Probably The Biggest Charity Booksale in East Anglia

The NSPCC book sale at Holmwood House School near Colchester every October is HUGE
When we used to sell second-hand books at Country Fairs it was one of the places we knew we could go  to pick up plenty of stock without spending too much.
 Now I go just to see whats there and perhaps find a few books.
Here's the queue to get in about 20 minutes before opening time, and it goes round the corner out of sight too.

35,000 books they  say they have for sale!
This picture is from t'internet from last year because I forgot to go up on the stage and take a picture and it's often much more crowded than this picture shows.

And this is the heap of the "few" books I found

When I got home I realised that the Woodsman by Ben Law was just a different looking version to one I read a while back so that will go to the charity shop as will The Behaviour of Moths - which isn't what I thought it was. The Agatha Christie at the top of the pile is a collection of short stories from her early writing that I hadn't come across before.
The most interesting of the lot is the one at the bottom 'Living Back-to-Back' a history of the very cheap housing built to house all the workers for the mills and factories in 19th century cities.

I searched all through the fiction for grey Persephones but not a single one nor any DE Stevenson or Angela Thirkell - sadly.
It was very difficult to limit myself to this lot as it's easy to go crazy and spend a small fortune!

Welcome to more new followers and Thank you for all the comments on the last post. I noticed that no one said if they thought putting knickers on while standing up was a sign of being fit and flexible!! Does that mean you can or you can't??!!

Back Soon
Sue

And Another Week Bites The Dust

Before I start I must say hello to lots of new followers, once it was possible to click on names and find if people had a blog or not but that's one of the things Blogger have changed - very annoying, so if you have a blog please leave a comment with the name of the blog.
And must say thank you for all the comments on the last post. It's certainly true about "Bungalow Legs" as after just 7 months here I now find stairs quite hard work. We haven't completely dismissed the hospital gym as it will certainly be a good idea for later although fitness in the past has always been maintained by working - gardening, wood cutting etc. Back at the smallholding I did half a mile of walking round the field everyday just to let the chickens out and collect the eggs!

Anyway, what have we been up to......................................

Monday - Off to hospital with Colin  for his regular blood test and then an appointment with the Doctor. Platelets have gone up again  *Happy Dance* and the doctor said he could drop several of the tablets he's been taking  since he came out of hospital.

Tuesday - a.m. I went to see a physio to get some more exercises to help hips and back. Very nice young fella wiggled my legs about and said my hips were not too bad and my back fairly flexible, then showed me 3 more exercises to try to improve even more.
I reckon the test is - can you put your knickers on while standing up? 

We had a viewing of the bungalow in the afternoon and our For Sale sign has gone up. We told our lovely neighbour Ann that we were moving so it didn't come as a shock to her but I bet it's surprised some of the other neighbours. It takes about 5 minutes to show people round this small bungalow whereas last year it took at least an hour to show folk around the smallholding.
 Then we took library books back and went for a walk in Broomhill Park behind the library ( From the web : Broomhill Park is a semi-natural woodland park between Sherrington Road and Valley Road in Ipswich, Suffolk, England. In older times it was called Broom Hill. The park contains many fine historic oaks and an abundance of Scots Pines).  If it wasn't for the traffic noise it would feel like a wood in the country.

Wednesday - Out to Leiston to visit our beautiful granddaughter, (and our daughter of course!) now two weeks and one day old.

 We got to see her awake this time and while Col went to visit one of old neighbours, me and A took Florence and the dog for a walk around the park. 

