Rushbrooke Arms

"If you put all the ironing away and tidy your rooms, you can go out to lunch. Otherwise you will just get Cuppasoup", I said. Lo and behold, albeit after 3 previous inspections had resulted in a "Fail" verdict, the clothes had been put away and things were tidy(ish). The reward was a meal out at the Rushbrooke Arms in Sicklesmere, just out of Bury St Edmunds on the A134 towards Sudbury. It had been refurbished and there was a new menu since the last time we were there. Little W had the fish and chips, Little Miss the Lasagne and Big Miss a baked potato, while I had a steak sandwich. The food was excellent and there was the play area outside afterwards.

"For 4-12 years of age", says the labels on the equipment. Well Big Miss just had to pretend to be 5 weeks younger than she is.

Over lunch we discussed where to go in the afternoon. "Will the Maze be open?", asked Big Miss, when I suggested Nowton Park, just up the road. "I'm not sure. Why don't we find out?", I replied. So we did.

It is open, so we did the Maze Quiz. A different set of clues to last time, but then we couldn't remember them anyway. I helped Little W, but Big Miss just beat us to the last clue. Little Miss was not going to accept any help, but she too got there in the end. Great fun.

The Maze is open and quiz available until 22nd July. It's 50p a go - get your map and grid to capture your answers from the Rangers' hut by the car park.

Outdoor LAN Party

Spotted dotted around the village during our Glemsford walk yesterday, were these posters. "What is an outdoor LAN party? Not a Local Area Network, surely", I thought. I read the detail on the poster (if you click on the picture you should be able to read it too). Yes it really is an outdoor Local Area Network. For multi-player gaming, as this article explains. I wonder how many people they got? As the poster says, they were planning this as a 2 day event; I bet they cursed the weather last Sunday!

Glemsford Circular Walk

Looking for somewhere to take the kids today I came across the Dedham Vale AONB and Stour Valley Project website. They have a set of leaflets you can download (from here), including a circular walk around Glemsford. It's not far from Bury St Edmunds - only about 12 miles (see here), but we had never been there. Perfect for a morning's expedition. I downloaded and printed off the leaflet and we set out. From the town centre we took the A143 towards Haverhill but turned onto the B1106, a pretty back road through a number of villages. We parked by the sign on Tye Green.

I didn't think the kids would manage the full 5 miles so we adapted the walk by heading up Shepherds Lane to Mill Hill Farm and joined the route there. The walk is not too demanding and the country views are good. We weren't the only ones out enjoying the country - we spotted this balloon in the distance.

According to the leaflet, this area along the valley bottom...

is apparently...

...known locally as "the queech", an old Suffolk word meaning an irregularly shaped field.

That made me laugh. My Mum has always mis-pronounced the French work quiche as "queech". Now I can tell her what it means.

The walk also takes you past some interesting buildings. Here is "Chequers" in Chequers Lane.

But the most impressive building must be the timber-framed Monks Hall, built in 1614.

By the time we got back to the village centre the kids were getting hungry, so we got a snack at Post Office and general store before heading home for our lunch of, wait for it....
...Quiche!

Abbeygate St Gates

Look what I spotted in town when visiting the Flower and Continental Market on Sunday. The council have installed some decorative black metal gates to replace the bollards that are used to close Abbeygate Street to traffic. I thought at the time that I didn't remember seeing them before and yes, they've only been there since Tuesday last week. I quite like them and the Missus agrees, but of course anything like this in Bury St Edmunds provokes wildly conflicting views - as reported on the Bury Free Press site here. Quite hilarious, I think.

Bank Holiday Seaside Visit

Of course everyone loves to visit the seaside on a Bank Holiday, don't they? As we were so close to the coast at Sutton Hoo, the Missus said "Why don't we go to the beach?". Well she had missed out when we went to Landguard Point last Sunday, so off we went to the nearest spot - East Lane, Bawdsey. As you can see, we didn't have to contend with massive crowds of seaside-lovers...

I think the Missus thought she might get a walk on the beach, but not much chance of that given the state of the sea and the tide. In fact this part of the coast is subject to fierce erosion, despite the sea defences.

The conical building is one of the 103 Martello towers erected along the coast to guard against a Napoleonic invasion and is in danger of falling into the sea. Oh never mind, read all about it for yourself by clicking on the photo of the sign, which explains all....

We had a bit of a walk along the Suffolk coastal path, but the little ones were a bit soggy from their earlier escapades at Sutton Hoo and the strong wind was in danger of giving them hypothermia, so we had to retreat to the car and head for home. Don't you just love British Bank Holiday weather?

