Not Standing Still; Looking Round .....

 

View of the small terrace with the one plant,
a lovely rhododendron smuggled in from Bruges,
the only one so re-sited.

View of the nascent planted terrace with proprietor!

Feel somewhat frustrated sometimes at my slow rate of progress in settling in. It has become rather difficult for me these days, to juggle several balls in the air, simultaneously; indeed, as I often remark to myself, “Multi-tasking used to be the order of the day. Now, uni-tasking takes a lot of effort!” So I must make myself count the positives this week. 

Bedside lights installed. Extra socket in study and an outside socket on the large terrace. Shower room mirror removed and installed in bathroom with that mirror, rendered less attractive by some short-term tenant who snipped the neutral cable, ready to pass to grand-daughter who doesn’t need the electrical sideshow of illuminated dots. New, better-lit mirror has yet to arrive for my en-suite, but hopes are high. Water butt and pump ready on the terrace and in use. Gorgeous blinds in bedroom and study put in place about twelve hours ago! But the intended curtains for terrace door from living room, did not work and have been taken away. Refund hoped for there unless another solution can be found!! Painting of the living room postponed due to Covid but now timed for next week.

Quite forgot to mention trendy
new grips to help the aged over
various thresholds.

Progress however on the Mah Jong front. Two other interested parties have popped up in response to an appeal by a new friend, on Nextdoor. One is a woman who plays ‘Hong Kong Four Winds Mah Jong’ on her phone and would prefer to play only twosomes; plus a girl who played one Christmas decades ago, with a Thai friend and wants to learn. The latter sounds blissfully normal! We meet in a cafe tomorrow afternoon and attempt To Begin!! Progress indeed. Almost simultaneously, the formerly unproductive U3A Mah Jong group, membership promised for next October, is now to have two extra sessions tacked on to the March series, during April. I have the address, have been invited and will have the necessary Lateral Flow Test as required!! Looking forward to this one if only to meet the gent in charge who seems a trifle cautious and careful, if not constipated. I shall pack my mask too with the ingratiating smile!!

Mother’s Day last Sunday saw me, for the first time for around half a century with two out of three offspring with me. Lunch at the Giggling Squid; delicious. Also to a garden centre to buy compost, gravel and a few hardy plants. We did this on the Saturday with Olivia also here for a final wedding dress fitting in town. Had a marvellous time and we returned home in high spirits. Livs and I put four small plants in the lift with us and the lift promptly stopped functioning. All phone calls proved fruitless and the gallant Olivia and David carried up the heavy sacks et al to the second floor. Lift repaired on Monday afternoon and plants retrieved. We planted and swept on the Sunday after Livs’ early departure, and put the finishing touches to a perfect Mother’s Day weekend!! My protests at the lack of speedy attention re the non-functioning lift met a stone wall of indifferent explanations: ‘It was not an emergency.’ I’m discovering the little differences between leasehold and freehold!!

A sunny walk in the Abbey Gardens recently.

I have made a few early morning walks, mainly in and around the wonderful Abbey Gardens and keep dazzling myself with the historical bounty that there is in Bury St Edmunds. The town, in essence, was mediaeval, growing up around the Abbey, built in 1020; suppressed in the Dissolution of the Monasteries in 1539 via Cromwell’s machinations on behalf of Henry V111. I discover that the motto of the Borough is “Sacrarium Regis, Cunabula Legis.” Shrine of a King, Cradle of the Law, The King is St Edmund, King of the East Angles, who was killed by marauding Danes in 869 A.D. His shrine stood for centuries in the Abbey in Bury St Edmunds and from him the town derived its name. “Cradle of the Law” refers to the tradition that, in 1214 A.D. the Barons of England met in the Abbey church and vowed that they would force King John to accept the Charter of Liberties which they had devised and intended to present to him. This became known as the famous Magna Carta. History indeed. There is a further Henry connection. St Mary’s Church near the Abbey, was built in the 15^th century and Mary Tudor, Henry’s sister, is buried there. It is remarkable and deeply sad that Henry’s greed for gold and wealth caused the eventual destruction of the magnificent Abbey, perhaps the greatest Benedictine monastery ever in England.

An altogether more misty moisty view
of ruins in the Gardens this week
somehow underling the enduring loss
caused by an entitled, rampant ego.