Summer arrives in mid-Suffolk

The advantage of a bank holiday weekend is that it gives you the opportunity to do things that you might not otherwise do, like take a walk. Given that the village is the hub of a network of footpaths, Ros and I thought that we would walk to Creeting St Peter Church, using the path along the A14 from Pound Road.

The yellow flowers of oilseed rape are now fading, to be replaced by the seeds (pictured)which make cultivation worthwhile. And, whilst it isn't necessarily the most popular crop, it does cover a good portion of the parish. It forms part of a sensible crop rotation policy and is known as a 'break crop' - one that helps improve the yield of cereal crops in future years (for more information, click here).

It is used to make vegetable oil (the United Kingdom is now 90% self-sufficient), and now forms a potentially key part of an alternative energy strategy - it is a component in biofuels. So, in our small way, Creeting St Peter is helping to reduce our dependence on foreign energy supplies...