Should've Been in Italy, but...

Well, long time no post.  I'm sorry to have been out of touch. And my last post sounds like a different, wet world, doesn't it?  Thankfully that's not so any more, for this May has been amazingly hot,  bright and beautiful.

Actually, we should have been in Italy to meet up with family. I should have been telling you all about the Duomo, and icecreams, and stuff like that. But, T needed an operation, nothing very serious, and there was a bit of to-ing and fro-ing about the timing.   So we didn't go. As it turned out, the weather in Turin was nasty and in England it was beautiful, so it turned out for the best that we stayed, and it was a chance to follow up on the project of exploring nature, wild places and nature reserves. (In the UK it's possible to find some fantastic places by checking out local wildlife trusts.)

We stayed for just over a week in Eastern Suffolk, and found a place called Darsham Marshes that we'd never seen before.  One of the highlights there for us was this tree in full blossom, all 30-odd feet  of it (10 metres). It's actually one fallen tree which remained alive and some of its branches transformed themselves into trees, so now it seems like a whole grove of flowering apples.  A picture doesn't do it justice, but what an experience standing in the midst of it surrounded by blossom with the birds singing their lungs out.

Not far away, near the drowned village of Dunwich, we took a footpath leading up onto low cliffs, to see what remains of Greyfriars Abbey.  

There is not a great deal, although enough to be interesting.  The abbey was sacked by King Henry VIII, who left the gatehouse you can see in the centre of the photo (someone stables horses inside the site), and the walls surrounding the site are still there, showing from the sheer size that it was a pretty important place.  There are also remains of the abbey itself within the walls, though much of the stone from these huge ruins was used by local people for building their own places, I believe - and very sensible of them too, as it turned out, since the sea would have got the abbey anyhow a couple of centuries later. ... look at this set of rather blurry old pictures.  

They show what happened to the local church, St. James, which stood right by Greyfriars.  Now, no trace of the church remains on the site. The sea also devoured the churchyard, except for just one grave which stands right by the cliff edge.    When Jacob Forster's grieving relatives buried him in 1796, they can't have imagined he'd have achieved this posthumous fame, can they? 

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In fact, while we were awaiting this op, the weather forecast was good nearly every day, so it was the perfect distraction to go out.  One evening, sitting in a field at Aston Clinton, Buckinghamshire, by the river, I noticed great green and purple dragonflies flying all around.  It was clearly their mating season so I evilly violated their privacy by taking a few photos.   I don't pretend to understand exactly how it works, or how they stop their legs getting tangled up.  

A couple of days later, at Aston Rowant, Oxfordshire, these hillside woods were shaded by what I think was once a beech hedge. The hedge must have been abandoned at least a century ago as what there is now is a line of  bushy trees with long spreading branches. 

Also around this area - chalk hills called the Chilterns - we were surprised to find so many woods still full of bluebells.  I think the extremely cold early Spring held all the usual flowers back. 

By contrast, here are the trunks and branches of the tall confirous woodland near Marlston Hermitage in Berkshire. I thought they looked decorative enough to have been painted - as the backdrop of a play, perhaps.  I once saw a performance of Chekhov's "Wild Honey" which is set in a mysterious Northern forest, which could suit  these trees very well.  

Maidensgrove, nearby, has a fabulous common currently full of all kinds of wild flowers, including buttercups, and lots of wild may out on the trees.  My new blog header photo was taken there. And the village also has a  17th century pub called the Five Horseshoes, which has an idyllic location and does great food.

Back in London,  T had his operation on Saturday, so we both missed the Royal Wedding. To his great surprise (and pleasure) he felt well enough to come out for a walk across Regents Park today and as a result we saw more daisies in one place than either of us had ever seen in our lives.

And the baby ducks are growing well.

 On the other side of the park we went to a small but ingenious exhibition at the Royal Institute of British Architects about perspective and imaginary spaces.   He insisted on having his photo taken walking through one of the perspective installations, so he really is feeling better.....

Having been outside so much this month, I'm seriously behind with just about everything that happens at home, so I'd better start catching up now that the sun has gone in.  Everything from sorting out a malfunctioning credit card, to sorting out plants, and of course catching up on writing.  I have been looking at (though not commenting much) on blogs -   but I will, and I hope you've also been enjoying the month of May.

