News From the Week and the April Library Book Photo

A good week of sunshine. The magnolias are now in full flower and green shoots appearing  on hedges and trees around although I noticed when I was over by the coast last week that the Hawthorn hedges are a week or more ahead to those here in Mid Suffolk.

In the garden something else was also enjoying the sun -  the first proper butterfly sighting of the year - a Peacock on the roof tiles, unfolded it's wings to sunbathe. Not many things around for it to feed on so I hope it survives.

I've moved the 11 tomato seedlings from modules to pots, although I only need 5, and they are now out in the greenhouse with fleece right ready. My pepper and aubergine seedlings are now pricked out into modules. Plenty of peppers but just 2 aubergines but I'll make that enough for this year. They are still on the spare bedroom window cill/sill (which is right?!)  for now.

 Brought these 10 books below home from the mobile library van this week. 9 were reserved and I spotted that the van had another M.W.Craven on the shelves- it's a small novella from the 'Quick Reads' collection from 2022. It's been read already and  took less than an hour.

Several favourite authors this month - Alys Clare, Elly Griffiths with her new series of time travelling detective, Tracy Chevalier, Kate Webb and Jim Eldridge. A couple of new-to-me authors - Jim Kelly and Elif Shafak and Robert Peston (although he's a bit odd when on TV news etc!) Decided to re-read 'A Croft in the Hills' while the library still have a copy. I had a copy once, and her other books,  but they  went in one of the moves.

In March I collected these 9 below and read five of them, took lots of photos of the pages from "The Year Unfolding" to use on the blog and returned the others unread. I decided not to read 'Murder on the Marlow Belle' as it's on TV catch up channel and I rather watch it.

The books that I've read have been added to the Books Read 2025 page

Have a good weekend, I'm off to watch the EGD in her ballet school show. Enjoy the early April sunshine if you have it.

Back sometime next week

Red Admirals and Peacocks

 On Sunday afternoon, in a bit of sunshine, the garden was full of butterflies. Mostly Red Admiral and Peacock.

I managed to get a few photos of them on a climbing rose and the Buddleias.

Peacock butterflies are named after their markings resembling the end of a Peacock feather and that's easy to guess at but I read in one place that Red Admiral butterflies were once called Red Admirable and over time this changed to today's name. So nothing to do with markings and a ships captain - which is what I had assumed.

Red Admiral and Peacock butterflies are probably two of the most recognisable of our butterflies, neither have anything similar to them. They both have a wingspan of 6cm and lay their eggs on common stinging nettles which the larva of both then feed on (luckily there are plenty of those this year over the road in the un-used part of the graveyard).

When their wings are folded both are well camouflaged. The Peacock underwing is marbled smoky brown and black and the Red Admiral is almost black underneath with its jagged edges making it look like a dead leaf.

This is a page from the book by Celia Lewis - An Illustrated Country Year

Looking at the label for butterflies I've found that I write a blog post about spotting them almost every summer - seems I'm getting rather predictable!

Bit short of blog post ideas so I'll be back Monday

Sue

Inside and Outside

 Another Happy at Home In Suffolk week (well, mostly at home but I did have a trip out on Friday).

I've seen numerous Red Admirals but this is first Comma of the year, spotted on the dark purple Buddleia 

I ate the first and second lot of the climbing French beans this week, they don't seem to be producing many flowers so not sure how many beans I'll get. Wish I knew the reason for few flowers - I'll blame the weather.

First picking

The second picking of beans yesterday gave me enough for two meals - so that's already more than I had last year in the heat.

 And then there was one...........one single pear on the small pear tree after the other fell off in Monday's windy weather - and it wasn't even That windy.

The raspberries have finished, they've done well, with some to eat everyday from the first day of July to the 18th but the wasps have moved in now to damage the last few.

Below are my finds from last weeks Sunday boot sale. 2 birthday cards, 4 animals to add to the zoo collection, a Virago Modern Classic by Nina Bawden which sounded interesting and Hungry Hippos which is a game our children had years ago. Total spend £5.

I got the bigger gherkins all pickled and made a batch of cheese straws and outside started digging a space for the sink-pond to go into.

