lunch with cousins but the heat is getting to me more this year than ever before.............an age thing I guess.

The dustbin men have been starting work early due to the heat and my bit of the village is one of their first stops so they've been coming not long after 6am but it wasn't them that woke me on Wednesday morning, instead a man on a ride-on mower went into the churchyard to do the paths - I looked at the clock - just after 5am - he really did want to get it done early!

We got through the exercises at our Keep Moving Group. .......all windows open and much water drunk. Two other ladies led the exercises - it was too hot for me. I set up my phone for the 10 minute meditation and then went and sat out in the porchway to cool down. Several people have dropped out recently - perhaps it's only because of the heat and holiday season - I hope they return.

As I shut the living room windows very late Thursday evening I noticed a sort of dark patch on the grass(not good enough to call it  a lawn) so went out to look and YES - a hedgehog, first I've seen here in 5 years.  

I have 10 billion wasps eating the pears on the small pear tree - there were lots of pears - soon there will be none.

The climbing French beans are producing a few beans - very tasty.

I've not done a Being Grateful list for ages....... since March in fact, but this week I'm grateful for..... 

• Enjoying watching tennis on TV without having to be there in the heat.
• Being retired and not working in the heat.
• Stocked cupboards, fridge and freezer so I didn't need to go out shopping ....in the heat.
• The library books that I have here to read, indoors out of the heat.
• The bread machine that makes my bread so easily even when the weather is  hot.

Bit of a theme there!

Not sure if anything is happening this weekend but tennis is on TV for sure although Arthur Fery's  brilliant run at Wimbledon was ended by Sascha Zverev who's 6 foot 6inches tall with a massive serve  and - hooray- Jannik Sinner beat  Djokovic  setting up the Sunday final that I have no idea who will win.

 At 11am in the men's doubles wheelchair finals Alfie Hewitt and Gordon Reid are aiming for yet another title to add to the 24 they already have!

And there is a football match tonight - but it's after my bedtime again.

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

June Library Book Photo - Several Days into July

Blimey yesterday was HOT AGAIN! Even the breeze was hot. Set to be the same all week - too much for me now - funny how not so many years ago I loved the heat, now I can only tolerate it by doing nothing. Although I did get started with another batch of compost (AKA mixed fruit) jelly, to be finished today once the sun had gone from the kitchen window.

As I mentioned before, the mobile library was cancelled two weeks ago due to the heat but Rachel rang and said she would send my reservations to Stowmarket Library for me to collect but when I went into town a week later they still hadn't arrived. Of course notification arrived the next day to say they'd finally got there (the afternoon after I was in town of course!)

I did a detour on my way back from visiting YD and picked them up. More non-fiction than usual and only two crime.

On the top is a book I reserved out of curiosity after reading Deborah's (Country Ways and Cottage Days) post about the Welsh herbal online course she is doing (and I hope she is OK as she's not posted for several weeks).

Then left to right ............. Tree Lore ( no idea why I reserved this as I've got several 'tree' books of my own). Dean Street Press have reprinted many of Sara Wood's crime fiction, dating back to the 1960's. I read some of her later books as she was still writing well into the 1980's . I suggested the library buy some and they bought the first one, saying that if I liked it I could suggest they buy more!

'Theo of Golden' is another book that I have no clue why I reserved it - did someone mention it? did I read about it somewhere and what the heck is it about anyway? I'll let you know.

'Secret Places' by Heather Peck, I plucked from the library shelves having found her novella in this series to try when I was there last week. It was a good short read so I looked to see availability of her other books and spotted Stow had this one on the shelves.

'The Enchanted April' by Elizabeth Von Arnim was suggested to read after I read 'Elizabeth and her German Garden ' in May.

'Evergreen' by Lydia Millen is "Inspired by the seasons, 'Evergreen' is the essential guide for anyone who is looking to bring more joy and more happiness into their everyday."

I'll let you know how that pans out too!

'Reconnected' by Carlos Whittaker. He is an American author, podcaster, instagrammer etc- well known apparently - I'd never heard of him. After working out how many hours, days and years of his life he spends connected to a screen he tries 7 weeks without a phone - two weeks in a monastery, two more weeks  on an Amish farm and four weeks at home.

I've started this already and he makes some good points.

There are already five books for me sitting in the mobile library depot ready for the July visit to the village....all crime....good.

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What an A -MAZ-ING game of tennis yesterday evening. Arthur Fery just kept battling and took it to the 10 point tie-break in the 5th Set and WON! So exciting to see, although I hardly dared watch at the end . He plays Flavio Cobolli in the Quarter Finals on Wednesday, someone he has already beaten this year in the first round of the Australian Open.

Looking forward to it.

Meanwhile it's back to the other half of the draw with Jannick Sinner and Djokovic playing. I expect both to win their games and meet in the semi finals.

Random 'Stuff' on the First Saturday in July.