We are also considering trying to pop over to Northern Italy a bit later in the summer for a long weekend.  We'll see.

Summertime...

Well, when you haven't posted for months it gets hard to start again. Thank you so much to those who have kindly continued to stay in touch by email, and, in the case of John, a delightful and welcome postcard.  I've spent the summer mostly in London, with a few trips out to Surrey, East Anglia and the West Midlands, and did more than I can really write about.    

Still, if I'm to start blogging again, I'd better make a start - so here goes!

During June's fine spell we took our bikes for a few days into the Surrey Hills. Stayed in Holmbury St Mary youth hostel, a nice old fashioned hostel of the kind that hardly exists anymore. I was intrigued by the unusual 1930s mural around the common room wall.  This bit shows the hostel (looking larger than it really is) and some hostellers. I love the young woman cyclist's fashionably baggy trousers, don't you?  She must have found cycling hard, specially  being on the back of the tandem.  Other sections of the mural show farm workers, farm animals, the squire and local rural characters. 

The hostel was purpose built in the 1930s. It's architecture is plain but it's great, with a friendly atmosphere, acres of lawn and trees where kids can explore and play games, you can eat meals or camp. It's set in the deepest and most beautiful woodland, and it is cheap, because it hasn't been renovated.  Looking to the picture below, I'd say the little fairy is not in the ideal hiking or cycling gear, but she was having such a good time.  

During our stay we visited Winkworth Arboretum,  but I can't find anything online that gives any idea of what this fine place is like. It's a huge tree collection on a magnificent site, and it's owned by the National Trust.  You can walk for miles through meadows, wetlands, valleys, over hills, past lakes and through woodland, and will find something special at any time. This is a corner of a steep hillside covered in lupins.

A little further downhill was this wooden throne. As I sat on it a fox passed by and stared at me for a long time. Perhaps it was wishing it had a camera...  

A few weeks later, on a cycle trip near Henley, Oxon, we spotted a barn - and a few other buildings - faced with old printers blocks. Apparently the place used to be a hand-printing works for fabrics and wallpapers. 

Up in Staffordshire a few weeks ago, we visited the eye popping Pugin church of St. Giles in Cheadle.  The great architect was given unlimited funds by Lord Shrewsbury and told to build the best church in the country, and naturally, he did not restrain himself. Just about every inch of the place is gilded, decorated, enamelled or otherwise ornamented in brilliant colours. Imagine the effect if these small details pictured below were multiplied by 100, and you'll get a vague idea of the overall look of the place. If you love High Victoriana this place is definitely worth making a special trip to see. 

The reason for visiting Staffordshire was to stay with some old friends from when we were first married and living near Stoke-on-Trent.  So much has changed in North Staffs since then. For instance, we found our friends now have a steam railway near their house! In part it runs directly along the lush and beautiful Caldon Canal. They eventually plan to reach the town of Leek.  Next time we go, we'll try and take one of their dinner trips, but our visit didn't coincide with one. The train happened to pass as we were walking along the canal. 

Before Staffordshire we'd spent a while with the teenage lads in Ironbridge, in Shropshire. Watch out, cafes! Boys of that age can certainly eat a lot!   In the intervals between consuming meals and stopping for snacks, we looked at the bridge itself.  It was the world's first bridge made of iron, and because nobody had ever built one before, it was, quite naturally,  constructed like a wooden bridge that just happened to be made of metal. Take a closer look at the construction and you'll see what I mean....

We visited several of this little town's museums. Since Ironbridge was the birthplace of the Industrial Revolution, all kinds of factories sprang up in the early nineteenth century, later to be abandoned when the area failed to develop into the gigantic city its developers had hoped for. 

 Rescued from dereliction, some of these factories have become terrific museums, and local people have an unrivalled chance to volunteer and spend their spare time dressing up and carrying out traditional local jobs of a hundred years ago.  Some look after horses, some forge iron, some serve cakes in the teashop or run the haberdasher's, but here is a volunteer saggar maker from the Pottery Museum. Saggars are fireclay boxes which hold a factory's "real" pottery while it is being fired.   It's a dirty old job but this lady seemed to like it. She said they sell the saggars that they make to visitors, who use them as plant holders. 

