Welcome To Some Old Friends

The only real negative to our retirement move to Framlingham is the distance from our friends - friends who we've known for thirty, forty and even fifty years as well as my mum and brother. But on the positive side we're almost two hundred miles closer to our wonderful son and family which is an enormous plus. And another enormous plus manifested itself  this week when we welcomed friends from the short period that we lived in Kent in 1987/8. We were very close to Wyndham and Lesley Westaway when I worked in London and we relocated to Edenbridge and our children and their children got on together like a house on fire. 

They joined us here in Framlingham yesterday and we had a wonderful day with them catching up on over twenty-five years of each others' lives. We did the usual tourist visits to our town and had a good look around the castle and the church.

The sun shone brightly and showed our new home town in the very best light. Wyndham and Lesley stayed at The Crown and we joined them in the evening for another lovely meal which flew by so quickly that we had barely scraped the surface of our catch up. We are really looking forward to another get together soon.

Wyndham and Lesley headed home to Kent early today so we decided to get on our bikes and head out into the Suffolk countryside. Today was our most ambitious cycle trip to date as we headed to Aldeburgh for a light lunch by the sea.

We chose the new seafood grill at The Brudenell. We've eaten here several times and have always been very happy but today was a bit of a disaster. After waiting over fifteen minutes for our order to be taken, my meal, which was supposed to be chargrilled squid stuffed with chorizo, arrived as a squid salad with chorizo (another choice on the menu). As Marion's choice was correct I didn't want to send mine back and wait so I told the young waitress that I would have it. We ordered drinks to accompany the meal but they arrived after we had finished eating. It was a real disappointment and I can only really blame the perfectly nice but hopelessly inefficient waitress. Don't let me put you off The Brudenell - it is a very good hotel and restaurant but the service today was very poor.

We headed home via Thorpeness. We went through some beautiful countryside and cycled through some wonderful Suffolk villages and passed lots of our county's famous churches like this one, St Mary's in Benhall.

In other news I'm still making the most of the weather and the unplanted fields to get out with the metal detector and am still making a lot of nice finds. Here are some of the latest.

A wonderful local find- a 1669 half penny from a Framlingham trader. "Daniel Barnes His Half Peny"

The Other Side

A Silver Penny Edward III

More Musket Balls

Some Medieval Buttons

A Medieval Buckle

A Battered Silver Hammered Coin - Probably Tudor

A Fragment Of  A Queen Mary Coin

A Cut Half Penny From Henry III

Not Sure What This Is. Any Ideas?

We're here for another four or five weeks so there's plenty of time for more finds before we head up to Scotland.

On Holiday At Home

When you are retired life is a constant holiday but it's more so for us, as, having moved to a completely new part of the country, we don't know a great deal about where we are living. So we've decided to treat July and August as a bit of a holiday while we discover more about where we are.

On Saturday the weather changed a little and was cooler with a light cloud covering. This was good for us as we had booked a boat trip run by the RSPB to Havergate Island. It's Suffolk's only island and it is not much more than a strip of grassland flanked by muddy lagoons. But it is home to an incredible array of wildlife and we had a very enjoyable morning sitting in the hides and watching the avocets, spoonbills and much more through our guide's super powerful telescope.

The hides all have helpful charts for identifying what you see.

And they are well fitted out with plenty of room for visitors to watch in comfort.

We managed to see the famous hares.

It's not scenic but we had an interesting three hours and if we were keen bird watchers I think we would have added a fair few new species to our spotting books as even our guide said he'd seen some rarities.

It was good to see the boats under sail in the river.

When the boat docked back at Orford we went for a coffee at the famous Pump St Bakery and then bought some very fresh seafood from the shed on the quay. 

I made a very simple Saturday meal with the lobsters and they were absolutely delicious.

On Sunday we went to Rochester for our granddaughter Catherine's first birthday party. I've put a few photos on my Facebook page. Josephine baked a fabulous strawberry cake which looked great and tasted delicious.

Today we've holidayed in our home town of Framlingham. 

We visited our local castle and enjoyed the displays, a walk around the walls and watching the children's entertainment laid on by English Heritage who were putting kids through their paces at jousting and an assault course - great fun. I can't wait to bring the grandchildren.

After a refreshing glass of cider in sunshine at The Crown, Marion bought a few more summer outfits from Ruby Tyger and had a quick look at the other clothes shops before heading home. We had a lovely afternoon all within a quarter of a mile of the house.

To end the day on a high note. We dined outside on some home made fresh pasta that I got from a recipe in Jamie's Italian cook book. It was supposed to have home made pesto with it but as the Co-Op had run out of pine nuts, Leo's Deli came to the rescue and I used theirs (which was delicious and probably better than what I would have made).

It's days like today that make retirement very special.

Decisions Decisions

As our relocation week in Suffolk draws to a close I want to start today's blog with a word of thanks to David and Lyn, owners of the lovely little Barn Cottage in Framlingham where we've been based. It's a great little self-catering cottage that has been designed with every attention to detail and is equipped to a very high standard. It's perfectly located for Framlingham and nearby attractions and we would strongly recommend it to anyone looking for a break in the area. You can find details of the cottage on their website BY CLICKING HERE

After five days of research we had a well earned day off yesterday and went for a walk in the surrounding countryside. The local council provides a pack of cards printed with ten different walks each of about five miles and, with the sun cracking the flags, it felt like an early summer's day rather than mid February. It was a relaxing stroll after what had been, both physically and mentally, a strenuous six days. 

Our walk ended in the lovely market square where we've enjoyed regular coffee and cakes throughout the week at the Dancing Goat Cafe which has a really nice buzz to it. 


It hasn't been a wasted week. We've decided that Framlingham is a perfect place to relocate to and it's little surprise that it has scored highly on a number of lifestyle surveys being friendly, attractive, well located for both coast and country and close enough to London for us to be able to visit Paul and Josephine more often  (sorry kids).  


The negatives are that old properties within easy walking distance of the town centre have no parking (if any were for sale) whereas the rooms in brand new properties seemed extremely small. We found a house about thirty years old that is in a perfect location with extensive views across fields. It completely lacks the character of our house in Southport and needs a new kitchen, bathroom, en suite, downstairs toilet and windows but the garden is south facing and, with Marion's brilliant eye for home improvements, we shouldn't rule it out completely. Even with massive (and I mean massive) improvements we could possibly have change from the sale of our house. 


We've certainly got plenty to talk about on the long drive home.