Visitors And Visits - A Packed Fortnight

My plans to keep the blog updated regularly fell apart again for the best possible reasons - visitors. We drove up to Southport early in the morning on 21st July to collect my mum for a rare visit to Suffolk. The traffic on the way back was heavy but Mum survived over five hours in the car.

We didn't want to exhaust her during her stay so we spent a lot of time relaxing around Framlingham, having coffee in the Dancing Goat and reading the papers at home. We did manage a couple of trips out though.

We had to go to Bury St Edmunds to collect a new car so took the opportunity to visit the museum to see the Lost Property Exhibition of mostly detecting finds. 

I didn't quite share top billing with Bill Wyman but it was good to see ten of my finds on display.

Whilst on the topic of detecting, September's edition of the Searcher dropped through the letterbox and I was absolutely delighted to see this -

I really appreciate the support that John Winter of the Searcher has given me. I'm thrilled with the positive response.

It was the B200 we were changing.  We've been using this car for our regular trips to Kent and it's been very reliable although the sports specification and suspension meant that, whilst it was very nippy, it was was not as comfortable as the CLS.

The replacement is a C200. It's extremely comfortable and a nice drive. After all the bad press for diesel we've opted for petrol this time. We would have liked to go electric or hybrid but it just isn't practical for the long journeys we do very regularly.

The highlight of Mum's stay for her was a trip to Rochester to visit her great grandchildren Catherine and Teddy. She loved playing with them and they loved the rare chance to see their Great Nana.

A week after picking her up, it was time to say goodbye to Mum. We took her to London.

And the helpful guy at Euston who was taking her to her seat, offered to give us all a lift to see her off. It was quite an experience driving around Euston concourse. Either all the travellers are deaf or they just can't be bothered to move for the trolley and it took some skilful manoeuvring to get us to the platform.

We stayed on in London and went back to the Cantina Del Ponte near Tower Bridge. 

It's a friendly place with good food....

...and a great view if you get an outside table.

After a night at a Premier Inn we went to the nearby Walkie Talkie building for breakfast.

Although the breakfast is nothing special, the views from the Sky Pod and Sky Garden are spectacular and make up for the self-service and paper coffee cups.

An experiment with the panoramic camera facility.

After breakfast we walked down to the South Bank and enjoyed a brief disco dancing session with a Conchita Wurst lookalike who picked Marion out from the crowd for a quick chat.

More traditional entertainment came in the guise of Morris Dancers who were holding some sort of competition outside the Tate Gallery to the bemusement of the many foreign tourists.

After lunch in the always good Terrace restaurant at The National Theatre we went to the matinee of Mosquitoes - the sold out show in the Dorfman Theatre in the round. Starring two Olivias (Colman and Williams) as sisters with differences, the acting is brilliant but the plot, centring around the loss of a child, the slow decline of an elderly mother and the problems of a bullied son, set in Switzerland where one of the sisters works on the Large Hadron Collider, seemed contrived to me and,for all the thespian excellence on display, I didn't enjoy it much. Marion did enjoy it and it has been critically acclaimed so I am probably in a minority.    

Without pausing for breath it was back to Rochester on Sunday to collect our two grandchildren for a brief visit to Framlingham.

The castle was hosting a jousting tournament.

It was a colourful event and the children enjoyed it.

Although Catherine was happy enough with her paints in the garden.

It was back to the castle again on Monday where Catherine enjoyed scrambling up the hill to the ramparts. Marion joined her but didn't join in rolling back down again.

After all too short a visit it was another drive back to Rochester on Tuesday before tidying up the house after all the visitors.

Last night we headed to Snape Maltings for the first of three visits we've booked to the Snape Proms. We had an excellent pre-concert dinner at The Plough And Sail. I was very impressed. We've been a bit disappointed with meals at the concert hall restaurant (although the view is spectacular) and the pub was a lot better and slightly cheaper for the set menu.

The concert, performed by Ladysmith Black Mambazo, was brilliant. With no instruments or backing of any sort the nine strong group put on an amazing vocal performance of harmonic African melodies accompanied with high energy dancing for almost two hours. If you ever get the opportunity to see them - grab it.

Summertime And The Living Is Easy

After chilling (in both senses of the word) at the caravan in Scotland a few weeks ago, it's been warming up here in Suffolk and summer is getting into full swing. On Sunday evening we walked down to the castle to watch Chapterhouse Open Air Theatre Company's production of A Midsummer Night's Dream.

It's one of our favourite plays and the setting within the grounds of Framlingham Castle was quite perfect. Despite the threat of rain that so often mars these open air events, we were lucky to escape with just a few drops before the action got under way. The young troupe put on an excellent performance with plenty of laughs along with the magic. Puck's final monologue always brings a tear to my eye. I don't know why. It's a happy play - perhaps it's just because it's the ending of something good - perhaps the ending of a summer day that we won't have again.

If we shadows have offended

Think but this, and all is mended-

While these visions did appear

And this weak and idle theme

No more yielding but a dream

Gentles, do not reprehend.

If you pardon, we will mend.

And, as I am an honest Puck

if we have unearned luck

Now to 'scape the serpent's tongue

We will make amends ere long.

Else the Puck a liar call.

So good night unto you all.

Give me your hands if we be friends.

And Robin shall restore amends.

A highlight of recent summers here in Framlingham has been watching the film crew for Mackenzie Crook's Detectorists out and about in the town filming. There was no filming last summer but the clamour for another series was so great that Series Three is now in production and, being a keen detectorist, I fished out this old copy of The Searcher magazine and kept it handy in case I saw them.

