Sweet and Stour

A glorious weekend. Friday night, Mark and I drove up to Wissington (about 8 miles south of Sudbury) and camped in a lovely little campsite on the banks of the river Stour (http://www.riverstourtrust.org/Rushbanksfinal.html). Had a lovely bbq (in the rain), and spent the night listening to a rather loud cuckoo and an over excited bull, who seemed to be getting more than his fair share of oats in the field of cows next to us ;-)

Saturday morning, we dropped the canoe in the water, and paddled up past Stoke-by-Nayland... beautiful weather, gorgeous scenery, and delicious sandwiches and coffee ;-) Canoeing is something that I never would have imagined myself doing, but is now something that I hope is always part of my life. I just love the feeling of solitude, and the beauty of the waterways in England.

Saturday afternoon, we dropped over to Sudbury to visit the River Stour trust, which turned out to be closed (but gave me an almighty blast from the past!), and then made our way to Flatford Mill. This is the setting for "The Hay Wain" painting by John Constable... gorgeous little village, totally over run with tourists, but simply stunning - somewhere I hope to return to and explore a litte more! There looks as though there are nice walks to both Manningtree and Dedham - both lovely places in themselves.

Saturday night we had a lovely evening with Tracy and the boys. Walked up to The Trowel and Hammer (Mark and I spent some of our first date in there!) and had a couple of beers with the boys in the beer garden, and then had a lovely dinner and far too much wine over the kitchen table at Tracy's. Was nice to spend the evening on our own (the three of us), chatting about everything and putting the world to rights.

Sunday, we joined up with Mum and Dad and went to the street fair in Bungay - another gorgeous little market town not that far from Beccles. I bought a Rhubarb plant, that am looking forward to cultivating, and managed to buy and eat lots of delicious homemade fudge (always my fave foodstuff). We had lunch in The Waveney in Beccles, a sleepy afternoon at Mum and Dad's, and Mum finished us all off by feeding us with homemade Spanish satsuma cake and a huge roast dinner... bliss ;-)

It seems though that a bbq in the pouring rain may have taken its toll... I seem to have developed a stinking cold (boo) - not a good start to my very busy week! Yesterday, had a lovely family lunch though, despite my cold - my Cousin Liza is over from West Virginia, and so I met her, her siblings Mark and Emily, My Aunt, my Mum and Liza's friend for a Thai lunch in the village here - was very nice, and good to catch up with them all. Mark's jaw seems a good deal better, although he is incredibly thin, mainly due to lack of food (he can only eat soft foods) and almost certainly due to a certain amount of stress. He looked better than I was expecting though, so that's good.

Anyway... must get on. SO much to sort out at home and work, and no time left to do it!
Much love,
Hayls
xxxx