 Bit cooler earlier in the week so we managed to get through the  exercises at Keep Moving Group. I led some and thankfully another lady stepped in to lead the second half. I just get so hot - my internal temperature gauge is hay-wire!

About 5 months ago the neighbours behind me had scaffolding put up and some guys came along and took down the chimney and then put it back up again. They also took off some of the tiles in various places and replaced felt and batons underneath. They came back weeks later and took off the ridge tiles and then cemented them back on again, took off tiles in another place and then put them back. Then they vanished for months. This week in the heat they (or someone else) came back and took down the chimney and rebuilt it Again. With my living room windows open to keep cool I had a continuous background chat from up on the roof....it wasn't very entertaining but I was glad they didn't have a LOUD builders radio like last time.

It might not seem like it but I have done some housework in between the tennis watching. With windows open so much the window sills get really dusty and lots of flies come in leaving their mark on the windows. The window cleaner only does the outside so it's up to me to do inside.

Another week of hot weather is forecast for next week - no rain. Water butts were all empty again and I've filled up the biggest from the mains. I'm glad I've not grown so much in the greenhouse this year, watering cans seem to be getting heavier as I get older.

Finally.................What's happening at Wimbledon? Last man standing - Arthur Fery  plays this afternoon and the Dimitrov/Berrettini match should be good. Djokovic and Sinner are in the same half of the draw so will meet up in the semis next week? maybe? if they both win Sunday and their quarter finals. I'm so missing Alcaraz and Jack Draper!

I've looked to see what events are on over the weekend but seems to be mainly music festivals, so probably just car boot sales for me then. Oh, my library books finally got to Stowmarket library so I need to go and pick them up today or tomorrow. 

Have a good weekend I'll be back Monday.

(Happy 4th July to readers in the USA - some sort of celebration for 250 years I hear - hijacked or not?!)  

 

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.

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 ℃

Back Tomorrow

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.

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

Why?

This was a comment last Saturday.  

Anonymous15 February 2026 at 07:09

So many posts on UK blogs about depressed-sounding pensioners sitting around looking out at the rain. Don’t you ever long for a bit of adventure in foreign lands? With the internet it’s so easy now to organise affordable accommodation for a couple of months. Have you never considered escaping the winter? Helen.

I know why I don't long for adventure or fancy two months somewhere warmer - it would be no fun on my own and I'd be bored stiff!

And anyway, I'm English, moaning about the weather is what we do and always have........

On 26th February 1768, MP  Horace Walpole said in his journal "We are drowning again for the second winter, and hear of nothing but floods and desolation"

And weather folklore says..... 

                                                         "If in Februeer there be no rain,

                                                           The hay won't be good, nor the grain.

                                                          All other months of the year

                                                            Most heartily curse a fine Februeer"

Apparently rainfall records have been broken this winter in many places, so we aren't imagining it!

January Jigsaw and A Cold Country on Radio 4

 The snow on Monday meant the Grandchildren weren't here after all so instead I got the January Jigsaw out of the cupboard. It's another nostalgia puzzle by House of Puzzles. It has a bit more sky than any I've done recently - if the colours are too much the same and  too muted I might give up before hardly starting - just like trying a not-so-good book, no point in persevering with something that doesn't give enjoyment.

 I've also sorted out threads to do a small X stitch book-mark/card. So two things are ready to start - but instead I began reading another book - so many left to read, I started on How to Solve Your Own Murder, but it seemed a bit strange so I soon gave up. Then began  on The Red Shore by William Shaw which seems very good so far.  I'd already abandoned Cacophony of Bones, for the second time - and many others have given up on it too I think as the pages were still very tight in the second half of the book - seems very few had got to the end. I'll be collecting  several more books from the mobile library soon......weather permitting of course. 

Not as much snow here on Monday as there is in  a place that I heard about on a programme on Radio 4. Longyearbyen is the world's most Northerly settlement, way up north on the group of islands - Svalbard - belonging to Norway. The settlement is there for the coal mining but that is coming to an end which will probably mean the town won't continue to exist, with so many weeks of complete darkness in winter not many live there by choice (The programme is in their Illuminated series titled 'The Frozen Light' - on BBC sounds.)

Love the houses with all their different colours. 

I suppose there is no oil or minerals here so not somewhere you-know-who wants to acquire!

January 6th - Epiphany, Wassailing and Weather

The Christian festival of Epiphany, commemorating the arrival of the wise men who travelled far to visit the new baby. In some countries it is more important than Christmas Day.

The photo above is from my book 'A Calendar of Saints' and is described as mosaic,S.Apollinaire Nouvo, Ravenna.

When all twelve days of Christmas were holidays people would celebrate the last day before returning to work on the land by lighting bonfires and baking cakes. Now it is the last day to take down the Christmas decorations to avoid bad luck.