The biggest museum in Ironbridge is Blists Hill, which is a large recreated village. It reminded the lads of a "giant version of Bekonscot" which is a quaint model village they like. So it's like a giant version of a tiny model village.  Blists's Hill has a funfair and an old fashioned funicular, a bakery that sells real buns (good idea, that).   It also has an "inclined plane."    Inclined planes are very rare. They were an ingenious way of hauling canal loads up steep hills, rather than building flights of locks that canalboats would take all day going through.

This is how it worked. A track was built from the bottom of a hill to the top.  The goods, stored in containers, were floated down the bottom canal, put onto the tracks, and pulled to the top. Then they were loaded onto boats to continue their canal trip towards the outside world.

So here's the bottom of the plane, where the china factory's wares were taken off the canal and set on the track. 

It is a long track.... here it is continuing up the hill - the rails are very wonky now, if you look closely....

And here is the top of the track, where the winding engine was sited.  And, of course, there is also the continuation of the canal, although you can't see it in my picture.    (Read more detail about this inclined plane here if you are interested.)  

Perhaps it's as well Ironbridge didn't turn into an industrial centre, because its surroundings are very attractive.  We took a walk one evening in nearby Jackfield and saw from a notice that this pub regularly floods right up to the top of the front door. If the pub hadn't been having an Irish folksong evening I'd have asked the landlord how they dealt with the place being underwater so often.

During the summer T and I decided to explore all the nature reserves in the Suffolk Coastal area. We made a start with Sizewell Belts, Thorington Church Farm and Minsmere.  As I tramped around these atmospheric bits of countryside, I saw lots and lots of decorative cinnabar moth caterpillars on the ragwort.

I have so many pictures of these lovely reserves that I can't choose just a couple, and in fact you really do have to be there to experience the feeling of having nature doing its work all around you, so if you are anywhere near a Wildlife Trust reserve, do check it out.

Much of the summer we have been in London, quite happy and seeing all the new things the capital always has to offer.  I didn't envy these two guys painting the famous clipper the "Cutty Sark" as we passed them in Greenwich one morning. It looked like they were in for a long, hot day.

Another walk was around nearby Woolwich, while our older daughter told us some sensational tales of old London, with the weather obliging with a particularly memorable Thames sunset.  

One sunny afternoon we took a look round Stoke Newington churchyard and encountered a group of angels who looked charming in the sunny undergrowth ...  but I resolved to return and visit them on some foggy evening in winter too, when I suspect they will seem quite different! 

We went to a concert that one of our neighbours gave in memory of his mother. We'd visited his family home several times and love how he plays, but hadn't attended a concert by him before. This is the end of the first movement of Bach's Partita No. 6. Since the concert was for his mum, he also played a harpsichord version of "Stormy Weather" which had been her party piece! 

At the end of June I helped organise a Great Get Together picnic to remember Jo Cox MP, who was murdered just before the EU referendum, and who cared passionately about tolerance, diversity and people cooperating.  It was a hot sunny day and very pleasant to find people in our multi cultural area coming together and meeting each other, sometimes for the first time,  and sharing food as jazz played quietly in the background. 

Also in July we visited friends in Dorset and went to Kimmeridge Bay on the Jurassic Coast. Dominated by a huge tower folly, the beach area is a marine nature reserve and in the little museum by the seashore we were amused by this hermit crab which spent its days lumbering round carrying a sea anemone, and getting very annoyed at its reflection in the mirrored side of its cage. 

While we were in Dorset I paid a trip to Wimborne's Priests House museum. I love the painted walls of this room, done in the 17th century. The museum is run by volunteers who take great care of it, run the cafe and a little bookstore, and cultivate the large garden. Well worth the small entrance fee on a nice summer day - you can take a book and spend the day there in the shade of the fruit trees!

  

Well, that was my summer. I've enabled comments again so hope to hear from you if you have time. 
Apart from this, like many people, I'm bothered about our country's future, and the international situation too (if I could bring myself to read about it.)  I don't want to bring politics into this blog, but I was pleased to spot this bench in the churchyard at Gomshall, Surrey, and I took care to sit on it.