Wortham and Diss Walk

Today we had a relatively gentle walk on the Suffolk Norfolk border from Wortham to Diss and back. 

Hockwold cum Wilton Snowdrop and River Walk

A couple of days ago, Joyce sent me a photo taken last year of the churchyard at St James church Hockwold cum Wilton with a mass of snowdrops. I just had to go and see what they were like this year. I asked her if she had a recommended walk to go with it and she sent me one. It was another lovely sunny winter's morning today, so I decided to do it with Dawn.

Another Jumbo Crossword

Times Cryptic Jumbo 1537 - 15th January

As I solved this the Saturday before last and remembered to use my solution as the framework for the blog I thought, "but it's only a week since I published my last Jumbo blog". Well we have had two bank holiday extras in between that one and this, so the Jumbo bloggers' next turns come around a lot quicker at this time of year. As for this one, I finished it in just under an average time in 37:51 despite an unusually large number of (to me) unknowns, including 3 of the first 6 answers. But there are plenty of easier clues to provide checkers to help with the wordplay. Clues I particularly enjoyed include 1A (nice choice of anagrind), 29A (apposite surface), 7D (nice image), 8D (great definition) and 49D. Thank-you setter! How did you all get on?

( Read all about it... )

Alphabetically Themed Quick Crossword

Times Quick Cryptic No 2059 by Alfie

When I saw Alfie's name at the top of today's crossword I thought, "We could be in for some alphabetical fun here"... and I wasn't disappointed. You shouldn't have found it difficult to see the theme and I had spotted it after doing just 1A and 5A... but then was thrown when 10A didn't start like I thought it might. As for the clues - largely great QC fare, but I didn't know the word at 24A, had trouble remembering how to spell 10D and took a while to see 19D. No time recorded but it was certainly quite a bit more than my average. COD to the clever 12D. Thanks Alfie for the entertainment and impressively worked theme. How did everyone else get on?

Fortnightly Weekend Quick Cryptic. This time it is Sawbill's turn to provide the extra weekend entertainment. You can find the latest crossword  here. Enjoy! If you are interested in having a go at our previous offerings you can find an index to them all here.

( Read all about it... )

Weekend Quick Cryptic 43 - by Sawbill

Click here to read about the origin of this series of crosswords.

A brief history of the origins of these crosswords for those who are new to them. As a blogger of the Times Quick Cryptic Crossword on Times for The Times every other Friday, I often had comments on the blog bemoaning that The Times only provides a Quick Cryptic on Mondays to Fridays. When I finally gave up work at the end of February 2020, I decided that I would try my hand at compiling crosswords. It was with some trepidation that I published, in May, the first of these Weekend Quick Cryptics to fill the gap. Well it seemed to go down well so I did another. And then my fellow crossword solver and commenter on Times for the Times, Phil Jordan, volunteered to produce some too. And then, more recently, so did Sawbill. So now the three of us take turns, publishing each new crossword via my Friday Quick Crossword blog. You can find an index to the complete series of crosswords here.

This time it is Sawbill's turn to provide the fortnightly Weekend Quick Cryptic crossword. 

West Stow Walk

Today we had a walk from West Stow through the King's Forest and back via Culford and West Stow Country Park.

Hebden Teas

When I was in York in October, on my walk in the city with Sarah and William, William led us to the Hebden Tea shop, with its free samples outside...

Burns Night Supper

Burns Night tonight. Only the two of us, but we had our haggis, tatties and neeps... with baked beans and brown sauce, of course. Yum!

Wetheringsett Walks

Today I thought I'd try the walks from this leaflet from the Discover Suffolk site that I had found when writing up my walk from Old Newton last week. 

Anglesey Abbey Winter Walk and Snowdrops

Today was a lovely sunny, but frosty, morning. Perfect for visiting Anglesey Abbey and its Winter Walk and to see if the snowdrops were out yet. I couldn't go last year with the lockdown restrictions and in 2020 I could only reminisce (see here). So it was great to be able to go this year.

My First Byrdle

Sister Sue sent me a message... "Now you too are into the latest craze, you might also enjoy this. This is Wordle, with a difference. It’s all about music." with  this link.

So I had a go this evening...

Old Newton Walk

Today I thought I'd walk some paths I hadn't done before. I chose to start at Old Newton, near Haughley, and take in some of the Middy Railway path.

