earlier near the coast

A Wing and a Prayer is a large, colourful, glass art piece by Arabella Marshall which is expected to be installed into the ruined chapel at Minsmere this summer.  It will launch a three year programme of arts, nature and heritage based activities.

Starting Monday Roughcast Theatre have an eight date Suffolk tour of the comedy Hobson's Choice.  near the coast venues are Hoxne, Wingfield (nearly SOLD OUT) and the Halesworth Cut.

It's all the go in and about near the coast, temporarily closing petrol stations to re-model them, not an insignificant matter when there are so few to start with.  Woodbridge (has it re-opened yet?), Co-op Stowmarket (not closed but building going on), Haynings Framlingham (reportedly will have a 24 hour self service pump) and now the BP garage on the west bound A14 near Newmarket.  Fortunately services just off the A14 on the other side of Cambridge are copiously resourced ... three Costa Coffee machines!

All we could find on the web about Sunday's motorcycle trial was it was Sunday and somewhere around Butley.  In the event it was a mile or two from the village, well signposted with orange pennants, had a burger van and an enormous free car park.  Lots of women judges and unlike our last trial visit eleven! years ago there were a lot more modern bikes including two electrical jobbies.  We always like the surreal cinema image of a single motorbike making its way through the woods.

We could rant about the relentless building around near the coast making rural Suffolk increasingly suburban with little if any improved infrastructure but we'll console ourselves that it's still a pleasant place to live.  We have bubbling a slight change to our look and very probably stylish merch.  In 2019 no doubt there'll be continued sightings of Ed Sheeran, the East African will report local fury about something or other and there'll be even more building ... wishing you the best for 2019.

Donate your retiring Christmas tree to entertain the meerkats at Stonham Barns.

Yesterday's matinee performance of The Scarlet Pipistrelle at the Seckford Theatre Woodbridge had dancing, singing, joking, lovely ladies and plot.  The audience attempted to clap the Brexit joke and we particularly enjoyed the sausage puns, great stuff!  Common Ground Theatre tour the show around near the coast ... more here

Immediately post Christmas (27-30 December) A Crag Path Christmas in the Jubilee Hall Aldeburgh hosted by the Alde and Ore Estuary Trust.  The river Ore runs through near the coast but is little more than a ditch by Framlingham.

Only tickets in advance for dinner and Basil's Christmas Carol at Stonham Barns Saturday 15th December.

The Shepherd and Dog at Forward Green (it's between the A140 and Stowupland) still has a TO LET sign outside.

Starting next Thursday for four days the Grundisburgh Cribfest.

Saturday there's a fish and chip supper and auction of promises in Kelsale village hall we think in aid of the church St Mary and St Peter.

Sunday week 21 October will be the last opening this year of the Bentwaters Cold War Museum.

The jeep run yesterday at Debach Airfield was their last open day of this year.

Don't know if the Women's Tour of Britain will be returning to near the coast next year but we do know it will be a day longer,

Sunday will be the autumnal equinox, sorry to be a downer but winter approaches.

♫ Stuff to do around near the coast this weekend includes tonight a music quiz at the Framlingham Crown, the free Laxitude all weekend with Lyrical Jukebox and naughty Harleston boys Red Mecca playing tonight plus Maritime Woodbridge tomorrow and Sunday.

It's going to be a busy Sunday tomorrow with the Dunwich Dynamo passing through near the coast in the early hours, open gardens in Double Street Framlingham, free step dancing at the Blaxhall Ship, classic car day at the Debach Airfield and St Lawrence's Brundish will be visited by The Right Reverend Martin Seeley Lord Bishop of St Edmundsbury and Ipswich, probably the first visit by the diocesan bishop in sixty years and there's a picnic as well.

Thankfully it's rained and no doubt will again soon ... mind you it's already becoming a bit annoying.

This is an interesting double, around 9pm tonight there will be the longest blood moon this century.  About the same time the Beeb are forecasting (let joy be unconfined) a second thunderstorm for near the coast.

Looks like it probably won't rain today St Swithin's day.

Sign in Ashbocking advertising free horse manure not surprisingly by the stables with a dressage ring right on the B1077.

Village fetes this Saturday include Cretingham, Bedfield (on the sports field) and Otley both of which start at 2pm.

Batteries stolen earlier this month from speed indicators in Chillesford, Hollesley, Snape and Tunstall.

Here's a new one (to us at least) Splat Quack Go Suffolk's Muddiest Mud Run. superficially a Woodbridge happening tomorrow but in fact just outside Hollesley ... entries accepted on the day and it sounds a teensie bit like those Zombie Evacuations.

Expect delays and parking difficulties when the Women's Tour of Britain starts in Framlingham tomorrow (we enjoyed the 2014 stage start in Felixstowe), takes a turn around near the coast, returns to Framlingham and then goes on to finish in Southwold.

Stonham Aspal may have lost it's pub but the village hall is very active with bingo, film, pub and quiz nights.

It's the fourth Pirate's Ball this weekend starting tomorrow night in Thorington. ♫

We've paid for Suffolk Coastal's garden rubbish collection starting this month.  We've opted for the bigger bin and were looking forward to re-purposing going forward the old bin to store yet to be chopped up kindling ... but the bigger bin doesn't arrive until August.

Last week a Browning shotgun was stolen in a Knodishall burglary.

♫ Musical nights out tomorrow around near the coast include 5 In A Bar at St Mary's Sweffling with refreshments (we last 5 In A Bar at the 2014 Great Glemham Christmas show), and Man in the Hat at the Knodishall Butchers Arms. ♫

The Shepherd and Dog at Forward Green (it's between the A140 and Stowupland) has a giant TO LET sign outside.  Tripadvisor and someone who told someone else seem to think it's closed and has been for a bit.  We're pretty sure the letting agents are Fleurets who specialise in pubs and shops but we can't find it on their website ... maybe that's why it's got stuck.

