STAYING AT HOME!
So it is a couple of weeks since my last post, and I’ve continued to weed the garden, every day until a couple of days ago when it started to rain. Much needed but disappointing that I didn’t quite finish weeding and tidying the final border in the back garden – well only just started it actually. As you can see the garden is looking fairly OK now. Still have the front borders to do as well.
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| Fishpond with pole growing well!! |
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| The Gnome seems happy!! |
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| Just a weeded border |
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| Bed Bed |
Sadly one of the hens has passed away so only five are left now, and they are old so not laying much. Three (or four) new hens have been ordered from Katie at Rectory Farm in Thurston. http://www.purebreedpoultry.com/ and these will be collected in early June, hopefully.
Peas are coming up nicely in the gutters in which we start them off and will be ready to go out next week some time. Sweetcorn, Runner Beans, Courgettes, Marrows and Squashes will be set in the next few days. Yes, later than most people but it works in our garden.
Our daily walks are taking us to places where we have never been in the 26+ years we have lived here. Hundred Lane is a really good walk although we have only walked part of it so far. It is close to where East and West Suffolk meet and this is the bridge across the border, and an Oak Tree from another walk because I like taking photos of old Oak Trees.
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| Where East meets West – Suffolk |
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| Oak Tree in Hantons Lane, Gt. Ashfield |
Interestingly this morning, we saw a family taking a goose for a walk. Yes, a goose. They weren’t talkative so we couldn’t ask about it or take a photo. Social distancing at its best! Reminded me of the old paintings of flocks of geese etc. being driven to market.
Finally, as I’ve probably bored you enough, here is an Aquilegia flower for all our wonderful NHS people and everyone else helping to keep the country running.
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| Aquilegia Flower |
And finally, finally here is a Spitfire to wish Captain/Colonel Tom a very happy 100th birthday.
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Settling Down
So the Easter “break” is over and we hope everyone found ways to enjoy themselves at home and all are safe and well. Our virtual Easter Eggstravangaza went rather well on Saturday I thought. It was good to be able to see friends in New Zealand as well as more local friends and family though the wonders of Zoom.
I guess everyone will now start to settle into the routine of our new, and hopefully temporary, “normal” as it seems it will be like this for the next few weeks. Locally everyone still seems to be adhering to the new rules on social distancing and being very polite, although I do find that some Lycra-clad cyclists with racing bikes seem to think they own the road and social-distancing is not for them.
I amused myself on my early Sunday morning run/jog by running along the white lines in the middle of the road through Walsham-le-Willows to see how far I could get before seeing a car. Managed about three quarters of the way through the village before a car or two came along. Can’t think where they were going that early on Easter Sunday morning – churches and shops closed, and I guess pharmacies too. I hope they were NHS, Carer or other key workers.
I do find it rather odd that a lot of people seem to be having difficulty staying at home. I have great sympathy for those living in flats or apartments who are not able to get out at all, and those self-isolating for 12 weeks without being able to leave home, but when we were young we didn’t go out much. A week (sometimes two) in August to Sheringham staying with various Aunts was our only holiday of the year. We might have the occasional Sunday bus jaunt to an Aunt and Uncle but never more than about 10- 15 miles from home. Very occasionally we might go on the bus into the fine city of Norwich – a monumental 12 miles away. The rest of the time we were in the house or garden or around our home town of Aylsham. Of course, the current rules are more restrictive, but they will only be temporary.
The largest border in the garden has now been thoroughly weeded and most of the Ground Elder and Celandine removed as you will see from the picture. This was done over a number of days because of the heat, then the cold! Broad Beans have also been set out in the garden as you can see. Three rows of Carrots have also gone in.
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| Large Border, Hopbines Garden |
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| Broad Beans, Hopbines Garden |
Daily walks continue and new routes are under consideration. Here are a couple of photos from last week on a warm and sunny morning just 15 minutes walk from home.
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| Wood, Gt. Ashfield/Daisy Green |
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| Blackthorn Blossom, Daisy Green |
Will post again soon.
I’m just so busy
You would have thought that with not being able to go out, or do any of my Table Tennis stuff, I would have plenty of time to write. Not so. If fact it has been busier than ever here. Six new vegetable beds were completed by the end of March and a photo is below. This turned out to be a heavy and drawn out task. Getting each of the beds level was the most time-consuming. Replacing is always much more difficult than a having a “green field” site. Anyway the sides may need a bit more internal support but I will see how they work for a while first.
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| Six New Vegetable Beds |
50 potatoes have been planted in one bed and another 24 in potato sacks. 3 rows of Tender & True Parsnip seeds were set today. Valerie has been extremely busy over the past few weeks setting seeds. Many of these are nearly ready to be pricked out. Indeed the Tomatoes and Chilli seedlings have been potted on in the last couple of days.