Sutton Hoo - And More Rain

Another Suffolk place we have been meaning to visit for some time is Sutton Hoo, the famous Anglo-Saxon burial site near Woodbridge - here. The plan was to go on there from Helmingham Hall yesterday, but it was not to be. Instead we made a separate trip today. It's less than an hour from Bury St Edmunds - down the A14 past Ipswich to the A12 (N) and then turn right after Woodbridge onto the A1152 and follow the signs.

It was dry when we set out, but we had hardly got on the A14 before it started to rain, and by the time we got to Sutton Hoo... Well this was our view of the visitor centre when we arrived.

But at least we were able to do some things inside. The exhibition hall brightly informs with a video, children's quiz, lots of storyboards and replicas. (Alas, the real treasure is in the British Museum). Here is the replica of the famous helmet.

There is also a box of dressing up clothes and helmet for the kids to try on. Little W looked quite fierce as a Dark Ages warrior.

It being a Bank Holiday weekend, there was also entertainment from the Ormsgard Dark Ages Theatre. We sat through an interesting talk on The Runes...

It was still raining, so we decided to get some lunch before visiting the burial mounds. No picnic for us today, which is just as well - although there were plenty of picnic tables available.

Instead we ate in the restaurant, before putting our hoods up and heading out on the walk to the burial site.

"Ooh look. It's been snowing", said the Missus. Well no it hadn't, but the cosseted plants in the field next to the walk made it look like it.

We followed the red circular walk around the mounds. Here's one of them.

A good visit, but I can't help agreeing with this Telegraph Article that somehow, especially on a day like today, it would have been more atmospheric without all the modern tourist trappings.

Helmingham Hall NCCPG Plant Sale

For our family day out, mentioned earlier, we set out with our picnic to Helmingham Hall. It is normally open only on Wednesday and Sunday afternoons from May to September, and we've been meaning to go there for some time. It's signposted off the A1120 tourist route to the Suffolk coast and can be found here on the map. But yesterday it was open from 10:30 to host the Suffolk Group of the National Council for the Conservation of Plants & Gardens, who have a plant sale there twice a year.

Here's the Hall. It is surrounded by a moat and the two bridges both have drawbridge sections at the end.

Here's a section of the plant sale. I didn't count them, but I would guess there were about 20 stands selling a large variety of plants.

While Little W and I went to see the knot garden, the girls spent some time foraging at this stand selling lots of unusual herbs...

...emerging with 3 amazing mints (chocolate, blackcurrant and ginger) and a woolly thyme. We also got some chilli plants - Hot Lemon, Chi-Chen and Aji Benito varieties, and 3 free not-quite-so-rare-anymore foxgloves.

"The rain is only supposed to last 2 hours", said The Missus. Hmm. Well I'd got drenched at the Continental market more than 2 hours earlier and it didn't look like it was getting any drier. But we just had to explore the gardens, which are really rather splendid...

...even in the rain. Ooh look. The kids have found some shelter...

No room there for a picnic. We returned to the car looking as drowned as any pack of rats you could imagine. I looked at the roof of the car...

After nearly 11 years living in Suffolk, this was definitely our wettest day out ever. "I know somewhere dry we can have our picnic", I said...

Yes, we went home, got some dry clothes on, and had our picnic at the kitchen table!

P.S. You can see more of my pictures of the Hall and Gardens here on Flickr.

Bury St Edmunds Flower and Continental Market

Today and tomorrow there's a flower and continental market on. So if you're needing some plants for the garden or fancy some french nosh, don't miss out. I got there this morning just as the rain started to get heavier. Shame...

I'm afraid Icycle wont be selling too many ice-creams today!

There are loads of plant stalls, but I headed for the French sector. First up, the bakers...

Pain-au-chocolat is a great favourite with the kids, so I got some for them. But now something for me. Some french cheeses...

And then it was on to the sausage stall...

I was given a sample of the venison sausage. Yummy. So I got some Venison, Smoked and Garlic flavoured sausages. There were also stalls selling hot food for consumption there and then or to take home. There was a stall with giant dishes of paella, and this one with its Croque Monsieur, Cassoulet, Turkey, pepper, mushroom and onion stew and this delicious looking Tartiflette Bacon.

But I didn't get any for lunch as, while I was at the market the Missus was preparing a picnic for a family day out... No I'm not joking! More anon!

P.S. Sausage boy Little W thinks the french sausages are ace.

Eurovision Song Contest 2008 - Live Voting!

