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| The vegetable garden |
I can't believe that it's
more than a month since I wrote a blog! Sorry, if anybody has been
missing my musings (and if not, why not?).
On 19th July
I headed through Norfolk once more and back into Suffolk to my next
hosts who were located about two miles, as the crow flies, from the
community at East Bergholt and about six miles by road! Lyn and Colin
live in a large house with extensive gardens and a couple of paddocks
that, at this time of year, contain four orphan lambs and three pigs,
all ultimately destined for the freezer. They also have quite a few
chickens, two cockerels and two, rather elderly Muscovy ducks that
live in an enclosure beyond the only remaining wall of an erstwhile
walled garden. There are still the remains of one of the greenhouses
against the inside wall and a large, sprawling grapevine that
obviously was inside another greenhouse, at some point. Inside the
poultry area is the original gardener's bothy complete with chimney
and original cast iron grate.
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| The gardener's bothy |
When I arrived there
was already another WWOOFer there, Melodie, from France. At first I
found her a bit quiet and aloof but after a couple of days we were
laughing and chatting like a couple of schoolgirls despite our age
difference (she was 26). I realised, yet again, just how much of the
French I was taught at school still resides in the dark recesses of
my brain, as I dredged up nouns and eventually whole phrases to help
the communication process. Melodie also tried to teach me some new
words that would stand me in good stead if (when?) I ever go to WWOOF
in France, such as 'mauvaise herbes' (weeds), 'punaise' (bug) and
'limace' (slug).
The weather was still
very hot so our day started at 9.00am when we fed the pigs and let
out and fed the poultry. We had to let the two ducks out first
because they spent their days in the vegetable garden outside the
poultry run and always walked very slowly and sedately, as befitted
their great age. Then we would let out the hens and top up their
feeders and drinkers before getting on with the main task of the day,
which was weeding in the vegetable garden. At about 10.30 we would be
called in for a coffee break and then work on again until lunch at
1.00pm. Lunch was usually eaten on the decking area near the swimming
pool and consisted of salad, cheese and cold meats followed by
homemade cake and a cup of tea. We were then free until 5.30pm when
we would feed the pigs again, pick up the eggs and wash them and then
water the polytunnel and garden, if necessary. At about 9.00pm one of
us would go out and shut in the hens and usher the two ducks back to
their quarters before shutting the doors on the polytunnel.
I had great ideas about
going for walks in the afternoon but it was so hot that I usually
retired to my room at the top of the house and had a siesta! On one
particularly hot day Melodie and I both ventured into the unheated swimming
pool. She had been a keen competition swimmer in her teens and I
sadly realised that, although I hadn't forgotten how to swim, I had
never been very good to start with! After a few minutes of splashing about, I got out. I didn't bother going in again –
it seemed too much like hard work!
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| A Thames barge at Pin Mill |
On my days off I
continued my exploration of this part of Suffolk, although I decided
not to bother going into either Ipswich or Colchester as I don't
really like large towns and retail therapy holds no interest for me.
I headed off, via Manningtree (the smallest town in England), towards
the coast and ended up on a peninsula between the rivers Orwell and
Stour from which I had a marvelous view of the container port at
Felixstowe! From there I went to Pin Mill which is a tiny riverside
hamlet, with land owned by the National Trust, and had lunch at the
Butt and Oyster, a very old pub right on the quayside, before going
for a short walk along the river. However, it was far too hot to walk
far and I headed back to Dedham quite early in the day and took
refuge in my room.
On another day I walked
from the house down into Dedham (about a mile away), had a cup of tea
in the Essex Rose tea rooms, walked along the river to Flatford Mill
where I stopped for lunch in the (overpriced) restaurant and then
continued to walk in a loop back to Dedham before going to the
Munnings Collection which lies about 0.75 miles from the village
centre.
Alfred Munnings is
probably most famous for his equine paintings, but he was also an
excellent portrait painter and was a war artist attached to the
Canadian Cavalry in World War 1. In this the centenary year there was
a new exhibition of some of these paintings and sketches and they
were incredibly moving. The whole house has been bequeathed to the
nation and it makes a wonderfully informal art gallery where you can
sit on comfortable sofas in the library, pretty much as Alfred and
his guests did, and look at the paintings.
I spent a good couple
of hours wandering around before setting off once more up the hill
and then along Long Road West towards Grove Hill and 'home'.
Unfortunately for me, Long Road West is very well named and is very straight so that I could see
the road junction in the distance. After walking for some minutes I
looked up and saw that the junction appeared no nearer! It was like a
nightmare journey where the ultimate goal just keeps moving further
away! It was made even more nightmarish as the sky was getting darker
and darker with the odd rumble of thunder and I had no rainwear! I
later found out that Long Road West is at least a mile long from
where I met it to the junction so no wonder it felt like it went on
forever. By the time I got back I had probably walked the best part of six miles and I was exhausted.
On the Tuesday of my
second week another WWOOFer arrived, a lady of my own age from former
East Germany. Her son had bought her WWOOF UK membership for a year
as her Christmas present as he thought she should do some travelling.
I thought she was extremely brave to WWOOF in a foreign country as
her first experience. I had to chuckle on her first morning as she
appeared brandishing a small fork that she'd brought with her – I
wondered if it was an age-related thing as it is one of the tools
that I wouldn't be without, either!
On my last day off I
went back to Old Hall for coffee and got invited to stay for lunch
too, which was lovely. They had a whole army of new WWOOFers in
residence, about ten of them, I think, so I was quite glad that I was
just passing through. I then drove to Hadleigh where I stocked up
with new gardening gloves (at £1.45/pair) from Partridge's hardware
shop, had a brief look inside the church and then wandered along the
river watching the fish and the damsel flies before, more
prosaically, filling up with petrol at the cheapest garage that I
knew in the area ready for the 'off' on Saturday.
On my last day in
Suffolk, Colin gave Dorothea, Melodie and I an exclusive tour of the
bell tower at Dedham church where he rings the bells. The bells are
no longer rung in the conventional way as the swinging of that amount
of weight had caused serious structural damage to the tower, so now
the bells are chimed instead. I must admit that the crack running
down the inside of the tower was pretty impressive! The view from the
top of the tower, however, was well worth the climb as it was quite a
clear day and we could see all the way to Felixstowe, as well as
having a birds eye view down over Dedham.
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| View from Dedham Church tower towards Felixstowe |
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