Wet

Yes it's wet isn't it? But does that stop us going out for a walk? No it doesn't. So off we went to West Stow Country Park. Coats with hoods and wellies a must, of course.

Now there are other creatures who (allegedly) like the rain - here is a family of them on the lake.

I can't remember seeing the River Lark so full and flowing so fast.

One thing we couldn't do, though, is play in the play area. It looks a bit forlorn being so deserted, doesn't it?

Now where are those towels?

Red Priest

This week we have mostly been listening to this CD. It is a unique interpretation of the classical staple Vivaldi 4 Seasons. I bought it a while back after hearing it on BBC Radio 3's In tune but had never played it to the kids. Well I put it on the CD player in the car on the way to swimming lessons, and they were hooked! The recorder playing of Piers Adams is unbelievably virtuosic and they have such fun with the music. To quote one review

The Four Seasons were written as violin concertos. In Red Priest, the virtuoso violin parts are purloined by the crafty Adams, who leaves the pieces' foundation to his rhythm section of violinist Julia Bishop, cellist Angela East and harpsichordist Howard Beach. What a virtuoso Piers Adams is. Micala Petri was forever the reigning queen of recorder performance for many years. I suspect that a case could be made for her to still be if one restricts their consideration to “straight” interpretations of the baroque canon. But, my vote now goes to Piers Adams, who irreverently and intelligently, deconstructs these war horses and provides the listener and experience as fresh as a spring strawberry bursting on the roof of your mouth. The tempo is frantic, the cuckoos cuckoo, birds chirping, wind blowing, ice breaking. It is all here captured is graphic detail.

You can see for yourself here.

Madeley - King Charles Barn

So now I have a second life (but not a SecondLife - at least not yet) in Shropshire. The standard work-pattern is to work in Telford Monday to Thursday and work from home on a Friday. I need somewhere to stay, but don't really want to buy right now (or move the family, for that matter - we do rather like Bury St Edmunds). So after visiting a few furnished rental properties, I've chosen to live in a 2-bedroom flat in a barn conversion development in Madeley. It's about 10 minutes drive from the office and quite close to Ironbridge

The original barn is quite old and has an interesting history - allegedly a hiding place for the future King Charles II after the battle of Worcester. Hence its local name of "The King Charles Barn". It will do me just fine as a hiding place too.

More new beginnings

Well I've come to the end of my first contract (and delivered a week early) and have had another decision to make. Do I move on and do some work for another client, or do I take the permanent job they've offered me? For loadsamoney. Open the box or take the money?

Something to take into account - the Missus is giving up her Cover Supervisor job at Thurston Community College to become a real teacher! Yes, she has been accepted on the Norfolk and Suffolk Graduate Training Programme for the next academic year. She is going to be a 'mature student'. Wow. And not earn much money for the next year.

So... Well, if you've seen the career discussions previously, I think you may have guessed it. I've decided to work for the French - Capgemini on the Aspire account. In fact, I've already started. More than that, I don't think I'm allowed to say. Of course I know that if I don't like it I can always go and do something else. I can work from home 1 day a week, but it means getting somewhere to stay during the week in Shropshire. And maybe some more adventures. As exciting as Australia? I very much doubt it, but watch this space!

Clan Gathering

Now here's something we would have missed if we had gone to Australia. This year is my Mum and Dad and Aunt and Uncle's 50th wedding anniversaries.


Well you don't get events like that too often! I'm not sure who suggested it (but I suspect one, the other or both of the fun-loving girl cousins), but many months ago it was decided we would get all 3 generations of both families together for a mega-party. In fact, as the majority of us are Scottish, it could rightly be called a clan gathering!

And so, last week, we all gathered at the fantastic venue of Crieff Hydro in Perthshire. We took over three of the lovely stone built 4-bedroomed houses for 3 nights - this is one of them...

Cousin Hazel was the ring-leader of the bossy girls who organised everything. We booked in advance for Archery, Golf, Quad-bikes and Pony-riding and we also made use of the swimming badminton and tennis facilities. Here is the Missus at the archery...

She was much better than me!The golf course is quite challenging and has some lovely scenic views...

