9/11

I mentioned the mysterious world of the subconscious mind a few days ago. It seems my subconscious has been at work again. I've just read Old Girl Of The North Country's moving post about 9/11. Then I reread my own post from yesterday. In it the "twin towers" of Orford Castle loom down on you. There's talk of fortresses, war and the military. There's talk of burial grounds. Albeit in a historical context of long perspective. When I wrote the piece all of this sub-text was completely unmediated by my conscious mind. I thought I was just writing about a pleasant day out. It's somehow comforting that nature always takes over again in the end and tries to heal the wounds. As the National Trust took over Orford Ness from the MOD.

Heritage Open Day (2)

On Sunday last weekend we enjoyed free admission to Orford Castle which is managed by English Heritage. Only the keep remains of the original 12th century fortress built by Henry II - but it's impressively intact.

We walked north from Orford Quay along the western bank of the Alde and Ore river - the river with 2 names. It was very peaceful, with only the terns and the occasional sailing boat for company. Across the river lay Orford Ness, a National Nature Reserve and the largest vegetated shingle spit in Europe. It was a secret military test site until the mid-1980s - when the National Trust bought it from the Ministry of Defence. It's a wild and fascinating 10 mile coastal strip formed of rivers, mud flats, lagoons, saltmarsh, grass, shingle and abandoned wartime buildings. Someone once called it "half wilderness, half military junkyard".

Later we explored another National Trust site nearby: the mounds at Sutton Hoo, the burial ground of Anglo-Saxon kings. The most heralded excavation here in 1939 (Mound 1) revealed a ship burial site containing many priceless treasures - including the famous iron helmet which probably belonged to King Raedwald of East Anglia. Many of these beautifully crafted artefacts are housed in the British Museum.

Heritage Open Day (1)

Back from another long weekend in Suffolk. This was a weekend of Heritage Open Days throughout the country - meaning free access to many National Trust and English Heritage sites and properties which are normally closed to the public or charge for admission. We made the most of this, visiting, on the Saturday, Valley Farm at Flatford (see photo on left), a 15th century open hall house with a crown post roof and huge fireplace; and Thorington Hall near Stoke by Nayland (see photo on right), a beautiful 17th century timber framed farmhouse with a splendid limewashed oak staircase and six-stack chimney. The novelist and travel writer Nicholas Wollaston had been tenant here for 30 years until his death in May. I've never read any of his work, but Graham Greene described his book Red Rumba (1962) as perhaps the best travel book since Patrick Leigh Fermor's The Traveller's Tree. His widow Deirdre, who was there to welcome the visitors, told us that he was unable to find a publisher for his last 2 books - a reminder of how authors and styles of writing can go in and out of fashion just like everything else. Read here Wollaston's Observer article on how it's difficult to get published if you're not young and trendy.

Constable Country

From Thursday 16 to Saturday 18 August my wife and I spent time in Suffolk. I used to go to East Anglia for family holidays as a child - to Cromer, Sheringham, Southwold, Frinton, that kind of genteel seaside place. Nothing's altered that much. Just a few more people, cars, South-of-England retirees, smarter shops - as everywhere. But the creeks and estuaries, reed beds and lazy rivers, painted cottages and flintstone churches are unchanging. We supped Adnams ales in the Crown and the Lord Nelson and The Sole Bay Inn at Southwold; we ate take-away fish and chips on Aldeburgh sea front and they were excellent. I passed a few hours late on Friday afternoon at Minsmere RSPB Reserve - I could have spent the whole day there quite happily - and saw a marsh harrier (earlier I'd seen 2 floating over the reed beds near Snape Maltings), an egret, 2 avocets, 2 stonechats, several reed warblers, common terns and barnacle geese, some redshank and lapwings, a flock of 50 feeding black-tailed godwits - and a small deer, which could have been a muntjac. On the Saturday we explored Dedham vale and John Constable country. Many of Constable's magnificent canvases were of scenes centred on the small but sublimely picturesque area surrounding Flatford Mill (see photo). We stood at the exact spot from where The Haywain was painted - or at least initially sketched as most of his paintings were worked on and finished in London. This is one of the greatest of all English rural life pictures according to the art critic, Sir Kenneth Clark. I would not disagree. It's such a tranquil, timeless scene, beautifully composed, and coming to life in such details as the spaniel with its wagging tail, the 2 figures in the horse-drawn cart, and various other country people and animals merging with the landscape. We walked the few miles to Dedham and back, across the water meadows by the river Stour. It gave us a strange feeling. What with the willow trees and the reflecting water, the grazing cows, the clouds and the big skies - it was just like walking through a series of those Constable six-footers. Like Cornwall or the west coast of Ireland, Suffolk has always attracted artists. It's to do with the water, the sky and, above all, the light. (Thomas Gainsborough, Sir Alfred Munnings - and the art forger Tom Keating - are also associated with the area.)