U3A January Lecture - Charlie and the Dig

Today we had the first U3A Bury St. Edmunds monthly lecture of 2022 at the APEX.

Tattingstone Walk

Today we had a walk round Alton Water. I had never gone all the way round before, although I have done the southern end across the dam many times. Once again we were lucky with the weather and had a lovely sunny but crisp winter's day for our walk.

This was the invite from Joyce.

"This Monday, January17th (a change of plan!) We are allowed to park at the village recreation ground on Green Lane, Tattingstone IP9 2NB . We will meet at 10.30am and head over to walk the Alton Water circuit. We will find toilets and coffee asap and try and find a spot for lunch later on. On the way back to our cars we will take a few extra steps to explore the village of Tattingstone. Please get in contact if you'd like a lift from Skyliner Way. Please expect mud. The circular walk will be approx. 9 miles ."

This was our route.

We were going to walk from Needham Market today, but Joyce thought it might be rather muddy. 8 of us met at Tattingstone as re-planned and set off on time.

Here are a few of my photos.

Joyce explaining the plan.

Heading for the lake there was still some frost in the shade.

The Tattingstone wonder.  As described on the village website here... "Tattingstone is renowned for its folly, The Wonder. This listed building was originally two workers’ cottages but was transformed in 1790 by local squire, Thomas White, who lived at Tattingstone Place. He added a third cottage, a fake tower and a flint façade to complete the illusion that it was a church he could see from his estate.

So well known was the building that it featured in Shell Petroleum’s advertising campaign “To visit Britain’s Landmarks” with artist W J Steggles producing a poster featuring the building in 1937. Historian and broadcaster, Lucinda Lambton also featured it in her 1980’s television programme exploring follies in England and it features in her book Album of Curious Houses."

As we approached the visitor centre, we passed the field of highland cattle. They didn't pay us much attention.

The café has moved to the watersports hire centre. While the others went inside, Steve and I drank the coffees we had brought with us outside .

Then it was across the dam and up the eastern side of the lake. The gorse here was vibrant. They say "When gorse is out of bloom, kissing's out of fashion"; it says here the saying originated in the mid-19th century. The joke is that you can find gorse flowering at any time of year.

We lunched in a sunny spot by the lake.

Just along the shoreline from us we could see a gulp of cormorants roosting and toing and froing, some spreading their wings to dry them. It must have been their lunchtime too.

At the top end of Tattingstone village, near the White Horse, we came across a telephone box. The telephone inside It didn't look like the usual BT one, and sure enough it wasn't....

Steve tried dialling a story from the directory, (read about it here), but, alas,  it wasn't working.

Heading now towards Lemon Hill bridge, we passed an impressive new-build property and met the owner, Doug. He said he was thinking of opening a café and calling it "Reservoir Doug's". Ho ho!

We crossed the bridge back to the eastern shore...

..and returned to our starting point via the grounds of Chedworth Place and Samford Court. According to the website... "The main structure of the estate was built as a new 'house of industry' in the 18th century following reform of the way the poor people of the area were treated.  Under an Act of Parliament of 1764, the more wealthy members of the Samford Hundred were made Guardians of the poor, and they were required to set up a corporation to take over the handling of all aspects of this social necessity.

The directors decided to build a new Union House in the village of Tattingstone, centrally located in the Samford Hundred. They contracted Andrew Chandler of Nacton to build the house, for the grand sum of £4029.  The doors opened on Wednesday October 1, 1766 and the primary employment of the occupiers was the spinning of yarn. Unlike the picture of workhouses painted by Dickens, the Samford House of Industry was, at times, a place which many of the poor wished to live. In fact, one favourite story is of three men who walked all the way from Edmonton, North London (the former home of a current dweller), to live at the house!

The House continued in this way for over 160 years until, in 1931, the County Council took over responsibility. This changed again in 1948, when the newly-formed NHS took over to look after the mainly old residents of the house, renaming it St. Mary's Hospital.  The doors of the hospital finally closed in 1990, and villagers feared for the future as the centre of their village turned to rack and ruin. But, after several false starts, a builder began the process of converting the derelict site into the delightful haven we occupy today."

Here we can see how the tower of the abandoned St. Mary's Hospital has been incorporated into the development.

On the path we passed the first snowdrops I had seen this winter.

Now we were back at the start, with a view of the 17th century thatched cottages, which until recently, were council housing - possibly the oldest in Suffolk, or even the country.

