Suffolk walks---mini-holiday in suffolk coast

On Sunday 27th, May...It was very hot day. My friend Emma suggested us to go to the beach...It was fantastic idea, I straight away said YES!

 That morning, Emma was going come and pick me up before lunch time, but had change of plan, she turned up early with her dog Robbie. He's a cute dog, and a bit of character. When Emma got here we googled for dog friendly beach. And we found a few. "Walberswick", "Southwold", and some part of "Aldeburgh".
 

Initially, Emma was worried about it mite be too hot for Robbie, I told her some dogs I saw previous day in the Abbey Garden (in Bury St Edmunds) were fine with some water due to some nice breeze. So I got a big bottle of water for Robbie just in case. I was ready to go. All we needed then was to decide where to go. We decided to..."Walberswick"!!!
 

By the time we got there, it was hot. although there was some cold sea breeze, just right in the sun. this Robbie on my window.

From this photo, somehow he looks like a cat. He's a dog. 

this is my friend Emma with her van. Very suits her! VW camper van would suits her even more!  She's a bit of hippie too.

 Can you see how nice is there? it doesn't happen often. Up till previous week, it was raining and very cold. I even put central heating one evening. Then, suddenly it got hot. The Sunday and sat were very hot, I even got burnt a bit! I don't mind really.

 Anyway, it was busy. The carparking lady was cramping us in. It was packed. 

Last time me and Marcus came here was in the winter time. It was cold, although that day wasn't too bad, it wasn't busy. I even saw kids and family were catching crabs! We walked towards the beach. I was very excited! I was sure Robbie was excited too!

Arrrr, they look so sweet together. Inside Emma's bag... Our lunch! ☺☺☺

It was really sunny that day, but still look grey somehow and the sea looks...brown...not a blue! We took Robbie to the sea, he didn't want to go in....

When Emma was having a nap, I took Robbie for a walk, I run to the sea... Robbie came with me. We got wet. Water was very chilly. Nice though. We did small-ish circular walk. Guess what I saw... Samphire! they were coming up! everywhere! They were really tiny. Then I got excited again, just imagining picking them fro our dinner/lunch. Can't wait the season to come.

When we got back to Emma, we felt it was nearly a cake time. So we left Walberswick, then off to Southwold! I do love Southwold. It's very pretty Suffolk coast and town.
 

We left Robbie in the car, off to the pier for our cakes and coffee! ☺☺☺

We popped in some shops( charity shops) on the high street. I found some bargains for my e-bay. Joules was cool, they had 25% off sale. We didn't buy anything but looking around. 

Everyone on the beach was chilling out. Granny and Grandad on chairs with a dog, young families with picnics, and even sea gulls were chilling out...

When we got back to the car, took Robbie for a little wee, now, we were off again. Emma said Aldburgh wasn't far from there, and we fancied some chips.

So, we did. When we got there, parked up opposite of the chip shop. Wow, looooong ques. Apparently the shop on the high street was closing at 4pm on Sunday. It was 3.40pm. By the time we got inside the shop and ordered was nearly 4pm. We had chips, veg burger and mushy peas! How naughty of us, eating naughty foods... well, we enjoyed our day and all food we had that day. It was another fantastic day.
 

I slept really well that night, well, always do, but when I spend time with/in nature, I sleep even more!
 

Thanks to Emma, for driving and her company (we laughed lots!❀❀❀) look forward to another adventure!

Suffolk walks---Captain's wood- 13/May

We had another sunny(?) weekend. Not whole weekend we had sunny weather, sunny Sunday was enough. Marcus came to see me on Sunday morning. I got up really early with sun shine into my bed room. I had a little bit gardening at 9am, had breakfast, shower and checked on E-bay. Then Marcus turned up. It was lovely to see him (as always!☺).

 He fixed the flat tire on my bike. It was around lunch time we left for pottering afternoon with our snacks. Marcus and I still wanted to see more bluebells, so we were on our mission to look for more. Luckily, he looked up on the net where to go in Suffolk. He found woods called " Captain's wood", it situated in between Orford and Snape.

We drove past Ipswich, into country lanes, villages...again, found ourselves getting a bit lost. Yes, we didn't take a map or directions from the internet. However we always find our way anyway, sometimes, don't need it! ☺ After 1hour or so driving in Suffolk, we finally found the school lane where the wood was. Its car park was about 300m away from the wood, we needed to walk back. It was lovely walking there and back too. We saw a quaky old school house. There was a friendly horse by the road. Said hello and had a chat with him. very friendly and cheeky. When we left for the wood, the horse was looking at us for a while as if "don't you wanna play with me anymore????". Cute❀❀❀

When we got to the wood, it was open land with few trees... wasn't it wood??? Very inpatient with me, I couldn't see the wood. We walked through the open land with lots of yellow flowers on the sides of the path, at the end, it looked like we were getting in to the wood. It was very beautiful.

