A Week Off

From blogging that is. It's hardly been a week off in other respects. Last Saturday we drove up to Ormskirk in Lancashire to celebrate the 60th birthday or our dear friend Jane Haworth (centre in this picture). 

No, we can't believe it either. Whatever it is that keeps Jane looking so young, we could do with some of it.

We had a great weekend and managed to spend an hour or two with my mum in Southport which made it a doubly nice visit. After that it was time to drive home to Suffolk where we, as always, had plenty to do.

The fabulous summer weather has continued (in the main) and Marion took advantage of it on Wednesday to take a trip down to the beautiful Dedham area with a couple of friends and spend an enjoyable hour rowing on the river Stour.

It's usually me who does the rowing but Marion appears to be a natural.

While she was away I found time to do (what else) a bit of metal detecting. The field that I searched last week under nasty stubble that left me scratched to bits has now been ploughed so, instead of suffering bleeding legs I ended up walking lopsidedly across the field like a man with a club foot. 

This is what I tipped out of the bag when I got home.

And here are some of the finds.

Two medieval cut half pennies. The top one unidentified the second William I of Scotland 

A medieval silver penny. Henry III York mint

Fragment of a medieval bronze pot rim

Another medieval penny. This one is Edward III London

A small coin weight

An unusual Victorian watch winder

Another cut medieval half penny. 

Although this may not look a great deal to the uninitiated, I was quite happy with the finds. I have had a couple more trips out with the detector including a visit to a meadow owned by someone I follow on Twitter who kindly offered to let me search. I took a friend who is interested in trying out the hobby and he found a complete crotal bell. Some detectorists go years without finding one of these so it was a good second try for him - on his first trip he found a hammered coin and a medieval buckle.

I'm still not fully engaged in the Pokemon Go craze but While Marion was chatting to a friend in Framlingham yesterday morning I sat outside the Co-Op and opened the app.

In a few minutes I had caught a Venonat, a Krabby and Weedle. Childish? Me?

One of the joys of living in a market town is shopping at the market and, yet again, we got some fabulous lobster from Darren on the market yesterday. It's a simple dish but, accompanied by a delicious white wine from Fram Wine shop it makes a perfect Saturday night treat.

I spotted this fabulous vintage car outside our friend Richard's shop In Da Cottage yesterday. It must look like a silver bullet when driving on sunny days like this

Because these really have been sunny days. I didn't check the temperature in the car today but it must have nudged thirty degrees in Framlingham. Instead of sitting on the decking soaking up the rays, I sat beneath the pergola which is starting to get a good cover of climbing plants to shelter us from the sun.

I was sitting there working on my second novel which has been beautifully copy edited by Caroline of Goldsmith Publishing. I'm very pleased with the work that Caroline has done and I'm doing my very best to trim down a few passages to reduce the novel from its current 85,000 words. Mind you, having spent ages writing those 85,000 words, it's not easy to delete some of them.

While the second novel is nearing completion I put the first book on special offer on Kindle for five days.

It would have been good if it had got to number one but I'm happy to see number two in Holiday fiction and thirty-nine in Romance. Maybe the new book will hit number one.

Ghostbusters At Cineworld And My First Detecting Outing Since The Harvest

The heat wave has continued here in Suffolk for most of the past week and we've enjoyed our time in the sunshine. However there was a break in the sunny weather yesterday and we took advantage of the showers and went to Cineworld in Ipswich.

Our film choice was the latest Ghostbusters. The original was a big favourite with the family in the 80s and we were interested in seeing the remake. It was very much a remake and, whilst it was not particularly original, it was good fun. The four women Ghostbusters all played their roles well and we enjoyed the cameo performances from the original cast. It was interesting to see Chris Hemsworth taking the role of dizzy blonde receptionist - it rammed home how patronising to women some of these roles are. I wouldn't particularly recommend the film but it will make you smile when it comes on TV. For me the final credits with Hemsworth leading a tremendous dance routine to the original and the new Ghostbusters  themes was the highlight of the movie.

We didn't feel like cooking last night so we drove to nearby Brandeston and had a decent meal at The Queen.We've been a couple of times now and it's a very friendly pub with a nice atmosphere and good service. They have a six course tasting menu on the second Thursday of each month so we've booked in for the 11th August and are really looking forward to it.

With the harvest in full swing I decided to drive to a local farm and ask if it was okay to have a try with the detector. 

When I got to the field it was full of oilseed rape stubble. As successful detecting involves swinging the detector as close to the ground as possible, the conditions were not exactly ideal but I gave it a go.

