Author: bbpeck

Bob and I took the train today for a quick 25 minute ride to Needham Market to walk around the lake on a path we had seen from the train when we went to Ipswich and then check out the high street. See photos below from our short visit.

We snapped a couple of pubs on the high street and popped into an old church and cute hotel.

Yesterday, Bob and I finally decided to check out the cafe at the Rigsbygate Sports Center that is in our neighborhood. In fact, we can hear people playing tennis when we’re in the back garden. The cafe was pretty low key with homemade cakes and folding tables and chairs, but they had a pretty impressive menu, and the staff were very nice. While there, we also learned that there is a bar as well that opens at 6 pm, but we’re not sure what days of the week. The cafe is open from 10-4, M-F.

Last night, we went to the Moyse’s Hall Museum for a talk by a local historian who has written a book on the history of the Market Cross in Bury St Edmunds. The Moyse’s Hall Museum is a 12th century building in the town center that has been used as the town’s bridewell (jail), workhouse (place for poor people to work and live), and police station. It first opened as a museum in 1899. It currently contains artifacts from the town’s past and also hosts different events during the year.

Adrian Tindall presented “A Neat and Beautiful Theatre,” the story of St Edmund’s Market Cross. He gave a very informative talk, especially for those of us confused as to why what appears to be a building is talked about as a cross.

It turns out that a market cross actually began as a wooden and then stone cross, often attached to stone steps, at the highest point in a market area, where people could meet to trade but also pronouncements could be made or posted. This evolved into more sheltered structures to protect from the weather, and then these structures became more official buildings that might house other municipal type offices or space for artisans and even a place for touring actors groups to perform. Bury St Edmunds Market Cross had a similar evolution and was used as a theater until a bigger space was needed and the Theatre Royal was built. It hasn’t been used as the main center of trading for a long time and most recently served as an art gallery and then a space for creatives to work. Sadly today, the upper floors are empty and the ground floor houses a betting establishment.

On another note, a few weeks ago we were fortunate enough to be able to visit the Ickworth Estate with our friends. The Ickworth Estate was owned by the Hervey family. The patronage and support of the Hervey family was mentioned as being important for the building and/or maintenance of both theaters. It’s always fun for us to be somewhere long enough where we start hearing connections between the different places that we visit.

Bob and I were back at the Theatre Royal today for a 90 minute tour of the facility. The theater was originally built in 1819 by the architect William Wilkins as the New Theatre and was structured on the design of an amphitheater he had seen at Taormina in Sicily. A new theater was needed to expand the capacity for theatergoers in Bury St Edmunds, and increased such capacity from 350 to 780. (Ironically today, with the addition of more modern seating in accordance with safety requirements, the capacity is back down to about 350 again.). The first play staged in the theater was the British comedy ‘John Bull.’

The theater’s claim to fame is being the last remaining Regency playhouse in the country, although as our guide noted, the Regency period lasted for a relatively short amount of time, about 9 or 10 years, in between the reigns of George III and George IV.

The building and the land it is on is owned by the Greene King Brewery, however, the brewery sublets the management of the theater to the National Trust, which in turn sublets it to a local management team and board.

We are in June. Time keeps flying by as the world gets ever crazier, if that’s even still possible.

When Bob and I first got to Bury, we signed up for a number of events, most of which occur in June. Last night, we attended one of them, a presentation of “The Carpenter’s Story” at The Apex theater in the heart of the town center. We made a night of it and had some small plates and drinks beforehand at The Wine Cellar, about a 5 minute walk from The Apex.

On our way to dinner, we stopped into The Apex to look around, as we hadn’t been inside before. The building is two levels, with a ticket office and cafe on the ground level and an art gallery, bar, and lounge area on the upper level. Inside the theater, there are 3 levels, orchestra, and lower and upper balcony.

After our snoop around The Apex, we headed to the Wine Cellar, where we had a lovely, leisurely meal, including drinks, nuts and olives, tomatoes and burrata, and some great salmon with dill crème freche and sourdough bread. The restaurant is dog friendly as well, as a couple came in with their dog shortly before we left (no causal relationship, just time for the show).

“The Carpenter’s Story” tells a little bit of the story of Richard and Karen Carpenter, but mostly serves as a way to share some of their more popular songs. The brother-sister duo performed for 14 years, recording 10 albums. Some of their best known songs include “Close to You,” “We’ve Only Just Begun,” and “Top of the World.” Richard was treated for drug addiction towards the end of their recording career, which was cut short by Karen’s untimely death at the age of 32 in 1983 from complications from anorexia. Even though neither of us were huge Carpenter fans growing up, there is something about hearing songs from your childhood that’s a bit comforting.

