Clouds

I had two weeks off work at the beginning of August.  For various reasons I wasn't able to go away but I was determined to have a proper break and took lots of days out over the fortnight. Looking through the photos I took the common theme seems to be clouds.

There were clouds over Brightlingsea,

and clouds over the sculptures in the walled garden at Marks Hall.

There were clouds over the warmup track at the Athletics World Championships in the Olympic Park in London,

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and clouds over Orford as seen from RSPB Havergate Island.

There were clouds reflected in the river Alde on the walk from Snape to Iken,

and clouds over the beach at Walton on the Naze.

Fortunately, apart from on one day, they didn't produce much rain!

I'll finish with a picture of clouds taken through the meadow of corepsis and cornflowers at Marks Hall.

If you're interested,  and want to see pictures of more than just clouds, I posted photos of my holiday everyday on my instagram feed.

An Unexpectedly Long Walk!

My plan for this afternoon was to do a circular walk from home, past Cornard Mere, through the field to Henny, where I'd been tipped off about a kingfisher family.  A walk of about 4 miles in total - see route below.

It started very well.  I set off with a packed lunch and walked through the fields

where I was joined by loads of damsel flies and sky larks singing high above me.

I walked past Cornard Mere, where I could hear water rail squealing (I've still never seen one).

under the railway bridge, across a field to the River Stour at Henny where I sat on the bridge and waited for the kingfishers (they didn't turn up).

When I was ready to go home I realised that my route back across the field was blocked - by a very large and angry sounding bull.  

He was mooing loudly and pawing the ground and I didn't think it would have been a wise move to have tried to have got past him - a detour would be required!

The biggest problem was that I was now stranded on the Essex side of the river, a river with very few bridges, and I needed a route that would let me cross the river to get back into Suffolk. I had 2 options, to walk on the road from Henny to Sudbury, which is narrow with very steep banks in places, and quite busy with cars going to the Henny Swan pub, or to find another route.  

After consulting the OS map app on my phone I started walking into Essex.  It was beautiful, and I could see, right in the distance, the spire of the church at the end of my road.

  

After a while though the footpaths deteriorated

and at one point I was having to fight my way through nettles and deeply regretting the fact I was wearing shorts!

Eventually, and I mean eventually, I crossed the river and the railway again and found myself on a small road heading back to towards home.

When I finally got home (4 hours after first setting off) I tracked my detour.  The blue route below is my intended walk, the red one is what I ended up doing, (the spike off the right near the end was me visiting the co-op for an ice-cream!).

Instead of 4.1 miles I ended up walking 7.8, I just hope the stings on my legs stop stinging soon! 

24 Hours in.... Birthday Land - Part 2

Following on from my incredible night at Springwatch Unsprung I meandered my way back across Suffolk to Minsmere the next morning to spend the day there for my birthday treat (this had been planned for months, well before I was offered the Unsprung tickets).

 

The views across the reserve are fantastic.  I didn't get to hear a bittern booming as I'd hoped to, but I did see 3 fly over from one of the hides which was an incredible sight.

Minsmere has many different habitats including reed beds and wetlands where I saw many avocets and avocet chicks.

Those of you who watched the Springwatch series will know that an unlikely star of the show turned out to be a 5cm long stickleback, named by the presenters as Spineless Si.  From the boardwalk to the Island Mere hide it was really easy to see him as the cameras indicated where he was - I couldn't get a photo of him due to the placement of the camera and the sun, but i did get this one of his 'friend' Frisky Phil (the object in the top right of the photo is the underwater camera filming him).

I walked for miles, not just watching birds and sticklebacks but also enjoying the wild flowers including this southern marsh orchid.

I also tested the cafe out and confirm that the cake is excellent (well it was my birthday!),

and whilst I ate it I sat and watched the sand martins flying in and out of the cliffs.

I saw lots of other wildlife, including a great white egret and a crested grebe.  It was a fabulous day and I can honestly say it's one of the best birthdays I've ever had.  

If you ever get the chance to visit Minsmere I can highly recommend it, it's part of an area of outstanding natural beauty which includes 155 square miles of wetlands, heaths, woodlands, coastline  and pretty towns, managed by the RSPB, the National Trust and Suffolk Wildlife Trust amongst others - you could easily spend a week here and not get bored!

Connections

Question - what is the connection between Mr and Mrs Andrews, a military orchid and a zeppelin raid in Suffolk? Don't know? No nor did I until a couple of weeks ago.  I'll explain.

Mr and Mrs Andrews, above as painted by Thomas Gainsborough, had a son, Joseph. Joseph was a botanist and an apothecary and his preserved plant and herbarium is the oldest in existence and is now housed in the Natural History Museum in London. Within that collection is the military orchid.