This was what turned up. It's mostly junk but it kept me busy. After looking through it, all here are the sorted finds. 

Jetton or token

The usual array of musket balls

Medieval bronze vessel rim fragment

Small medallion Our Lady Of Boulogne (not very old)

A spindle whorl and two coper alloy rings - all probably medieval

Probable medieval haress pendant

Buttons

      

Lead scrap

Medieval buckle fragment

None of this is particularly exciting but I did make one really good find (below). This is a medieval harness pendant dating from the 13th or 14th century. It is a rare shape and it is very rare to find one of these with the pendant still swivelling freely within its frame. It made the hours of difficult detecting worthwhile.

The Holiday At Home Continues

It's harvest time here in Framlingham this week and we've been watching as the combine harvesters and tractors have been buzzing around the fields behind the garden. It's not exactly the most peaceful time but the work's got to be done and, on the positive side, when it's all over I might get chance to get out with the metal detector - it's been languishing in the garage for a couple of months now.

Living close to nature

The spell of glorious weather has continued throughout the week and the exercise classes at Fram Leisure have seen us at near melting point. It's a good job that we've been doing the classes though as the weather has been very conducive to lazing around in the garden and drinking wine or popping down to The Dancing Goat for a cappuccino and cake. (Marion has just pointed out that it is me that has been doing the lazing about - she has been busy gardening). On Wednesday night we went to Framlingham Wine Shop for the regular wine tasting and tasted some very fine wines at very reasonable prices. 

Yesterday we decided that conditions were perfect for a bike ride. For keen cyclists I'm embarrassed to say that this was one of very few ventures out on the bikes so far this year.

We didn't go far before stopping for a breakfast of cappuccino and pain au raisin at 221b in Framlingham. After that it was time to get on our way and we went from the bakery past the castle.

The castle was as photogenic as ever in the bright morning sunshine.

Before long we were out into open countryside with only the birds and the butterflies for company. We headed from Fram to Cransford and then on to Glemham before crossing the busy A12 and through Tunstall Forest to Orford.

We enjoyed some lemonade and home made sausage rolls at the cafe on the seafront at Orford and then went for a look around an Antique fair that was being held in the village hall. After that it was time for a well earned ice cream and to sit beneath the magnificent castle where we attempted to complete Saturday's Times Jumbo Crossword.After a long run of successes we failed miserably this week - may have to cut back on that wine.

Marion at the castle.

Duly refreshed from our stopover in Orford we headed back towards Framlingham at 3 o'clock. Despite our relaxation, the return journey was much harder and we were pretty saddle sore when we rolled back into Fram at four thirty five and poured ourselves a well earned glass of chilled cider. It must have been a pretty exhausting day as we woke up this morning at almost ten compared to the usual eight.

A Postcard From Suffolk

We had  great Ruby wedding Anniversary on Sunday. We relaxed in the garden and then joined our super book club friends for a few pints at The Station's beer festival. The festival was all but over when we arrived but we had a good few hours putting the world to rights over some half price beer and cider before heading home for an evening in the garden with a bottle of champagne given to us as an anniversary present by my brother Pete and his wife Val.

We kept our anniversary meal simple with a delicious cold fish platter.

Our fortieth anniversary selfie.

I know that when you are retired you are on holiday all the time but we decided to have a holiday at home this week and explore some of the local places that we've not had chance to visit yet. 

On Monday we drove to the tiny hamlet of Covehithe north of Southwold.

The thatched roofed church built within the ruins of the majestic ancient church is well worth a visit

We saw the church in the best of conditions with a glorious cloudless sky.

There was a lot of wildlife around and I saw a grass snake at the gate to the church.

After leaving the church we walked through fields to the nearby beach.

We shared the glorious miles of sand with just a handful of visitors and had a lovely day in the sun reading and relaxing to the sound of the waves.

Today we decided to head south of Framlingham and, after a couple of exercise classes at Fram Leisure, we drove to Suffolk Food Hall beneath the Orwell Bridge for a late breakfast of coffee and pains au chocolat

After breakfast we drove to the hamlet of Pinn Mill on the tidal stretch of the Orwell and went on a two mile walk through woodlands and farmland. The dappled shade in the woods was a welcome relief from the relentless heat of today.

The walk ended on the river at The Butt And Oyster where we enjoyed a very good pub lunch .

After lunch the tide had dropped so we walked along the river bank and looked at the many houseboats and other vessels dotted around the river. 

A great day's holiday at home.