Bury St. Edmunds

 

 

 

 

Happy Friday! Is it Friday? I'm a little mixed up on schedules/days/everything right now due to quite a long flight a couple of days ago and the absurd amount of sleep that has transpired as a result.

I meant to post this before we left England as a sort of tribute to our lovely little English town, but it turns out that moving takes a lot more time than one would think and blogging kind of gets thrown onto the back-burner. 

So here I am alone in Forrest's brother's house with a bunch of time on my hands as Forrest drives down to Tennessee to pick up Bessie the truck so that we may have transportation once more. And everyone else is at work.

Why don't I edit some photos I thought! I'm finally almost caught up on sleep (thank you, melatonin!) and I have partaken in Wendy's twice in the last two days. Oh, Wendy's, how I have missed thee.

So here it is! A few thoughts on our town.

Bury St. Edmunds is the most adorable town in England. Of this I am sure. We lived on the outskirts for two-and-a-half years. Oh, it was a good time. 

I'm kind of already emotionally spent from the last week of saying goodbye and maybe I'm not as rested as I thought so I don't really have too many meaningful things to say. But I really never took the time to photograph around the town and really regretted it at the last minute. I took these about two weeks before we left and I sure am glad I documented it.

Bury has pretty much anything you could ever need in a town. It's the biggest town in Suffolk (which is kind of silly because it's really not that big, but that's Suffolk, I suppose) and a bustling little town it is. 

Forrest bought my engagement ring in Bury St. Edmunds at a jewelry store that has been around about as long as the U.S. has been a country. I looove that my ring is from England (where we also got engaged-in Bath). 

We watched the Olympic torch go through Bury last July and oh, it was exciting! I don't think I ever posted pictures from that on my blog, but I should.

We have taken every visiting relative to see the gigantic St. Edmundsbury Cathedral and the smallest pub in England (The Nutshell; it's tiny). It is such a great town for tourists because it's small and easily walk-able but oh so cute and full of fun things.

One time a parrot said hello to me in a British accent in the cathedral gardens aviary. I didn't even realize parrots could have accents until that encounter, but I sure am glad to know now.

There are so many unique things in Bury and so many English products that are made there. I feel a sort of pride for Bury St. Edmunds and I'm not even English. It's a special town.

I love Bury St. Edmunds and I don't care who knows.

Lackford Lakes

 

  

 

  

  

 This weekend we decided to spend some time at a local nature reserve. We spent a little bit strolling on the pathways and watching a couple of baby birds swim around and chirp. They weren't ducks but they were some type of waterbird (waterfowl?) and they were adorable.

Most of the people one encounters at Lackford Lakes seem to be extremely avid bird watchers. You can usually tell that sort of thing from the binoculars and gigantic telephoto lenses they carry around. If I were a bird watcher I probably would have known what type of baby birds we were watching. Or if I had taken the time to read the sign maybe. I can see it in my mind's eye " please be quiet, [insert bird name here] nesting."

We sat ourselves in a hide to watch these cute little guys and I'm sorry, I took pictures of them but they're pretty blurry and you can't really tell how cute the birdlings were nor can you hear the adorable chirping so what's the point is what I figure.

It started to get pretty cold toward the end of our excursion and that little cardigan/scarf combo were just not cutting it anymore. So I guess what I'm trying to say is I have finally accepted fall into my life but I'm none too pleased with it. The pumpkin things that have taken over the internet are still not welcome into this house. I think I'm just bitter because I packed up all my boots and sweaters three months ago anticipating them to be shipped in July and now I have to get them all out again. But I really love wearing boots so bitterness be gone!

One last note: Forrest and I both really get an unearthly sense of joy from stomping around in our rain boots (but probably more me than him). I walk in puddles on purpose. Sometimes I turn around and walk through them again. I was lagging behind on our walk (taking nature photos, you know) when I looked up to see that Forrest standing in a puddle. He then declared that he was using his rain boots more than I was and ha ha.
'
Boy, did I show him.

Stiiiiill Snowy!

We drove down to the nearest town, Bury St. Edmunds to walk in the Cathedral's gardens. Technically we live in Bury, but it's too far to walk, there aren't any sidewalks most of the way, and there is absolutely no way I'm walking on a 60 mph road that everyone speeds on anyway. 

We were walking along, minding our own business, when this little creature popped out in front of us.

He thought Forrest had something to offer him. A few minutes later we found out why the squirrels are so friendly when a woman walked up with several bags of nuts. She kindly offered a bag to us and we continued to domesticate the wildlife.

The ducks were our next target. And, apparently, snow is very comfortable to ducks.

The St. Edmundsbury Cathedral is a very large and beautiful part of the town. In my humble opinion, we live near one of the prettiest towns in Suffolk. I really enjoy living in such an idyllic British borough. The small shopping center (which includes an H&M!) doesn't hurt either. And, as always, it looks even prettier covered in snow.

We live in a really great location, surrounded by quiet farmland with the city two miles down the road. I had never lived by any fields until 1.5 years ago and now I know what I was missing. In the summer, they are full of wheat, onions, and potatoes and you can smell it for days when they harvest the onions.The tractors drive on the roads almost as fast a normal vehicle. They drive on the highway. Picture a huge tractor zooming down a six-lane highway.

This is our yard and the field in front of our house. The sun shines into the kitchen as it sets and lights up the room with the most wonderful orange glow. The kitchen is on the darkest side of the house, which I hate, and is at its brightest at sunset, which I love. It's my very favorite time of day.