 Feedback from yesterdays viewing " it didn't have a wow factor"! Colin asked me what on earth they meant so I said it would mean completely gutting the kitchen and replacing with glossy doored cupboards and granite worktops and ceramic tiled floor. Replacing the new carpets we had laid for warmth with wood flooring and all the light fittings with new ones. My settee covered with a patchwork throw would have to go and the comfy armchair - it's always leather sofas in modern homes.The pine dresser that isn't really a dresser and the pine chest that the TV stands on would also be changed to something modern and metal and as for the little round table by my chair which is really a homemade sewing box table from the 1930s, that definitely wouldn't be seen in a Wow Factor home! All the doors throughout the place would need new ones as they are old hollow sapele ones. The double glazing is out dated and would have to be replaced, then a conservatory added out the back with big bi-fold doors. The garden would be decked and grass banished and as for the old fashioned flower border - that would have to go.I showed him  THIS which has come on the market in Ipswich (but not in such a Good area as ours she says sniffily!)- just the sort of place I would hate! And certainly not what we could afford to do here before selling. So we shall just have to wait and hope.


Thursday morning and back to the cottage to meet the lady selling it and have another look round. We're just hoping she doesn't suddenly change her mind as she doesn't really want to move but has been widowed now for 6 years and is probably in her late 70s and finding the driving to the village and back for everything is starting to be too much. The cottage is exactly what we want and we would happily move in as soon as the solicitors can sort it but the lady has a lot of things to shift so we don't want to rush her and it will be January before she'll be ready so we will have to be patient.
One problem is that there will be no cooker/oven there as the lady is taking hers with her. There is a perfect place to put a range and I would like to go back to LPG (heating is oil boiler - no natural gas)but we may have to manage with microwave and caravan cooker until we can sort something out. Although somewhere stored in one of the trailers is a double burner camping stove.

Thursday afternoon and another bungalow viewing - the third - third time lucky?

Friday 
No, not third time lucky " too small" ( yes we know that!)

And now it's nearly 5pm and we are just back from the other side of Ipswich after attending my uncle's funeral (my mum's eldest sister's husband) he was 94 and my Auntie is still a fairly fit 92. They celebrated their 70th wedding anniversary 2 years ago. That's a long time together. We caught up with two of my cousins "we're running out of Aunts and Uncles" I said "but gaining grandchildren".

We have another viewing tomorrow and there's a Jumble sale round the corner at the Scout Hut. Might pop to a Book sale too and perhaps a car boot - Sound's like the perfect weekend! 

Back after the weekend
Sue

Getting Fit Again After Cancer

As you can imagine 8 months of treatment and then 7 weeks in hospital, most of them feeling pretty rough is not a good way to retain fitness. Colin came out of hospital on September 20th feeling very weak and he spent the first two weeks at home mainly sitting about and sleeping. To begin with even walking round our (very small) garden made his legs ache. Gradually over the last couple of weeks his energy has returned and he feels ready to get fit again.

As advised by  the cancer nurse specialist we asked Macmillan Cancer Care about local gyms that specialize in rehabilitation for cancer patients but found  you still have to pay. Then the lady told us about free sessions run at the hospital which quite frankly sounded so silly  that I think Col is going to stick to walking at least for the time being because he may need some help later building arm muscles.

A car boot sale and then up and down the road  was the first step. Then on the UK Runners and Walkers website you can find out how far you've walked and being in town it's easy just to add a little bit extra each day by taking a different road around the estate. After just 4 days of regular short walks he was able to come with me to Aldi and back, that's just under a mile, not much but a good start.

My fitness levels have also dropped  since moving to town and when I had the awful back and leg pains a few weeks ago I got a bit worried. The doctor told me to refer myself to physio, so I did and they gave me some more exercises for hip movement to add to the ones I already do to help my back. So with these exercises and walking with Colin, I hope by the time we move we'll both be fit again and ready to explore the footpaths round our new home.

Back  at the end of the week
Sue

Long Live Great Bardfield - Review

Thanks to Persephone for sending me a copy of this book to review.

