Brrrr, back to Blighty! October 2016

Martello Tower, Aldeburgh ...
the largest and most northerly of the chain of towers
built to keep out Napoleon.

We arrived back in the UK just in time to get ourselves to Leiston for our next sit.  Jenny is a lovely friend whom we have sat for on a number of occasions.  She had also recently moved to Leiston where we were to be close to the ocean, so we were pleased about that. Unfortunately, one of Jenny's dogs, May, had passed away (of old age) whilst we were away.  So we would only have Trix to care for this time. 

We were feeling torn about coming to the UK at this time of year.  Whilst we were looking forward to seeing family and friends, we were not so keen on arriving from the tropics to the declining temperatures of the UK heading for winter.   We travel with as few clothes as possible and as we are usually found hanging out in warmer climes, most of these tend to be fairly light-weight.  Hmmm, op shopping we will go!  Having said all that England, and especially Suffolk, really is a visual feast in autumn and one of our favourite times of year here.

One of the other reasons we love a good autumn is for the wild mushrooms.  We found some we had never tried before in the church yard at Aldringham.  We use the River Cottage Mushroom book to do our preliminary research and then both the internet and facebook group Mushroom Forgaging UK to identify everything before we eat them.  Hey, and we're still alive!  The most interesting and tasty of the newbies we found were the Parasol.

They are really meaty and formed the base of both an outstanding Beef and Pheasant Strogonoff (Jaime Oliver Stroganoff)

and a very tasty Wild Mushroom soup (BBC Good Food Recipe)

A mornings haul

Parasols, Brittle gills, jelly ears, field mushrooms
Bay Boletes, Suede Boletes

Amathyst Deceivers ... pretty in a salad

As Trix was in her twilight years (at 14 yo) and her mobility wasn't great, we all enjoyed foraging around the forest and churchyard at her pace.

Another activity we all enjoyed together was, of course, fishing.  We spent many hours wrapped up on the beach at both Thorpness and Aldeburgh well, feeding the fish really ;-)

Beach houses at Thorpness

We caught nothing of edible size but plenty of pin whiting and a few small bass and a rockling.

  It is the expectation of the unexpected that makes it all worth while.  Oh and the sea air and the pretty rainbows.

Sizewell

Trix and Mummy (Jenny)