Monday.

This morning, as we had to nip into town anyway, and as it was a lovely morning, we decided to walk along the river.  The River Walk, from our home, along the river, then back through the town is about a mile and a half, which we took at a nice, restful, pace; eventually stopping off for a cool drink when three quarters of the way round. The above tree (and, indeed, the below tree - being two photos of the same tree) is a Black Poplar, although any tree less like the usual Lombardy Poplar would be difficult to imagine. As you can see from the second photo, it was heavily pollarded last year, but seems to be recovering.

The below photo shows Ann walking over Toppesfield Bridge, which is said to be the oldest bridge (still in use) in Suffolk.

The snapshot below, shows a view of Highdale Downs, although why the tops of our low hills should be called Downs is beyond me. Somebody knows I suppose, and if you do, please let me know, too.

Even the humble white bindweed shown below, can make the riverside path look nice and cool. About twenty yards further along the footpath, we had our small adventure of the morning. Ann spotted what appeared to be a snake lying in the sun on the path. "It's not a grass snake, is it?" she asked. "Nor an adder?"  It was about eighteen inches long, and a bright coppery brown.  "No, I'm fairly certain it's a slow worm, but I want to check that. It's about fifty years since I've seen one, and that was in North Suffolk."  With a speed which belied it's name, the slow worm wiggled its way across the footpath, then slid into the grass to our right.  Since then I've checked up on it, and it was a young slow worm, which isn't a snake or a worm, but (technically) a legless lizard.

The one thing I haven't shown a photo of yet, and as I started this blog entry by talking about our River Walk, is of course the river.  It's the River Brett, illustrated on this  last photo and shows a mother mallard and her six, half grown youngsters.

Now I'm off to do some work on a small piece of sheet silver. I'm not often asked to work on silver (which is a lovely metal to work with; but it's expensive, so I mustn't spoil it). In fact, provided I don't make a mess of it, I may well make it the subject of a blog entry later in the week. If I do (make a mess of it that is) this is the last you'll hear of it.