Suffolk walk: Framingham

31/OCT/'22

Early this week, we went to Framingham. Nice Co-op there, I think I told you before. Sure, we went there to get some snack. There's a little footpath around the lake, it was a bit muddy due to rain. We managed to do the whole footpath. The castle looked pretty from the other side with the water, a kestrel was circling on the lake, I think it lives there 🤔, I have seen it before. It came very close to us, it had a cute face😍 .

We took my Trekinetic ( all terrain wheelchair) to do this little footpath. Some bits were a bit narrow for wheelchair user to go through. I needed to get off and walked a bit. 

Path was muddy, my wheel splashing mud and dead leaves onto my thighs, thought it would be nice if it had mudguards 😅! Anyway, we managed the whole footpath, we came up the hill where the castle was ( near the pub, entrance to the castle) it was a bit of hill, Marcus needed to work even harder. But ground was damp and slippery, it was a bit of effort but we managed. 

It was a bit grey day, thick clouds over us. Still, Framingham looked pretty, I do love the town. We came out from a little wooden gate next to the pub ( near entrance to the castle English Heritage) we wheeled on to the road then into the church. They decorated the iron gate and entrance to the church with crochet poppies for remembrance day. It looked beautiful.

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Just one more thing.....  I recently purchased 1.2L kettle, my old one was nearly died. 1.2L! Compact ( doesn't take much space in my small kitchen) and cute😍 It looks so cute that I even go into the kitchen, for no reason, but just looking at the kettle. 🤣 then decide to put kettle on, watch how fast water boils and how much it eats electric ( watching the smart meter🤣 ) and have my cup of tea. This makes "making a cuppa' fun every time. What do you have some fun with everyday things? 

Suffolk Walk: Orford Ness NT

 16/10/'22

 I was so excited that finally visited to Orford Ness this sunday. It was huge! Much bigger than what I expected. 

We arrived a bit earlier than when we booked for the little NT ( National Trust) ferry to across the river. Felt like I wasn't wearing the right footwear, never mind I was able to get into the ferry with help of NT lady. I was a bit feeling tired, so not sure how far I could walk.

When we arrived on the Ness, walked to a van ( from WW2 I would imagine) to listen to the guide explaining us about Ness and footpaths. I am a bit def, I wasn't able to hear all of what he was saying, good job, Marcus ( my partner) got good hearings. They did ask me if I could walk for a few miles to get to the office ( we hired off road NT mobility scooter), I thought I could walk. I was wrong, it was farther than what I expected, I started moaning 😅 as usual... Anyway, took us a bit but got there in the end. As soon as I got on the scooter, I was happy. I loved it, walked a lot on the ness. 

The view from the viewpoint was amazing. Shingles everywhere, so wide and ..... nothing there.... apart from remains from what they used that time. 

Weather was ok, it was a bit windy but bearable. We had a little rain ( spitting a bit), stopped quickly. I was told on the Ness, either windy and cold or blasting with heat and really hot, but it wasn't bad, actually it was quite pleasant. We had lovely time there. We decided to come back to Ness for nature walk, which we didn't have time to do that day. Nature took over the Ness, I would love to walk ( with the scooter) the footpath. 

Oh, we popped into the war exhibition, it was interesting what went on on the Ness. At the same time, when I saw a diagram about atomic bombs which, scared me. Ones were dropped in Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan were one of smallest ones. How scary is that, they caused so much damages and people are still suffering after mass of atomic bombs. I pray for peace, world peace. 🙏

There's more photos from the Ness below! 

 

Links to Orford Ness below:

https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/orford-ness-national-nature-reserve

https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/orford-ness-national-nature-reserve/features/visiting-orford-ness-what-you-need-to-know

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orford_Ness

Suffolk Walk: Shingle Street beach --- Full Moon

 8 & 9th/ October/'22

Lagoon & the cottage

Full moon, super low tide, mild temperature and sunny, we decided to go to Shingle Street beach for moon watching ( and dips of course) this weekend. We timed for low tide for our dip. It was truly magical. 😍

Super low tide due to partly the full moon, it created the lagoon by the shore again. Long, calming waves, in & out to the lagoon. Changed the landscape again. It was very 'hilly' up and down... desert shingle beach...so huge, and panoramic. Only Shingle street can create view like this. 