Eileen 'Tirzah' Garwood was born in 1908 and from  1925-8 she went to the Eastbourne School of Art where she was taught wood engraving by Eric Ravilious who she married in 1930.
She began this biography whilst recovering from breast cancer, looking back at her childhood and teenage years and then their life among some of the artists of the time who gravitated away from cities to live in Great Bardfield, and neighbouring Essex villages. Much of the book focuses on the love life of the various couples who seem to fall in and out of love with other members of the group all the time.
Her descriptions of all the people - friends, family, villagers are so good, as are the details of the places she visits with Eric when he is commissioned to paint landscapes or murals. Of Morecombe she writes" We should have to wait a whole week in this sad town that was only meant for visitors in the proper seasons; now it lay like a sluttish prostitute who hadn't yet bothered to get out of bed and paint her face". 
Eric and Tirzah had their first son - John- in 1935 and from that time Tirzah did very little in the way of wood prints or painting as she struggled to look after the children, James arrived in 1939 and Anne in 1941 and to keep house - often in very primitive conditions.
When war broke out Eric became an official war artist and was lost presumed dead while on a plane journey over Iceland in 1942. At the same time she was diagnosed with breast cancer and began an informal biography for her future grandchildren while recovering. The biography finishes in 1943 and the story of the rest of her life is told through letters and memories by her daughter Anne. Tirzah married Henry Swanzy, a BBC producer in 1946 and died when her cancer spread in 1951
The book is illustrated with black and white photos and Tirzah's engravings.

I enjoyed this book although there are so many people mentioned throughout  that I sometimes took a while to work out who was who!

It was only previously published in a limited edition hardback in 2012, so well done to Persephone Books for bringing it to a wider audience.

Back Soonish
Sue

Mushrooms and Apples

Colin decided he felt well enough to walk around a boot sale so we popped along to a regular Sunday one a few miles out of town - It will be our nearest once we move.
Everybody wanted silly prices for the few things I asked about so all I left with was a box of mushrooms for £1. We came back a different way and passed through a village with lots of orchards and bought  a big bag of Cox apples for 50p. Then home for a coffee.

 Mushroom soup anyone?

Thank you for all the comments last time and for the many new followers

If it was a follower competition then I think Sue at Our New Life in the Country won with John at Going Gently second and I rolled in a miserable 3rd. But as it wasn't a competition I'm not bitter!!

Back Soon
Sue

Sunday to Thursday

Thank you for so many comments about our move back to the country. We can't wait.
 I've done the maths several times to check we can afford it and yes ...........just. Things will be pretty tight until we sell the bungalow. Unfortunately there are several properties for sale in Ipswich for much the same price at the moment and if it doesn't sell quickly we will be living on Fresh Air until Col can get his County Council pension in March. (Someone asked if we could rent it out instead of selling but I think the rental income would only be about £650 - £700 a month, then agency fees to come off so not really enough to live on).
I'm looking on it as a challenge to live on a very low budget for the rest of the year, although Christmas may have to be postponed until we sell!


 On Sunday we popped over to visit our new granddaughter, 5 days old - still haven't seen her awake.

 Florence refused to breast feed once they got home so A is expressing. She's determined to try and avoid the high cost of formula milk. She was also planning to use the re-usable nappies but Florence is too tiny for them so it was lucky I found a few more newborn disposables  at a car boot sale.

Monday - Our son reached the grand old age of 35 today. Doesn't seem five minutes since he was Florence's size, although come to think of it he was never as small and grew into the 6 foot something he is now by the time he was 15.
We went down to the beach hut as the weather promised a decent day with an offshore wind, but they were wrong and by 2pm it was really chilly and started to rain. It was very quiet down there, only dog walkers and joggers. Col sat behind our windbreak while I kept inside out of the wind. I've now brought home the things that will get damp over winter

 We treated ourselves to a whippy ice cream - with flake of course - the last of the season before the kiosk closes.
 Over the weekend I sorted through more books and delivered another box full to be collected to go off to Ziffit.com - another £24 worth. Most of my books they don't want and some of the ones they will accept are ones I want to keep so I haven't emptied many boxes so far.

Tuesday - More book sorting, it's getting quite addictive. I found £27 worth and boxed up. That's a total of nearly £80 of income which is handy amount. Will I regret selling some of them later - probably but not many and anyway we really need the cash.

I did 10 minutes more garden clearing but my back started complaining so I soon stopped, I'm just so out of condition.