Had a day out and then another week had gone. The forecast for the weekend is a bit iffy so I'm not sure there will be any boot sale visiting but I must get the next batch of cucumbers pickled.

Hope your weekend plans go well.

I'll be back Monday

Sue

The Buddleia appeared..............

...and so did the butterflies.

I knew it was a Buddleia  but didn't know what colour, so pleased to find it's a lovely dark purple. As soon as the flowers were out they were visited by butterflies - and this was only a day or so after commenting on Simon's blog (Careering through Nature) that I'd not seen many in the garden.

Small Tortoiseshell

Red Admiral - this one is on the bag of compost that I'd laid on the veg bed, sunbathing on the warm plastic. Altogether there were 3 flitting about the bush

There were a couple of Peacock butterflies too but they were up so high I couldn't get a photo.

The weather men have been forecasting rain for days but it finally fell yesterday afternoon, came down in torrents just for a few minutes. I'm glad my bungalow is up well above the road level.

There was soon a small river flowing down the hill.

 

Summer of Sport 2021 Update.... Day 4 of Olympics

Woke up yesterday morning to hear there had been Silver medal in the women's triathlon (despite a flat tyre) to match the men's yesterday and a Gold AND Silver in the men's 200m Freestyle swimming, the race was shown later and they both came from behind to win......well done them! As some sports aren't being shown on BBC (lost the rights a few years ago - thanks to Dc at Frugal in Norfolk for that info) we seem to have seen more Taekwondo and it still looks a bit vicious to me but there was another Bronze Medal.

 

The women's team gymnastics came on TV and the electric went off! When it came back about an hour later I found that they'd won a Bronze medal - first time a GB woman's team had been on the podium since 1928 I think they said.............that's quite a while! Also another medal with the horses in the team dressage. One statistic that was amazing - a German lady won her 7th ......... 7TH! Olympic Gold medal in their team dressage.

  My neighbour came home to find the electric off and knocked on my door to see if it was just them or a wider area. Luckily I was able to tell her about the UK Power Network Text Messaging service, where I'd already rang and found out that there were 400 homes off. I knew all about power being off and the Text message thing as at Clay Cottage the electric went off at least every few months. Here, if it goes off in winter I'll have no heat - that's when I'll miss the woodburner. I must get my gas camping stove back from BiL who borrowed it for an overnight trip to a stock car meeting. I've still got a wind-up radio and a re-chargeable lamp plus candles and a torch of course.

 Going back to BBC losing the rights to show some sports at least they have Wimbledon for a few more years until 2027 but we won't see the French Open on terrestrial TV here any more as Eurosport - a 'paid for' channel now have exclusive rights. And I'm not sure that BBC will show any of the Olympics live in 2024 as Eurosport seem to have the rights for that too. It's all about the money.

Back Tomorrow

Sue

 

Saturdays Come Round So Quickly

Seem to have spent the week cutting grass - it just keeps growing this year and there is so much of it......the footpath down the meadow, around the new trees, all around the back garden, all the small bits between the veg. beds, around the orchard, out the front and the area under the Turkey Oak. I'm just glad to own a ride on and a battery mower - imagine having to do all that with an old fashioned push machine.

Haven't had any flowers in for a couple of weeks and these are all there were this week. The Alstromeria which ought to be flowering well have hardly a bud between them.

I bought red onions, red peppers and red chili peppers to use with my tomatoes to make my Red Hot Relish. There were some Huge tomatoes all at once that needed using quickly.

And put a ton of climbing beans into the freezer

This week I'm grateful for

• Lots more puzzle pages from the local paper collected from Col's sister to keep the old brain working

• A socially distanced visit from my sister and BiL
• More butterfly spotting. I THINK this is a very faded Small Tortoiseshell, as it has blue spots on the edge but the white bits should be yellower.

Will it be yet another wet Sunday morning to make the car-boot sale a wash-out again?  I hope not.

Have a good weekend whatever you are doing,  I might treat myself to a Chinese takeaway.

Back Monday
Sue

Counting Butterflies

There's a Butterfly count going on all round the country at the moment. The information is HERE. 
You can take part anytime between now and the 9th August.