It's about 12 years since I played regularly, but I had one or two decent shots (and lots of bad ones). Talking of decent shots, we hired a professional photographer to take some group photographs on one of the mornings. They will make a lovely souvenir for the golden oldies.

And of course I took lots of pictures too, and put them on Flickr. With the aid of the self-timer I managed to get a group photo of my own on the final morning before we dispersed.

The younger generation of cousins had never met before but got on really well together and everyone had a fantastic time. The party lasted four days but we didn't want it to end.

Felixstowe Beach

The quickest trip to a beach from Bury St. Edmunds is to head straight down the A14 to Felixstowe. Yes it's a big container ship port, but the sea front is fine. Although not as pretty as Southwold (have I really not mentioned yet it is my favourite Suffolk seaside town?), it does also have some pretty beach huts. They were still parked for the winter here.



After 1/2 an hour walking south we had got quite a way from the town centre. The beach is sandy and goes on and on...


We brought our buckets and spades, but where has Big Miss gone? She was more interested in clambering on the piles of boulders that make up the sea defences!


The beach goes on in the other direction too.


At the pier there the usual amusements. We didn't go in, but Little Miss wanted to - she wanted one of these horses.


It was a good morning out, leaving the oven to turn itself on for the Sunday roast while the Missus caught up with her schoolwork.

Broadband?

I've been having trouble with my broadband connection. My Freeserve, then Wanadoo, and now Orange connection had been working fine for the last couple of years, but suddenly it died,. It took me weeks to persuade Orange to send me a new Livebox - the old one just wouldn't synchronise although my old Speedtouch modem worked fine.

No I wont rant, but even now it's not right...


The speeds seem to be the wrong way round. Shouldn't download be faster than up? There appears to be some congestion at the exchange. This site says there is a problem with Virtual Paths. Lets hope they fix it soon. Anyone else have problems around here?

Eclipse

It was a total lunar eclipse last night and we had a great view of it from the back garden. I thought I'd see if I could take some photos of it, but discovered I had lost the shoe that connected my camera to my tripod. Grrr!

Instead we had to make do with a kitchen chair and some books to prop the camera up. The Missus joined in to take some of the pictures as she is teaching science classes and it would make a good topic. Getting the exposure and focus right was pretty tricky and the chair on the back lawn wasn't really a steady enough platform for some of the lengthy shots, but we got a few decent ones. Alas sleep got the better of us and we gave up before the full moon was returned, but we got enough for the Missus to use in a presentation at school. Here's the result...

Not bad, but it's a pity I couldn't use my tripod!

West Stow Statues

West Stow Country Park is a regular spot for us to walk. Generally we walk along the nature trail, around the lake and/or along the River Lark, but it is also worth going in the other direction - east past the playground and away from the Visitor Centre. Look out for the statues along the way.

The path goes parallel to the road to start with. Watch out out for this on the ground.

At the far end turn right towards the old redbrick pump house. This area used to be a sewage works until the 1950s. By the pump house you can find this cheerful chappie.

Follow the path on down to the river and you will find a bird hide with good views over Lackford Lakes.

Walking back, parallel to the river you come to my favourite...

Easter Island in Suffolk. To give you some idea of the size, here is Little W inspecting it.

What is it doing there? I think we should be told.

Flatford Mill

Back in the summer I went to Constable Country on my own and had a lovely walk. On Sunday The Missus wanted some peace and quiet to do some work, so I thought I'd take the terrible trio there for an artistic amble. Here is the bridge (and Bridge Cottage). The river was much fuller than the last time.

I couldn't get the kids much interested in Constable's paintings in the exhibition. "I don't want to be an artist", protested Little Miss. That's funny. She seems to spend all her time filling the house with her drawings! They did like the ducks and geese on the River Stour, though, and agreed to pose sitting on the wall.

"It's just as well The Missus isn't here", I thought. She wouldn't have let them sit there in case they toppled over backwards into the river, got swept away and drowned.

Anyway, we went on a walk. Just the short National Trust one. And Little W managed to lose his hat, so we had to go back round the route again in reverse to find where he had dropped it. Predictably, it was quite close to the start! So it wasn't just Dad who was a bit grumpy. Anyway, here they are, offending hat recovered and in hand, if not on head.

