Welcome To Framlingham

Our Town Council recently replaced the town signs to the four entry roads into Framlingham and decided to auction the old ones off.

Always on the lookout for interesting and quirky bits to add to the garden, we jumped at the opportunity and this sign will soon be adorning Marion's beach hut shed once the shed has been redecorated.

We were delighted to welcome old friends from up north to Fram during August.

Ex colleague and friend Liz and her family booked a holiday let near Wickham Market and we were so pleased that they took time out from their break to spend a day with us.

They enjoyed all the local landmarks and a good lunch at The Crown.

A few days after Liz's visit, our friends Dave and Jane Haworth who we've known for the best part of forty years came to stay. 

Dave celebrated his 65th birthday this year and we had a belated celebration.

Again we took in the local landmarks.

This time we dined at The Station and enjoyed a great pizza night.

Being almost fully recovered from my long lay off we were able to get out walking again. 

The circular walk from The Eel's Foot and back via Dunwich Heath is a perfect and easy ramble. FIne weather made the walk even more enjoyable and lunch at the Eel's Foot is highly recommended. 

A brief rest at one of the Minsmere hides.

The walk returns through wooded glades.

Dave and Jane's visit coincided with the opening of the Ed Sheeran exhibition at Christchurch Mansion so we decided to have a full day out in Ipswich.

The exhibition has been beautifully curated by Ed's dad John.

We walked down to the quay and had a good lunch at the Bistro On The Quay before making the long trek to Chantry Park for the first of Ed's four concerts.

The Darkness are a bit Marmite. I loved their self deprecating style - not everybody did.

Ed was excellent. We were celebrating Dave's birthday and it would have been a perfect celebration if not for a small group of drunken idiots who ended up alongside us. In a mostly very sober and well behaved crowd why did we have to end up next to them? They talked and shouted loudly throughout the performance and managed to put a cigarette through my favourite t-shirt. We moved after a while but the event was spoilt. 

We've not been to the theatre too often this year so we were happy to travel up to London a couple of weeks ago to another show at The National.

We met friends for a good pre theatre meal at the National's Terrace Restaurant before the performance of Secret River. The production has been getting rave reviews and five star write ups and, indeed, some of our audience gave the play a standing ovation. It's a good story of a land grab by English settlers (ex-convicts) from the aboriginal people in the 1800s. Tragically a leading aboriginal member of the cast died during the recent run in Edinburgh and we felt that the cast were understandably struggling with their loss and the show did not have the heart that it obviously has had. It would be churlish to criticise this and the group deserves praise for maintaining the tradition of 'the show must go on.'  

We took advantage of the London trip to go to the Royal Academy. Helene Schjerfbeck is possibly the best artist you've never heard of. Marvellous exhibition. 

We loved Felix Vallotton's work too. If I had to choose, I would pick Helene.

I took this photo of the latest fairground attraction on London's South Bank

This tiny sliver of glass caused a trip to A&E after I managed to tread on it in bare feet. It's hard to believe that such a tiny piece could cause so much bleeding (and pain).

Our friends having gone home we decided to keep up with the walking and had a great stroll along the river Deben between Melton and Woodbridge. 

This reminded me of the Saxon Longboat that was hauled up the hill on the opposite bank to the famous Sutton Hoo ship burial.

Today we saw Tarantino's latest Once Upon A Time In Hollywood. It's brilliantly done and Brad Pitt and Leo Dicaprio put in fantastic performances. Marion loved it. I loved it until the ending - I'm probably a bit too squeamish. 

Talking of fantastic performances, our son Paul's creation is still running and is now in its fourteenth series and even better on Ultra HD.

So Long Mum

Don't worry, she's only gone to stay with my sister Julie in Spain but it's a "so long" from us as she's been staying with us here in Framlingham for the last ten days. Hopefully she enjoyed herself. We've enjoyed having her and we've kept her busy despite the unseasonal summer we're having. At 93 she's struggling a bit with her mobility but still managed to walk around Framlingham with us and enjoyed our regular coffees at The Dancing Goat and a trip to the cinema. 

The Art OF Racing In The Rain is a sentimental tale narrated by a dog. I know it sounds silly but it was a pleasant if schmaltzy couple of hours out of the rain.

Mum busied herself with the crossword and a jigsaw puzzle which she completed in a few days.

We waved her off yesterday at Southend Airport and she arrived safely in Alicante where she's now enjoying  a bit of sunshine.

It's been a month since I last blogged. It's been a busy time.

As soon as I felt sufficiently recovered from my hospital treatment we drove up to St Andrews to visit the family. It was great to see them after being virtually housebound since April. We were fortunate to have chosen the week when England experienced that tremendous heatwave. We enjoyed the weather in Scotland without the thirty degree temperatures.

I felt sufficiently recovered to get on my bike for a couple of short rides. They went well.

It's always great to see the grandchildren. Melody is nearly six now.

And Rose is 8. I can't believe it's been so long since we rushed to Scotland to meet her for the first time.

St Andrews was as lovely as ever. We were fortunate to get a table at this place. The Seafood Ristorante was recently awarded the accolade of Scotland's Restaurant Of The Year by Catering In Scotland. 