Wednesday -
Made the Baby Jacob page in my new scrapbook. I didn't look on-line to get ideas, nor did I rush out to buy any more bits and pieces, just used what I had, this is how it ended up

After lunch we had to take our ID and filled in forms into town for our solicitor.


 Thursday - I went with Col to hospital for his regular weekly blood test and Great Joy his platelets are starting to climb, from very, very, very,VERY low to just very, very,very low. Perhaps that's the start of an improvement. He also had to have a monthly lung thing where they give him an antibiotic by inhalation. He hopes they'll stop it soon as it gives him terrible indigestion.
The weather was cold and miserable today so I decided it was time to start making soup for daily lunches. First soup of the Autumn was Leek and Potato as leeks are one of the Aldi cheap vegetables at the moment. We have salad and something for lunch through spring and summer so by soup season I've always forgotten how delicious and warming it is.
After lunch off to the Estate Agents to take ID  and to find out one or two more details about the cottage.

I have the dentists tomorrow for a filling ..............

Back Soon
Sue

Plan C

Plan A June 2015 - December 2015
Sell the smallholding, buy a small bungalow in town, use the caravan to visit all over the country, decide where to buy, perhaps Wales, and rent out bungalow in town.

Plan B January 2016
After diagnoses of Non Hodgkin Lymphoma, live in small bungalow in town until Colin has recovered then use caravan to travel and decide where to live perhaps Wales. Rent out bungalow in town.

Plan C  Suddenly October 2016
Spot lovely home  for sale in Suffolk countryside, abandon idea of ever living in Wales due to ongoing health problems, the wet weather there and arrival of 2 grandchildren. Make a cash  offer on house - which gets accepted. Put small bungalow on market.
All family cheering that we are not going to Wales.


Yes, after just 7 months in town we are heading back out into 'the sticks'.

We hadn't really planned to move again so quickly but when we spotted a house in Mid Suffolk on t'internet that looked really interesting, we went to look and it was just what we wanted. The sort of place we were looking for in Wales but without the rain and the hills!

So we are going to ignore the fact that Colin might have to have donated stem cells and more months of treatment. We shall ignore the fact that buying the house means we wipe out all savings and we'll have hardly anything to live on until we sell this bungalow and Col gets work pension in March 2017. We will ignore the fact that he may only be in remission for a short while and I could be on my own in the middle of nowhere and we will just go for it.
 When it comes to house buying we've always gone with gut feeling (For instance taking 2 small children to live in a caravan while we restored a very old semi-derelict property in 1983 and moving across Suffolk to the completely run down smallholding in 1992)

The cottage is part very old but part more modern it has 4 bedrooms although the small one will be my craft room/office, plenty of room for the Surrey bit of the family to stay. It has a lovely big living room and conservatory, with a dining room and kitchen. There is already a mini orchard of 1 apple, 1 pear and a plum tree + vegetable beds and a greenhouse. It's down a track off a country lane with just 3 other houses and so very quiet. There is a half acre paddock just crying out to be planted up with trees to make a wood. It's 10-15 minutes from a village we know well with a doctor and small shops. 20 minutes from the Asda on the edge of Ipswich  and slightly less to a Tesco outside of  Stowmarket which is the town that has always felt like our home town. We will be closer to Col's sister, Dad and brother. Closer to my sister and not a lot further from our two Suffolk children. Now that I've done so much driving and gained in confidence it doesn't seem to matter that we may be back and forwards to hospital etc.


It's totally mad but very exciting

Here is a small blurry glimpse

Must say welcome to a whole load of new followers all because of John Gray at Going Gently. He was shamelessly begging for followers to get to 1000 when he will die happy - at least I think that was the promise! so I hopped on his bandwagon and begged to get to 400. Trouble is my blog doesn't quite have the same attractions as John's so I'm not expecting the new followers to actually read my drivel!

Back Soon - probably with more new granddaughter photos which is something that you won't see on John's blog unless he has dark secrets from the past that we don't know about!!

Sue