Vanellus Vanellus But We Call Them Peewits

Driving home from town two weeks ago  and on the edge of the village  I noticed a recently ploughed field covered with birds. At first glance I thought they were all gulls but slowed down and noticed Fieldfares and what we in Suffolk (and some other places) call Peewits, but are properly  known as Lapwings or sometimes Green Plover. When I pulled over and got out to take a photo they all went flying off to the other side of the field. 

So these photos of the Peewits is taken through the car window  and not as sharp as I'd like but you can just about see their wispy crest and the tinge of iridescent green, pink and purple.

As usual I had a look in my book "A Sparrows Life as Sweet as Ours" with illustrations by Carrie Ackroyd, but was disappointed. Usually the illustrations are lovely but this one was a bit of a let down, she hadn't caught the colours at all.

In my other book with beautiful illustrations - An illustrated Country Year by Celia Lewis -  is this below which gives a better idea of the colours - not that I could do any better!

The name Lapwing comes from the noise their wings make in springtime aerial displays. And their call is 'pee-wit, pee-wit' which explains that name. They generally live in large flocks, although in declining numbers when it isn't the breeding season and some are resident with others arriving on the east coast in autumn and winter.

They were once killed for their meat and eggs and selling the eggs was big business until the 1926 Lapwing Act. The chicks can run and feed themselves as soon as they hatch but the adults will defend the young by running off dragging a wing as if they are injured to lure away the predator.

And a poem from Edward Thomas to finish

Two Pewits

Under the after-sunset sky

Two pewits sport and cry,

More white than is the moon on high

Riding the dark surge silently;

More black than earth. Their cry

Is the one sound under the sky.

They alone move, now low, now high,

And merrily they cry

To the mischievous Spring sky,

Plunging earthward, tossing high,

Over the ghost who wonders why

So merrily they cry and fly,

nor choose 'twixt earth and sky,

While the moon's quarter silently 

Rides, and earth rests as silently.

Back Tomorrow

Sue

The Slightly Foxed Literary Review

 I knew I'd enjoy the 4 Slightly Foxed Literary Review publications that I found in a charity shop at the end of January because books about books are always good. 

 

I started with the Summer 2022 edition

These are the books and authors that are written about in this issue

I found that I owned 2 of the books written about in the summer 2022 issue as well as Pevsner's Suffolk (it's Pevsner biography from 2011 that's reviewed here)

I've written about Copsford HERE back in 2019 when I discovered there was a new edition. What I found interesting in the review in Slightly Foxed was that the writer, Grant Mcintyre had known Walter Murray much later in his life long after he moved away from the almost derelict home where he gathered and dried herbs to sell. Murray married his 'music teacher' and went on to start and run a small private school for 40 years until 1963, which Grant attended. Miki at Farms On My bookshelf has a post about him HERE and I discovered The Green Man of Horam by Tom Wareham is a biography of Murray. I suggested the library buy a copy - but had an email straight back to say they won't be buying.

That leaves Arthur Ransome's  We Didn't Mean to Go to Sea (I've got most of his books - son read them all and I kept them despite all the moves) which I'm not sure I ever read when I read some of the other Swallows and Amazons books. I have read it now and reminded myself just how much detail there is about sailing in his books and how much I loved them and enjoyed visiting the museums in the Lake District that tell the story of Ransome and his books and boats.

Back Tomorrow

Sue

Weird Weeks Shopping?

 Over the years there have been lots of TV programmes where experts 'spy' on peoples weekly shopping trolley and then surprise them and make them own up to all the 'bad' things they've bought. I remember several series of Gregg Wallace and Chris Bavin - Eat Well - Spend Less and recently Michael Mosley - Secrets of Your Big Shop.

 This is either done to help them save money or eat better or both. Nearly always a family who want to change something and their big shop sometimes has lots of fizzy drinks and crisps but it has all the things they need for meals. 

I've often wondered why none of these programmes feature one retired person.

So I photographed my last weeks shopping and wondered what on earth an 'expert' would make of it. There's no main things for meals, but lots of milk. Nothing makes sense at all.

 There are pears, apples, grapes and lemons. Cauliflower, carrots and potatoes. Butter and Willow spread and bread flour. Milk and cashews and mixed nuts and raisons. Mayo and cheese, a pack of six mini naans and some cooking chocolate for cake making. 

A very weird selection for a weeks shopping, but I've lots of batch made meals in the freezer. Fruit is bought  for the week  and vegetables for two or more weeks and everything else is to replace things used. Extra milk for the freezer as I'd got plenty of room. It all came to £31.02. Another week will be completely different and would tell a TV programme nothing at all!

I'd love to be analysed!

 

Back Tomorrow

Sue