Of course, the duo that’s been our main form of entertainment for the past few weeks has been Mollie and Angus, the dogs that we are looking after. Mollie is our ferocious but sweet little guard dog, and Angus is the lovable goofball. Neither react to other dogs, so they’ve been very easy to walk.

The weather app projected a rain free day or at least a few hours, so we pulled out the map app to find a place to walk to to see a bit more of Bury. We chose the Flying Fortress Park, ‘cause the name was impressive and it seemed a nice distance. We had a lovely walk and found more impressive pedestrian and bike trails even though the weather app was wrong about precipitation and there were no Flying Fortresses in the Flying Fortress Park. It wouldn’t be the only thing we would be mislead about on the walk (see last photo).

It’s a bank holiday weekend in the UK, and Bury St Edmunds is having what we assume is an annual Spring Fayre (fair for the Yanks). It has been held in the town centre/center yesterday and today from 10 am until 4 pm. Bob and I checked out all the exhibits yesterday and then went back down this morning for breakfast and to pick up a couple of items.

The event has activities for kids including rides, face painting, rent a dinosaur, an urban beach, and then market stalls for flowers, crafts, vintage goods, and food. It seems to have had a good turnout.

Every day, if we’re lucky, we’re making shared memories with someone that we can reflect back on. Bob and I had a chance to create memories today as well as reflect back on memories from last year.

We had a nice walk today in some intermittent drizzle back near the new housing development north of us, which we had visited last weekend. This time, we continued across a major road to enter a large meadow, which at least for now, has been set aside for trails.

Below are some photos from our walk, which also included a bit on a currently unused (by cars) road.

Our reflecting on past memories today centered on our time house sitting in Melbourne, Australia, last year. A little over a week ago, we read a Facebook post from our homeowner from Melbourne, which stated that she had been diagnosed with an aggressive form of cancer and wasn’t given long to live. She wanted to say her goodbyes. She was open to comments but wanted everyone to know that she wouldn’t be responding. We sent a note, and today were informed that she had passed.

Just another reminder that we’re not long for this world and to make the most of every day, including letting people know how much they mean. So to those of you reading this, please know that Bob and I are so grateful for the gift of your friendship. Take care of yourselves, hug your people, as we send a virtual hug your way.

We don’t have any photos with us and Debra, but we are thinking of her family, including the three that we got to care for.

Today, Bob and I had a great visit to Ickworth Estate, which is a National Trust site a short drive from Bury, with our Cambridge friends, Sue and Peter.

The Ickworth estate’s origins date back to 1086 when it was recorded as a settlement of 16 households belonging to the Abbey of Bury St Edmunds. In 1254, the Crown granted Thomas de Ickworth the land to create a deer park. In 1700, John Hersey inherited the estate to become the First Earl of Bristol; however, the house that we were able to visit was the vision of the 4th Earl of Bristol, known as the Earl Bishop. Construction was begun in 1795 and completed in 1829 after the Earl Bishop’s death.

Some of the rooms in the rotunda portion of the home that we were able to visit.

Yesterday, Bob found a route for us to walk through some neighborhoods to a short path. It gave us a good excuse to see more of Bury away from the town center. Our walk took us north of where we are staying into what appeared to be a new housing development, Marham Park, and we also found a more countryside walk to do on another day.

Also, we have been spending more time in the garden and just yesterday noticed these lovely flowers along the back fence, which separates us from the community tennis courts.

On Saturday, Bob left the house about 10:20 am to catch the train to Cambridge to meet up with our friend Peter, who had kindly offered Bob one of his season tickets to watch the Saracens rugby team play against Sale. Bob has been watching and trying to learn about rugby since our first international housesit in New Zealand, but this was his first time to see a proper game — and at the premiership level. He even treated himself to some merch.

It was a great day for a game, but sadly, not a win for the Saracens. Bob had a great time and learned a lot more about the strategy of the sport.

While Bob was away, I headed towards the Abbey Gardens, where they were holding free interactive walks, talks, and creative art projects as part of Bury BioBlitz. I ended up listening to a 30 minute talk by a guide on the diversity of spiders. Apparently, there are more than 620 species in the UK. I was quite impressed with the speaker for remembering quite a few Latin names for them.