The March Library Book Photo

Lots of lovely books for me this month. They are all books I'd reserved online. The very narrow book on top is a book called Toll Houses of Suffolk, which I decided to borrow after writing about the one that moved from the main road to Needham Market. Thought I'd see where the other toll houses are - if they still exist.

There are several crime here including the most recent Elly Griffiths in her Brighton series, four non-fiction and one children's book - far right.

I also brought home two books with Spring in the title for my Reading The Seasons "challenge". I'll write about those when I read them.

Not quite sure how I will fit in reading all these - but I'll give it a go.

 These were the books I carried home in February. I read nine out of the twelve

including these 3 non-fiction which can all be recommended.

Nigel Richardson - The Accidental Detectorist; Uncovering an Underground Obsession. Non Fiction (Published 2022) A travel writer is stuck at home through the pandemic and buys a metal detector. He starts in the meadow behind his Hampshire home and then sets out to meet other detectorists and joins in rallies and is very quickly hooked by his new hobby. Travelling around the country looking for the illusive buried treasure he meets all sorts of characters and learns so much more about what's hidden.

Peter Ross - Steeple Chasing; Around Britain by Church. Non Fiction. (Published 2023). This isn't so much about churches but about the people involved with them and how they are surviving and have survived. He takes the reader around the country through the pandemic visiting St Pauls in London, Durham Cathedral, the forgotten churches of Norfolk, the holy wells in Wales and back to London with a few other places in between.

Lara Maiklem -  Mudlarking. Non Fiction. (Published 2019) This was a re-read but I enjoyed just as much it second time around. Lara spent all her free time for years exploring the edges of the River Thames whenever the tide was low. This is a look at all the things she found and a little about their

 history.

As always the books I've read are on the Books Read 2024 page

Back Tomorrow

Sue

Car Woes and WI

 As  mentioned a while ago, Son and DiL are car-less after running their car into an unexpected flood so my car is doing double duty being in two places so DiL can get children to pre-school/school and herself to work at the school in my village (where I can fetch it to use between 9 and 3!) They are STILL waiting for the b***** insurance company to decide what's happening - two weeks on.

I had the car for WI and came out to drive home only to find a 10 inch crack in the windscreen. Of course the car needs to be in one place - not on the way between there and here! to have it repaired and it needed doing ASAP (insurance covers the majority of the cost thankfully). But they give a vague time - between 8 and 5 until they ring an hour before arrival on the actual day. Complicated for the family. A day later they phoned to say the new windscreen was delayed so all plans had to be changed again! Just hope they have the correct screen and are able to do it as the car is booked in for it's MOT on Monday...

These things are sent to try us!

At WI we had one of those speakers who is really interesting to listen to even after an hour! Patrick Barker is 4th generation farmer in one of the local villages and although he runs the 1,200 acre farm for profit his big interest is increasing biodiversity on their farms. He has got involved with many environmental organisations and all sorts of counting and recording - absolutely everything.......... Birds, insects, frogs, butterflies, moths etc etc. You name it and he knows exactly what's on their farms and what to do to increase numbers. He gives talks and visits other farms to get them involved in doing the same.

There's a 2023 BBC programme on iplayer 'Saving Our Wild Isles' narrated by David Attenborough that featured the farm and when he finished talking to us he was rushing home because BBC Countryfile programme were waiting there to film a piece for the programme......Probably on TV this Sundays or next.

One thing among the many that I found interesting was the involvement of the giant Nestlé company in where their produce comes from. I can remember boycotting their products back in the 90's because of the way they treated their producers. Now their producers are all tracked and traced and they provide money from their (undoubtedly Huge) profits to help their farmers increase biodiversity. Probably a drop in the ocean  but better than nothing.

If all farmers were like Patrick Barker our countryside would be a better place to live.

Support British Farming whenever you can. 

Back Tomorrow

Sue

Celandine

There's a distinct lack of wild flowers around the village this spring so far. The long ditch all down the lane that had primroses has been dug out to help with drainage off the field.

 Hopefully they'll come back sometime. Other places are just so muddy or splashed heavily with water from the roads that nothing much is growing.

All I spotted last week was a tiny patch of  Celandines

Anywhere else I've lived these would have been too common to mention as they usually grow profusely on the edge of ditches.

In my book about the folklore of plants it says they were an human eye remedy. Pliny believed swallows used celandine to improve the eyesight of the young birds and it was sometimes called swallowwort.

Here's the Celandine fairy  painting by Cecily Mary Barker from her Flower Fairy books

and her poem

Back Tomorrow - probably

Sue