Nashoba, Base Green, Suffolk

   

Today marks a fortnight here in the UK and I have still not charted our travel itinerary beyond our camp here in Base Green. However we are well and enjoying our sojourn within coo-ee of Stowmarket, a pleasant town to serve our needs and this delightful spot in rural Suffolk. The weekend passed well, with a continuation of good weather; the mornings a bit brisk calling for wrapping up well and the afternoons warm enough to expose our legs to the elements, ours a little less luminous white than those of the locals.

Saturday saw the country in Royal Wedding hysteria and alas our household did little to rise above it. Chris was keen to watch the whole affair, and then to watch the English Soccer Final which was unfortunately scheduled for the same day. It was to be a day in front of The Box and not even a shower passing by to justify Goggle Box watching.

We did pop out in the morning; Chris had said he would mow his sister’s lawn which he duly did with her electric mower, a machine he is not altogether familiar with. The grass had grown so long, the result looked more like a freshly mown hay paddock, not the manicured result he would normally aspire to. While he was pushing his way through the grass crop, I sat with Margie watching the celebrities arrive at Windsor Castle and picked holes in their appearance, as you do, admired the floral arrangements and was generally sucked into a cult that is otherwise foreign to me.

Back “home” we lunched over the ceremony, eating sandwiches and apples while talented musicians  and passionate preachers entertained those dressed to the nines in St George’s Chapel.

I took the opportunity to cook up a batch of bolognaise sauce, although at one point was asked to cease grating carrots; the noise was interfering with the cello performance.

Once the sauce was cooked, I donned my walking boots and headed out into the cropped fields, walking along hedgerows and ditches full of hawthorn, blackberry, carrot weed and a wealth of other wild flowering plants, past rape and corn crops, startling rabbits, blackbirds and raucous crows, crossing the railway branch line, finally arriving after over half an hour in the cemetery at Haughley, whereupon I turned and retraced my steps back to our camp. There I found Chris watching the build up to the big game so I was trapped again into watching a sports game of which I understand little. Here lies one of the minor frustrations of sharing a confined living space, albeit with someone who shares 90% of one’s interests. 

Sunday promised different entertainment; the Goddard family reunion, this being my husband’s mother’s family who are from the area half an hour north of here, around the villages of Hopton, Barningham,  Stanton and many others. The gathering took place in the Hepworth Village Hall, a plain building tucked away without signage in a very attractive village not too far from Diss and the county of Norfolk.

What a charming and friendly group these oldies are, few younger than me and almost all of them older than my husband!  What a spread was laid out to fill our already over fed paunches; sandwiches, savouries, cakes and more cakes! Musical entertainment was provided by a piano accordion playing grandson of one of Chris’s cousins,  and his choice of melodies was so well suited for the age group, albeit rather too loud for our aging aural deficit. Apart from the chatter and stories, we were also kept involved with musical quizzes and a couple of games of Hoy Bingo, all of which sounds a bit naff, but was in fact a lot of fun.

We left after nearly three hours vowing to meet up again next year, although the reality may well be different; some may well expire in the meantime and some may have other travel plans, but in the moment, the sentiments were well meant.

There was a small moment of natural delight on this trip offering more social and familial rewards, when we passed through the village of Wyverstone Street and caught sight of a baby squirrel walking tightrope on a telegraph wire across a crossroads.

Today has been spent in a more sedentary manner however we are a little further on than we were yesterday. Margie is to pick up her key on Friday which means that she and Chris will be able to sort out colours and materials for the redecoration and work should start over the next weekend. Obviously we will have to stay here for another week, but we do have the intervening days free for excursions and the weather looks promising.