Yes it's Eurovision night again. It has become, alas, a family tradition that we watch it. Oh well. So to keep me amused here, updated live as we go, are the votes of the Interred household jury. Each of us gives a score out of 10 so top mark would be 50. Fat chance of that, I think. But I wonder if there will be one we like as much as "We are the Winners" in 2006?

1. Romania 19 (Sounds a typical Eurovision song)
2. United Kingdom 24 (Nicely sung, shame about the song)
3. Albania 25 (Little W thought this was ace. Not sure why!)
4. Germany 18 (Ouch! The tuning!)
5. Armenia 27 (Nice dress)
6. Boznia-Herzogovena 22 (Amazing hair and skirt behind the washing line - well cool. Like a pantomime dame. A rubbish song but awesome performance)
7. Israel 33 (OMG we thought it was a woman's voice. Is there some gender bending going on here? Little W gave this a 9. He sees things a bit black & white)
8. Finland 34 (Predictably "Well awesome" from Big Miss the rock chick. "Can you drum like that?", "Not yet". Little Miss begged to differ from the rest of us on the score giving it only 3)
9. Croatia 32 ("OMG it's an old guy", says the Missus. Very ethnic. I like it. But what's it about? My favourite so far)
10. Poland 20 ("Her teeth are really creepily white", Big Miss. Why's the band in a jacuzzi? Unmemorable)
11. Iceland 25 ("Oh this had a good beat", the Missus. "Not as cool as Finland", Big Miss. Not my cup of tea at all. "She's well cool. Her shoes are bright pink", Big Miss)
12. Turkey 25 (Nice sparkly guitar. Couldn't sustain interest from me. 7 from the Missus, though)

So here we are half way through with the visit to the green room. "So often the high spot", says Terry W. "The main thing is to shout as loud as you can". Leader here so far is Finland. I can't see it getting beaten. "A welcome moment of fun and frolic", says our host.

13. Portugal 28 ("I give it 1" says Little W after 30 seconds. "Don't you like fat ladies?" asks Little Miss. 9 says the Missus. Not much consensus here!)
14. Latvia 36 ("Aaargh me maties". "Oh wow!" "I give it 10" says Little W, the wannabe pirate. "Time for some tactical voting - I give it 1", says the Missus. I was wrong. Finland has been overtaken, here at least.)
15. Sweden 26 ("I like her dress, 8" - little Miss. "I give it 1", Little W. No - the legs are worth more than that, surely? Very Swedish. Could be an Abba song)
16. Denmark 26 ("I can imagine him being a chimneysweep". Oh-oh. The Missus is now lying out on the settee. We could be down to votes out of 40 soon.)
17. Georgia 19 (She'd better watch she doesn't fall off those stilts. Look at those heels! "That's why she isn't moving much", say Big Miss. "You can't see her eyes behind those sunglasses - 2" says Little Miss)
18. Ukraine 35 ("Are they actually in a glass cage?". I think she wins the prize for the shortest dress. Maybe that's why Terry W thinks this might be a winner. 2nd for us, so far).
19. France 25 (Those boys sound like girls. They are girls! Why have they got beards and mustaches? What the ...? Complete rubbish! Good for comedy value though!)
20. Azerbaijan 23 (Way OTT. Shades of Barbarella, but without Jane Fonda to brighten it up)
21. Greece 32 (Doesn't sound very Greek to me. More Spice Girls than Demis Roussos apart from a brief interlude)
22. Spain 32 (It's spoof Ibiza nightclub. Bring on the birdie song. Top prize for irony from me!)
23. Serbia 32 (Sounds like a travel advert song to me. "It's alright. Not exactly the best song". What's going on with our voting here? 3 32s in a row? I suspect random scoring from the supine Missus.)
24. Russia 29 ("Isn't this the same guy as 2006?" "He looked better with his hair cut". "Wow ice-skating".)
25. Norway 30 (Last one. "Oh god she so looks like Hanne" - a mate of Big Miss. Well as she might look in 10 years or so's time. Yes I knew the Missus would like this one. "Zero", says Little W "10", says Little Miss)

Well that concludes the voting for the Interred jury. Time to phone in now!

"I want to vote for 2". "I want Finland and Portugal" "I vote for Pirate and Pirate", "Norway and Latvia", "Latvia and Finland". Spain and Latvia for me.... How much is this costing me? So have we predicted the winner? Or the UK vote? We'll see shortly!