The accolade is fully deserved

The famous Old Course

A Trip To Tentsmuir Beach

Craigtoun Park

We visited Dundee Museum for the first time and were very impressed.

The girls loved the dressing up room.

And I was fascinated to learn that the world's oldest depiction of a football match is this painting in the museum's collection. 

The girls were fascinated by Dundee's Oor Wullie Trail. We spotted these two in Dundee and St Andrews

Before we left Scotland, Rose and Melody joined us in the caravan for a sleepover. They converted the lounge into a shopping mall.

Back in Suffolk, I've been busily trying to get my fitness back. We've joined the gym on top of going there for exercise classes and have been working out in the mornings and it is paying dividends.

I also felt well enough to go out with the detector again. I've limited the sessions to a couple of hours at a time but have managed to find a few interesting items.

A typical afternoon's finds

I always enjoy finding medieval silver hammered coins. I love the cartoonish portraits of our ancient rulers

The garden is beginning to look established

I've not had much luck with eBay recently but I do have hopes for this c1825 Derby porcelain cup and saucer which looks like it was made yesterday.

Yesterday we visited the opening of Framlingham Art Society annual exhibition. There were plenty of very good works on display and we bought a small watercolour landscape. 

Finally I would like to mention my novels (again). Since I dropped the prices to 99p on Kindle, the sales have increased nicely. If you do read one (or both) it would be a massive help if you could leave a review as Amazon reviews do influence sales greatly. I'm working on a sequel to Mr Prendergast's Fantastic Find and if I can publish it while sales of the first book are buoyant it will be a boost.

On The Mend (Fingers Crossed)

As I said when I last blogged, I chose to go for private treatment for my herniated disc as the NHS were not planning to see me for weeks and the pain was getting me down. I was drugged up to the eyeballs with painkillers and getting no sleep.

I am fortunate to have been able to buy private treatment and I am sure that NHS waiting periods could cause irreparable harm to less fortunate people in a similar position. The pain causes a downward spiral in health and fitness and spirits get lower and lower (yes, even for an upbeat bloke like me).

After a brief panic over extremely raised blood pressure (no idea what caused it but sitting around for three months can't have helped) I was given the go ahead to have the treatment and at eight o'clock on Thursday I was wheeled into theatre. I was anaesthetised in seconds and back in my private room within half an hour. The nerve root block appears to have been a success and after hobbling around on crutches for three months I can, at last, stand up straight and walk without pain. I hope that it lasts. The only remaining symptom is a fuzzy tingling feeling in my lower leg. I hope it goes and the pain stays away. I've been clear of painkillers for five days now. 

We're regular visitors to the excellent Dancing Goat Cafe here in Framlingham. Pull up a seat at one of the outside tables and you're guaranteed an interesting coffee break.

Now that the new sofa and rug are in the newly decorated lounge, we've started to hang a few pieces of art. We've gone for a local touch and both these original pieces are by local Suffolk artists.

It's been a big few weeks for sport since I last wrote. Son Paul took our granddaughter Catherine to the World Cup Final in France. This was their view.

I spent Sunday flicking between tennis and cricket. I don't follow either sport but have to say that both finals were exciting spectacles. Even Marion came to watch the final minutes of the cricket - and enjoyed it.

The eBay packing saga seems endless. Here's another disaster. I found this super Ironstone dish (which was made over two hundred years ago) for just a few pounds but yet again the seller used inadequate packing material.

I've been spoilt rotten by Marion during my long lay off so I treated her this weekend and cooked for her for the first time in months. The fresh lobsters from Darren on Framlingham market were delicious. Hopefully I will be back to doing half the work here again soon but Marion keeps stopping me from overdoing it and she's still doing the lion's share. I do appreciate it.

I was well enough to get out in the car at the weekend (Marion drove still) and we got to the lovely village of Orford.

 

I wasn't up to a long walk but had a tasty breakfast at the famous Pump St Bakery.

With the weather fairly unsettled we've managed to catch a couple of films. Yesterday has had a pasting from the critics but its been playing to huge audiences here in Suffolk where it was filmed and I see that the public ratings are very high. The Greatest Showman got a similar reaction from the critics but was a box office smash. I know that Yesterday has a ridiculous plot (some sort of cosmic event causes The Beatles to disappear from history but just one young musician remembers them. He recreates their music) but it is a pleasant and sweet love story with a lot of great music and, obviously, some fabulous Suffolk locations.

Midsommar is the polar opposite of Yesterday. The critics heaped praise on this overlong and weird story about a remote Swedish cult and their summer rituals and, with this sort of critical acclaim it will no doubt feature in the Oscar nominations. If you've seen The Wicker Man you'll get the idea except that The Wicker Man was genuinely scary, slightly sexy and totally entertaining. Apart from being beautifully shot in glorious saturated colours, this is a tedious and gory 140 minutes - give it a miss.

I'll close with a mention of framstuff.co.uk. We just bought these super enamelled mugs designed here in Framlingham and finely decorated with a scene of the castle from a lino print by renowned local artist Jem Seeley. Check them out. They've got lots of super local stuff.