Memories of Rudston..

Received by E-mail from Christine Palmer re. Enid Armstrong

A buzzard, which has been reported at intervals for a couple of months, has recently been seen on a regular basis by several different people. It is most frequently to be found along the road at the front of Thorpe Hall, where it is feeding on pheasants that have become road casualties. It has been recorded as sitting on the fencing, at rest on the roadside verge and flying low across the road. Apart from its size, most of the reports have mentioned that it is a rich reddish –brown colour. The other bird of prey, which has been seen on a few occasions, is a red kite. Its presence has been reported to Harewood house, which is the source of the reintroduction of this species back into Yorkshire. It is a large bird and has a noticeable fork in its tail that makes identification more certain.

Earlier in the month there were large flocks of wood pigeons driven from the continent by the severe weather conditions there, and long tailed tits were still to be seen working the hedgerows.

Goldcrests are not reported very often but were around at the same time. At odds with these reports has been information of both a blackbird and a starling already nesting.

On the last weekend in January several local households took part in the RSPB garden bird survey. Over 30 species actually landed in gardens including greater spotted woodpecker, bullfinch, coal tit and treecreeper.

Few mammals have been mentioned lately but a weasel was seen and there has been a hedgehog road casualty,

Received by e-mail

For bringing back so many wonderful memories of when I lived there in Nightingale Row number 5.

I moved a way with my parents some 40 years ago. I lived opposite James McMeeken and his three sisters.

Many thanks again,

CHURCH NEWS

2 9.30 a.m. Holy Communion

5 – ASH WEDNESDAY

10.30 a.m. Holy Communion & Ashing ceremonies

9 8.00 a.m. Holy Communion

9.30 a.m. Mattins

16 9.30 a.m. Holy Communion

9.30 a.m. Sunday School at Bethany Lodge

19 – ST JOSEPH

10.30 a.m. Holy Communion

23 6.30 p.m. Evensong

25 – THE ANNUNCIATION TO THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY

7.30 p.m. Holy Communion

30 – MOTHERING SUNDAY

4.00 p.m. Family Service with the Sunday School

Welcomers Coffee Cleaning

2 Pat Stephenson Alison Cope Mr & Mrs M Sellers

9 Joan Jackson Mr & Mrs M Sellers

16 David Peace June Sellers Mrs J Woods & Mrs D White

23 Margaret Reed Mrs J Woods & Mrs D White

30 David Peace to be advised

2 Mrs M Thompson; then no flowers in Lent

Wednesdays: Morning Prayer at 9.00 a.m. (8.00 on Mar 19)

Holy Communion at 10.30 a.m.

Coffee is served afterwards!

Evening Prayer at 6.00 p.m.

Saturdays: Morning Prayer at 9.00 a.m. (8.00 on Mar 8 & 15)

Holy Communion: 11.00 a.m. on Mar 1 (not on Mar 8 or 15)

6.30 p.m. on Mar 22 & 29

March is a busy month in church, with all sorts of different holy days, from St David’s Day for the Welsh on the 1st, to the Visitation of St Mary to Elizabeth (!) on the 31st. And in amongst, there are some particularly special days.

This year the first of them is Ash Wednesday on March 5th, when we remember our sins, the things we do wrong, and resolve through Lent (which follows) to try with God’s help to improve; and also when we remember that we will all return to dust and ashes one day. Then we come on to St Jospeh’s Day, March 19th, when we remember Jesus’s stepfather, and how carefully he looked after the Holy Family in their early years. Next is the Annunciation, on March 25th – curiously exactly nine months before Christmas – when we remember that Gabriel came to Mary and told her that she had been chosen to give birth to God’s son Jesus, and that Mary said ‘yes’; a reminder to us all to try to say ‘yes’ to God’s plan for us and for his world. And finally, Mothering Sunday on March 30th, when we celebrate mother church, Mary again… oh, and yes, our own mothers too!

Gardening News –

By Dick Robinson

March is the month when gardeners are busy with out-door work, it does of course depend on the weather, we at Rudston on our chalk sub-soil are usually able to make a start, our land is reasonably well drained. There are of course, exceptions to the rules, areas of heavy soils that can and do become wet for long periods and late in warming.

For the vegetable grower most of our popular kinds can be sown or planted now. The runner and dwarf beans are best left until May unless given protection, these are not frost hardy. On the allotments in the towns the greens are being planted, the sprouts, summer cauliflowers and cabbages and early peas, carrots, lettuce and early potato sets, the risk with cauliflowers is a cold spell, which often causes the plants to check their growth and produce small curds.

Rose pruning is in full swing, the bush hybrid tea and floribunda varieties are cut back to allow new flowering wood to start, we tend to be kind, leaving too much of last years’ growth, it’s the dead, weak and diseased shoots that need removing first, then the crossing bits and finally we reduce what’s left to about four inches or so. This is a rough guide, all rose growers treat the different varieties in slightly different ways.

To be ready for tomatoes in un-heated glasshouses make sure the glass is clean on both sides, light is more important than heat.

One other job this month, feed the spring cabbages and the roses after pruning if you want a good show this year.

PS. We can put all this off if the garden is deep in snow… It can happen!

Have you a Mulberry Tree in your garden? And do you know where any are growing in our county? Some years ago, I discovered twenty three mature trees growing mostly in the area around and in Hull, the most northerly at that time was in Driffield, the rest in villages near to the city and the majority in Holderness. The Mulberry was supposed to come into the UK via Italy in 1548 and King James I is said to have ordered lots to be planted , in order to develop the silk industry. A French nurseryman brought 100,000 trees, but, unfortunately, they were white fruiting mulberry Morrus alba, not suitable as food for the silkworms. It was the black fruiter Morus nigra that the Chinese grow, although black varieties did come to us in small numbers during this period. The berries can be used for jam, wine, puddings and for dying cloth. I have had mulberry pie once, that was with fruit gathered from the RHS gardens, Wisley, but I still prefer a good rasp’ pie!

Continued….

Continued….

Mulberry propagation is from seeds, layers, hardwood cuttings or truncheons, the latter being a log off a tree, laid flat and buried about a foot deep where a tree is intended to grow. New shoots develop from these pieces of trunk. When grown from seed, there is a chance of the young trees being of either sex, either male or female, most are hermaphrodite and therefore set their own fruits.

The mulberry lives longer than any other top fruit we grow, there are examples, one in the gardens of Christ’s College, Cambridge. Shakespeare’s tree is supposed to be in his garden at New Place, Stratford on Avon but on e report says it was cut down in 1750!! All very interesting, so what about the East Riding, can we better this claim ?

Morus was once listed in the same family as the stinging nettle Urticacae, along with the hop and fig, but this has been changed. This piece of information is of more interest to students of botany rather than gardeners. I hope to hear from our mulberry growers later.