Sweet Suffolk Owl
@owlwings (43897)
Cambridge, England
May 25, 2016 9:32am CST
This owl went forth into the countryside of Suffolk yesterday.
It was a bright, sunshiny day (but the wind was cold). The waves were crashing on the beach and under the pier at Southwold and the sea was the colour of yellow sand and green glass and blue sky and grey foam. The beach huts (I wish I had taken a picture of them - they are quite a feature of Southwold) seemed all newly painted and bright for the summer.
The hedgerows were full of hawthorn blossom, the skies were blue and the clouds were white and the ale was as sharp and hoppy as ever it could be. Tall burnet brick and white wooden windmills rose up among the trees from time to time, their spars and sails firmly putting an 'X' in the box that says "We are Suffolk, English and We Mean to Stay!"
Above is a Suffolk tower mill. Below is the madrigal which inspired the title.
What countryside and ocean do you have within two hours of your doorstep?
9 people like this
9 responses
@PainsOnSlate (21845)
• Canada
27 May 16
The music was lovely and I enjoyed the peaceful sounds. Your day sounded delightful!
1 person likes this
@owlwings (43897)
• Cambridge, England
27 May 16
Every year at about this time the Cambridge Madrigal Society have a performance on the river here. About half a dozen punts are tied together to accommodate the singers and decorated with paper lanterns and the choir sing to the audience assembled on the river bank outside Kings College. The music drifting over the water as the light fades is something out of this world and the last number is always "Draw on Sweet Night" when the boats are released and drift gently away down the river.
1 person likes this
@owlwings (43897)
• Cambridge, England
27 May 16
@PainsOnSlate Here's a video (not very good quality, I'm afraid).
Draw on sweet night Taken at the Trinity College Singing on the River 2005. Film recording (C)2005 D.S.Manning Used with permission Note to Cambridge entrepr...
1 person likes this
@PainsOnSlate (21845)
• Canada
27 May 16
@owlwings that gave me goosebumps, I would love to witness that.
1 person likes this
@ria1606roy (2797)
• Kolkata, India
6 Jun 16
Plenty of countryside within reach, or more like small historic towns lining the river Ganges in West Bengal. The nearest beaches are Digha, Mandarmoni, Tajpur and Shankarpur, all of them adjacent to each other, within 4-5 hours of reach by road.
This is a lovely picture by the way 
1 person likes this
@ria1606roy (2797)
• Kolkata, India
7 Jun 16
@owlwings nope, no windmills. They are a no show for this part of the country. Though there are a few windmills in the south which they have constructed nearby the ocean.
1 person likes this
@owlwings (43897)
• Cambridge, England
26 May 16
Funnily enough, we passed the Bunbury Arms in a village called Great Barton. (Bunbury itself, after which your town is probably named is in Cheshire but, presumably, Lord Bunbury had land in Suffolk).
I noticed the name because Bunbury is a 'fictional friend' of Ernest in Oscar Wilde's play, "The Importance of Being Earnest" who plays a critical role in the plot!
1 person likes this
@JudyEv (382016)
• Rockingham, Australia
26 May 16
@owlwings Wikipedia says 'our' Bunbury was named after Henry William St Pierre Bunbury, a British soldier who spent three years in the colonies including WA from 1836-37. For such a short period in the settlement he was given quite an honour. The really gross bit is that his other main claim to fame was his collection of ears of aborigines that he had slain. I never did like Bunbury much. 
1 person likes this
@Jessicalynnt (50523)
• Centralia, Missouri
25 May 16
lot's of East Texas, maybe barely into Louisiana with that time frame, no ocean, nothing too special
@crazyhorseladycx (39503)
• United States
25 May 16
thanks fer takin' me 'long'n yer journey, dear owl. i was tryin' to catch scent'f the sea, alas 'tis been too long fer me to recall such.
countryside i can reach by jest steppin' outdoors, i fear the ocean's more like a 2 day drive :)
@sueznewz2 (10409)
• Alicante, Spain
25 May 16
Nice photo... if i'm at my dads ...he lives in Bury st edmunds... the same as you...but..I think also gt Yarmouth which isxwhere we went on our seaside days out when I was a child.... but I live in spain...and itsxa 2 minute walk to the Mediterranean....
