Taking up the #PlasticFreeJuly challenge

I found out about this Australian challenge through Kindsay Miles' excellent website Treading My Own Path. Plastic Free July has been happening for several years and is now embraced by people all over the globe. The idea is to make conscious decisions about what we buy and especially how it is packaged. I had a quick think about what I can do to reduce my plastic usage ...

Always take my steel water flask with me so I am not tempted to buy a bottled drink

Buy a bamboo replacement toothbrush instead of another plastic one

Make up reusable fruit and veg bags from old net curtains instead of taking single-use plastic ones in the shop

Actually visit The Zero Waste Shop in Totnes instead of just planning to go there

Stop buying individually wrapped boiled sweets for car journeys - and find a sweet shop that will refill a tin instead of selling in plastic bags

Bake my own biscuits instead of buying packet ones - I've already found a good Digestives recipe and my Oat and Date Cookies are surprisingly healthy!


What other ideas would be good to implement? Let me know your suggestions in the Comments!
Join the challenge at Plastic Free July too and, if you're Torbay-based (or thereabouts) join our Facebook event to share your Plastic Free successes

Our cycle tour from Eye

Big Head by Ben Platts-Mills 

One of the leaflets in our current campsite's information pack, Cycling Around Eye, detailed two cycle routes both of which start in the nearby town of Eye in Suffolk. We chose the longer of the two, a twenty-one mile jaunt, and set out in glorious sunshine complete with a picnic lunch and plenty of cold water in my new stainless steel drinking flask which has been a godsend so far on this holiday.

From our Braiseworth starting point, we headed down to Thorndon where remains of a Bronze Age settlement were discovered. Bronze tools from the site are displayed in the British Museum, but we didn't see anything about the find as we pedalled through the village. Thorndon church tower dates from the fourteenth century.

Leaving Thorndon, our road went east and then north to Occold where we joined up with the Route Two of our leaflet. This pretty village is named in the Domesday Book as Acholt meaning oak wood in old Aenglish and there are still several impressive oak trees in the vicinity. I remembered the proud village signs in Suffolk and Norfolk from our time touring the UK in 2015 so enjoyed spotting several more examples.

This part of Suffolk has innumerable pretty houses and cottages, many of which are painted in pastel colours and have amazing gardens. I could have filled a books with photographs of cute homes so you will probably be glad to know that just this one will stand to represent them all in this post! I was tempted to imagine myself living in several!

Past Bedingfield, Redlingfield and Athelington, we paused at Horham for lunch. Dave used to work in Horam in Sussex and the village names probably have the same linguistic root meaning a muddly enclosure or place. Both are much posher than that today! Benjamin Britten lived in the Suffolk Horham for a time and the village holds a second musical claim to fame in that they hold the oldest peal of eight bells in the world. The bells are even on a village sign by the church although fortunately weren't pealing through our lunch.

St Mary's, Horham 

From Horham to Denham and on to Hoxne and we were both starting to feel a little the worse for wear! Suffolk seems much flatter at the start of a long bike ride than by the three-quarters mark! Perhaps if we both cycled more often it would help? I was pleased by the patience and courteousness of the vast majority of car drivers we encountered (except for one Audi driver - why is it always an Audi?!) and we did mostly have the roads to ourselves which made for a relaxing tour.

Plodding back from Hoxne to Eye to Braiseworth, I screeched to a halt on spotting the Big Head sculpture pictured at the top of this post. It is a little way out of town tucked behind a gate so we probably would have missed it completely from a car.

Dave will tot up an accurate total of our mileage on gmaps later, but we are confident we cycled between twenty-five and thirty miles altogether - the mapped route plus getting to it and back again - before collapsing in sweaty messes back at our tent!

Exploring the Eye Town Trail

Eye church 

We are camped in a gorgeous wild flower meadow in the tiny hamlet of Braiseworth in Suffolk. Surrounded by tall trees for shade and with space for just five units, Frog's Hall campsite is absolutely perfect for us! It's a Camping And Caravanning Club CS with minimal facilities - electric hookup, drinking water and waste disposal - run by Denise and John who are friendly and very helpful. On arrival we were given the loan of a comprehensive information pack detailing local cycling routes, shops and businesses in Eye, dozens of leaflets for attractions in the area and further afield, and a map of the nearby footpaths. Traffic noise is rare and the soundtrack here is basically birdsong and a light breeze rustling leaves. Idyllic! Frog's Hall is great value at £13 a night though you will need to bring your own toilet (we are glad of our portable toilet!)

Lacons brewery plaque 

Having not travelled far from Wood Norton to get here we had a whole afternoon to explore and decided to walk into Eye and do the historic Town Trail, a leaflet for which was in the information pack. Eye is about an hour's wander away on quiet single track roads and footpaths. In hindsight it probably would have been better to have cycled in because, with the town walk as well, over three hours turned out to be a bit much on the hot afternoon but we didn't realise that until too late of course!