On Saturday, it was very calm, no much wind, so surface of the lagoon was very still. As the sun started setting, the light changed and I could see the clouds above on the lagoon. Sky was blue, light pink and misty grey purple over the sea holizen. It was soooo beautiful. 

Then about 6:30pm, the moon started rising over the sea holizen. It came out pinkish colour, then orange then golden colour. 

It was a bit cloudy and windy than saturday, loads of kite surfers were at the beach...nearly 20 of them, and one of vans stayed overnight from saturday. We could smell they were cooking dinner from miles away on Saturday night, being friendly, tried to have a conversation going, but maybe they didn't hear us ( or concentrating cooking in their van), we were ignored🤣.

Can you see the Jupiter?

We saw a lady came for the moon on saturday evening, who came again this evening. She had her friends, enjoying cuppa, chat and watching the full moon. They live locally, and they love watching full moon every month together 🥰 . 

We dipped in the sea and lagoon on both afternoon. Dipped, got changed, warmed up in our car then went back out for the full moon. It was lovely evenings, never saw sunset and full moon rising at the same time. I thought we must come here more often for sunrise, solstice, equinox, sunset, full moon rise, new moon rise etc...dip in the sea! 

Two moon watchers under the full moon

There are from tonight. 

We also drove into Sutton heath, former RAF base ( now called 23 parachute regiment, they changed the sign!), we wanted to see what's inside ( nice houses, and wide roads...), hadn't been inside for ages. As we drove in, we saw a community store! Then we saw a little roundabout, then...two army officers ( one had a big gun) standing at a reception like building. As we drove past, I waved at them, they waved me back. What were they guarding? Well, they thought I wasn't a terrorist ( thank god! 🤗 ), otherwise I would've got shot. 😅 Very curious, I wonder what is inside 🤔. Rendlesham forest next to it, so they might have an alien, or cloning alien DNA, and creating some civilization? Or ...? What do you think? 😻

On our way back from Shingle street in dark, we saw a little animal strolling across the road, I said: " it's a possum!!!" it wasn't 😆. It was a baby muntjac with mama muntjac looking for night snack getting into someone's garden. It was night like that when we often saw small herd of deer by the forest. Hope I can see them again soon.

What a wonderful weekend. I am a bit tired now, bed soon. Under the full moon....😌 

Suffolk Walk: Shingle street beach - Orford

 2/10/2022

We went out to Orford after our dip in Shingle Street on Saturday, I hadn’t been there for ages. Initially when I saw the castle, I really thought they were making the castle into apartments😅 It does look like that doesn’t it. Then saw a drawing of what it looked like years ago when it was in hay day. I spent a few minutes looking around imagining how people used to live. Shingle street beach looked different again, the sea pushed shingles from both sides, now becoming one huge mound-like on the shore. We dipped into the lagoon, ooo, how did those algae appear again? Nothing in summer! Then wondered, maybe algae and sea plants like chilly water….

Have you been to Orford NT? I haven’t been there yet. Hopefully we’ll visit next weekend. Someone on youtube once did a documentary about Orford Ness, and recorded some EVPs ( for ghost hunting😅 ). I doubt I will encounter some sprit people there🤔 . Anyway, today’s walk in this afternoon, we popped down to Chillesford church, off B1083, Shottisham. Heard some fossils of shells were found, so we drove there and had a look. There’s a huge ditch next the church ( cute church☺️ ). Below is what we found on edge of the ditch, and lots of old shells on the ground too. The church looked like standing on a mound. My imagination tickled, maybe perhaps, it was built on a mound, (mound) made by Anglo- Saxons😍. After that, we popped into Rendlesham forest for a little walk on Biking track into Suffolk Wild Trust footpath. I attached MT bike track below, if you would like to check it out for a weekend activity😁. This is the track, a pair of buzzard tried to kidnap me to their nest. So, you may find buzzards circling above you waiting for you to get injured….😅

https://www.forestryengland.uk/rendlesham-forest/cycling-and-mountain-biking-trails-rendlesham-forest

 Photo above is flowers in a vase in the church. How the light came through, it looked like it had a light inside the vase. It looked very pretty and magic. Lovely church. And, If you are member of a camper club ( can'r remember which one....) you are able to stay a night! What a spot to spend a night...

