earlier in Aldeburgh

The three day Aldeburgh Documentary Festival starts tonight with foody Ants on a Shrimp and continues tomorrow morning to set middle aged men's hearts aflutter with a live Joanna Lumley Q&A.

 WARNING  Police speed checks today in Aldeburgh, Yoxford, Ipswich and Saxtead.

The Aldeburgh man arrested on suspicion of rape has been released from bail and officers are now confident no crime has been committed.

Distressing to think there was a rape in Aldeburgh at the end of last month but there's some comfort that a 22 year old Aldeburgh man has been arrested on suspicion of rape.

House sales slow in Aldeburgh but active in Saxmundham.

This weekend it will be the 74th Aldeburgh Carnival weekend (we wen to the 72nd).  This year it's a circus theme.

We last saw Common Ground Theatre in Aldeburgh where their four handed Justin and the Argonauts was well routined and getting plenty of laughs, especially from the appreciative Hertfordshire holiday maker next to us.  The company's current show The Unhappy Medium has been on the road since the beginning of the month.  The tour is winding down but it can be seen tonight in Laxfield and a Saturday matinee has been added to the three day run next month at the Sir John Mills Theatre Ipswich.

♫ We got a bit excited about Québécoise band Le Vent du Nord being part of this year's Aldeburgh Proms because we actually made the effort a while back to see La Bottine Souriante at the Cambridge Folk Festival (they took forever to get set up and the dancer got on our nerves but worth the journey.)  Vent du Nord are more traditional (no brass section, no dancer) but look worth the effort.

Three burglaries in Aldeburgh Monday.

 JOBS  A housekeeper, receptionists and others wanted in Thorpeness and Aldeburgh.

The Aviva Women's Tour is returning to coastal Suffolk this summer for the third time.  In 2014 it was a start in Felixstowe, an eventful 2015 finish in Aldeburgh and as it seems to be toggling between stage starts and arrivals a stage one departure in Southwold this June.

Saturday there's a matinee showing at the Aldeburgh Cinema of Speed Sisters, an unlikely doc about a women's race car team in occupied Palestine.

05:02pm: The A1904 Aldeburgh Road is closed near the B1069 junction for Knodishall and Leiston because of a serious road accident.

The trick to finding the Aldeburgh Community Centre (a local community centre for local communities) entrance is it's round the back.  Once we'd worked that out we found it crammed with help organisations and charities though the police easily had the mostest and bestest freebies.  Organiser PCSO Terry Barrow told us the day had been doubly useful with not only the public but organisations finding out about each other ... depressing though to discover that even a place like Aldeburgh has a food bank and rough sleepers.

If you don't know who Edwyn Collins is you'll probably know this if only from the M&S ads.  In 2005 he suffered two near death cerebral haemorrhages but at the Aldeburgh documentary film festival yesterday for a showing of The Possibilities Are Endless about his recovery he entered employing a walking stick and an energetic hobble that was life affirming rather than disempowering.  At the sound check it was a joy to hear his basso chest voice as full as ever. ♫

We anticipated that Aldeburgh last night would be awash with creatively attired trick or treaters but to catch the light perhaps we were too early and at first could only find DP's bar being Halloween decorated (their Halloween party is tonight).  A street light was doing it's best to look moody in the surprisingly busy town when we stumbled over two trick or treat parties who both said they'd only just started ... so we finished.

There's much bollo about children's nanny Vivian Maier but she was an impressive street photographer and surprisingly seemed able to do it in isolation.  Finding Vivian Maier 3pm tomorrow at Aldeburgh Cinema might show how she formed herself as a snapper.

As best we could make out peering over people's heads (security had apologetically moved us on from the ramp up to the Coop Daily) yesterday's Aldeburgh carnival parade had a samba/Brazilian theme.  We thought it pretty impressive but our visiting guest from the east of a large town wanted to know where all the black people were (there were a handful) and why it was all so quiet (no sound systems).  Afterwards there was a packed food village by the boating pond (though we were a little disappointed by our lamb samosa), donkey rides and a twinkling traditional whirligig.

Why does it not surprise us that Aldeburgh bowls club use a Daily Mail cd as a bird scarer?

♫ Last night we booked tickets to see the Carolina Chocolate Drops at this month's Aldeburgh Proms, not much choice as it had almost sold out ... four shows including Ladysmith Black Mambezo and the Uke Orchestra are RETURNS ONLY already ...

Some house sales in Framlingham, Earl Soham (including what was Thorolds the corner shop), Woodbridge, Saxmundham and Aldeburgh.

Very flatteringly Aldeburgh Music is following us on Twitter ... perhaps it was us being nice about Musicircus?

♫ In Aldeburgh yesterday we got see the Broadside Boys for the first time and though they weren't dressed Suffolk their anthem Suffolk Punch was suitably and rousingly patriotic.  They were part of the Aldeburgh Festival's Musicircus which is maybe a 100 bands of absolutely all flavours playing close by each other along the front and it is absolutely all flavours; school choirs, string quartets, ukes, a Hendrix wannabe, a folk quartet with the melody taken by children's tinkle bells, three vibraphones and a drummer playing latin-american ... absolutely everything and it was wonderful.

♫ At the Maverick concert in Aldeburgh last Friday solo Morgan O'Kane had become a four piece with spoons, a fluegelhorn and a suitcase kick drum (just l♥ve those suitcase drums) plus for support the bafflingly wonderful Stompin' Dave Allen.  One of Maverick's delights is being introduced to performers you probably wouldn't catch a bus to see and then are a revelation.  This Friday it's Madison Violet who nominally are a pretty girl duo but who knows? they may have transmogrified into a 22 piece marching band ...

Our latest house sales report shows sales almost totally stationary in Aldeburgh but perambulating in Saxmundham.