It was another glorious Suffolk day yesterday. Marion is now fully recovered from her biking accident but we thought we'd save cycling for later in the summer and went to explore an area I haven't visited before with a walk around Dunwich Heath.

There's a fabulous variety of landscape with coastal paths, forests and heathlands to explore.

We passed vibrant marshland.

And hedgerows that were a riot of colour. It was a great walk with a brief stop at RSPB  Mimsmere for a coffee.

Plus a great light lunch at the Eel's Foot. It's a pub we've never visited before but we'll certainly be back. We walked about seven miles in all - a wonderful summer's day.

Summer doesn't only bring the walkers out. Hearing a thunderous noise I looked over our garden hedgerow to see the combine harvester in full flow. Which is excellent news to a metal detector user. I've had a few hours pottering around the edges of fields while the crops were growing but now that they are starting to come up there are going to be opportunities to search the stubble.

I've had two trips to the first field to be cut. I found a lot of rubbish but on each visit I also made a decent find.

It's always great to see the glint of gold in the earth.

This George III quarter guinea dated 1762 is in fairly poor condition but it's a nice find.

I love this copper farthing issued by John Capon Grocer of Framlingham in 1653. It has a picture of the castle where we watched the play on the reverse and is in very good condition - these thing usually turn up corroded beyond recognition.

This Napoleon III coin dated 1855 also turned up.

Plus a cut farthing from the realm of Henry III

And whilst on the subject of detecting and Detectorists, my keeping that copy of The Searcher handy paid off today. We were sitting outside the Dancing Goat having coffee when Mackenzie Crook came out of the The Crown with some of his colleagues. I walked over and asked if he'd mind signing the magazine cover for me. He was very happy to do so. I chatted with him for a minute or two - a really nice guy. Thanks for indulging the oldest groupie in town. 

And no I won't be selling it on eBay

Before I finish today, son Paul phoned at the weekend and said that Teddy had asked for a Train themed birthday cake for his second birthday. "When did I ask for a train cake?" he asked.

Count the candles. Like father like son.

What Happened To June?

So what happened to June? I sit down to blog and realise that it's almost a month since I last posted.

There we were, enjoying the glorious weather with walks down the sands from Walberswick to Dunwich......

  ...... and having a lovely day in Rochester in almost 30 degrees. 

Taking little Theodore to the top of the castle.....

......and enjoying the wonderful views.

And suddenly June was almost over and we were driving up to the caravan in St Andrews in time for family birthdays.

Glorious June became anything but. This was the temperature at 12 noon on or around Midsummer's Day.

The gloomy temperatures were matched with equally gloomy skies but we had a good time. 

We don't see enough of little Rose and Melody.

We went to some great places. Such as The Fairmont St Andrews with its incredible light installation.....

....and we got a window seat for an excellent dinner at the highly acclaimed Seafood Ristorante on a stormy evening with waves battering the coast and surf that would not have looked out of place on Bondi Beach.

I got out with the detector a few times.

The hobby takes me to some beautiful places.

One of my favourite fields was "available" the farmer said.

But trying to detect in these conditions is well nigh impossible.

This is all that turned up

Although there was one find of interest - a James VI eight penny groat.

The highlight of the visit was Rose's birthday. I find it impossible to believe that it was six years ago that we drove like the wind to meet our first grandchild before visiting time ended.

And now she's all grown up.

Her birthday party was mermaid themed and supermum Sarah whipped up a cake in a couple of hours.

The rain stayed away for the party.

On our final day, while Marion and I were wrapped up in anoraks, the girls played happily on the outside trampolines at Cairnie near St Andrews. 

The internet signal was virtually non-existant during this visit - hence the lack of blogging but we're back in Framlingham now and I'm hoping to get back into it.

It was time for a big party on the other side of the family this weekend and over forty kids headed to Tiny Town near Aylesford to enjoy a few hours in the soft play area and a session of shooting "Ghosts" at Theodore and Catherine's joint Ghostbusters themed event.

The ghosts in question were daughter-in-law Josephine as Slimer and son Paul as the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man. What a handsome guy!

We saw this parked in Fram at the weekend. It was such a magnificent machine it would not have looked out of place in a movie.

Keen to support our local artistes we decided to go and see Ed Sheeran in concert. We didn't fancy a UK stadium so opted for Vienna next August. After refreshing the screen for almost an hour, my turn finally came and I bought the tickets. It's very refreshing to see the attempts that the promoters are making to stop secondary ticket sales by limiting the number of tickets to four per person (we only bought two) and saying that passport or similar i.d must be presented upon entrance. Looking at the rip-off prices resale ticket sites are asking for a Saturday ticket to Latitude - this sort of policy should be applauded

Bad weather in Scotland meant that at least we could get to the cinema. We found a great little place in Dundee - Dundee Contemporary Arts. It had exhibitions, a very good restaurant and two comfortable screens.

Marion loved the animated movie The Red Turtle. I enjoyed it but it wasn't my favourite.

Yesterday we went to Cineworld in Ipswich to see Baby Driver. We expected great things from this after reading the glowing four and five star reviews. The car chase at the start was fantastic and the way that the entire film was choreographed to the soundtrack was original and entertaining but when you've seen one spectacular car chase, the other two or three in the film became repetitive for us and I'm afraid it didn't blow us away. 

Speaking of five star reviews, "I really enjoyed reading this book" is not exactly a thorough review but, if everybody really enjoys reading my novel, that will certainly do me. If you haven't read them yet, both my novels are available on Kindle this week (until 19th July) for just 99p.