Here we go...
UK votes. 12 points for Greece? No we didn't get that. But Latvia 2nd.
Macedonia votes. 12 points to Albania. Hmm.
Ukraine votes. 12 points to. I guess... Russia.... I was right!
Germany votes. 12 points to Greece. Oh. maybe it's going to win.
Estonia votes. Got to be 12 points to Latvia... No. It's Russia!
Bosnia-Herzegovina. 12 points to... Serbia. What a surprise (not).
Albania. 12 points to Greece. Next door neighbours.
Belgium. 12 points to Armenia?
UK has now got 6 points. Wow!
San Marino. 12 points to Greece. Oh I think they're going to win!
Latvia. 12 points to Russia. No surprise again!
Bulgaria. 12 points to Germany??????? They were rubbish!
Serbia. 12 Got to be Bosnia... Yes it was!
Israel. 12 to Russia. But it's still Greece leading by 2 points.
Cyprus. 12 for.... Yes got to be Greece.
Moldova. 12 for... Romania. Hmm. Thanks to Michael Palin's New Europe, I know where Moldova is in the map... next to Romania!
Iceland. 12 for Denmark! What a surprise. Well guessed Terry W!
France. Voting in French, naturellement. 12 for L'Armenie.
Romania. 12 for Greece again.
Portugal. 10 points to Spain! 12 to Ukraine.
Norway. 12 to... Denmark. Very Scandinavian!
So Greece or Russia? Who's it to be?
Hungary. 12 to Azerbaijan?
Andorra. How come their vote counts the same as eveyone elses? 12 to Spain. Terry W must be psychic in predicting that! I think not.
Poland. 12 to Armenia.
Slovenia. 12 to Serbia. No real surprise there.
Armenia. 12 to Russia. How did I guess?
Czech Republic. 12 to... mix-up here. Armenia.
Spain. 12 to Romania? Bizarre.
Netherlands. 12 to Armenia. Is it too little too late?
Turkey. 12 to Azerbaijan? That figures.
Malta. 12 to Sweden???? Obviously Abba fans.
Ireland. 8 to UK! and 12 to Latvia. Yey!
Switzerland. 12 to Serbia???
Azerbaijan. Russia, Ukraine. 12 to Turkey?
Greece. 12 to Armenia. "Well they weren't going to give it to Russia were they?" - Terry W.
Finland. 12 to Norway. Some coincidence, surely?
Croatia. 12 to Bosnia. Quelle surprise!
Belorussia. 12 to Russia. Whyever not?
Lithuania. 12 to.... Russia. Looks all over now. Russia 256 Ukraine 209. 12 for Armenia.
That's enough. 2 more to vote, but Russia is the clear winner already. So it's goodnight from me.

Our Own Coalport China

Well it has taken a while, but, as promised, here are the results of our china painting at the Coalport China Museum during the Easter holidays. The trinket boxes arrived through the post just yesterday. Little Miss did the one with the fish and Big Miss and Little W collaborated on the Chinese dragon and lettering. Lovely job.

By the way, there's plenty on at the Ironbridge Museums during this half-term holiday too, but we're not going to be there as we're staying in Suffolk this weekend.

Who's Neil Parsons?

As I look out my office window I see the less than wonderful view of Telford shopping centre and Asda car park. Of course it has been nice and sunny recently, but in the middle of winter, when it gets dark so early, I could to see in bright lights "DE ENHAMS" and have a little chuckle....

In the early 1980's when I lived in Whitley Bay, North Tyneside, my younger sister was training to be a physiotherapist and living in Heaton. One evening, when I went round to her place and we headed out with her mates along Chillingham Road for the Metro to go into town, she suddenly exclaimed "Who is Neil Parsons?" I burst out laughing and her mates looked at each other like we were totally weird. The thing is, they were used to seeing it every day so didn't notice it any more; but there in great big red neon letters on the factory in front of us was the sign "NEI PARSONS". Alas, it doesn't seem to exist any more, but it used to be a subsidiary of Northern Engineering Industries. Working in the application of Artificial Intelligence at the time, I thought that matching her reaction to the sign would be a great version of the Turing Test for machine intelligence.

Landguard Point Felixstowe

It was a lovely sunny morning. "Dad, please Dad, please, can we go to the beach today?" asked Little W. The Missus was wanting to work on Assignment 3 for her course and it was well over a year since we had last been to Felixstowe Beach, so I decided to give her some peace and quiet. But rather than park at the sea-front in the town centre, we went instead to the car park at Landguard Point - here. From Bury St Edmunds, take the A14 all the way. Follow the brown viewpoint signs past the docks and turn right at the traffic lights just before you reach the sea-front. The car park is at the end of Viewpoint Road next to Landguard Fort.

