English Heathland and Much More

We were driving past Dunwich Heath in Suffolk in May when I thought how interesting to photo this kind of terrain which is very different to woodland areas and meadows.

This is not a place to wear shorts, the ground is covered in Gorse which is very spikey.

The ground is also very uneven so care needs to be taken but it is so worth while as the area is teeming with birds and small animals, particularly rabbits.

Such a safe haven for them as the Gorse keeps people away from their burrows and nests.

Guess what I have been doing while Alan has been recovering? Re-arranging some of my garden, something I said I would never do again. It started with a severe pruning session which got me realising that I did not really like some of the shrubs which had just been 'space fillers' in  the past.

Added to that we had removed all the roses from the front (aged and somewhat diseased) and knowing that one should never re-plant roses in the same place for a while I had bought a very reasonably priced 'shrub package' from my newspaper. Needless to say not the best thing to do as some of these shrubs did not take to the open and often windy position.

So I was looking for space to transplant the surviving ones in the back. This ended up in my not only discarding some of the shrubs but re-citing a number of them to accommodate the new ones. Doing this in drought conditions has meant lots and lots of watering but everything seems to be surviving.

Having so much Lavender in my garden also meant digging out and replacing some of them as Lavender becomes far too straggly after about 5 years. Hopefully things will look better next Summer than they do at this moment!

Alan is 'back to normal' but having to take 2 lots of medication which he has never done in his life before. His follow up tests are not until late September and his Consultant follow up not until December.

He was able to accompany me last week when we attended another brilliant 2 day session on studying the Torah at Pilgrims Hall.

Rabbi Alan who leads these sessions is a brilliant teacher. He does not 'teach' in the accepted sense but sits amongst us and gives one keys from the original Hebrew and encourages everyone to delve into the Scriptures themselves. If someone comes up with something that is irelevant to the topic in hand, he honours them by being able to show them where their seeing does fit it.


So in effect we are studying the Hebrew way and not the Greek way with a Bible scholar who is brilliant at bringing out the original text in the geographical, political and original time scale to be not only historical but totally relating to the time scale in which we live now. All very personally challenging as well as informative.


Interesting to see how in the end the main theme throughout the Bible is to return us to the state and place we were always meant to be in the beginning - living in the Garden of Delight (Eden) which is of course not a geographical place but a place of 'being'.


This has been our third study session and we are looking forward to February when we will continue. In the meantime I am participating in the studies that are undertaken in the College in Jerusalem and thinking about the on-line studies that the ministry (Torah International) are planning in the near future.


These studies are so amazing, even something as well known as the 23rd Psalm took on such a whole new meaning that it felt like something we had never read before.

Soul in the City

Soul in the City time again or Church in the Community. Last week and weekend we again had the priviledge of serving our community in this special way.

We have a school attached to our church and the young people from several local churches came together for this time of mission. They sleep and eat in the school and mornings are taken up with prayer and Bible study and preparation for going out into the community. What do they do when there, anything from social action to praying for people with fun and games for children.

The evenings are full of activities in our local park. Saturday and Sunday were family fun days where everything is free including the food.

Many families came and took part in face painting and various games with the inflatables being a big hit. The girls enjoyed a special girls zone with jewellery making, hair styling, nails and a make-up for the older ones. Many people were prayed for and 19 people accepted Jesus as their Savior with 4 more saying that the pains and problems they had asked for prayer for had vanished.

When all is done and packed away about 9.0 pm the young people go back to the school and have a time of praise and worship. They were so encouraged  this year with supernatural manifestations of oil and gold dust on their hands they wanted to stay up all night worshiping instead of going to bed.

Here we have a few random photos.

 Football was popular seen here with the tip of the London skyline on the horizon

The Burger queue was popular too

Fairytale Cottage

We often pass this cute little cottage but have never taken a picture before.

I wonder what fairytale, nursery rhyme or story it reminds you of. Hansel and Gretel for me I think.

