Surfacing

It's almost three months since I wrote something for these pages. Now autumn has arrived and I'm nagged with the mixed feelings of regret, for opportunities missed during the lost months, and concern for what I'll find to fill these pages during the winter.

I'm not long returned from a short trip to Suffolk where I enjoyed visits to Constable Country and Sutton Hoo, so these might be good places to start.

Willy Lott's house and the 'flat ford' crossing
Flatford Cottage
Valley Farm
My first Speckled Wood (Pararge aegeria)
At Sutton Hoo, the exhibition at the National Trust visitor centre was fascinating, not least the remarkable reproduction of the Saxon helmet unearthed at the site in 1939 ...


Following the woodland walk to the burial grounds, I found this perfect Fly Agaric (Amanita muscaria) ...


And this equally perfect Birch polypore (Piptoporus betulinus) ...


And in the hedgerows surrounding the beautiful farmhouse home of my young friends Kerry and Paul Baker, I found sufficient blackberries to make, on my return to Redesdale, a winter-long supply of blackberry and apple jam ...