Nowton Park Fairy Trail

It was half-term. That meant there was a trail to follow in Nowton Park. You get the answers sheet (and a pencil) from the rangers' hut by the car park. The idea is that you search around the park to find the questions and fill in the answers as you go. Here's the answer sheet.

As you can see, the theme this time was "Fairies", and all the questions are related to that theme. The questions are pinned up on trees, benches, fences - whatever. Here's one we found on the ground which had escaped.

It was all good reading practice for Little Miss. Here she is with the Missus working one out.

They made it really simple this time by putting them sequentially along the paths. I think it's much better when you really have to hunt for them, but maybe people had complained that it was too hard to find them all. We did spot that 2 had gone missing, and I think we should have got some "brownie" points for finding this...

The invisible clue was revealed only by its drawing pins! Despite being unable to answer the invisible question (I knew we should have let Little W bring his sonic screwdriver) we got a prize for completing the trail. Yippee!

Board Meeting

The company has been paid! I dragged the Missus out of bed to see the evidence via Internet Banking. "We need to hold a board meeting", I told her. "Well let's have it in bed, then - it's warmer there", she answered. So we did!

Knettishall Heath Winter Walk

It was a frosty weekend. The first really proper frosty weather at a weekend this year. Nothing like as cold as Bern last year, but a perfect opportunity for a crunchy winter walk. One where you have to wrap up warm and see your breath when you breathe out. And, miraculously, I managed to persuade the tribe that it would be a good thing to get up early on a Sunday to experience the frostiness. Now we hadn't been to Knettishall Heath country park (near Thetford) since early summer, but that was the perfect spot. We were out of the house by 8:20 am and on our walk before 9.

We did a combination of the green heath walk and blue riverside walk. It was foggy as well as frosty, which made things even more atmospheric. On the riverside walk we found this stream frozen over.

Alongside the Peddar's Way, which runs along the western edge of the park, we saw these ponies.

After a bit of coaxing we got them to come over to the fence to eat some proferred clumps of juicy grass.

Now you might wonder what these three are doing here...

They had found some mud that was completely solid. They could stomp on it as much as they liked, the mud wasn't going to stick to their boots and end up in my car boot!

I love to see leaves all frosty. Here are some in close-up.

We had an excellent long walk for about 2 1/2 hours and were back home in time to put the chicken in the oven.

You can see more pictures from our walk here in Flickr

Anglesey Abbey

This Sunday we took an annual pilgrimage to Anglesey Abbey. It's only about 1/2 hour drive from Bury St. Edmunds (along the A14 towards Cambridge and take the first Cambridge exit and head through Stow-cum-Quy following the brown signs).

It has a fantastic winter walk and masses of snowdrops and winter aconites. There are some lovely scents too...

I was amazed to find some daffodils out before the end of January.

These birch trees look surreal. Maybe it's the brown mulch that makes it look like a location from Lord of the Rings.

If we had been on the Saturday we would have seen the Lode Mill in action. But even static it is a fascinating building. We bought some wholemeal flour and oatmeal that had been milled there (and later made some delicious Parkin with the recipe leaflet that came with the oatmeal).

But the real drawer of crowds is the mass of Snowdrops.

They are countless.

The snowdrops are out about 10 days early this year, so do go soon to be sure of seeing them!

By the way, you can find a bunch more of my photographs of Anglesey Abbey here on Flickr.

Cavenham Heath Revisited

"Where shall we go for a walk this morning", I asked. "Lets go and do the other walk at Cavenham Heath", said the missus. She was rather taken with the place when we went recently.

We did the Woodland Trail.

This trail shows the process of succession
within both wet and dry woodland and the need for management to prevent the
woodland encroaching onto the heath.

says the leaflet you can pick up there on from the website (
**here**). The trail is quite an easy walk. Or rather it should be. We found this tree crashed across the path. You can walk round it, but it is more fun to climb over it.

Further along it was rather swampy.

A far cry from the desiccation we saw the first time we visited.