Here I discovered what the rest had been discussing on the bridge while I took a couple of photos... they were gussing how many photos I would take on the walk. Jane asked me at this point how many, but I explained I wouldn't know until I downloaded them.... and the answer is: Roland with his guess of 70 and Joyce with her guess of 84 were the closest - I had taken 79.

But then we went on to visit the 11th/12th Century St. Mary's Church, but we couldn't go in as it was closed...

..and the village information board by the village sign.

Planted nearby was this tree. "I think it's a tulip tree", said someone... 

...And indeed it is. Read about it here.

A lovely varied walk - it was surprising how much up and down there was going round the lake, and it was not very muddy at all. Thank-you Joyce for leading us round and to the rest too for the company.

You can see more details of our route here on MapMyWalk and more of my photos here on Flickr.

My First Wordle

I've succumbed. After it featured in The Times Puzzle weekly newsletter, I decided to try the new puzzle craze - Wordle.

A QC from a Setter of 50 Years as a Times Setter

Times Quick Cryptic No 2049 by Orpheus

You may have seen in last weekend's Times Puzzles newsletter from David Parfitt that Wadham Sutton has completed 50 years as a Times crossword setter, and that he sets Quick Crosswords under the name of Orpheus... and he has set today's Quick Crossword for us. I think it hits the target right in the middle with a good mix of clue types, smooth surfaces and nothing obscure or too difficult and I finished in an average time for me of 5:20. Hard to choose a favourite, but I'll pick 24A for the nice surface. Thank-you Orpheus and congratulations on the 50 years! How did everyone else get on?

Fortnightly Weekend Quick Cryptic. This time it is Phil's turn to provide the extra weekend entertainment. You can find the latest crossword  here. Enjoy! If you are interested in having a go at our previous offerings you can find an index to them all here.

( Read all about it... )

Weekend Quick Cryptic 42 - by Phil Jordan

Click here to read about the origin of this series of crosswords.

A brief history of the origins of these crosswords for those who are new to them. As a blogger of the Times Quick Cryptic Crossword on Times for The Times every other Friday, I have often had comments on the blog bemoaning that The Times only provides a Quick Cryptic on Mondays to Fridays. When I finally gave up work at the end of February 2020, I decided that I would try my hand at compiling crosswords. It was with some trepidation that I published, in May, the first of these Weekend Quick Cryptics to fill the gap. Well it seemed to go down well so I did another. And then my fellow crossword solver and commenter on Times for the Times, Phil Jordan, volunteered to produce some too. And then, more recently, so did Sawbill. So now the three of us take turns, publishing each new crossword via my Friday Quick Crossword blog. You can find an index to the complete series of crosswords here.

This time it is Phil's turn to provide the fortnightly Weekend Quick Cryptic crossword. 

Newbourne Walk - The Retirement Walk

Today we had a walk on new paths to us from Newbourne via Waldringfield Heath and Martlesham Heath... and we had a lovely sunny winter's day for it. 

Hadleigh Threads Trail

Back in Lockdown 2, I came across the Suffolk Threads Trails, a series of short walks around Suffolk's old Wool Towns. Each made a nice 1/2 day excursion and I did them in turn. But there was one I didn't do at the time as there was an outbreak of COVID there, that was the one in Hadleigh.

Song Thrush

A couple of times I have noticed a bird singing loudly and beautifully in the trees just by the underpass to Lawson's Place. Today I managed to spot it and recorded its singing, audible even above the traffic.

I just had my phone, so it's quite hard to see on the photo as it's quite high up. What was it?

John's Walks 2021 Updated

My page with the list of walks I did last year, linking to blog posts, routes and photos has now been updated to include my walks up to the end of the year. See here... John's Walks 2021. If you have any problem with any of the links please let me know.

Santon Downham Walk

What a pity. I forgot both my camera and my phone today on what was a very pretty winter's day. It was the first Thursday of the month, so the first walk with the Bury St. Edmunds U3A Longer Walks group of 2022.  This month it was Chris' turn to lead. We met in Santon Downham at 9:30 to start our walk and the thermometer reading from my car was -5 degrees.

Rendlesham Forest Walk

Today I joined my first group walk of the year, and what a great day we had for it... rather cold but beautifully sunny. It was a walk in Rendlesham Forest  near Woodbridge that included both the UFO Trail and Phoenix Trail, about which more anon. 

Happy New Year

 

A great way to start the New Year today.