Sufflok walks---August bank holiday weekend (26-29/Aug)

After our canoe-ing trip on river Stour, we went to Alresford creek near Wivenhoe.

 Again, I wasn't dressed for this occasion... needed to wear wellies! We drove through Wivenhoe. From where we parked his car(not sure where we started to walk from...) to the Creek was bit of a walk.

 There were untold number of blackberry bushes....unfortunately, lots of them were already mouldy..... and I ate few of them, they were watery and tasteless.... Marcus told me they were the best blackberries around, but not this year.

 Due to funny weather, they haven't been doing very well. So, I was expecting samphire to be better picking..... We had lovely walk to the creek. It was a bit rainy, still, scenery was beautiful.

It was magic, we saw two white horses on this field...nothing else...and sun just came out from between clouds. Then we saw this tree:

This is me inside the tree. Huge inside and looked like it was hit and burnt with lightening. It was completely burnt out inside. Amazing thing was; this tree still fresh young leaves growing on some branches. 

We walked passed here into woods, then energy changed. It was dark and wet woods. Through the woods, there, we came out to another walk path. It was pretty green path.

Because it was wet, greens smelt very fresh. On the side of the path, there was way in to the Creek. Then I saw samphire everywhere!!!! But I had to be careful walking on the ground. It was very wet and muddy. Here's me picking some samphire. 

And, this is how much me and Marcus picked for our dinner! Yipppeeeeee! Freshly picked samphire and free!

Suffolk walks---August bank holiday weekend (26-29/Aug)

On Friday, I took bus to Sudbury. As usual Marcus picked me up from the bus station. It's always lovely to see his face in the bus station. I enjoy bus ride there every time. I see, hear different things, and I love looking at front gardens. Some are with lovely flowers, some have knackered front garden, and some sells their plants, eggs and vegetables.

On sat, we drove to Nayland. Marcus had his canoe back from his friend who bought together. Here's Marcus blowing up the canoe.

It wasn't too heavy to carry to other side of  the River Stour.

We started from Nayland, Wiston Mill, Warminghood then back to Nayland. I felt we were on the water for a couple of hours, in fact it was lot longer.

 It was my first time on a canoe and close to water and nature like that. To be honest I wasn't sure about the blow-up canoe to start off with. But it was very stable and waterproof!

He laughed at me when I asked a question: "Is this waterproof?" Otherwise the canoe would be sunk! Same time, I was excited when I saw it became a canoe and carry to the water.

It was cloudy and rainy but sunny day. Basically it's the sort of weather we've been having for weeks and weeks. Cloud was looked like this:

Suddenly We saw a big bird with cool shape. It wasn't pigeon, or gulls. It was a heron. It had its spouse, and looked like they were living in the top of tree in the field. They flew very elegantly.  It was only a beginning. What a start!!!!

 Between Nayland and Wiston Mill was like a jungle. It was unspoilt. Then we saw...a baby beaver! I thought. But It was an otter. We wet to well close to him, but didn't seem to scared of us. The otter had pretty big eyes, looking at us. he squeaked. Cute thing. First time saw a wild otter. Then he swam under the water.

 I kept asking Marcus another silly question: " Are we near to Sudbury yet???" "No, Norie" didn't realise it was far away in the water. Very impatient of me... This is the Wiston Mill:

When we got there we had to pick up the canoe (at the portage point). We had a little snack too.

This is me sitting on the canoe. I wasn't dressed for this occasion.  I should've worn a waterproof jacket and pants etc... Never mind, It was only little practice, next time when We go for canoe-ing, I will get some proper(?) clothing for it.

 It was quiet till we saw a couple on boat. He told them they were the first people we saw all this time... We were told there was a campsite near by called Rushbank Farm. When we canoed passed there, saw quite few people camping on the site. Busy little camp site.

 Looked like lots of people had either blow-up canoes or regular canoes.

 We went a bit farther than the campsite about 20mins or so, then we headed back to Nayland. It showered hard one point☂, we got wet. But soon sun☀ came out. I found a big dragonfly( they were everywhere. big brown ones, little blue ones and saw some little white butterflies too.) on the portagepont on Wiston Mill.

He was big and beautiful. I put him down after taking this photo, but he didn't seem to want to fly off. I just was hoping he was o.k....

On our way near in Nayland, there were some swan family swimming on the water going for wonder(?) they were cute♥

Following the mama swan... they were very chilled out.... Being on water made me chilled too. Marcus did most of hard work canoe-ing ( I did some too), I really enjoyed my first time canoe. Look forward to next time.