Wassailing the Apple trees on Twelfth Night (or old Twelfth Night on the 17th) is a tradition that's been revived in some cider making regions of this country. Cider is poured on the apple roots and toast soaked in cider hung on the branches of the trees then shots fired through the branches to frighten off evil spirits and songs song to encourage the trees to fruit. Most years I venture out into the cold to pour some cider on the tree roots of my trees but no shooting!

There's a gathering in an Ipswich park on Saturday - bit too far for me to bother going. Village events seem to happen mainly in Somerset, Herefordshire and Sussex. Suffolk isn't known for it's apple orchards although there are a few.

 This below is  different to the well known wassailing rhyme, I'd not come across it before.

Wassail the trees, that they may bear
You many a plum and many a pear;
For more or less fruits they will bring
As you do give them wassailing.

Robert Herrick (1591-1674)

This is the more well known rhyme 

Old apple tree, we wassail thee, and hope thou wilt bear

For the lord doth know where we shall be, till apples come another year

To bear well and bloom well so merry let us be 

Let every man take off his hat and shout to the old apple tree..........

SHOUT ......

Old Apple tree we wassail thee, and hope that thou will bear

Hats full, caps full, three bushel bags full,

And a little heap under the stair.

 Wassail means "be healthy" and as farm workers were often paid in cider during the harvest it was important the trees were healthy and produced plenty of fruit......... at one time there were 400 varieties of cider apples and an orchard on every farm in every village.

There was a surprise when I opened the curtains yesterday morning - Snow - not a lot but enough so that the two grandchildren didn't spend the day here after all and my Monday walk in sunshine was even shorter and quicker than Sunday.

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

Storm Names

 I heard  Storm Amy being mentioned about three weeks ago. I googled to find out why it began with A - because I thought it would only begin with A in 2026.

This is what I found...............

But it turns out they start with A in September which is the start of storm season. The names are chosen by The Met Office, Met Eireann (Irish Meteorological Service) and KMNI which is the Netherlands Meteorological Institute. These storms are the ones likely to have medium to high impact on the three countries. Seven choices for names from each country by public suggestion. 

Apparently Storm Amy was forecast a few weeks ago but wasn't actually named by the Met Office. It brought strong winds on 14th September to Scotland and the local newspapers called it Storm Amy - but it seems it wasn't strong enough to be officially named.

Here's a link for next year when names for 2026 -27 can be submitted 

Meanwhile today is the  29th of the month, St Michael's Day or Michaelmas........ the day with many weather sayings attached.

If St Michael brings many acorns down Christmas will cover the fields with snow. 

As many days old as the moon is on Michaelmas Day, so many floods 

shall we have after. 

If there is snow at Christmas that will be a big surprise, but there certainly is a huge crop of acorns this year to fall if it's windy today. The new moon was on the 21st so we should expect eight floods before the end of the winter - oh dear.

Back Soon

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

Saturday. Mid August.

The 4th heatwave of the year didn't seem to be as hot as predicted here in Mid Suffolk, although that might be because I didn't do anything much outside after about 10 in the morning!  I wondered what actually constituted a heatwave and found..........................

England has entered its fourth heatwave of the summer, with a number of places seeing temperatures higher than 30C on Tuesday. Areas in South West England, the South West Midlands, North West England and East Anglia met heatwave criteria, by having three consecutive days above a certain temperature.

Tuesday wasn't too hot early on and we managed to get through the exercises at the Keep Moving Group without melting too much and Wednesday there was a lot of cloud. On Thursday a bit of a breeze kept things comfortable indoors but on Friday things got hot, hot, and hotter.

One of these days I'll get a new outdoor thermometer and then I'll know exactly how hot it is.

Temperatures next week should be back to average for  August, many will be grateful.

 I've put 2½lb of the giant tomatoes into the freezer so far - that was just 5 tomatoes, there are  plenty more still to turn red, not quite as big as those first 5 but still a good size. The other things needed for my favourite chutney are red peppers, red chilli peppers, red onions and  red wine vinegar. I've got the vinegar and will buy the other things when I get around to making the chutney later in the year.

Some years I'm able to use my own peppers, but there are so few this year and some will be yellow anyway - when they eventually turn from green.

The climbing green beans have finished and I was going to pull them up but couldn't get them or the canes out of the rock solid ground. That job will have to wait until we get rain although  I did pull up the squash plants - they'd never done well and they had flowers that just hadn't set.

There's fireworks over the road in the churchyard tonight - the church have a Patronal Festival thing - something to do with The Assumption of Our Lady. They follow that with hot dogs/burgers and a specially brewed local beer! I've only ever seen the fireworks  once since being here as it was cancelled one year because it was so dry and another year because it poured with rain and last year I was away with the family.  Hope it's not too dry this year as I love a free fireworks  display!

Have a good weekend, not sure what I'm doing apart from standing on my doorstep at 8.45pm!.

Back Monday