In places, the path itself was flooded. Here Little Miss needed a helping hand.

Great fun!

Frozen

With the colder weather this week, I was reminded that a year ago I was in Bern in Switzerland and experiencing the coldest temperatures I'd ever encountered.

Yes. Even the fountains had frozen.

Snow-Set

Big Miss and the Missus had been to town. I was getting the tea ready as they accosted me. "Dad...", said Big Miss, "We got this leaflet in town". She handed it to me.

Snow-Set.
Learn cool new moves at Snow-Set holday resort and ski centre.
Product/Service Information

it said on the front. "What do you think?", she asked. Oh heck. What's this? Has the missus decided she wants to go on a skiing holiday?

I started glancing through the leaflet. I spotted the company address. Ascot? What's a company from there doing handing out leaflets in Bury St. Edmunds? The girls had a funny grin on their faces. "Well?". The back of the leaflet had a map of the ski-runs.

"Ha Ha" Fooled you!". Big Miss had produced the leaflet for a school homework project! I looked at it a bit more carefully. The phone numbers weren't the right format and the graph of the temperature couldn't be right. Very funny, and good work!

Happy Feet

We don't go to the cinema very often. But for weeks I'd been meaning to take the little ones to see Happy Feet. We went this Saturday. Excellent film. "Can we get it when it is out on DVD?", they pleaded afterwards. Yes, I think it could become one of their favourite DVDs.

Wind Damage

While I was away this week I missed the worst of the winds at home. We had lost our back and side garden fences. Flattened. Time to get them replaced. Well a couple of years ago our neighbours replaced their fence adjoining our garden. That fence was fine. Really sold. So there was only one logical solution - go to the company that replaced their fence - Beyond the Garden Gate.

So the Missus phoned them up. Actually, we had use them before - impressed with the job on the fence we got them to lay a new patio and erect our greenhouse (home of many of our chillis).

Saturday morning Paul visited to survey the work that need to be done. It turned out that 3 more of our neighbours had also contacted him. I showed him the damage. "This fence is alright, though", I said. "But, of course, you built that.", I added. He looked suitably chuffed.

Update 2nd Feb: The work is finished already. Lovely job!

Fox & Hounds - Thurston

I was working from home. The Missus was in school even though it was closed to pupils - the wind had destroyed the entrance porch. I was about to reach for the phone when it rang. "How would you like to meet up for lunch?" she asked. Yes! a chance to visit the Fox & Hounds at Thurston. Not just is the food good, but the beer is always excellent. I'd been there a few times, but the missus never had. It didn't disappoint - she was well impressed. Highly recommended!

Cavenham Heath in Winter

The chicken was in the oven and the timer set. "Who wants a Sunday morning walk?". "Me!", said everybody. Well that's a change! I fancied a heathland walk. This was a chance to take the Missus to Cavenham Heath - when we went there before, in the height of summer, we went without her.

I decided to drive down to Temple Bridge, rather than the car park at the end of the woodland walk. Oh oh...

This is the sort of road you need a Land Rover for. (In fact we saw one later merrily bouncing along through the puddles). So we stopped less than halfway to the bridge. But that meant we could follow the heathland trail through the birch wood.

I think it looks a bit sinister in winter, like the setting of a Tales of the Unexpected story. I bet Big Miss could come up with a creepy script...

Anyway, we emerged from the wood, and crossed the heath to Temple Bridge - closed to traffic these days as it is more than a bit rickety. Here we saw an unusual sight - the Rive Lark in torrents. It was fairly thundering over the weir.

Mind you, it had been pretty wet over the previous few days.

On the way back we met up with some riders. Little Miss got excited - she had a very horsey Christmas.

Hmm. Must remember to post a picture of her riding Twilight.

We were nearly back at the car. It had been pretty cloudy, but, despite the forecast, had stayed dry. Then we saw the sun shining weakly through the clouds across the heath.

A very East Anglian winter look, I thought. The Missus thought it was a great walk. One for out list of regulars now, I think.

"I'm going to be really hungry when we get to the car", announced Little W. So it was home to the roast chicken with sharpened appetites. Mission accomplished.