English customs

We went to a small village called Chelsworth in Suffolk with Richard's brother Ray & sister in law Mary here is a photo of a typical house thatched & painted "Suffolk pink".
There was an open garden day & various other things happening, including some Morris dancers.
I was fascinated with this strange custom. It looked like great fun. The blackened facess are supposedly more about disguise than parody but some people these days use another colour, (given the negative connotations for some of Blackface). You can view the video here.
The name is thought to have come from "Moorish" dancing. The King of Morocco being paid for dancing with a troupe in 1688. You can find out more here at Wikipedia.

The gardens that we visited were just perfect; much more fun to visit than to have to maintain, I'm sure. English roses are a thing of wonder.
We had afternoon tea and watched a group of very English children (one called Daisy) play beside a fountain.











Strange Dr Seuss like trees, wild Tiger & water lillies too.

Eye Church & other ecclesiastical interests

I went to the little village of Eye today in Suffolk UK. About 3/4 of an hour drive from here. The photo here by Rod Humby from Suffolk Churches website.
A very pretty village with lots of really old houses & a very grand church. I went to ring the bells for a wedding, (didn't know the bride & groom, just went to help out.) Horse drawn carriage & all.

The ringing chamber at Eye is amazing, it doesn't seem to even have been dusted since the 2nd world war & has old peal boards up on the walls from 1870 onward. One here you can see that's held up by carved wooden bells turned upside down.
There is a small bell on the side of the chamber like a servants bell that the verger pulls to let the ringers know when the wedding has finished and for us to start. No one was there to ring it today but when we got going at full swing with 8 bells the tower rocked around so much that this bell started to ring all by itself. It's a wild ride at Eye....Jeremy our leader had to ring 2 bells at once which is no mean feat.



As well as this ecclesiastic event, David & Kate came round to pick up the embroidery I've done for David for his ordination. We had a full dress rehearsal. He really looks the part. Next Saturday at Norwich Cathedral come on down...it's been a long time coming, he'll be a brilliant curate.

Soccer, Jackson Pollock & roses.

Try this Link if Jackson Pollock is your thang. It's a great way to cheer yourself up. Thanks to Kelly for the link.
Also I found my camera & this lovely picture of a rose on it from last week at Heather's. What kind is it again Heather??
I'm not usually one for sporty events but my nieces Amy & Lena have dragged me into it recently....for the first time in history Australia goes through to the 2nd round in the world cup. There will be Tim Tams consumed.

The Weekend...

Seems like this blog is turning into a Weekend thing and that's with a capital 'W'. Weekends are so precious.
Here's what we did on Saturday....
We went to the 'Boat'. (Note the capital letter here as well).
I hit my head a lot & grumbled a lot & sat in the shade & embroidered while Richard worked like a trooper. I'll be amazed when it's finished if he ever lets me on because I've done so little to help & been so grumpy in the process. It was however a beautiful sunny day. Summer is here.

Sunday...
When Richard was little he lived in a tiny village called Kelsale in Suffolk. His Mum used to to take him out on the back of her bike to all sorts of places nearby. One of which was a pretty little seaside town called Thorpeness. It had what's called a "meare". A little shallow lake. Where you could hire boats & pootle about on the water. (Where Richard's love of boats first began.)


Thorpeness was designed by Glencairne Stuart Ogilvie, playwrite & barrister, a friend of J M Barrie's in the 1920's who made the lake like a miniature Peter Pan island, with 'Wendy's house' & a crocodile & everything. It's now slightly faded but still exactly as it was all those years ago. An undiscovered gem.
So... imagine a beautiful sunny day, pretty little clinker built boats, dragonflies of blue, orange & green, rare orchids, a picnic by the lake with monkey followed by a sleep in the sun. Heaven on Earth.

Do bees get heart conditions too?

If bees get heart conditions does it help them buzzing around inside foxgloves or digitalis purpurea? Richard took these lovely photos on his way home from work yesterday. Not bad for just his phone camera.

















Here are some more of his pics from the phone. A peony & a poppy.

Big chill

After our reckless pirate activities, we had to do penance & ring the bells at the Church for a wedding. The most beautiful day for it but maybe not such a great activity with a bit of a hang over. Here we are all looking very shiny & scrubbed up for Cath's daughter's wedding. (Except for me, 'cause I'm taking the photo). A lovely pic of Nigel our groovy vicar, looking pretty shiny too in his wedding gear.
Later on, we went to Joe & Clarissa's and hung out in their gorgeous Bell tent.

Pirate fun for Amy and Roxi

Well the story is a simple one really, just our friend Tony Fry was turning 50 & had a heroes & villains party. It was a bonza-bloody-bottler do. We went all out and hired these cossies from the local fancy dress hire place called 'Bunnys'. There were rather a lot of pirates there on the night but I can smugly say that no one looked as good as us. Richard looked so good that I had to spend 1/2 an hour more than him trying to scrub up my pirate look. And still my boot covers weren't as good as his...
Our friend David O'neill was pretty good as a thunderbird puppet...and our buddy Chris Tagg went as her husband who is an olympic medal winning cross country runner..Gary the post master here at East Harling was one very drunk pirate who kept asking...(well forcing really) all the girls to dance with him. Here he is doing his own little soft shoe pirate shuffle

It's been all systems go round here lately. So much so that I had to get the lovely Clarissa to come & help me. Here she is putting a backing onto a tapestry for the very grumpy Mrs Scott. I don't care if she reads this she's a grumpy old fart. She & her rottweiler too....Although she has given us "lots of lovely sewing" to do. As you can see by the pics, there's no time to hide the yellow rubbish bin from the photographer.