Skittles (No beer yet)

Lena bena, (my niece), sent these cute little skittles to play with.

As soon as the party excitement is over they will be used non stop.

Wishing and hoping and waiting

At last........ after a two and a half hour drive, then the excruciating last hour waiting at the arrivals section at Heathrow airport. SUE THOMAS arrived.

Later that night we had a hilarious dinner at Clarissa's where Richard was the only boy, surrounded by 5 girls.... needless to say he loved it.

Today we took her to that most English of scenes.....the Bluebell wood.
Wayland woods has been a wood since the Ice Age. It's supposedly the scene of the sad Babes-in-the-woods story. Today it twittered & sang with birdsong & smelled heavenly. We ate a picnic in a clearing (complete with TIM TAMS, Kelly). There was a lot of sniffing and laughing & eating.

Here is Sue spotting the early purple orchid. It's so nice to have here here....thanks Amy Adam & Lena for letting her come......Kelly, we miss you. xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Goosebumps

Newt nuts

Today as the leaves on the oak trees started to unfurl, the sun shone & we went to Redgrave and Lopham Fen. This beautiful and rare patch of open land is the largest remaining river valley fen in England. It's the home of the 'Raft Spider'. One of only 2 places in the world where this rare creature lives.

We went searching not for spiders (as I'm not all that keen on them) but for Newts. This is a picture of the Great Crested from this website.

I'd never seen one of these most English of creatures. Richard had regaled me with stories of catching them as a boy & keeping them in festering jars in his bedroom at home. We did see some as we stood staring into a pond. I was thrilled, but we only saw small brown ones...... not the Great Crested or anything.

There were violets out in the woods. ...........Soon there will be Bluebells & Lilac.We also found this tiny creature. A clump of sticks bound together moving along under water.

On the way home we stopped to try & capture this huge field of yellow. It was yellower in real life & smelled really good.

7 days

Quick get ready...it's only 7 days until Sue Thomas comes.

CLEAN.

I must admit when I have the time I love to clean the house.

Sad I know. Our vacuum cleaner is so pathetic though that you have to use the smallest nozzle

in order to pick up any dirt....consequently I've got a blister from vacuuming.

You can see here that operation 'Buns of Steel' is kind of working.

Easter in East Harling

Easter in East Harling started with home made Hot Cross Buns...I'm never quite sure what to call them when they are cold. (Note the Atomic coffee maker, Tom & Vero).

It moved on through pastel shaded fairy cakes...

Then got going on the real stuff......

There was a flower festival at the Church. Here is one of the displays....done by a 90 year old man who lives in the village, his wife used to do an arrangement every year but she died 20 years ago & he's been doing it every year since. More than 60 daffs & all from his own garden.The Church was all done up in white & gold, with my vestments on Altar & Rector & Curate. It looked spectacular for the Easter Saturday evening service when the whole Church started in darkness and a procession entered for the Easter vigil bearing candles. WOW, amazing & ancient rituals get me every time. Our best bass singer sang an unaccompanied & ancient chant , the 'Exultet'. Heart breakingly beautiful.

Richard & Ray (the Tower Captain) put on a display of bellringing & we had a camera rigged up to the bells & a TV monitor down in the tower so you could see what happened when you pulled on the rope.

Just found a few more photos to put on the blog. .......
After everyone was gone from bellringing FUN. Ricardo & I and Ray (Tower captain) climbed up the very rickety ladder, over a beam or 2 and out onto the roof of the Church. My GOD the view was spectacular & what looks like a spindly little steeple is actually a huge construction made of lead. It looked like the Sagrada Familia up close. Ray said not to tell his wife Jeanette because he's been at East Harling for 15 years & never been to the top of the tower before....I know she wont read the blog so I think we're covered. There was also a display by William the organ tuner & (occasional player) of how the huge organ works. Jolly good show eh what???

Zebedoodle

The Zebster is going to be famous.

The Daily Mirror, bastion of British journalism; is coming to photograph his Royal Miracleness.

Here are some photo's of him getting ready.

Textile joy

Last week I went with Heather to Walsingham. I'd been a couple of times before. (The highlighted links are my previous posts).
"Walsingham, in north Norfolk, England (United Kingdom) has been a place of pilgrimage since medieval times, when travel to Rome and Compostella was virtually impossible. The original Shrine of Our Lady of Walsingham, founded in 1061, was destroyed at the Reformation.
Many barren years passed until the Slipper Chapel, a 14th century wayside pilgrim chapel, was restored and pilgrimage to Walsingham began once more." from the roman Catholic website and the C of E one .
It's a wonderful place in a little valley, almost untouched by the brash 21st century. All the people that we met were open and so friendly. We were greeted at the pub by a charming gentleman in a suit with a medal around his neck, not the owner but a customer. He had noticed us looking at the lunch menu & thought he should inform us that the cook was on by herself today and was struggling a bit....would we consider another pub further down the road. We did & had a not-too-bad Brit lunch of quiche, chips & salad accompanied by lots of laughter at he owners expense, he had just opened 2 days prior & could not figure out for the life of him how the Gin dispenser worked.

After our lunch we perused the couple of shops in the town that sell ecclesiastical vestments... I bought an absolute beauty, Heather bought a beautiful cut glass holy water holder (There must be a proper name for it Jeremy?). Here it is. Gold sequin things in a pattern of grapes & vine on a background of white silk.

It would make a gorgeous bed hanging. Maybe I can extend it & lend it to East Harling for Easter.

Big Jim

My lovely sister rang today clear as a bell all the way from Melbourne, Australia. She reminded me that today is the first anniverary of our Dad's death.

So here are a few photos of him for posterity. Most from when he came to England 4 years ago for our wedding. Doesn't he look pleased to finally get his youngest off his hands....we'd both waited a long time.

Here he is with Wendy our step-sister in Bali in 1999

Here sitting beside the moat at Kentwell a Stately home near here.

The proud Father.

I'm so glad he came.

Otters holding hands

I just found this at Kelly's blog.
My favourite animals of all time......

As kingfishers catch fire, dragonflies draw flame;

We went to the river Thet today... at William Fairbanks, just for an outing. The sun shone & we laughed & paddled our canoe. There were Kingfishers & tiny wrens scolding us as we came too near their nests. It was hard work going upstream as there was a head wind but I'm glad we went that way first & didn't have to struggle on our return journey. We stopped 1/2 way and lay on the bank & thought of Ratty & Mole, Gerard Manly Hopkins & Browning's poem 'Oh to be in England now that April's there'...We didn't have lashings of Pop, but we did have some essential provisions...

Soon, soon, Sue Thomas will be here....only three more weeks to go . We can go boating.

(it will still be April)