Happy Birthday to Oliver

Cannot believe that dear Grandson Oliver is 4 years old tomorrow. We gave him his birthday present early as Granddad was being admitted to hospital. It was a real hit - a kit which gave him the choice of building 5 different vehicles. The first he assembled was this tractor and he just loved the battery operated screw driver. Today he is enjoying a 'tennis party' with his friends.

Then there was the birthday card that Grandma made depicting his current fascination V*W ca*mper vans

as on his teashirt

The Dawn of a New Day

Isn't this sunset amazing - a reminder of the greatness of our God. The sunset here this week and

a new day dawned

in more ways than one

I want to say a great big thank you to all my blogging friends that have been praying for Alan along with literally hundreds both here and around the world. They did not find anything in his bladder yesterday when looking for a 'mass'. He is home now and getting used to the joy of not having the catheter that he has needed for the last six weeks. He will be undergoing some further tests and checks in two weeks time. So Alan is looking to getting back to normal and I am hoping for some R & R and catching up with you all.

Blogger tells me that I have now reached 500 posts. My records show that it is 486. I think blogger counts the ones that were deleted when I realised that I had already begun one previously.

This week I received comments from 10th March, don't know whether this is the fault of my server who linked in with Google at that time or a blogger issue. I was glad to receive them anyhow and apologies if I did not get back to you.

Garden with a Difference

The Gibberd Garden.Four more days until Alan is admitted for further investigations and surgery. Decided last week whilst waiting, to have a trip out fairly locally and decided on this unusual garden. Not particularly pretty but interesting all the same.

Sir Frederick Gibberd prepared the master plan for Harlow New Town in 1946 then in 1957 he bought a property on the edge of town. From then on until his death in 1984 he created this unusual garden laying down much of the garden's hard landscaping himself. 

This is what he wrote about the garden: "Garden design is an art of space, like architecture and town design. The space, to be a recognisable design, must be contained and the plants and walls enclosing it then become part of the adjacent spaces. The garden has thus become a series of rooms each with it's own character, from small intimate spaces to large enclosed prospects" Into this setting some 80 items of sculpture, ceramic pots and architectural salvage were introduced. Just a few of them shown here.

The dreaded Japanese Knotweed below, that wants to take over our country!

Sutton Hoo

Sutton Hoo - the Anglo-Saxon burial ground of kings

a place of history in this south eastern corner of my country

In a field overlooking the river Deben at Sutton Hoo near Woodbridge, local archaeologist Basil Brown found a 90 foot long Anglo-Saxon burial ship in 1939. This led to the discovery of the most amazing collection of treasures that had lain undisturbed within the ship for over 1300 years. The 254 acre estate was subsequently  donated to the National Trust who now manage it.

A few shots of the excavations from the exhibition hall

Original burial ship

A reconstruction of what the burial chamber in the ship would have looked like. Chambers within a ship collapsed within a century of it's burial.

Construction of the ship from the first millenium

Some interesting history before taking you on a walk around the grounds with me where we will see some of the burial mounds

Long ago in the days before written history important men and women were buried under mounds, often with all their precious goods as signs of their wealth.

At the time there were 2 ruling powers, the authority of kings and the authority of the church. In Raedwald of East Anglia's reign (about 599 - 625 AD)the growing world of Christian power spread into Kent and was ready to expand. Pope Gregory sent missionaries to the Kentish King. King Raedwald was baptised and built up power over both Pagan and Christian kingdoms. He set up alters to both Christ and the old gods and claimed descent from both Woden and Ceasar. He balanced the rule between both Christian worlds and Pagan ways of East Anglian society. Trade and Christian Franks brought wealth and East Anglia's first town, the port of Ipswich began to grow.

Many centuries later graves were explored for treasure. King Henry V111 permitted excavations. The pits that were then dug have been uncovered here.

You can tell it is May as the Bluebells are out in the woods

Overlooking the estuary as we walk

Tranmer House, formerly the main residency on the Sutton Hoo estate now used for school groups study

A stark view of what Dutch Elm disease has done to our nations Elm trees

An interesting seat to stop and rest on the walk

And finally one of the many ancient burial mounds