Military orchids are extremely rare and are only found in two areas of the UK including this part of Suffolk.  They grow on chalk.

Now I've lived in this areas for 22 years and I wouldn't have associated it with chalk.  What I did know though was that there are some very steep and out of character 'cliffs' throughout Sudbury and a couple of weeks ago a friend and I went to hear a fascinating talk about the chalk pits of Sudbury which explained it all!

The speaker explained how there had been 11 chalk pits in Sudbury and Great Cornard. Most of the pits had kilns to burn the chalk to produce lime and at one time the railway had sidings going into the pits to transport the chalk.  There were tales of possible tunnels between the pits too and of a zeppelin raid due to the glow from the kilns causing the pilot to think it was a far bigger town that it really was!

Today I walked a footpath between 2 of the pits, I wonder how many of the residents of this housing estate realise that they're living in an old quarry.  See the chimneys at the top of the picture? That house is on the original ground level.

On the other side of the footpath I could see the measures put in by Sainsbury's to hold up the cliff edge behind their store, which was build in a neighbouring pit, that's the roof of the store in the foreground.

Apparently if you go back in time far enough Sudbury was a coastal area and the cliffs would have resembled those of Dover.

As I was walking back from the footpath I saw this beautiful blossom - a real sign of spring :-)

The Talbot Trail

Earlier on this week I rediscovered (as I had known about it before but had forgotten) a trail around my home town of Sudbury called the Talbot Trail.  It's a trail for children really and has 14 miniature bronze statutes on red posts around the town representing interesting facts about the history of the town.  It starts in the town centre; outside St Peter's Church is Pongo from 101 Dalmatians.  

In the story by Dodie Smith Pongo and Perdita stop in Sudbury to drink from the drinking fountain (which is still outside the church and about to be renovated) whilst searching for the puppies.

In the market place is Blondin - a famous (I'd not heard of him!) high wire artist who, in 1872, visited Sudbury and pushed a member of the public in a wheelbarrow across a rope suspended above the road!

I walked down roads that I usually drive along and saw things I'd never noticed before, like this lovely entrance way to a house,

this sign painted on a wall advertising the fact that a general engineer and millwright once worked there,

and this passage way 

which is intriguingly called 'Laundry Gardens' (I'll have to find out the history of that).

I found Amicia, daughter of the Earl of Gloucester who married into the de Clare family in the 12th century and brought her wealth to Sudbury,

and dancing bears who were brought to the town by victorian showmen to entertain the locals!

After a quick walk over the water meadows 

and up towards the croft I found good old Simon of Sudbury (complete with ladybirds!).

Simon became the Archbishop of Canterbury and Chancellor of the Exchequer during the 14th Century.

Sadly for Simon he ended up being decapitated in 1381 during the Peasants' Revolt and his head was brought back to Sudbury!

I'm not really sure why it's called the Talbot Trail, apart from the fact that a talbot is a type of dog owned by Simon of Sudbury and depicted on the Sudbury town sign.

On my way round I happened to pass Oxfam and bought 2 jugs for the grand total of £4.98

and a bunch of carnations for £1.50 from the market - nice and cheery.

It's a nice little trail and I enjoyed walking down streets I've not walked down before, before walking home in the fading light along the riverbank.

Walking in the Steps of Ancestors

Today was a glorious day, the kind of day that calls out for a long walk.  So that's exactly what I did, a wonderful circular walk along the Suffolk Essex border.  I walked from home down to the river Stour and along towards Sudbury,

across Friar's Meadow in Sudbury,

and onto the old railway line.

Nowadays the train line terminates at Sudbury, just running up and down to connect with the main line services to London at Marks Tey, but in the past this line would have taken people up to Long Melford and then on to either Bury St Edmunds or Haverhill and Cambridge.

After a short walk I left the railway line and was on the Sudbury water meadows where I came across this rather magnificent grey heron.

I walked past the old bathing pool

and across the water meadows towards Brundon Mill.

I was amazed that on this glorious day in 1/2 term that there was hardly anyone about, but it was nice to have it to myself!

At the mill the swans came to greet me.

My route then rejoined the old railway line and as I walked under some wonderful old bridges I couldn't help but think about my great great uncle David Ward, who lived in Long Melford until 1940.  He part owned the foundry there, Ward and Silver, and would have travelled by train along this very line many many times, passing under the same bridges.

I was coming back towards Sudbury now, glimpses of buildings visible from the edges of the railway line, scenes that haven't really changed since he would have travelled the same route.

Soon I was back at Friar's Meadow where the trees are just starting to turn autumn colours,

past the willow damaged in last winter's gales, bent over but not snapped, 

and back along the river to home.

If any of you are interested in walking some of this same route, the middle section was the Meadow Walk, part of the Gainsborough Trail - details of which can be found here.