In reality little more than a good-sized village, Eye was actually designated a borough until the 1970s complete with its own mayor and local government. A prosperous trading centre until the railway didn't come here in the 1800s, Eye can possibly blame its lack of subsequent growth on trains taking all their potential business to Diss. However, back in Norman times, nearby Hoxne was a flourishing market town until Eye stole their thunder and trade - what goes around comes around?

Eye's church and castle both date back to the Normans with one William Malet being given the Honour of Eye by William the Conqueror. His original castle has been rebuilt several times and is now again a ruin, but one that stands high on the original bailey around which the town centre is shaped.

There are many old buildings dating from various periods dotted around and I enjoyed discovering a number of them including thatched cottages, medieval town houses and Victorian facades disguising older structures. There are good independent shops one of which sells knitted cakes, a proper hardware store and The Bank which is now a not-for-profit cafe and art space where we went to a fantastic gig! We climbed up to the ruined castle to look over the town and then descended to the Co-Op where we discovered Wendy's House baked slices - delicious! Dave enjoyed Raspberry And Coconut and I can recommend the Banana, Date And Pecan!

Walking home along a different footpath route, I loved finding ourselves at a farming version of a Richard Long sculpture!

Jonathan Byrd (and Jess Morgan) at The Bank in Eye

Jonathan Byrd and Johnny Waken
Photo by The Bank in Eye 

We originally planned our current trailer tent holiday around two gigs near to each other on consecutive nights. Sadly the Philip Henry and Hannah Martin library gig was cancelled (that's the third we've had cancelled this year. Perhaps we should stop booking our tickets so far ahead?!), but we were treated to an absolutely fantastic evening in the little town of Eye on Saturday. Eye is a historically interesting destination in itself and I will blog about that soon, but for today I want to talk about amazing music and a lovely venue!

North Carolina's Jonathan Byrd has been touring his music for the best part of twenty years so I was surprised than we had not stumbled across one of his gigs before. A singer-songwriter and guitarist, I loved his thoughtful lyrics and the range of his music which takes in many styles from a capella blues to beautifully crafted story songs with a couple of cheesier country numbers along the way. We saw him accompanied by the inimitable Johnny Waken - a talented multi-instrumentalist who managed the whole (stiflingly hot) evening in full three-piece suit with a tie. Perfectly dapper! Dave and I both felt privileged to have seen such an incredible performance and Dave even said this was the best new-to-us musician he has seen for several years!

There are four more gigs on the UK Tour including tonight so, if they're not already sold out, get your tickets through these links:
19th June - Leicester
20th June - Bristol
21 st June - London
23rd June - Saltaire

The Bristol gig will be supported by Jess Morgan from Norfolk who we also saw at The Bank on Saturday. She has a gorgeous voice and good songs on unusual topics and I was happy to have discovered her music as well. Judging by the quality we saw and heard on Saturday I am happy to recommend The Bank to anyone living near or passing through Eye. It's a non-profit cafe and art space located in the old HSBC building and utilising some of the bank's wooden counters which gives the place a unique look. Well worth a visit!

Richard Long sculpture trail at Houghton Hall, Norfolk

A Line In Norfolk by Richard Long 

Driving to Sheringham from our Wood Norton campsite we were lucky to spot an advertising hoarding for a summer-long Richard Long sculpture exhibition at Houghton Hall in Norfolk. Built for the first British Prime Minister, Robert Walpole, Houghton Hall is now a fabulous stately home with extensive gardens and grounds open to the public. Tickets can be bought online and, at the time of writing are £10 to view the gardens only and £18 for the house and gardens. We got lucky (again!) with Dave spotting a 10% off discount code for online sales: AAAA. I don't know for how long this code is valid.

"Richard Long is one of the most influential figures of conceptual and land art, part of a generation of distinguished British artists who extended the possibilities of sculpture beyond traditional materials and method. Long’s work is rooted in his deep affinity and engagement with nature, developed during solitary walks. Long’s new pieces in the grounds of Houghton Hall use a variety of materials, including local carr stone, flint from East Anglia, trees from the Estate and Cornish slate, and accompany the permanent Long sculpture, Full Moon Circle, which was commissioned for Houghton in 2003."

White Deer Circle by Richard Long 

The Richard Long exhibition is entitled Earth Sky. It will continue until the end of October 2017 and incorporates six large outdoor works dotted around Houghton Hall grounds, a gallery showing a few photographic records of other works, and one indoor work which we didn't get to see as we hadn't splashed out on a house ticket! I loved the contrast of works such as A Line In Norfolk which tears straight down the centre of a pristine green lawn right in front of the house!

Waterflame by Jeppe Hein 

As well as Earth Sky, Houghton Hall also boasts a permanent sculpture trail of nine works placed in various places around the grounds. We were given a map on arrival and searching out the sculptures gave us a good tour of the beautiful formal gardens. It took a good two hours to see everything and that was without going into the house. Houghton Hall would easily make a four to five hour day out with a picnic or cafe lunch!

