Suffolk walk: Captain's wood Bluebells walk 1

 

23/04/22

Bluebells season! Spring time. We thought we wanted to walk through bluebells, so popped down to Captain's wood ( https://www.suffolkwildlifetrust.org/captainswood ) in Sudbourne, near Woodbridge. Lovely wood, sometimes encounter with herd of deer in the field or a little muntjac in woods. Feel really old, yes, often find old oak trees still standing. Feels like ancient people were watching us walking or maybe watching deer to hunt...that kind of feeling. 

Beautiful little woods, sea of bluebells under trees. Every year, we visit here for our spring walk. 

As we walked in to the gate, an old lady with a young lad walked by, she told us bluebells were not fully out yet...But it's always good to check it out. And need a fresh air anyway, walking in woods is the best for this.

A couple walked by, we had chat. Enjoy chatting with fellow walkers. Exchanging some tips, places to visit etc. They came from Cambridge, we chatted about wandlebury ring and Magog Hills, another anscient, hill, and roman road in Wandlebury ring. Both are magic place, I definitely recommend for walks if you are near by. I do like the view from the Magog hill, good view of Cambridge and Addenbrooke's! Anyway, back to Captain's wood. 

Like the old lady earlier told us, bluebells were not fully out yet, need maybe another week or so. So, next weekend will be definitely back here in Captain's wood. Also, need to visit Raydon wood. Cute woodland with bluebells patch.  Both woods, we can pop down to near by beach afterwards for a dip. Love Suffolk,  now I live in East Suffolk, coast is never too far😍

Can't wait for more bluebells walks, might as well, make the most of what we have now. My friend Ani said to me, we are so lucky to have beautiful woodland to visit. 

 I can hear woodpeckers, and birds singing in woods, creating beautiful bird songs and  birds of prey floating in the sky....so calming, and feel so grateful for being here. 

More bluebells.....next weekend...

Suffolk walk: Bluebell walk in Blakenham Woodland garden & Shingle Street Beach

 

24/04/2022

I couldn't wait to visit this garden again, such a magic garden. And for bluebells! When we popped down to Captain's wood the other day, bluebells weren't fully out yet. Needed a bit more, perhaps, they will be ready within a 3-4 days? Still, it was beautiful walk in Captain's wood. 

We got ready early, aimed for 10am at the garden, but we got a bit lost and detoured on our way to Little Blakenham where the garden is. It was gorgeous day, sun was out and perfect for bluebell walk ( well, anytime, anyweather is perfect for bluebells apart from rain.... 😅 ) People who work there are very friendly, and the lady of the house wasn't around that day. Maybe she was busy... I said to Marcus, " I am having the hot chocolate ( from Tosier) after my walk!" something to look forward to 😆 , to a perfect hot chocolate😍

We started walking, I could see bluebells already through the gate. There were impressive blossom trees, oh my goodness, they were gorgeous. They reminded me of home in Japan, I still to this day, I love blossoms. Can't get enough of them. 

Pink one, light pink one, white one, mixture of both colours....We, Japanese are really crazy about our cherry blossoms. 

Anyway, as we walked deep into the garden, started seeing more and more bluebells and variety of flowers and trees with colours. So many in one place, yet feels very wild and rustic. We felt whoever created & look after the garden knew how trees and flowers work together with human touch, working with nature and let nature do its own thing. 

There was extra bluebell wood opened, where normally closed. When we popped in there, it reminded me Hillhouse wood in west Bergholt in Essex ( https://www.woodlandtrust.org.uk/visiting-woods/woods/hillhouse-wood/ ), sea of bluebells in small space, so many, really intense, it was just like that. Scent from bluebells was so relaxing. I was so pleased we visited the garden. 

At the moment, it's open daily. £5 for admission fee, and goes to Maggies!

After our little walk ( we walked everywhere!) we went to say hello to horses. They were from local horse sanctuary. I asked the horsey guy " I am not sure if they are same horses as last time" he told me they were. then I carried on, " they were grumpy last time🤣 " He informed me they were a bit more happier now as they have a bit more space with grass to eat on. Phew, but they were still a bit grumpy, a bit like grumpy old man in a pub drinking beer at the counter. Well, we all have personalities don't we. 

