An Autumnal Walk through the Old Cemetery.

Usually when I despatch a scarf into the postal system, last week it was Musselburgh, I go to my nearest Post Office, but as we are in the middle of autumn, I thought I’d walk a bit further along a more scenic route. I chose the Post Office the other side of the Old Cemetery taking my camera with me to capture some autumnal colours as I strolled through.

I have to admit I was disappointed and a little surprised. There have been plenty of trees dropping their leaves around Ipswich, but a panorama of blazing colour in the Old Cemetery it was not.

Fallen leaves beginning to accumulate, but no striking colourful canopies.

Some of the trees were turning, but there were many more still pretty green as you can see from my photographs.

I expect all the recent rain and the lack of any overnight frost has delayed the colour changes.

One or two of the large horse chestnuts and the odd plane tree were at the light golden stage. I had expected the Pride of India/Golden Rain (Koelreuteria paniculata) trees to have been transformed into fiery oranges, but they were still entirely green.

Back in September when I walked through the Katsura tree (Cercidiphyllum japonicum) was at its full orange-tipped yellow stage, but that moment has gone and it now stands in its dormant winter nakedness.

The Katsura Tree, Cercidiphyllum japonicum. September, 2019.

Perhaps this autumn will be one of those years where the leaves change colour almost at the point of dropping, and we will blink and miss it.

February flowers in the cemetery

On Monday I had a scarf order to despatch and as it was a gorgeously, bright and sunny winter morning I decided to take a detour and walk through the cemetery to the Post Office.

This is my first visit to the cemetery since just before Christmas and what a pleasant surprise.

A tapestry of snowdrops and crocuses in various stages of blooming flowed in between the old headstones and graves.

Of course, the bright, but low winter sun enhanced the scene although the recent storms and high winds has left a muddle of fallen twigs amongst the blooms.

As I walked through this enchanting green space not only was it a feast for my eyes, but there was also a full chorus of birdsong including the sporadic rat-a-tat-tat drilling of a woodpecker.

Technically it’s spring, but there’s been just a little winter snow!

When I moved to Ipswich last year my father and I went for a walk up to the Old Cemetery. It was summer and it was one of the year’s three hot days.

My goodness what a difference yesterday was to last August. ‘The Beast from the East’ has been blasting Siberian freezing air across the North Sea and mini blizzards have been whipping across the East of England.

During our summer visit, my father reminisced on attending the funeral of his grandfather in the Old Cemetery and as we strolled around he tried to work out in which of the pair of chapels the service had been held.

It looked very dramatic today in the fading light and bitter cold. The snow didn’t ease off and after 45 minutes my hands were so cold I could hardly hold my camera. (I know, I know, I should have some of those fancy Tech gloves, but at about £30 per pair it’s hardly worth it when we’ll probably get only three days of properly cold weather in a single year.) So back home it was, but fortunately that’s only now a few houses down from the cemetery gates.