Saturday, May 07, 2005
Suffolk in Spring
We arrived in England on April 6 and spent nearly a week with my brother, Dudley in Swanbourne. It was a treat to get to know my nephew, Andor whom I had not seen since 1987 when he was ten. Andor is the same age as young Bill and a marathon runner like my elder brother. A large part was spent on the internet checking the market and availability of accommodation in East Anglia. After renting a car we set off for Stowmarket in Suffolk and moved into a self-catering cottage in the grounds of the Mill House in the village of Hitcham. It was an idyllic place with our glass doors overlooking the mill pond complete with ducks, geese and moorhens. There were peacocks in the grounds and alpacas and emus across the fence - even a deer in the early morning checking our patio for succulent greens. Suffolk is wonderful for gentle walks - no steep or high hills and as with the whole of England, public footpaths are clearly marked and you have no worries of trespassing. We got a kick out of one stile. It had a section of wood which could be lifted for the dog to get through.
Mill House
Stile on Suffolk footpath
We have discovered that internet cafes are non-existent in Suffolk and the library computers are in heavy demand and inclined to be unstable on the Vanderbilt website when we were checking our e-mails. We ended up driving into Ipswich and using the computers in the local game store surrounded by excited teenagers playing endless loud games with much shouting and hand slapping. It made organizing our flights to the Greek Isles and Malta a challenge.
For the second two weeks we moved to Deben Lodge, a 1,200 acre farm near Felixstowe. We had a view of the sails of the boats on the Deben River across the fields of rape and wheat and more great walks down country lanes and around fascinating villages. Churches in Suffolk are huge and old and so much dates from Saxon times. We shall definitely return after our coach trip to Eastern Europe.
View of Deben River from our cottage
We had lunch with our birdist friends from the Galapagos and also with our two fellow voyagers from around Cape Horn. The Custersons live in Cambridge and we were delighted to visit old haunts from our ten month stay there in 1974. There has been so much construction since then that we were mortified to find we did not feel as familiar with the town as we expected and hope it was because of the new buildings and not thirty years of senility. It was a relief to manage to get to Kings College where Lynne worked in the library and then the Sedgwick Museum where Bill did his research. The Pownalls live in Wharf House in Bure St Mary's and gave us a real taste for village life and the charm of a beautiful home and garden. We hope we can find a humble cottage in a similar village setting when we get back in July.
LS
Mill House
Stile on Suffolk footpath
We have discovered that internet cafes are non-existent in Suffolk and the library computers are in heavy demand and inclined to be unstable on the Vanderbilt website when we were checking our e-mails. We ended up driving into Ipswich and using the computers in the local game store surrounded by excited teenagers playing endless loud games with much shouting and hand slapping. It made organizing our flights to the Greek Isles and Malta a challenge.
For the second two weeks we moved to Deben Lodge, a 1,200 acre farm near Felixstowe. We had a view of the sails of the boats on the Deben River across the fields of rape and wheat and more great walks down country lanes and around fascinating villages. Churches in Suffolk are huge and old and so much dates from Saxon times. We shall definitely return after our coach trip to Eastern Europe.
View of Deben River from our cottage
We had lunch with our birdist friends from the Galapagos and also with our two fellow voyagers from around Cape Horn. The Custersons live in Cambridge and we were delighted to visit old haunts from our ten month stay there in 1974. There has been so much construction since then that we were mortified to find we did not feel as familiar with the town as we expected and hope it was because of the new buildings and not thirty years of senility. It was a relief to manage to get to Kings College where Lynne worked in the library and then the Sedgwick Museum where Bill did his research. The Pownalls live in Wharf House in Bure St Mary's and gave us a real taste for village life and the charm of a beautiful home and garden. We hope we can find a humble cottage in a similar village setting when we get back in July.
LS
# posted by Bill and Lynne @ 10:44 PM 