My annual battle against Ground Elder has started. There will only be one winner though – the Ground Elder. A neighbour said he had tried to kill a patch of Ground Elder with chemicals (not something I would ever condone) but it still came up the next year! The best I will do is reduce the spread a bit.
We have had some good local walks recently and saw three Roe Deer the other day. There were a long way away but here is a reasonable ( I think) photo of them.
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| Roe Deer near Badwell Ash Hall, Suffolk |
There were also some good cloud formations .
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| Clouds near Long Thurlow, Suffolk |
So we start week 3 of the Stay at Home – Protect the NHS – Save Lives campaign and hope everyone is complying. In our sleepy hamlet everyone seems to be doing so. Ironically we have seen more people walking the local footpaths to shout “Hello” to than we usually do. Everyone is keeping the required distance though. Sadly the father of one of our neighbours has succumbed to Coronavirus. We didn’t know him and he didn’t live locally but it makes you realise how important is reducing contact with others everywhere. As well as the NHS of course, there are many others working to keep us fed and healthy. So just a big thank you to Suffolk Dairies of Stowmarket who continue to deliver our milk every day.
Hopefully, now that all the urgent garden stuff is nearing completion these Blogs might be more regular – or not. Stay safe and well.
Strange Times at Hopbines
So here we are just coming to the end of the first week of restrictions on our movements in the fight against Corvid-19. The NHS and other essential services are doing a magnificent job of organising the country so that the virus can be fought, and everyone should be extremely grateful to them. It is sad that a small minority are unable to understand the seriousness and enormity of the situation and not doing what is required. Whatever our opinions of those in government and major national organisations, this is the time to, support them not to oppose them. Nobody knows what the right thing to do is as we have never been in this situation before and going on the best medical and scientific advice seems the best way forward to me. We are fortunate that we live in times where there is excellent communication and medicine and science are sufficiently far advanced to at least give a chance of finding a cure in a reasonable timespan. Previous generations would have not had such help and advice.
So, you may be asking, or not, as the case may be why the blog hasn’t been updated recently. Well, despite being unable to go out because of the restrictions it has been an extremely busy time in the garden. The new vegetable beds weren’t ready for the spring as planned because we had such a wet winter. The autumn garden weed didn’t happen because of the wet weather too so there is much catching up to do. Also, of course, organising food has taken up more hours than it ever has before.
Some close family members are in the extremely vulnerable category, so time has been spent making sure they are OK and chatting to them. Who would have thought that Mother’s Day would be via a Zoom conference!!
I guess that everything will start to settle down into a new
routine this coming week. Not perhaps a very pleasant one particularly for
those cooped up in their houses but we will try to keep them cheerful and
upbeat.
I’m sure you would be disappointed if I didn’t display the annual daffodil photos so here they are, together with early progress on some new vegetable bed enclosures.
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| Daffodils, Hopbines Garden |
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| New Vegetable Beds |
The plan is to bore you all with regular garden updates of what has been sown and how things are progressing. There will be some photos of the garden as we go. Obviously, there will be no trips out so everything will be garden or local area based as I often take my camera on our daily exercise trips. We are so fortunate living in the countryside as have some lovely walks and we come across only a few people when we are out, and they are mostly in the distance.
So, that will do for now and I will write again soon.
It’s been a funny week!
A visit to Anglesey Abbey last week to see this year’s snowdrop display was very pleasant. The snowdrops didn’t seem to be as prolific this year. Maybe it is just that we have got used to seeing them as we go most years. However the sun shone most of the day and here are a couple of photos.
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| Snowdrops, Anglesey Abbey NT |
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| Winter Garden, Anglesey Abbey NT |
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t was cold at Lackford Lakes.
This post was originally published on January 22, 2020.
So, after an exciting trip to the hospital for the annual CT scan on 21st January, we went to Suffolk Wildlife Trust’s nature reserve at Lackford Lakes for coffee and cake. Parts of the lakes were still frozen, but we still saw 31 different bird species. Photography was difficult because the light was not great most of the time, and the Kingfisher insisted on sitting in the bushes. Here are a few photos from later in the day when the sun did break through.
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| Water Rail, Lackford Lakes 21/1/20 |
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| Lackford Lakes 21/01/2020 |
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| Lackford Lakes 21/01/2020 |
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| Mallard, Lackford Lakes 21/01/2020 |
Saturday 11th January 2020
We haven’t been far in January so far but have been busy at home. A calendar contain 12 of our favourite photos from 2019 has been prepared and printed by Photobox and looks good hanging in the kitchen.
Just so I can see what it looks like here is a photo from a visit to the fine city of Norwich just before Christmas. It is the (now) annual Tunnel of Light.
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| Tunnel of Light, Norwich |
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