Suffolk walks---mini camping weekend (19-21/Aug)

I really wanted to go for camping either this weekend or next weekend. Everywhere was already booked up, wild camping isn't really allowed in this country.... Where can we go???? Then, Marylin ( Marcus's mum) offered us her garden!!! Thank you! I didn't care by then where we went. As long as there was a view and somewhere to tent out.  Marcus came round mine on Fri arvo.... We camped out only one night. But it was fun. We went off Marylin's on sat morning. From Bury St Edmunds to Marylin's only takes about less thank 1hour. So we took scenic route. On our way, we stopped at Owl sanctuary called Stonham Barns. We had good look at funny but cute owls. I didn't like them in cages, but at least they were safe and lot of them were extinction in wild. And I loved the fact that they were middle of building owl hospital. I'd never seen such many owls in one place. I saw once when I was on my way back from Sudbury to Bury on the bus. there was a cute whitish brown owl sitting on the tree brunch looking at me. I was very excited! It was cool moment to have eye contact with an owl! Doesn't happen everyday! Anyway, We got to Marylin's before lunch time. We had a cuppa ( English people love cups of tea) then we went shopping to Hadleigh in rain. There was a awesome health food shop! Loved it! They have lovely foods and serve coffee and cakes too.  We also went Southwold for little walk. Here's Marylin and Marcus on the pier.

I'm not quit sure what he's doing on this photo. Is he reiki-ing her? or trying to push her????? Who knows... Southwold is very pretty beach on Suffolk coast. Very English, lots of lovely shops, and beautiful coast line.

 Shame it was grey☂. But on sunny day, Southwold looks much much prettier.♥

Then we went back home and had cuppa, off to Waitrose!!! Love the shop too. Anyway, when we came back from all shopping, we tented in Marylin's garden. Of course, after a cup of tea. I don't mind really, having lots of cuppa, we, Japanese, have lots of them all day anyway. This is my little two man tent:

Had lovely view and trees too. Marylin's garden was pretty also very tidy. I could tell it was well looked after. Apples on the trees looked yummy.

After dinner, we sat in the garden having cuppa watching stars. We saw lots of shooting stars. there were beautiful. It was even more excited me when i saw shooting stars at the same time as either Marylin or Marcus. Because they went so fast, I often missed little ones especially.

 I was hoping to see some/a UFO but it wasn't the night for them to appear..... or maybe there was... we didn't know b'cause time was stopped......Who knows.

 On the following day, me and Marcus went to Minsmere Nature Reserve (RSPB). It was situated on Suffolk coast near Dunwich. I'd never been there before. It was awesome! It was massive place, and there was old ruins too.

 What I wasn't happy about was that there was Sizewell nuclear power station at the end of it! They always have to build a power station in the nicest and beautiful area. Same happened in Japan. Do we really need them??? Answer is simple, NOOOO!!!!!

 Anyway, we walked to the beach, and fell asleep. It was very pleasant day. Saw lots of birds and people with big big cameras and binoculars/telescope??

Found pretty flower on the stony beach. Amazing even harsh environment like this, this pretty flower still can survive. 

Oh, this is the Sizewell nuclear power station.

See, they just want to ruin it, don't they?????????????????  Oh, there was a pretty church with cool unique gate near Marylin's house.

Very old and love the shape! Looks a bit mushroom doesn't it? And almost as if a hobbit was guanna come out!!! On our way back to Bury, We popped into Leiston abbey. It used to be in the Minsmere but moved to there looooooong time ago........Felt haunted! Apparently, it is haunted!!!

My curiosity says "I want to stay in this building!!!" Maybe one day, I will.

Suffolk walks---Poodle weekend 29/July-1/Aug

Hooray, another poodle weekend. 2 weeks on a row! My relaxing and chilling out time in the country again.

 Cooking and making nice dinners, lovely country walks, star gazing from conservatory and having fun with Tess and Coco with a fab company. What more do I want??? I never dreamt of living and loving country side especially when I was in London or Japan.

 I convinced myself I couldn't live without being in big cities.... tube, buses, shops, pubs, clubs, mass of mass of people on street hurry to get somewhere, not wanting to stop just in case time run out. I never stopped. I always moved 100miles per hour. One day my fuel run out, I was very tired. Then moved to little country town. I know for sure that decision was the best I made.