 As we getting in deeper into the wood, more and more trees, we saw really old trees too. And a little bit bluebells. I thought "Is that is???". Very inpatient of me yet again. I kept wanting to look deep into the trees, I kept feeling something different from woods we go to. I felt very ancient about this wood. (Apparently Marcus felt that too, told me later)

Here's old trees we found in the wood.

Old tree with new tree growth❀❀❀

Awesome tree! ☺

As we walking more and more, we found ourselves walking on the squidgy earth. I wish I was wearing my wellies, I thought. We had our wellies in the car! Silly me....
And then, Guess what we found! Bluebells! We found a bench, so we decided sitting on the bench and have a pear, watching bluebells...

It was very pretty. But one thing, this part of the wood was situated just right next to a pig firm. So, it was a bit smelly though walking through it. Then, very posh English family with a grand dad walking past. The posh kid asked us "Enjoying your pears?" Cor blimey, how he said and asked was like 50 years old man in 8 year old kid body. He was very posh, very pleasant kid and grand dad though. His mum and dad said nothing, but it was nice to see the kid and gran dad getting on well.

We carried on walking. This was a big circular walk, not knowing ( and not thinking) how long the walk was going to be... it was a bit chilly time to time. Then we saw.....

more bluebells! It was beautiful. What I loved the wood was; there was a big pond (I think) and a little water fall! That part of the wood was covered with cute bluebells. We saw people walking with cameras, taking photos of the bluebells. Kids were playing, suddenly, it was very lively. Where we just walked through was very quiet, and didn't really see may people. Still, there weren't many people there. Soaked in bluebells on 3 weekends on the row were magic. I can still feel now, bluebells energy.....☺☺☺

Walking along the water, we found a more old trees. One of trees had a half body open. So I went there did some Qi-Gong..(tree pose)

I felt  becoming one with the tree!!!☺☺☺

When we got back to the entrance, we read info about the wood. Apparently it went back to middle age, men were hunting deer there till 20th century. Yes, there are some ancient trees.

Suffolk Wildlife Trust says:
"The fallow deer are the most obvious large mammals but foxes are occasionally seen and badgers are known to live in the wood. Barn owls, which make use of holes in the veteran trees for nesting, hunt the rough grassland areas at dawn and dusk. Other raptors that can be seen regularly include kestrel, sparrowhawk, buzzard together with marsh harriers that come up from the nearby Alde estuary to hunt for small mammals in the grassland."

We saw lots of funny droppings, I knew they belonged to badgers! I've seen them before. We didn't seen badgers though, perhaps, they were chilling out in their dens...

We heard an owl. Birds were singing, it was beautiful♥♥♥

After vising the wood, we drove down to the church called St Botolph's church in Iken. It was again, very pretty and old.

It was late Sunday afternoon, the church was still opened and unlocked. Very trusty. And very nice of this church people to stay unlocked. Lots of churches are usually locked on late Sunday. I really liked it. Peaceful. There was a full blooming cherry blossom trees outside the gate.  It was very pretty. ❀❀❀

Just like ones in Japan!

We would love to come here again and explore in summer. There are so many lovely places and walking paths, we need to stay here for a week--- "holiday in Suffolk!"

Is this really May?

Cor, blimey..it's been really cold for May weather. Rain☂ and cloudy day almost every day. Well, if you live in England, it's not really a surprise. England is famous for funny rainy weather anyway. It reminds me of back in late 80's, when I just arrived in this country. It was cold and raining. But somehow I really loved it. Looked very romantic when I walked along the river Thames in rain with a cheap brolly on my hand. Watching people getting on and off from the back of double decker bus(old ones!), thinking "wow! I'm in London!"

Everything I saw, I was very excited. I used to hang out in the Kensington market and made some friends with people who used to work there. My first ears pierced were: the basement of the Ken market. Then I had a cup of milky cup of tea there. Around 5pm, I headed back to Turhnam Green where I used to stay with this English family. I didn't want to go home, because I got bullied there. It was really hard that I didn't speak English, wanted to talk to the family, but wasn't able to communicate. They thought I was unfriendly grumpy Japanese girl, perhaps.... In the end, they kicked me out, I had to leave the house on that weekend. I didn't have anywhere else to go.

