RSPB Minsmere

 I'd not been to Minsmere the RSPB reserve on the coast here for a very long time. It's completely changed with new visitor centre, cafe and shop.

Unfortunately it wasn't a good day for spotting birds - for me anyway- I'm sure others did better. The dry weather had dried up the 'scrape' which is the usually huge area of shallow water over mud that wading birds enjoy. The reeds are so tall that I couldn't see over them from one of the hides and the morning sun reflecting on the water didn't help and I just didn't have the energy for walking too far for some reason.

Even walking through the woodland it was really quiet , the only birds I heard were a robin and a wren and elsewhere I only saw a moorhen, mallard ducks, magpies and crows and one solitary goose.

Oh well.

A few photos.

That's Sizewell Power Station in the Distance. The distant sound of pile-driving for the new Sizewell C could be heard from Minsmere and from the my holiday lodge site. Luckily only in daytime!

I went in the cafe for a warming cup of coffee and a ginormous sausage roll - I cut in half and took away for later. 

On the wall  there are some very unsettling pictures that tell part of the history of the RSPB.. Originally set up to stop the use of feathers in hats and other fashion items.

  

The one above says between 1870 and 1920 64,000 tons of dead birds were imported into London alone.

The Society for the Protection of Birds, triumphed with the Plumage Act of 1921. Making it illegal to import dead birds into Britain.

The dry weather this summer hasn't helped the waders and other birds that usually breed in this country.

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Dunwich Heath

 National Trust land - saved for the Nation, but £6 to park as I'm no longer a member.

This is an area all along this part of the coast which is protected heathland. I don't think I've ever seen the heather so colourful before

The view north to Dunwich village, Southwold in the distance and the cliffs that fall into the sea every winter.

The heathland was beautiful in the sunshine

This collection of buildings were once cottages for the coastguards. Now they are holiday lets and tearooms and shop all belonging to the National Trust

National Trust info HERE

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Southwold Pier

 Last time I went to Southwold in January 2023 it was to visit the church in town and I had problems with the car tyre pressure warning coming on and didn't dare stay too long so  it's years since I'd been down to the pier end of the town and hadn't actually been on the pier since it was restored and that was in 2001.

So that's where I went one morning. I'd picked the windiest day and the sea was really rough. The pier has got a couple of shops, the 'Under the Pier ' collection of strange machines, a slot machine arcade, fish and chip shop and a good restaurant..

Southwold sea front and lighthouse from the pier.

A couple of the crazy machines , some are very old and others are more recent made by a local Suffolk man.

The water clock that 'performs' every half hour but it was way too windy to stand and watch

It was a very high tide and the waves were crashing on the sea wall by the beach huts. These beach huts, day use only, sell for crazy prices, the equivalent of buying a small house or a flat in other parts of the county. No one using them on a rough September day.

I had a crab salad meal in the restaurant - it was delicious.

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Walberswick

 In the 1960s this place was THE village for artists and poets etc. My Grammar school friend Ally, whose father was Lawrence Self, a well known artist of the time, used to holiday here every summer, which I thought odd then as it was only an hour from home - that was before I knew  about it's arty/hippy  reputation. (Laurence Self eventually split with my friends Mum and re-married and nowhere on line is there any mention of the 4 children he had with his first wife!)

Now it gets crammed full with visitors in summer. In the early 90's when the children were still small enough for beach days it's where we went from the smallholding - being the nearest sandy place. 

Later they used to put up signs on Summer weekends (there's only one road in and out of the village) to say 'The Village is Full!" . Now they put people off visiting by turning all the car parks to ones where you need a phone app to pay and stay. I didn't!

The bridge I'm standing on to take the photo is one where people go crabbing. The World Crabbing Championships were held here for many years until they became so popular the village was overwhelmed and they finished in 2010.

 Colin had to come here with a boat and other members of the Bridge Department to check the bridges every other year. The water was too high for crabbing when I was there and for getting a boat under the bridge.

These buildings by the harbour were once for fishermen , now they are mainly expensive holiday lets.

I went back and parked in the village itself. It has tea shops and a couple of gift shops

I walked down to the beach and passed a man standing by his car - we said 'morning' as you do and then I did a double take and said ' oh hello I recognise you' .It was TV/radio broadcaster and author Paul Heiney who lives in this part of Suffolk with his wife, radio broadcaster and author Libby Purves. On my way back I just had to tell him that we had moved into Grove Road in Knodishall not long after they had moved away from the other end of the road.  Don't know what he thought of this strange woman speaking to him!

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Pakenham Water Mill

 I last visited the water mill a few years ago on a National Mills Day. This Craft Day looked interesting and there was nothing else happening so I went to have a look.

Ladies spinning and weaving

I'd never seen a Bow and Arrow maker at any event before

Stanton Folk were there making music

 

The Owl and Raptor group. Owls are bred bred in captivity so the are used to being out in daytime and being admired

A stick maker had all sorts of interesting walking sticks

West Suffolk Beekeepers had their honey show and a warning that these hornets have been seen in south Suffolk this summer. 

Some photos of the information signs in the mill itself

The Mill Wheel is huge

On special days they fire up the original bread oven and use their own milled flour to make several different loaves for tasting.

The Maslin loaf on the right was lovely. That's what everyone would have eaten in the medieval period when rye, oats and barley were all sown together. 

The Mill's own website is HERE

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Grimes Graves

 Thought I'd better use my English Heritage membership to visit here. I've been a couple of times before but last time the children were probably under 10 so it was a long time ago.

It's in Norfolk, NW of Thetford just over an hour from home.

The area was named by the Anglo Saxons meaning "Pits of the Pagan God Grim"

From ground level it's difficult to see this very weird landscape of grassy hollows. Below is just one of hundreds. The empty area of Grimes Graves is surrounded on all sides by forest. 

Recently this building has been erected over the entrance to the only pit that is open to view. It involves climbing down a long ladder backwards, which I didn't fancy but there is also a video of everything down there which I sat and watched instead.  

This is a drawing of a cross section of what it would have looked like .

Flint from Norfolk has been found all over the country, needed everywhere so traded widely.

Then along came the Bronze and Iron Ages and mining at Grimes Graves finished

Sheep graze the site to keep the grass down.

The English Heritage Website page  is HERE

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