This Week

Back home in Yorkshire the mixed hyacinths we planted in a wooden barrel have grown and opened and are still giving us pleasure.  

We're also back in our usual routine - shopping, seeing our local family who come visiting and generally catching up with admin paperwork and your news via blogger.

This morning I went to the park to take a book back to the library and collect the ones I had reserved.

Two of the books are large print so they'll be easier to read.  

The Agatha Christie book jacket blurb - "An urgent cry for help brings Poirot to France, but he arrives too late to save his client and who now lies in a shallow grave on a golf course. Why is the dead man wearing an overcoat that's too big for him?  Who was the impassioned love-letter in his pocket for?  Before Poirot can answer these questions the case is turned upside down by the discovery of a second, identically murdered corpse".

The Wild Silence by Raynor Winn - "Nature holds the answers for Raynor and her husband Moth.  After walking 630 homeless miles along "The Salt Path" (The first of the non fiction books I read recently) the couple continue living on the windswept and wild English coastline.  The cliffs, the sky and the chalky earth now feel like their home.  Moth has a terminal diagnosis, but he seems revitalized in nature.  Together on the wild coastal path they discover that anything is possible.  Now life beyond the Salt Path awaits and they come back to four walls. The sense of home is illusive and returning to normality is proving difficult until an incredible gesture by someone who reads their story changes everything.  There's a chance to breathe life back into a beautiful farmhouse nestled deep in the Cornish hills:  rewilding the land and returning nature to its hedgerows becomes their saving grace and their new path to follow".  

Bloomsbury Girls by Natalie Jenner - "1950.  Bloomsbury Books on Lamb's Conduit Street has resisted change for a hundred years, run by men and guided by the manager's unbreakable rules.  But after the turmoil of war in Europe the world is changing and the women in the shop have plans.  As the women cross paths with literary figures such as Daphne du Maurier, Samuel Beckett and Peggy Guggenheim, these Bloomsbury girls are working together to plot out a richer and more rewarding future".

Patches of crocuses that have been planted by the park staff come up every year.

Cold, cloudy, but dry best describes the weather at the moment.  We're expecting snow next week and we're not looking forward to it if it happens.

  

As usual I went into the walled garden and it was good to see some colour because of the flowering shrubs and early Spring flowers.

Above, back in our own garden the daffodils remain in bud waiting for some sunshine.  We wait for warmer days although with the threat of snow that's unlikely to happen.  We have to make the most of  dry weather and get out and about when we can.

Thanks for visiting.  Have a good weekend wherever you live.

Snowdrop Sunday at St. Botolph's Church, Swyncombe, South Oxfordshire

On our way down to Reading we saw hundreds of snowdrops in the Oxfordshire countryside.  There were daffodils in bloom too.  They had probably been planted and had spread and were growing wild along the verges and in the woods.

On our way back home to the north of England we did a detour to see the snowdrops and aconites growing in the churchyard at St. Botolph's Church, Swyncombe.  I've shared a visit to the church before, but as it was one of the weekends in February when everyone is invited to view these delicate flowers before they go over we took the opportunity during our journey to return.  Refreshments are served by members of the congregation on these special occasions, but we didn't stay long.  It was another chance for Mr P to rest before we joined the Oxford by-pass and then drive across country to the M1 motorway.  

It's a beautiful area.  There are woodland lanes, small villages and market towns on this stretch of the road.  It's also where the red kites hang out and it's good to know that the numbers are multiplying.  We saw them flying and sailing high up in the thermals in the home counties and even beyond Oxfordshire.

We turned off by the village war memorial at Cookley Green and followed other visitors who were going to the church.

St. Botolph's was probably built by Saxon workers under the supervision of the Normans.  It's situated on the Ridgeway Path which was once a major road from Avebury in Wiltshire to the flint mines of Norfolk.

The sheep in the surrounding fields still have their woolly Winter fleeces on.

There were daffodils in bloom that must have been planted by the residents of Watlington.  They were a bright sight to greet visitors.  Up here in the north of England daffodils are still tightly in bud in our garden and we look forward to sunnier, warmer weather for them to open.  (The ones below are from March 2022).

Happy St. David's Day to all my friends with Welsh connections!  

Thank you for coming by.  Have a good weekend everyone!

By the River Thames Again

Goring-on-Thames Lock and Weir (Creative Commons)

We were grateful that daughter D drove us around during our stay with her in Reading.  It certainly helped Mr P rest and enjoy the visit.  The weather was dull but dry so the photos I took reflect this.  I suppose we should expect poor light at this time of the year.

We had refreshments at the Swan Hotel in Streatley before walking in the grounds of the hotel.  Below are views of the bridge linking the two villages of Streatley, Berkshire and Goring-on-Thames on the South Oxfordshire side of the river.

The main reason for travelling down to Reading was to see our new great grandson for the first time as well as to be with family and friends.  A theatre visit had been booked and I'll share more another day.  

Meanwhile I wish you a good new week.  It'll be March soon!