Southwold

My friend and I drove East yesterday to visit somewhere different to our usual favourites. Southwold in Suffolk. It took a little longer than anticipated to get there-two and a half hours-but was worth the drive. It is a really pretty town with colourful beach huts, little painted cottages, and lots of dogs! I have never seen so many Labradors and Retrievers in one place. View from the pier. The sun was so bright and it was hard to look at the sea with the reflection. It doesn't look it here, but the sea was rough-the day was really windy.

View of the beach huts from the end of the pier. We had a tasty lunch in one of the pier cafes-tasty but a very long time coming! Once we had finished, we wandered along the sea front into the town. I bought some local cheese to go with my cranberry jelly, and we enjoyed visiting a gallery and shop-though I could only afford some postcards. There were also a couple of interesting antique shops in which we had a very quick browse-the parking was running out fast!

Two of the dogs I saw.

The sea looks cold in this photo.

The sun was so bright it was doing strange things to my pictures. The glare and the little hexagons are not a special effect-that is how the photo came out.

A quiet backstreet-it reminded me of St Ives here.

A pretty yard near the High Street.

I think we may go down here on holiday at some point as it is a lovely area, and has lots to visit, but is slightly too far for a day trip-it took three and a bit hours to get back-queueing on the motorway and near the Blackwall tunnel. I want to visit Aldeburgh and Sutton Hoo, and then on down to Norfolk which I love but have not visited for years. We were only twenty miles from Lowestoft yesterday so nearly there!

Today has been much more boring-but quite productive. I have sorted my filing, typed some lists for a new group activity after half term, and started my term one reports-a couple of photos and a description of how the child has settled and some information about how they are getting on so far.