A Winter Wedding And Other Bits

If you've been wondering what happened to the blog in December, something quite important kept us occupied Here's a clue. 

But more of that later.

It's almost a month since that fateful day in December when, despite our very best efforts to get rid of them,  the country somehow managed to elect the Tories. I blame it on the broken voting system - it's surely time for some sort of proportional representation when the Lib Dem's 11% of the votes resulted in 2% of seats and the SNP's 3.9% vote share gave them four times as many. 

We got a very good reception in Framlingham market and had plenty of support and a lot of positive conversations.

Although somebody knocked over my sign in the middle of the night.  

It wasn't all politics at the market and several visiting choirs created a very festive spirit. We had to leave Suffolk before the election as there was something very important happening up in Scotland.

You may recall an earlier blog when I mentioned daughter Sarah and Duncan's wedding and, before we knew it, the big day was upon us.

Cambo House near St Andrews was a great venue and our wedding party took over the whole place for the weekend.

It's a grand old Scottish house with loads of character and comfort and we were very well looked after.

I was too involved to take many photos so forgive the lack of shots (especially of Marion who looked fabulous). I will post more when I get them from friends and family and the official photographer,

Grandson Teddy got into the spirit of the occasion and donned a kilt for the first time.

It was soon time to join Sarah for her walk to the ceremony.

And,before we knew it, it was all over.

Our old friend Jan Harbon excelled herself yet again with this beautiful wedding cake.

Such amazing detail

We had a couple of very short speeches and then enjoyed a good meal at the reception accompanied by some fabulous wines supplied by the excellent Whalley Wine Shop and a super ceilidh in the evening, followed by delicious pizzas and cake.

Sarah was determined to walk to the nearby beach on Sunday morning and have some photos taken in her wedding dress. The sun shone on us after a few days of torrential rain and she braved the weather.

While Sarah was dressed like that, we sensible oldies needed to wrap up more thoroughly.

Before we left Scotland, temperatures plummeted and when I went to take my local farmer friends a few bottles of wine to thank them for letting me metal detect on their land, it was minus six degrees. 

Back in Framlingham before Christmas we enjoyed a fabulous concert in St Michael's Church by The Rabble Chorus. A few friends sing in this group and it was a joyful evening with some great singing and skilful arrangements.

It wasn't long before we were on the road again, driving to Rochester for Christmas with the Kent branch of the family.

We had a lovely Christmas and enjoyed exploring the old town in the peace of a very quiet Christmas day.

On Boxing Day I gave Marion her Christmas present. It's a copper welded sculpture by local artist Spadge Hopkins. We saw Spadge making this during one of his exhibitions and Marion liked it so much that I asked him to put it to one side for her.

Back in Suffolk we seem to have finally seen an end to the incessant rain and we've made the most of it with long walks around Walberswick, Dunwich, Thorpeness and Aldeburgh since Christmas.

A bracing walk along the beach.

I love finding sea glass and other pretty stones on the beach.

The scenery around Walberswick is beautiful.

The house in the clouds at Thorpeness is a converted water tower. Such a romantic building.

I read almost fifty books last year but none was as good as this one which is the first I've read in 2020. It's such a beautifully constructed book full of twists and turns in a Gothic Victorian landscape. It has echoes of The Essex Serpent (which I also loved) but I would rate this higher. 

My own books have enjoyed reasonable sales recently. The reduction in price on Kindle has paid off. Follow the links at the top right. A reader recently tweeted this 

(PS I did make it up)

We've also managed a couple of cinema trips this week.

Knives Out is a fun whoddunit with Daniel Craig in a completely different role to his Bond.

Marion reckons that Little Women is the best version she's seen. I enjoyed it even though it was a bit too sad for my liking. We're off to see 1917 on Monday. It should be spectacular in IMAX.

A Postcard From Coniston

A few years ago we decided that, although we love our retirement county of Suffolk, it would be nice to meet up with dear friends from up north at regular intervals. So in 2015 we agreed to rent a big house in Malham in Yorkshire and spend a long weekend together. Six of us managed to make it on that occasion and we've now had seven spring and winter breaks together with six or eight of us making it each time. All the houses we've rented, in Yorkshire, Derbyshire and Cumbria have been good but it's difficult to find a place with four en-suite bedrooms and, as we enjoyed The Gate House in Coniston so much in 2017, we've now been back there three times. 

Marion and I booked a full week and headed up to Cumbria on last Sunday and stayed overnight in Ulverston.

It's a nice little town that we've never visited before. There are plenty of reminders of its status as the home town of Stan Laurel.

We stocked up with supplies at Booths in Ulverston on Monday and made the short journey to Coniston to arrive at The Gate House late afternoon. 

Four beautiful bathrooms

All four of the bedrooms are sumptuously furnished

The view from our bedroom and one of three sitting rooms. 

And a spacious and perfectly equipped kitchen.

We had three days on our own before the friends arrived. We didn't think that everyone would want to climb Coniston Old Man so just the two of us went up on Tuesday. The views from the summit are spectacular but, whilst the weather was mild with only light breezes forecast, close to the top there was a howling icy gale. It was so strong that it blew my specs clean off my face and I was very lucky that they landed about twenty feet away and not down the mountainside.

A benefit of a November visit is the lack of crowds. I imagine that in summer the peak will be overrun.

Summit selfie

It's easy to get carried away with the camera in Cumbria. It is such a beautiful county

Two of our granddaughters love Swallows and Amazons so we photographed Bank Ground Farm, the setting for the children's adventures.

It's a good job we climbed on Tuesday as on Wednesday the Old Man had a layer of snow topping it.

Lake Head

The weather smiled on our friends who arrived on Thursday evening. This is Friday morning. 

Marion with friends Nita and Jane

Between Coniston and Tarn Hows

Mark at Tarn Hows. As a ten year old I used to fish off the rocks behind him.

Our friends for forty years Dave and Jane 

One of the prettiest spots in England

Autumn Colour

Fine dining courtesy of Jane and Nita

A boat ride to John Ruskin's Brantwood

On Sunday we walked up to the Coppermines a mile or so above the cottage. It's a spectacular industrial landscape in an area of outstanding natural beauty. 

No snow on top of the Old Man this time.

Before we left on Monday there was time for a roast chicken dinner on Sunday before settling down to watch the big match on TV. The cottage doesn't have Sky so I connected my laptop up to the TV. Everything was going fine and Liverpool were 1-0 up when this happened.

After ten minutes of frantic fiddling with wires and keyboard, the Sky signal returned and, with Liverpool now 2-0 up, I was able to watch the match. Great game. Excellent result.

We're back in Framlingham now. The next thing on the horizon is daughter Sarah's wedding in Scotland on 14th December. Between now and then there's Christmas shopping and a bit of babysitting in Kent. We're certainly going to be keeping busy.   

After hunting for fossils in Dorset, we couldn't resist this one found in Framlingham. Made by the excellent local glass artist Fiona Fawcett. We've added it to our growing collection of works by local artists.