More Holly and Ivy Ware

 I wonder how long car boot sales will continue this year. As the weather gets cooler with darker and damper mornings there are noticeably fewer people selling. In theory the big Saturday boot-sale should carry on until 25th October  with their one-off Christmas boot sale on the 13th December and the smaller Sunday one will carry on until the ground gets too soggy. It's all weather dependent of course.

At the Saturday boot sale the  weekend before last I noticed lots of people had already started to bring along  Christmas decorations. One man had a small trailer full of new boxes of huge baubles - which would have needed a huge tree -in a huge room!

A few bits of Halloween stuff too. There's no need to buy new when you have a boot sale to visit.

I spent just £2 that morning with £1 being for a really big cauliflower and the other £1 for these two coasters- yes, more Portmeirion Holly and Ivy Ware! 50p each - what a bargain. 

It's been 16 months since I last found something (a bell tree decoration) for my 'Not a Collection' which obviously now IS a collection. 

I've been really lucky finding so many pieces second-hand, some are still available new at crazy prices, although they don't seem to make these coasters any more. There's lots available on ebay but I'm sticking to car boot sales and charity shops.

It was a good find which I'll  enjoy using through December . 

Here's what Debby said last December when I posted about the bell decoration. Love it!

Debby12 December 2024 at 11:19

If you put them together, they become a collection. If you scatter them artfully around the house, they are merely decorations.

You're welcome.

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Wenhaston St Peter

 This is one of the churches that's featured in the '100 Treasures in 100 Suffolk Churches' book that started this whole church visiting thing.

It's the Doom painting that is the quite spectacular treasure here.

Doom paintings were once common, and would have been over or under the Chancel Arch showing the Judgement Day for all the congregation to see.

This is thought to have been painted around 1500 by a monk from Blythburgh Priory - just a few miles away.

There is lots of information about the Doom in the church but I found this youtube video which describes it better than I can.

Information about the finding of the doom from a history feature the local newspaper

More information about the Doom painting.

View down the Nave to East window and altar showing where the doom painting would have been situated under the chancel arch.

Stained glass in the East window

There are a couple of large memorials each side of the altar for the Leman family in the C18

Coat of Arms for the King of the time would have replaced the doom over the chancel arch. This is for George III from the C18 

The font would have been carved and painted on each side, just a little colour remains at the foot of the pedestal

This stoup or stone bowl that would have held holy water for the congregation to use on the way into church.

I had to take a photo of this huge Holly tree on my way out as it was absolutely covered with berries.

Here is the link to Simon Knotts Suffolk Churches website for more photos and information.

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Library Book Photo for September

Firstly must say thank you to everyone for comments about the shingles vaccination. I've known  people who have had very painful episodes of shingles and suffered with it coming back again and again. So would like to avoid it if possible. 

 Just eight library books collected last week. Mostly crime fiction as usual. 'The Water Clock' by Jim Kelly is the first of a series of his that I've not read any of yet. Patricia Hall is a crime author I read 30 years ago, this is a more recent one that the library still had in stock. I've read one by Alis Hawkins before and tried and failed with another, but this is a different series to try. Best of all is the new one by Rory Clements - that is sure to be a good read. Two books of short crime stories and finally two non fiction to try.

I'm sure I'll have run out well before the four weeks until the van is round again. So I'll be reading from my shelves for sure. There are already 3 books on the way for me to collect in October so I'm hoping for a good selection then.

Looking back to August when I collected this big haul of 14 books. I read six out of the nine crime fiction and

 three out of the others that aren't crime. I've still got the Suffolk Place Names Book here waiting to be used for a blog post.

As always information on those read are added to the Books Read 2025 page.

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