Suffolk Walk: Bungay, Outney meadow campsite & Kayaking

 

3/07/22

We went kayaking in Bungay joined by our friend, Yvonne. We met up at the campsite where we launched our kayak. We'd never kayak at this end of Suffolk, we have done in Sudbury, another beautiful part of Suffolk.

Marcus recently purchased secondhand kayak which can be connected one person or two persons. I was a bit uncertain about the kayak, I only sat on deep two person blow up ( very sturdy one)  kayak. I didn't want to fall in the water. Again, I wasn't sure about a river, vegetation inside the water completely put me off from dipping in the water. ( funny how I convinced myself I didn't want to fall, I wasn't sure getting on the kayak. I wanted Marcus to practice then, I would be confident enough to get on it...😆 )

Anyway, Marcus and Yvonne eventually launched ( long story, one of Yvonne's blow up kayak had huge holes which appeared to be eaten by a mouse...no matter how hard she was pumping up, it didn't pump up. I kept saying, it has holes! but I wasn't heard, she kept pumping for another 10 mins or so, then realised had holes. So she started pumping up her spare one. Took her over 30mins to launch. ) then paddling away on the river. Looked very nice. 

In the meanwhile, I was going to rest on one of benches by the river, but decided to go for a little walk. I went out from the campsite, through the gate next to the site, walked into the nature reserve. 

I met some cute friendly cows, I was looking for somewhere to sit down and chill out. The river looked lovely, but I kept walking.....said hello to cows and they followed me a bit. Then started sniffing me! A few of them actually came really close to me and licked my hands 😆 One was licking my camera bag.... I thought they were checking on me....I told them I was vegetarian as I do always when I meet cows and piggies. 🐄 ❤️ 

I trodded on, came out from the field, then walked into the reserve. I thought "let's walk for just 5 mins, towards water"...then ended up walking the whole circular path. It was long walk for me as I get fatigue these days. Even when I walk 10 mins, I am exhausted and out of breath. So, for me to walk this circular walk was a lot. took me over an hour to do. I walked slowly and enjoying the views and scenery.  I figured out somehow it was circular walk, I knew this golf course next to the campsite, so I was sure I would be ended up by the site. I usually take "unofficial " footpath, and get lost. I was impressed myself, I actually figured out and did this footpath. Achievement! yay! 😊 

By the time I came back to the campsite, I was knackered. So, I made myself comfortable in back of Marcus's car, and started listening to music......after 5 mins or so, Marcus came back to the car! Oooooo, I was going to have a nap! Never mind....😓 

Gave Yvonne her car key back, we tidied up kayak and packed our car. Yvonne drove off. She enjoyed it! We spoke to this family who were camping over the weekend, and he told us this campsite was lovely site and the river was one of the best river he kayak in this country. As he said, water was clear, no mortar boats sailing through. Lovely part of the river there. 

Marcus did well with his new kayak, I had some confident on him now. so, next time I will sit on the kayak and let him addle for me! 😂 ( I am a terrible paddler, need more practice! )

Looking forward to next time...

Suffolk Caravan Park, Outney Meadow, Bungay, Suffolk

https://www.outneymeadow.co.uk

Suffolk Walk: Dunwich Heath and the view

 

4 & 5th July, 2022

Photo above is the view from the heath which is one of my favorite view from the heath. I love looking over Minsmere. Beautiful. This time of the year, colour is green, seeing wild life is a magic.  

we had heat wave in U.K....It was hot. Hot for this country. 😆 Certainly, we weren't ready and UK wasn't made for this. 

We went down to Dunwich heath for dips on both day. Not too many people there either. It was lovely. The sea wasn't brown either. Temperature was warm , so we stayed all day dip in and out of the sea. It was like when we went to Greece. 

Photos of Dunwich heath here. 😍