Suffolk saunter
...the green and gold of this most unspoilt and unprettified of counties....--PD James, Unnatural Causes
A somewhat overly romanticised description, but I can see what she was getting at. The tower in the distance belongs to Stoke-by-Nayland church.
Stoke-by-Nayland church tower.
Splendid half-timbered house opposite the church.
The Anchor Inn, Nayland. This is a lovely pub serving excellent food. Not only does it do its own cooking, it owns the surrounding farm estate and raises its own free-range chickens, beef, pork and lamb and grows its own fruit and vegetables. It also has its own smokehouse, where it seems to smoke anything that runs, flies or swims, and has a very pretty setting on the river Stour. Highly recommended if you're ever in the Constable Country area.
River bridge at the Anchor Inn's garden.
Butterfly sunning itself on a blackberry bush. Looking at the invaluable British Butterflies website, I think it's a comma.
Other wildlife highlights that weren't caught on camera included a kestrel perched on the edge of a straw bale surveying the surrounding stubble for displaced field voles, and the reckless grey squirrel that shot across the road six inches in front of my front wheel and three inches in front of my companion's. Tsk, don't squirrels belong to the road safety Tufty Club any more?
7 comments:
Breath taking pictures, Carla! I looooove the picture of the bridge and butterfly. So serene and lovely!
Is there a connection between Nayland (is that a town?) and your last name?
Lovely place.
Beautiful pics - good to see a buterfly as they are so rare this year it seems. I shall have to give Suffolk a visit some day soon.
Lovely - particularly the soaring tower.
Hi - only just discovered your interesting blog. Used to live in Dedham, so it's lovely to see these pics from my old stamping ground. Now not far away, on Mersea Island, which I'm sure you know well too.
Susan, Meghan, Gabriele, Bernita - thank you.
Daphne - only coincidental. Nayland is a medium-sized village.
Lady D - the wet summer hasn't been good for butterflies! I thought there seemed to be more of them around in the late summer than there had been earlier. I hope so. Suffolk is well worth a visit for the pretty countryside and villages; I think the most attractive areas are 'Constable County' (the Suffolk/Essex border, roughly from Sudbury to the sea) and the coasts and heaths.
Juliet - Hello and welcome! Dedham must have been a lovely place to live (maybe a bit touristy in high season?). I'm not that familiar with Mersea Island - how do you find it compares?
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