not near the coast

The Suffolk Punch was (may be is) one third of the Suffolk Trinity (with red poll cattle and black faced sheep) but as a breed it's severely under threat with just 72 mares in the UK.  A positive sign for this gorgeously coloured and historically important breed is using a new sex sorted sperm method a filly colt has been born in Whitchurch Shropshire.

Yesterday 243 confirmed C-19 cases in Suffolk and here's the fifteenth reason to be cheerful ... in similar style we recall the late Pip Pyle's Cambridge hipster circle in the 1960s all speaking really quietly. ♫

Paris-Nice ended a day early yesterday, the UK Women's Tour (which has a stage finish in Felixstowe) postponed from its June start, both the Ipswich Cardinals and in Norwich the Iceni Spears have suspended training.  Friday we were supposed to see Eric Church in that there London but yes, it was postponed.  The world's going to be a bit duller for a while ...

One of cycling's five monuments Milan-San Remo has been cancelled because of the coronavirus.

Yesterday's Kent Falcons 00-17 Essex Blades was really worked over by Storm Ciara (our trousers and underpants were still soaked through when we got back ... more here

Yesterday in Cambridge visitors the Cambs Pythons failed a field goal and the ARU Rhinos ran in a td but it was called back, probably for holding ... it's ... more here

Travelling west on the A14 at Cambridge you now get in the outside (not inside) lane to stay on the A14.  Then after the never ending road works the other side of Cambridge and before Huntingdon suddenly you're on three lanes which deliver you to the A1 a bit south of where it used to.  The satnav got so confused we feared it would get a sore throat from multiple Please drive to highlighted route.

From Walberswick and now MP for St Albans Daisy Cooper has made her maiden speech ... lots and lots of pubs.

We've been to Dundee twice, a bit like Derby Day in Norwich.

If Count Dracula's ship the Demeter had got lost in all that fog and landed at Orford instead of Whitby then after his first meal in Suffolk the Count would know a lot more about tractors.

Fanny Craddock was a hoarse voiced tv chef cooking overblown and pretentious food.  It would unsettle us the way she mauled the food about.  Johnnie was one of her four (two bigamous) husbands and whilst wearing a cravat and monocle he would advise on the wine.  When lunching at Buck's Wine Bar Brantham near Manningtree (barman Simon was a chum of ours), Fanny to read the menu just grabbed Johnnie's monocle ribbon and yanked.  Fanny Cooks for Christmas is on iPlayer.

Roughcast Theatre are touring Shakespeare's comedy A Midsummer's Night Dream around near the coast finishing with a dash over the channel for two shows in the Dordogne ... perhaps because it might be their last chance:)  Tomorrow there's a free performance at the Laxfield Low House.

Annoyingly the diversion for the closed Westerfield level crossing is NOT signed but we still made it to Ipswich Cardinals v Maidstone Pumas yesterday.  Surprisingly there were no refs and general manager Ralph said other games were also ... more here

Very pleased to see Denver keeping the roller derby skate out alive and entertaining.

When we were at Essex Uni for an american football final Sunday we noticed that The Mystery of the Raddlesham Mumps was playing in the campus theatre.  It's at the Aldeburgh Jubilee Hall the Saturday after next.  A fearsome but funny gothic tale of dynasty, death, revenge and hope. Lovely moral. - Michael Rosen

Today drove on the A47 from Peterborough to Norwich, they does like a roundabout round there they does.

ASTONISHER No.45:  When Johnny Cash gave an unlikely concert at San Quentin state prison fellow country singer Merle I'm an Okie from Muskogee Haggard was in the audience serving two and a half years for burglary and an attempted jail break.  Equally unlikely (though perhaps not in the USA) Haggard was pardoned in 1972 by then governor of California Ronald Reagan.