 Since, my love to countryside grew and grew. It's my treasure being in countryside wherever I go, I now stop, watch and feel. Beauty of nature is: always changing, never the same. I want to see everything around me, I don't want to miss anything. flowers, trees, leaves, birds and more... I always love walks we do.

This is the woods to the fields.

Weather was funny. Sunny then cloudy, then warm and cold... When we went out for walk, it was a bit like that. but I saw that as typical English weather, so I was having very English experience! I was in an  English village, old English farm house, with English person in English weather. Perhaps, that was something I dreamt when I was in Japan...???

 Grey sky with moo moos. They weren't interested in us. We wanted to talked to them but ignored. Never mind.

 On the top of the hill, we found a new path. We saw some walkers too. Walking the path would now keep till next time. The poodle's house had lovely cherry plum trees. They had tones of tones of cherry plums hanging from those trees. They were yummy. We picked loads. Marcus picked some to juice and for freezer. I picked some for myself too. (I ended up juice them and froze at home)

 I think poodle family were very kind. They didn't know me really, but they let me stay with him. Thanks to poodle family!!!

They were the trees:

It was lovely and sunny day when we picked those plums. It was Sunday 31/July. I was lying on the grass, topping up my tan...even Tess was enjoying the sun.

 Marcus was busy juicing all plums he picked. The plum juice was lovely. I hoped more sunny weather to come in August. Surprise surprise, following day (Monday) was cloudy and a bit chilly.

I wonder when is the next time I spend time with Coco and Tess? Might be winter!? Look forward to the next poodle weekend!!!

Suffolk walks---poodle weekend 22-25/july

I love poodle weekend. It was my second time spending time with poodles for whole weekend (first one was last summer). How did i get there? Well, Marcus sometimes gets this job......"house and poodle sitting".

  The house he house sits is in border of Suffolk and Essex, very pretty country side village. There are quiet woods, very old English houses and untold fields and cows.

 Also in the village, there's a pond where loads of massive fish and hungry ducks live. They can hear when people park their car just in front of it, and come closer to the edges, open their mouth and waiting to get fed. Those fish sometimes get quite aggressive to hungry ducks, they fight for bread! Poor ducks, they back off!

 Anyway, those poodles names are: naughty Tess and cheeky Coco. they are cute. Tess especially, is very naughty, she picks on little coco and corner her under chairs. Not sure sometimes what those dogs were thinking. I could guess when they wanted dinner and walk. It was fun just watching them. Tess walks funny. I suppose due to her long legs, watching her walk from back, her legs bend in the middle but outward. Marcus mentioned that too. Coco's face is funny too. when I first time met her, I said  to myself,  " I've never seen such funny face!" 

This is naughty Tess. she's like naughty teenager...☺

This is Coco. actually, She's very cute in this photo♥
 

We took them for walks near by fields and woods. Went through broad bean fields (which never got picked, apparently, they all get burnt to make better soil...) and passed through some wild blackberry bushes and cherry trees. Then... reached to one of fields with cows.

 We also walked them around the village, again went through another fields and some on road. We did this twice a day. When I looked at them, they were knackered. But when we got home, of course, Tess especially had some more energy left chasing us around in the house.

They were funny. They told us they wanted to go out to the garden, but when we opened the back door, they didn't wanna go out! They went back to sit on sofa in TV room...
 

On second day, We drove round the area, went to raspberry picking. There were rows of rows of raspberry bushes. They also did: strawberry, broad beans,  red currents and gooseberry. Those rasberries were delicious. 3 or 4 different kinds to pick from...

This is me picking raspberries.

We got 2 punnets. We both possibly ate (while we were picking) another punnet each. After picking, I felt sooooo full, I couldn't eat anymore. I'd never had so many raspberries(in one time) in my life. It was fun. This was what we picked.

On Sunday evening, sunset was very pretty. It was beautiful orange and then, as it got dark, it became purple and dark pink...

It was advantage being in the country to watch such beautiful sunset in the massive sky. I remember when I was a child, sun always set between tall sky scrapers. I never thought sky was huge and open.

On our last day, Marcus showed me a wasp nest up in loft in shed( they have old stable using as shed in the front garden).It was disused one. They didn't live there anymore. So it was empty. It was huge!!!

Oh, I forget to google how wasps make their nests... I think I'll do that when I get off this blog.....
 

Last, these are us having fun with kids bike found next to the front door.................