I had a sobering moment of reflection yesterday at the farmers’ market. Midway through the morning a pair of women came to my stall and proceeded to select some vegetables to purchase. They were not familiar customers to me (we get to know an awful lot of the regulars), and whilst conversing with me in English, between themselves they were speaking in a language that I was struggling to identify. So I politely asked what it was. The woman that I questioned looked sheepish and replied “I don’t like to say”, I asked “why ever not?”, she answered “it’s not so good to admit you are Russian these days”. I told her that I was not going to judge her based on her nationality, and that she was very welcome. I have no idea what her political persuasion is, whether she is a Putin supporter or not, whether she is a good person or not, but at that moment it was of no consequence. I just felt sad that she was embarrassed to admit to being Russian whilst in our cosy rural idyll.
There’s been a lot of bird activity to report on. I was pleased to see the Lapwings back in decent numbers in their usual spot between Great Barton and Ixworth. The Redwing and Fieldfare are back for the winter, always a great sight (photo above by Nick Appleton). On my way to work a few mornings ago I passed a field just outside Birdbrook that had scores of Greylag geese on it grazing on the remains of a harvested maize crop. Later in the day when I passed the same field there was no sign of a single goose. I haven’t seen any myself, but according to my birding mate Baz there are a lot of Short-eared Owls about at the moment. He was down in the North Kent marshes a couple of weeks ago ringing them, and when I spoke to the man from Suffolk Wildlife Trust last week he told me that they had been spotted at Knettishall Heath this autumn.
Christmas is coming at us like a runaway train, so it’s time to talk about the arrangements again. As requested previously, if you haven’t already told me, if you are a very regular customer but will not be ordering for Christmas it would be very helpful if you told me. Conversely, if you are going to order and will be buying lots more than usual it will assist my planning if you could give me forward warning – not specifics, but just notice. I will be placing my order for bought-in produce for the festive period this coming Tuesday evening, so the sooner you let me know the better. Other than that, because of the way that Christmas falls this year everything will be like a normal week in terms of deliveries. I will be at Wyken on the 23rd, so order collections are an option. Just to remind you, I will not be delivering during the week between Christmas and the New Year.
On Friday I saw a man on a motorbike with a santa hat and beard over his crash helmet, it looked hilarious!
This week there will be Spartan apples, oranges, lemons and Clementines all from Sicily, and walnuts from France. The Isle of Wight tomatoes have finished for this year, so this week I am trying some cherry vine ones from Spain. There will be Brussels sprouts, curly kale, savoy cabbage, leeks, sweet potatoes, squash, mushrooms and lots of root veg. As for spuds, there are Cara, Marfona, Pink Fir Apple and bakers.
A white Christmas is not looking very likely, which is a shame because I would like to get out ‘The Flexible Flyer’ our vintage American sledge – boy can she fly! The only problem is, I’m not the flexible flyer that I once was, and would probably do myself a mischief. But the snow is not going to happen, so I am happy to settle for crisp frosty weather, not the damp and mild stuff that we usually get. Dog walks are so much more enjoyable when you’re not lugging round heavy sticky clay stilts on your boots.
We haven’t had anything from the Foxearth Historical Society archive for a while, so here’s a miserable one for you. Regardless of the sorry tale I like it for the use of language.