Suffolk . . . the sea side

We didn't want to waste a Bank Holiday Monday doing home stuff, so where should be go? We live in Suffolk, famous for it's lovely coastal towns and villages; from our village it's a good two hours drive to cross the width of the county and reach the sea side – but sometimes a visit to the sea is a must.

The sea-side! "How about Southwold, or maybe Walberswick and we could go to Dunwich Heath" . . . I had a plan :-)

We decided to skip Southwold and go straight to Walberswick, we had not been there before – and it's not exactly on the way to anywhere else, in fact it's at the end of a long narrow lane that leads to Walberswick and nowhere else! The village is quite small and sits on the right bank of the Blyth estuary and it was once a busy port, there's a couple of pubs, a tea-room and some small shops, and lots of little black-tar painted wooden shacks along the shore.

We were surprised by the number of people there, "What's going on? There must be an event!" But there wasn't, it was just lots of families happily engrossed in the simple pass-time of 'crabbing'!

After a lovely lunch in the tea-room garden (it was just warm enough to sit outside, in a bracing English sea-side fashion – and wearing outdoor jackets with the collars up) we decided to move on. We drove down the coast, past Dunwich – the town that was lost to the sea – and along a road through the mounds of purple heather to Dunwich Heath.

And look! the clouds parted and we could walk along the beach in the sunshine!

We watched the waves roll in and leave lace patterns along the sand.

I found a tiny silver fish.

We even lay down on the shingle bank and basked like a couple of seals!

Those clouds moving in from the west looked a bit serious!
So we headed back to the white buildings you can just see in the distance.

Those buildings are the Coastguard Cottages, now owned by the National Trust – they are holiday cottages and a lovely tearoom with a huge selection of delicious cakes! There's also a barn a little way behind, on the heather covered heath – we popped in to see an exhibition (you see – that was my cunning plan). I was interested to see Mandy Walden's hand-coloured colograph prints – her work is inspired by the birds, animals and landscape around Dunwich Heath and seeing her work in situ on the heathland by the sea really brought it to life.

We loved the beach – in fact I think it will now be one of our favourite Suffolk sea-sides. I liked the wildness and the curious plant-life on the shingle bank – like this Sea Kale . . .


and this Sea Poppy plant (also known as the Yellow Horned Poppy, glaucium flavum) – just look at those sculptural leaves . . .

next year that plant will be covered with bright yellow flowers and then long slim seed pods . . .


The paths over the heath were edged with gorse bushes, still covered with their coconut-scented yellow flowers and ripening blackberries tumbled over them in a rich clash of colours.


On the way home we passed through the village of Peasenhall – we'd spied an inviting emporium selling all sorts of vintage treasures . . . so we stopped and went in for a browse – which was a perfect end to a day over on the sea side of Suffolk.

Top: bargain buys from Walberswick – a butterfly printed tunic and a woven straw food cover.
Bottom: from The Shed in Peasenhall – a vintage jelly mould and a box of Suffolk blend tea from Peasenhall Village Shop.

Celia

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