Then, one of my Japanese friend introduced me to Tom and Sylvia in Boston Manor. I stayed with them rest of my stay in London. And got in touch with them till when I came to London 3 years later. They treated me really well, looked after me like one of their family members. As years went on, I lost in touch with Tom especially after Sylvia passed away with cancer. I miss her terribly. And, Tom. They were  one of the kindest and warmest people I'd met in my entire life.
 

I think that's one of reasons I do my best to keep in touch with some people. I don't want to regret thinking, "I wish I shoud've spent more time with her/him/them." These days I do ring my parents, and speak to them. Yes, I do miss my mum especially.  Next year, I would like to go to Japan to see them and my nephew and niece!
 

My mum knitted a cardigan and scarf. I gave the scarf to Marcus, he really liked it. Me with mums cardy, I really love it too. Lovely dark grey, and my favo colour too.
 

This is me, wearing the cardigan in the shop where I work(book shop side.)...

 

This side of our shop has books and Cd's, DVD, puzzles and stamps. The other side for clothes and some bric a bracs. I love the shop. It's like everyday- is -a -Christmas!☃
 

Anyway, it was the first time my mum knitted a cardigan for me. I'm going to treasure it. I won't sell it on the E-bay! Promise....!☺

Suffolk walks---magic woods & blue bells

Last Monday and today(7th/may/bank holiday), we had a bit sunshine ☀.

it's been raining all week, and cold! Apparently, coldest May in long time. Last Sat, me and Marcus were wondering If blue bells were coming up. I ordered sunshine for following Monday for us to see blue bells in the magic wood. Till then, it was raining really hard. There were floods everywhere in the country, the country road near Marcus's also had little flood. We wondered..."are they survived this weather??" ☹ Last year, we went to see them twice during the peak. It was unbelievably beautiful. I'd never ever seen so many blue bells in my entire life. We didn't want to miss it this year. So we went there. Here they were. they were everywhere. They survived this rain. Sooooo cute♥♥♥ and beautiful♥♥♥

 Before we went into the woods, a lady with muddy feet told us she saw some wild orchids. That got me really excited. Since that point, I was on the mission to find them.

Of course, I enjoyed every moment, everything I saw there. Everywhere I looked, there were full of blue bells. I loved the energy there. Although it was sunny day, there weren't too many people in the woods, very peaceful and quiet. We could hear lots of different birds were singing, we even heard our first cuckoo together, and we saw small yellow wood pecker too! Magic!

 

This weather ☂ made the woods really muddy. And little river in the woods were full last Monday. Today, it wasn't too bad. looked like the water already subsided. It's in the Essex and Suffolk border, I could hear little water fall, stream, and the sound of water made me very calm, actually I forgot about Ebay...(I wanted to bid on some bracelet...)

Well, I forget lots of things, to be honst when I'm in calm environment....It might be something to do my age...? ☺ No, I don't think so... it's always good to remember to be in the present.... ☺And, it wasn't very important, if it was, I would defo remember.

After walking everywhere in the woods, we finally found cute wild orchids. I'd never seen them before. They were much much tinier than ones we see in shops. I think I prefer these cute orchids. they were beautiful. ❀❀❀

 

This woods have also wild garlic by the little river. Smelt like Chinese/Japanese garlic chive. Every time I smelt the garlic, It reminds me of miso soup my mum used to make. It was called "nira(garlic chive) no miso shiru(miso soup)". My mum used to make it with cubed tofu.

Anyway, guess where those orchids were... There were just by the front entrance of the woods. I thought the lady said right hand side of the woods, Marcus heard left side of the woods. Oops, I was hearing it differently. They were in left hand side of the woods.

This is a wild orchids. Isn't it cute?

So as blue bells. They are cute too. Last year, we didn't see any rapeseed. I think bluebells came out late. I'm sure it was the middle of May. Or they just came out early this year?
 

When we went for walk today in the woods, it was sunny with a bit clouds to start off with. after walking for a while, I felt rain coming. So we headed back to the car. After 30mins or so, it started raining. Good timing! Then thought about two ladies and a blind guy who asked us direction to the woods. We wondered if they got wet... We were sure that trees kept them off the rain. ☂
 

I always forget the name of the woods. I need to ask Marcus again. It's not very big woods, but somehow can get lost in it.
 

This is me in the rapeseed field. I always wanted a photo like this. These flowers look pretty, smell of them are horrible though! ☹