Then I finally had my chocolate fix, bought a few chocolate bars and hot chocolate. I told the chef I don't eat any other chocolate now. Their chocolate is the best. All different cacao beans from different country. Oh my goodness, one I bought that day, I ate a bit last night, flavour came out and very fruity! I defo recommend their chocolate. ( https://tosier.co.uk/ ) 

Feeling echo of the hot chocolate, and a bit euphoric, we were off to Shingle street beach for a dip. It was a bit windy, but once in the water, it didn't matter so much. The water felt warmer than even last week. Didn't cold or chilly at all. Reminded of us summer days. The sea was a bit wavy and lagoons on the shore weren't quite there, so we stayed in the main lagoons in the middle of shingle desart.

I don't normally do length, but I did two! Yay! Took me a while , whilst Marcus swimming up and down. I like floating and watching sky.

It was very calming, I just watched airplanes above me thinking how huge sky was and kites  ( from kite surfers) against the blue sky was very relaxing. I could stay all day.....

Eventually, we came out from water, so happy that I went in. Water shingle street in lagoon felt a bit more saltier somehow, smelt more seaweedy. Water was clear and green. Not brown! 🤣

It's getting warmer here now in Suffolk coast, hope this continues to summer. Looking forward to more sunny weekends like this. 

In a few weeks time, we are having our retreat in Leiston abbey, fingers crossed for good weather!

Bluebells walk---Hillhouse Wood

10/May/2015

More bluebells! 

We went for walks to spend more time with bluebells. I didn't really want to do anything else but walking through the wood to submerge myself .....

And here I was, by spending time in lovely place like this made me really relax and recharge my battery, ready for another busy week!

More more people started coming into this wood to see them. Car park was full up and I'd never seen so many cars there. It was fairly sunny day that sunday. Lots of people came for walks.

Bluebells Walk---Chalkney Wood

9/May/2015

 I really didn't want to miss bluebells this year. I was really busy at work, not able to have days off on good sunny weekends, I was feeling a bit pissed off...Every weekend I had days off work were typically, raining.

So, that weekend I had my offs, really wanted to see pretty bluebells. Marcus knew I was beginning to get grumpy. It was lovely surprise he found somewhere to go and spend time with bluebells. By then, the most of bluebells were opened in lots of woods.

I felt very lucky to walk through pretty bluebell woods.

Good bluebells this year!

Here are some photos from Chalkney wood.

"The whole wood is 73 hectares of which 25ha are owned and managed by Essex County Council. The remaining 48ha are owned and maintained by the Forestry Commission.
The wood has probably been in existence since the last Ice Age. Having developed over 10,000 years it is rich in both history and wildlife. Within the wood there are the remnants of a medieval woodbank and a Roman trackway."

Chalkney Wood near Earls Colne in north Essex 

Suffolk Walks---Bradfield wood

21/April/2014

This wood is situated not far from where I live in Bury St Edmunds. I know a quite few of my friends like to go for walks. I think my friend Sylvia goes there with her dogs(she has two dogs, one is chilled out one, one is cheeky collie who flirts with women).

It's lovely place I do like it. I don't think it's a big woods, somehow, even the car park(quite small) is full, don't really bumped into lots of people. We went there, I think someone told me (sorry, it's been while now since we visited this wood) there were lots of bluebells, so we went. We did see bluebells but not as much as Hill House Wood though. We told a couple we spoke, about the hill house woods to visit for bluebells, but I didn't think they believed us there was more bluebells than the Bradfield Woods.

Anyway, we went in from the front gate and just pottered round. We found a foot path didn't see it before last time we went there. Always find something new! How exciting.

Of course, it was before summer, woods started getting really green and smell really fresh with young leaves. Mmmmm, yum yum.

Found some really funky trees too. They are our favo trees. Amazing that how trees grow, nature is very clever isn't it!

I'm not sure what this butterfly called, very pretty isn't it. Just stopping on the dandelion, chilling out, and didn't seemed to mind me taking a photo... Usually, when I try to take any photos like this, they fly off! So, I felt I was lucky that day.

Yes, yes, we saw some bluebells. Aaaarrrr, soooo calming...........

1. 
   

   1. Suffolk Wild life Trust
2. Address: Bradfield Woods/Felsham Rd, Bury St Edmunds IP30 0AQ

   Phone:01449 737996