It would be lovely to see all these (2 day-flying moths are included) but very, very unlikely

I attempted to count how many were on the Buddleia, but there were so many it was impossible.

Almost all were Peacock butterflies plus a couple of Large White and one or two Red Admirals

 But this was the most exciting spot because I didn't see any at all last year. It's a Comma.

Down the meadow I've spotted Ringlets, Meadow Brown and Gatekeeper. Last year there were Painted Lady flutterbies everywhere - haven't seen one at all this year

Back Tomorrow
Sue

Looking for Butterflies

July...........was the month the butterflies arrived. There are  loads of Peacock butterflies on the Buddleia and I've rescued one a couple of times from inside the garage.

I'm not surprised the Peacocks are loving the Buddleia as it's huge this year...2 years after Colin planted it and is giving off such a strong sweet cloying scent.

Gatekeeper on Hogweed ( which for some reason we always called Cow-mumble)

Until I loaded this onto the blog and enlarged it I thought this was just a large white on a Yarrow plant,  but not sure now, with veins on the under-wings showing up really well. I looked in my book and it could be a Green-veined White which is very common, although the under-wing should be yellower.

Large white on Knapweed

 And I thought the Painted Ladies that were around earlier in the year had all disappeared until I spotted this on the drive-way, sheltering from the wind

There are also several Red Admirals about but I haven't been able to get them to sit still yet. They love to feed on fallen plums so maybe I'll get a photo later in the year.


Much wandering around and standing very still waiting to get these photos but I'm pleased it paid off in the end.

Back Tomorrow
Sue



 

The Lane and Meadow in July

A picture-heavy post from a sunny day last week.

Green is the word that first comes to mind when standing on the road looking up the lane. Shades of green all the way up the lane.

 The bramble/blackberry flowers are late appearing in the shady part of the lane

 Here is the land on the ditch side of the lane opposite next-door-but-one, all levelled and cleared. I wonder what will appear and grow. The old pump base in the foreground.

 This is where next-door neighbour has planted all sorts of native plants on the ditch side opposite their house

 There will be Elderberries but who will get them first....me or the pigeons?

 I think this rough prickly thing below is Bristley Oxtongue. Not something to grab and pull up by hand. It's popped up en-masse where the caravan was stood until last December.

 Among the hogweed, cow-parsley, grasses and other weeds wild growth on my meadow I spotted just a few Yarrow. These were so common on the grass verges near the smallholding and noticeable too in the dry coastal area because they are very drought resistant.........staying green when everything else turns brown.
I was watching the coverage of the Hampton Court Palace Flower Show where they were talking to someone breeding the garden version of Yarrow - Achillia - so many colours in the garden version. I had one pink plant in the quarter circle flower garden but this year it has vanished - too many Aquilegia I think.

 This is the Ash down the bottom of the meadow that I thought looked very sad - almost dead - earlier in the year. Now looking much better although rather sparse in places.

Some of the new trees in Colin's Birthday wood are looking sad but there is new growth on this Pine

 Looking North from the meadow, through the poplar trees onto the neighbouring farmland.

At the end of the meadow the footpath carries on across the field - Wheat this year. The farmer has sprayed the pathway earlier in the year - not all farmers are helpful with keeping the footpaths clear across their land, even though it's something they are supposed to do. Look how dry the soil is - like concrete.

  And from the same spot, turning round and looking back onto my meadow. I like to keep the grass path short............it's easy with the ride-on mower..........so people can see exactly where the footpath is.

 I then spent half an hour trying to get a photo of the dozens of brown butterflies on the meadow..........they wouldn't cooperate,  facing the wrong way or moving just as I focused or not waiting for me to focus!

 and not opening their wings when I asked them to............




Although I got enough of a photo to work out they are Ringlets.

Photo from website of Ringlet  underwing

Later I saw a Meadow brown and managed to just about get a photo of it on the house wall, it has a torn wing.

Photo from website of Meadow Brown Underwing

I've noticed a Red Admiral and Large Whites in the garden but I couldn't get near them at all.

Thanks for comments yesterday - I'm still doing as little as possible.

Back Tomorrow
Sue