Saturday.

This morning we motored over to Martlesham, where there was an auction taking place. I always keep an eye on local auctions (you never know what might turn up); if there is just one interesting item I usually leave a bid on it, but there were several items which I quite liked at this one, and as I am really quite low on stock, we'd decided (after viewing some few days ago) that it would be worthwhile to attend this auction, which we did this morning and eventually purchased five lots, four of which I am pleased with, and the fifth was a book (which I've not read- it's about bayonets, and looks quite scholarly). Called at a garden centre on the way home, then a quick lunch, and out again to Scrabble Club. Usual three well fought games - modesty forbids me telling you who won (but only just) all three. The photos are of Polstead, which we visited about ten days ago. Good night, all.

The top picture is of an Ipomia plant ( the Morning Glory) which has been flowering profusely this year. The flowers are between four, and five and a half inches, across. The higher flowers tend to be the larger. This plant, in my experience, only comes to full flower in hot, dry summers, but in a good year, is very well worth the trouble. The second picture is, of course, of our old friend the goldfinch. The third picture is a long overdue MYSTERY OBJECT. What is it?(this is the easy part), where and when was it made?; and (this is the hard bit) of what was it made? It's nice to be blogging again (If I am blogging - not over confident about the matter, you notice). Good guessing.

Thursday

Wednesday (2)

Just ran upstairs to tell Ann that I've finally manage to publish a blog. "Quick" she said "Run back down and see if you can do another one, then write down how you did it". So I did and I could ! now I must run back up and tell her. It's jolly good exercise, this blogging...... Good night All.

wednesday.

Hello, any readers. I've just started (I think) to understand my new computer, a bit, but not, I'm afraid, to the extent of being able to put photographs to it. I've got old friends of ours (John and Margaret) coming over tomorrow to offer help and assistance in the matter- John has been playing with - and building- computers since the early days. Fingers crossed, and please can you tell me, via the usual communicative method, if you can receive this. Warm regards, Mike and Ann.

tuesday. /

Still trying . This is a photograph of Snailwell Church near Newmarket. It is well worth a visit. The tower was built in 1070 and the rest of the church appears to date from the 1400s (they tell us).

Thursday.

Not sure if this is going to work out. Still puzzling over photoes for the blog. Been a busy week or so.This morning a 'friend of a friend' has been trying to advise me (or rather 'educate') me regarding photos for the blog. Hope it's going to help. The photo is of a small area of our town centre.

Friday A

Still experimenting . Photo of Ann and three guests, last week.

Friday.

This is an experiment re the new machine. I have an expert behind my right shoulder directing operations. Yesterday we motored down to Snape and took photos.

Mystery Object.
when, where. (I know you must all have been pining for one of these )
short experiment.  Back soon.

wednesday.

Still having trouble fastening pictures to Blog.  This morning decided to give ourselves a day off and a day out (all same day though); got in car, motored  up to Yoxford where we trawled antique shops and antique centre; did reasonably well for this day and age;   bought some pewter (two pieces with George IV Excise marks).   Then went on to Aldeburgh, walked along sea front, and back through Main Street. Drove on to Snape,  bought bits  Antique centre (not much though), then went and had lunch in snack bar - cold but good. Eventually drove home via Woodbridge. Pleasantly relaxing day out.

Being called up to supper by Ann, so will wish you all a very goodnight.

Warm Regards, Mike and Ann.

Monday.

finally purchased a new computer. Still got  an awful lot  to   learn about it, but  I think I'm going to enjoy it.  Been a very busy last week or two.  Had Ruth and her two girls staying,which was lovely. We've both had chest  infections and then antibiotics,which  wasn't quite so lovely. Finished my course today - Ann  has a few days to go before hers is completed.

 Bough the new  computer from B.T, etc. ,who were most obliging, and promised all  sorts  of  assistance , but seem strangely reluctant to  complete that part of the deal. Ah well,plan to pop round and see them in the morning.  Not too sure about how to put photos to entries Blogwise, so will close now

Good Night all.

Sunday.

Yesterday afternoon we motored over to Shelley, a village some miles from us, where an art exhibition was being held in the Church, and in the village four houses had opened their gardens to raise money for the church building (almost exactly what we did last Saturday in Highdale).  The Art exhibition was small but good, and all the artists were from the small village. Of the four  houses whose gardens had been thrown open, three were of the Hall, Shelley House, and Shelley Manor type (I've already forgotten which was which) and the fourth was a big converted barn. All the gardens were very large, nothing of the 'hidden gardens' type about them, except that they were all well away from a road, thoroughly excluded.

 The one above (and below) was probably pre Tudor.

The same house, but a lovely mix of the old and the High Tech new.

The one above, and shown in the next few photoes, was a lovely old house, built in 1520 (with a good many additions, I should think, had, about fifty yards from the house, a large moat. It was always thought that the previous manor house had been surrounded by the moat, but aerial photoes and examination seemed to show that a large garden had stood on the moated area, so the present owners have tried to restore what had been there.

The photo above is in the wrong place. It is the restored barn. The owners are professional plant breeders and showed irises, successfully,
 at the Chelsea Flower Show this year!

This last photie is back to the moated garden next to the Manor House, which can be seen in the background.

It was a lovely afternoon out, and we rather wished we'd made a day of it rather than just an afternoon.
                                 _______________________________________

P.s. Would just like to record that  the people at the gardens we visited yesterday, told us how much they'd enjoyed their visit to our garden the previous weekend. In view of the fact that ours is a pocket handkerchief of a garden in comparison to the Shelley ones, we found this reassuring!!!!!

                                 ________________________________________

Friday.