Through some oversight or possibly just good old fashioned incompetence last year we didn't make it to Common Ground's Christmas show Sherlock Holmes and the Hooded Lance.  We will try harder for their autumn tour of The Mariner and they have a shiny new website to tell you all about it.

A fine example of enviable near the coast local authority communication skills.

A bit windy last night ... eh?

 FOR SALE  In Bruisyard and on Gumtree a 12 x 8 greenhouse for £150.

Tonight at the Wingfield Barns Open Space Theatre start a tour around near the coast of Tennessee William's Suddenly Last Summer.  Performance this Saturday at the Huntingfield Hub and the Saturday after at the Halesworth Cut.

As you approach Hoxne from Stradbroke on the B1118 there's now traffic calming giving priority to traffic coming the other way.

House sales continued to sparkle in Woodbridge during the summer ... or maybe it's just a large town by the standards of near the coast.

Yesterday a motorist was assaulted and robbed between Metfield and Fressingfield.

As predicted the Tour of Britain flashed through near the coast yesterday but perhaps the helicopter got lost?  It only seemed to turn up as the peloton was leaving Framlingham.

The Tour of Britain will be passing through near the coast Friday round about lunch time.  You will know it's approaching when you hear the helicopter, expect it to flash past and best not to get in the way.  Wednesday the day before there's an individual time trial around Clacton, if you download the start sheet you'll know who's likely to be coming along next and there will be several hours of spectating to do.

Sorry to hear that the Cratfield Poacher closed earlier this year, we had a des' dinner there in 2010.

Saturday the Hasketon village fete on the green.

Back to back T20 (limited over) cricket in Stradbroke this afternoon with visitors Rumburgh and Saxmundham.

Bentwaters Cold War Museum open today.

Next Saturday/Sunday night the 25th Dunwich Dynamo will be passing through near the coast.  This year the Gentleman Plumber will not be popping up his cafe near the Framlingham water tower but may be back next year.

JOBS  Around near the coast The Detectorists have one day's paid work next month for bearded mechanic type aged 40-80, filming in Staverton Park Butley.  Jobs also going for removal/builder types, a milkman and two male mourners in Framlingham and lots more, scroll down here.

Horham Open Village and Fete Saturday afternoon.

♫ The Maui Waui Pirates Ball weekend at Thorington kicks off tonight with an outdoor showing of Pulp Fiction.

The annual Hasketon book and plant sale tomorrow afternoon.

Wrestling tonight at Stonham Barns, first bell 7pm.

 JOB  Warehouse Staff wanted in Pettistree.

There were daffs on a Tannington grass verge yesterday in full bloom.

Driving round near the coast Purple Bricks seem a popular alternative estate agent.

A quantity of cash was stolen in an Otley burglary last week.

Around near the coast theatre companies are putting their Christmas shows together.  In Fressingfield Sunday Roughcast Theatre were rehearsing a Christmas Carol with an impressive Marley's ghost and a live choir.  The show goes on the road next month with visits to Huntingfield, Stowmarket, Hoxne, Southwold and Wingfield.

 SOLD  In Grundisburgh a Saab 93 2.0t Vector Sport ... sounds tasty.

Sunday the Debach Airfield Museum will be open for the last time this year.

We arrived at the Maui Waui festival Theberton yesterday along with the first significant rain for weeks which wasn't that disruptive but OTOH didn't help.  The living art show was part burlesque part catwalk and the combination of electro swing soundtrack, highly effective lighting and a enthusiastic audience made quite an event ... looking forward to next year.

Diversions seem quite the thing around near the coast at the mo'.  This one is in Victoria Mill Road Framlingham which is closed maybe a hundred yards from the junction with Station Road.

Surprisingly three recent house sales in Monk Soham.

Police speed checking in Walpole and Yoxford today.

near the coast in 2014.

Sunday afternoon the Debach Airfield has an open day with military vehicles, 1940s music, the Eastern Angles and free admission to the museum and car parking.

Over the past seven years FESPA have awarded more than £38,000 of bursaries to near the coast acting, dancing, music and stage management students.  If you are hoping to start a performing arts course this autumn make an application.

Despite a pleasant morning here in near the coast we suspect that this year's Paris-Roubaix could be a muddy one.  Either way we won't be chasing it around the Internet because we'll be near Thetford snapping the Bury Saints v Sussex Thunder rematch that was such an outstanding semi-final last year ... it's free admission.

The near the coast April house sales review indicates that not surprisingly the start of the year has been slow.

♫ Don't know what we make of musical parodist Mitch Benn, he's a permanent on Radio 4's The Now Show and seems to be a chum of near the coast's own gentle and brilliant parodist Neil Innes.  You can make your own mind up tomorrow when he closes the show at Ipswich's Jokers.

Life Skills 9:  Supermarkets that have a world food section (the Norwich Hartford Bridge Tesco has Nigerian 6% Guinness!) may have those large cellophane bags of ground spices at a pro rata one fifth the price of Schwartz refills.  We decant them into large one time gherkin jars and even then the jars aren't big enough.  Couldn't see any large bags in the Martlesham Tesco today but not surprisingly the Hackney Tesco does stock them.

The thing about chairman of the parish council James Arnold's highly illegal 460+ firearms stash in Wyverstone (the other side of Stowmarket from near the coast) was the some 200,000 rounds of ammunition and other explosives.  Kept in close proximity and a single room if there had been an accident there would ... more here

House sales busy in Woodbridge ... but then it's quite a big place for ntc.