We walked along from there towards the point. In the opposite direction you can see the towering cranes of Felixstowe port and the Harwich Harbour Foot Ferry, which runs between Felixstowe, Harwich and Shotley.

The point is at the mouth of the Orwell and Stour rivers, through which all the sea traffic to and from both Felixstowe and Harwich harbours passes.

"Are my ears red?" asked Little Miss. Yes they were; it was quite a stiff sea-breeze and her ears were cold. Here is the view from the point along the sea-front to the town. As you can see, we had it to ourselves.

The land around the point is a nature reserve and the shingle is being colonised by sea-kale.

I broke off a bit of one of the leaves. Very tasty. I offered it to the kids, but it got the thumbs down from them. Only a few minutes later, though, I got "I'm hungry, Dad. When will lunch be ready?" So after we had completed our circumnavigation of the fort (you can read all about its WWII history here), I bought them something from the Crows Nest Cafe in the car park to keep them going until we got home.

Well they were at the seaside! Oh by the way, if you are interested, you can get a live view of Felixstowe Port from this webcam and you can see more of my pictures here on Flickr

The Cherry Tree Garden

Telford Town Park is just a short walk for me from my office, across the road and through the shopping centre. When the family come and stay at The Barn, it's a great place to take the little ones while The Missus and Big Miss go shopping - the children's play areas are quite extensive and Little W loves The Rocket slide.

Here he is zooming out the bottom.

But on sunny spring days, like we had during the week, there's a little oasis I like to visit as a spot to eat my sandwiches at lunchtime. It is the Maxell Cherry Tree Garden. This is the view as you go through the gate.

This is the time of year to visit it; it is full of flowers. Bluebells, primulas, rhododendrons are all out - it is a riot of colour.

But best of all are the Sakura Cherry trees.

Now eating your sandwiches under this canopy certainly beats eating at a desk!

The Wrekin

In my second life in Shropshire it dominates the skyline for quite a distance and if I see a hill, I always get the urge to get to the top of it. The Wrekin is a well-known local landmark and just has to be climbed. So when the kids came to stay in "The Barn" for the first time, one of the first things I did was to take them to conquer it. We set out from the Forest Glen Car Park, (here on the map), where there are signs explaining both the geology of the hill (and it's companion The Ercall) and the legend of The Giant and the Cobbler.

Admittedly it was the end of a long day, and 3/4 of the way up the girls had had enough...

... so Little W and I left them and forged on to the top alone. Here he is at the top, 1335 ft above sea-level.

"But, Dad, where's the steam?" he asked. I'd told him that the hill was the remains of an old volcano, and everyone knows that volcanoes have steam coming out of them, if not ash and red-hot lava. I had to explain that it was only active volcanoes that did that. I think he was a bit disappointed, but he was proud of getting to the top when his older sisters didn't. And the view is excellent...

Well worth the climb!

St. Michaels Singers of Cambridge and Tudor Singers of London

My College Annual Gathering a few weeks ago reminded me of another reunion I had attended a little over 3 years ago - the two people I knew well at the college reunion were at it as well. It was a get together in York to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the foundation of the St Michael's Singers of Cambridge, many of whom later joined the Tudor Singers of London, so the invite to the weekend's frivolities went to past members of both choirs. I resolved after my nostalgic visit to Cambridge, to get back in contact with my old singing pals and let them see my photos from our happy weekend of singing (which culminated in a gig in York Minster).

Well it took me a while, but I've uploaded the photos to Flickr and sent out an email to those I had addresses for. It has been lovely to get messages back and catch up with people's news. So if you are an SMS/TSL person visiting here, welcome. Here is a link to my pictures and feel free to leave a comment.

New Job - Stinks Wallah

No not me. The Missus. Apart from when we dragged her out to .Bradfield Woods yesterday, and a couple of forays to the washing line, she wasn't out of the house all weekend, busy swotting up for an interview and observed teaching today. Well it was all worth it; providing she finishes her Graduate Training Programme successfully, she will be a Chemistry teacher at Thurston Community College next term. Well done to her! She deserves her gin and tonic tonight. I think I might just join her (at a distance).

Bradfield Woods Spring Flowers

I know I've mentioned it as a great place for a shady walk before, but now is the time of year to go to Bradfield Woods. So yesterday we made another visit. The spring flowers are out in abundance and the trees are alive with the sound of birdsong (yes we heard the chiff-chaffs). There are Early Purple Orchids...

...and whole swathes of Ramsons.

The sunshine drew out a lovely fresh-wood fragrance from the piles of timber...

and there were masses of bluebells too...

But be sure to follow the blue trail or you will miss most of these delights.