This week's 'Mystery Objects' are shown in the four photographs here. They are snuff boxes in the shape of shoes, made in brass and copper. 'Shoe' snuff boxes are not in the least unusual; they are, in fact the most common of 'form snuff boxes'. These are unusual in being a bit bigger than most, being around five inches long. I think they are probably table top snuffs as opposed to pocket snuff boxes.

Here (above) they are shown with the lids open.

Above they are shown with the lids closed, so that the devices on the lids can be seen. The shoe on the left shows a 'crest' like device of a hand holding a dagger.  The top man on  the right box appears to be  a cricketer (batsman). Whilst I'm not sure of the one below, Ann thinks it shows a fielder taking a low catch off the batsman, and looking at it, I think she may well be right (?)

They are, I think, English. They are not a pair (slight differences in the size, and decoration).

The question is when were they made, to celebrate which event, and what the decoration is intended to mean?
Any serious answer would be appreciated and would add to my knowledge about this interesting pair (sorry - couple) of boxes. To help the matter,  in my opinion (founded on the style of the boxes, and their decoration)  I would guess that they were made in the same workshop around the dates 1840 to 1860.
Over to you.
Thanks- any suggestions gratefully received.

                                Regards, Mike  and Ann.

Monday.

Heavy showers turned into torrential rain for a short time this morning, with water flowing down our central garden path.

Rained several times today - heavily.

It stopped by evening, but when I went outside about eight o'clock, it certainly hadn't all drained away.  As a direct result of the weather spent most of today pottering and catching up in the workshop.

Off to bed in a min. Goodnight All.

Saturday.

Today Highdale has had its 'Secret Gardens of Highdale' exhibition, in which we were persuaded to enter our garden. It has been a long day, the gardens opening at 11 a.m.  All went well until about two p.m. when we had a violent thunderstorm, which lasted for about forty minutes. We took advantage of this break in visitors, to eat the sandwich and salad lunch, which our friend Hilary (who was helping us with the open day) had provided. When the storm was over we found that the garden was again becoming crowded. Things dried off surprisingly quickly. Although it was supposed to end at 5p.m. in fact the last visitors finally left at about five thirty. At Hilary's suggestion we'd kept a list of guests (216 of them) and where they'd come from; these included  an Australian, a South African, an Indian young man from Lahor, and a couple from Stafford.  Hilary stayed on to help us tidy up, and eventually Ann provided an evening meal for the three of us (a chicken casserole with rice and vegetables, followed by  various fresh fruits). We finally ran Hilary home at about eight o'clock.
It's been a tiring, but satisfying day. We've enjoyed it more than we expected, but I think we both feel that it's nearly bedtime, so -   Goodnight every one.

Tuesday.

The tiny thatched building in the centre of the above photo stands at a crossroads just the far side of Lavenham, and was built for a very specific, but, to my mind, a rather enexpected - purpose; so that this is an architectural  'Mystery Object'. Can you guess what it was built as?
                                         _________________________________________

I really reopened this blog, because I had forgotten a small piece of news I'd intended to put in my last blog entry.  On Sunday, as we were coming out of Aldham Church, a lovely great barn owl - a white owl that is, flew over the duck decoy near the church. We all saw it, and one or two of the locals explained that three large nesting boxes have been installed in the area with the express purpose of encouraging barn owls to breed. They were obviously successful, but another lady in our group said that another pair of barn owls were breeding in her barn - these, I suppose were more tradionally minded barn owls. Anyway, it was good to know that white owls will be around in our locality again- it's been a few years since we've seen one of these beautiful birds in this area.

Monday (2).

 Back with you. Top photo is of Ann in our garden. I think I've mentioned that in a few days time we shall be showing our garden in 'Hidden Gardens of Highdale'. Still got quite a bit to do to the garden but tomorrow our (professional) gardeneress, Tessa, is coming to sort out our box hedge. For pedants, I know it won't be on Derby day, which tradionally is the correct day to trim box, but I'm hoping it will be near enough - needs doing, anyway..

We motored over to Ely this morning to join two of Ann's siblings and partners, for our more or less monthly meeting and natter. Middle brother David has a nasty cold, so couldn't join us -there's a lot of it around.  We met up and lunched at - yes, you've guessed it- our usual, the Fire Engine house.

Almost opposite the Fire Engine House is the above house, which, for a while (in the 1630s)  housed our then tax gatherer, a certain Mr. Oliver Cromwell, who, a few years later topped Charles I (January of 1649, if I remember) then took on an even more important job, i.e. replacing the King (pro tem).

Next to the above ex Cromwell's dwelling, and about two hundred yards from the Cathedral, is the above Saint Mary's Church. You would hardly think two churches were needed in such close proximity, still, I suppose they knew what they were doing..

                                         _____________________________________

Having tried to catch up a little on the blog front, I think it's nearly time for bed - so-
                                      Goodnight all.

Monday.

Firstly, I must apologise for my tardiness over the last week. I can only plead being extremely busy. The week has included taking part in an antique fair at Long Melford, attending an antique fair at Lavenham, viewing an auction at Stowmarket, and leaving bids on said auction, plus the usual weekly activities. Backtracking slightly, early last week we were looking at a calendar that a friend makes yearly, featuring East Anglian scenes, and found that in this year's calendar a village called Hawkedon keeps recurring - mainly Hawkedon Church, which has lots of early carving, bench ends, and stained glass. So we decided (having consulted a map, and found Hawkedon was about ten miles or so the far side of Lavenham) to go and have a look  at it. The top photo is of Hawkedon Church.

Above photo is of  an elderly, well whiskered gentleman, taking his ease on a gravestone, in front of the church.

Above photo shows three more (even older and more bewhiskered)  gentlemen taking their ease  on a carved bench end, dating, we're told from the mid fourteen hundreds, inside the said church.

Think I'm going to leap forward to this week now- back in a minute.