Tales from a Cottage Garden (Free subscription) | 13/11/2009
I have a severe case of cottage envy this evening, River Cottage envy. Yes, HFW is back on Channel 4 and not a day too soon. He brings a breath of fresh (winter) air to the screen with his easy laid-back manner and off the wall dry sense of humour. I love his foraging, fishing and hunting expeditions, his totally picturesque and well-run smallholding and what was the other thing – oh yes he can...
Mighty Fine Art (Free subscription) | 15/10/2009
To take a break from the intensely detailed work I've been creating lately, I decided to spend some time practicing my basic watercolour techniques. So each day this week I've produced a small traditional watercolour painting, using a fairly loose style and with lovely diffused washes. Each of these took about 2 hours. I've put them all up for sale on the Mighty Fine Art website at quite low prices....
Paul May (Free subscription) | 11/10/2009
I've been intending to visit Orford Ness for years. Orford is one of my favourite places on the Suffolk coast. It has a fine castle and a planned Norman town with the original street plan, even though it is now only a village. And from the quay you can take a ferry to the Ness where secret experiments were carried out for years on radar and ballistics and on the atom bomb. Yet for some reason I never...
The Guardian (Free subscription) | 08/09/2009
Suffolk At home in Somerset, we have our own broad, tidal estuaries, but to sit under a wide East Anglian sky beside the expanse of one of Suffolk's five estuaries felt like being in a different world. This was the estuary of the river that changes its name from Alde to Ore between Aldeburgh and Orford. At low tide in the evening we looked out across shining pools and low mudbanks towards Iken church...
Times Online (Free subscription) | 21/08/2009
A breezy, sunny day, and the East Anglian coast lay under a proper Constable sky.
The Day After Tuesday (Free subscription) | 18/08/2009
I'm having a hard time settling in here. This story is from Orford, Suffolk, near where I was born. I think it's terribly sad. 'Men fishing in the sea caught in their nets a wild man. He was naked and was like a man in all his members, covered with hair and with a long shaggy beard. He eagerly ate whatever was brought to him but if it was raw he pressed it between his hands until all the juice was...
A Moment in Time (Free subscription) | 13/08/2009
On 8th August is was the 25th wedding anniversary of our friends Hilary and Mark. I have known Hilary since my secondary school days as we were both involved with guiding. I made a card very similar to the one I made for Alan, for our silver wedding back in May. I was pleased with the way the first one turned out, it uses lots of Craftwork Cards products. 1984 was a busy year for weddings in our circle...
Magpie Magic (Free subscription) | 10/08/2009
We spent a fantastic day at the Suffolk coast yesterday, starting with the best fish & chips ever at Dunwich (where all the pictures were taken). Here you can see a rusty (but still working) winch in the foreground and the fish & chips place at the back. I didn't want to take much time to mess around with photos so they were all quick shots - more as a memento than for artistic quality - so...
Waveney Valley Blog (Free subscription) | 02/08/2009
One of British Transport Films' relatively early travelogues, 'East Anglian Holiday' was shot in Technicolor. Its narration combines clipped patrician received pronunciation with occasional interludes delivered in a strong local accent. In King's Lynn, the region's unique geology is commemorated in the architecture of the Guildhall, whose flints were originally sponges growing underwater. In Great...
Waveney Valley Blog (Free subscription) | 08/07/2009
Lady Florence The Orford River Cruise Restaurant This year Lady Florence celebrates two anniversaries. She was built for the Admiralty in 1944 in Poole Dorset 65 years ago. And she commenced Lady Florence cruises from Orford Suffolk 25 years ago this year. And far from taking retirement, Lady Florence is working harder than ever. The business was set up by Geoffrey Ingram Smith in 1984, and when he...
Liberal Bureaucracy (Free subscription) | 03/07/2009
I was beginning to get the idea that 100 days of solid reporting of niceness might begin to pall, so I'll switch to the occasional catchup... Last weekend was an interesting one, starting with a dash to Liverpool Street for the daily train to Needham Market, where I was met and driven to Nedging Hall for a reception hosted by the High Sheriff of Suffolk. The haute monde of the county set were all...
The Independent (Free subscription) | 30/06/2009
A man who stopped to help at the scene of a road accident found that the dying victim was his teenage son. Guy Marshall, 53, who is trained in first aid, was driving to his home in Orford, Suffolk, when he saw the aftermath of an accident involving a car and a motorcycle.
Our Travels (Free subscription) | 28/06/2009
Pauline had long held a wish to visit Suffolk and last week we did just that. We drove as far as Whittlesey in Cambridgeshire where we once lived for four years. A friend and former neighbour was our host for the night. Next day we continued via Ely to Suffolk. Stopping in Ely for about an hour, I was able to show Pauline what I had once seen in 1971, the cathedral. On that earlier occasion I remember...
Zak Simmonds-Hurn Illustration (Free subscription) | 26/06/2009
I went away for a few days recently to a village in Suffolk called Orford where, it's rumoured, a long time ago a Merman was caught just off the coast and imprisoned in Orford Castle. Here's a quick drawing (there is much wrong with it!):
UK400ClubRareBirdAlert (Free subscription) | 23/06/2009
Phil Barnett discovered a singing male MARSH WARBLER at Otmoor RSPB reserve (Oxfordshire) this evening, frequenting Hawthorns and reedbed vegetation adjacent to the main track between the first and second screens, whilst only the 7th MARSH WARBLER for Hertfordshire continues for a fourth day just west of the canal at Amwell (see full directions on my Hertfordshire Birding site). A further singing male...
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