My favourite non-Long was the surprisingly accurately titled Waterflame by Jeppe Hein, created in 2008. It consists of a simple water fountain, but with an additional jet of what we assumed was paraffin or something similar so the top of the fountain was water and fire. This work was hypnotic to watch as the fountain died away and regrew repeatedly.

Houghton Hut by Rachel Whiteread 

Two other sculptures that caught my imagination were Houghton Hut by Rachel Whiteread and Interior Space by Stephen Cox. Houghton Hut actually depicts the inside of a small building, Whiteread having made a cast of its interior walls and door. This is mind-boggling in itself, especially so when what appears to be a solid sculpture is positioned at the end of a narrow woodland track along which it cannot possibly have fitted!

The reverse is true of Interior Space. This piece is a marble box whose only entrance is the slender cutaway shown in the photograph. It was just wide enough to put my head through and peer inside, but the temptation to try and wriggle in was very strong. I wondered if anyone has got themselves stuck?

Interior Space by Stephen Cox 

Skyspace Seldom Seen by James Turrell is an amazing idea and one for which I don't want to spoil the surprise for people who have not yet seen it. The work is presented in a large wooden box structure and I will say that I loved the topiary hedges alongside its approach because they reminded me of the moss-covered lava fields we saw in Iceland.

The Silver Sea by Blott Kerr-Wilson 

If you go to Houghton Hall, don't miss the Norfolk By Design pop-up shop that has taken over the old stables building until the end of September. This initiative showcases smaller items by forty-five varied Norfolk artists and artisans including gorgeous lamps, naive pottery, lifesize crocheted deer (yes, really!), shell covered boxes and vanity items, and artworks. My absolute favourite was this picture made from mussel shells, The Silver Sea by Blott Kerr-Wilson.

Houghton Cross by Richard Long 

Two weeks in a trailer tent!

As you probably guessed from that title, we're on the road again! Our camping fortnight started with a single night at Barnstones Caravan and Camping Site, just outside Cropredy. This was quite a big site by our usual standards, almost all hard-standings and was surprisingly busy too. We were glad we had booked when we learned every pitch had been full the night before. Our pitch with electric hookup was £14 and we were right next to the good shower block which also included washing up sinks and a laundry room. I loved the penguin tiles pictured below.

For a busy site Barnstones was very quiet most of the time apart from constant traffic noise from the M40. We both liked Barnstones and would happily return here for a longer stay using the site as a base to explore the local area although perhaps not when the folk festival is on as I imagine the roads roundabouts would be ridiculously busy then!

From Barnstones, we continued on our way to North Norfolk and a few days at the very pretty Four Acre Farm Campsite at Wood Norton, near to Fakenham. A plaque at the entrance commemorates 120 trees being planted here for the Queen's Diamond Jubilee and the owner reckons he has planted over a thousand in the last fifteen years! Traffic noise here is sparse rather than continuous and the facilities are low key but good. A pitch with electricity is £15 per night and there are two toilet buildings, one of which also has a good shower and a washing up area. For entertainment we can watch swallows and bats at dusk, and yesterday sheep were being shorn in the next-door field. I think there's a couple of dozen pitches here over two fields and another field for rallys too. We are one of only about five units though so the site feels tranquil.

Four Acre Farm is our third time of pitching our Raclet Solena and I am pleased (and relieved) to be able to say we are definitely getting the hang of it now! From our several-hours effort for the tent and the awning at The Crib, we are now down to 11 minutes for just the trailer tent and half an hour total for both. Yay us!

Walking from Brixham to Berry Head and beyond

Brixham 

I'm glad we made the most of yesterday's glorious weather by packing up sandwiches and heading out on a walk. We decided to take advantage of the Western Lady ferry connection between Torquay and Brixham which, at just £3 for a return ticket, is excellent value - cheaper than the bus and quicker too! We got great views across Torbay from the water and there was even a commentary on the way out drawing passengers' attention to the main sights.

Torquay and Brixham harbours were both very busy due to it being half-term holiday week, but once we ascended up to the streets above, everything quietened. I liked seeing older buildings such as a row of stone fishermen's cottages and the grandeur of Wolborough House. We followed a narrowing road out of town until we spotted our footpath leading through woods towards Berry Head. It was actually pleasant to get out of the sun into dappled shade for a while as we continued uphill.

View from the coast path 

The South West Coast Path is reasonably well signposted and affords gorgeous views out to sea. It is also less undulating here than at other sections along its route so not such hard work to walk! I loved the occasional stone stiles which are apparently left-over from the Coast Path's original function as a coastguards' walk. They would patrol the top of the cliffs looking out for smugglers! Now the Coast Path is the longest National Trail with a total length of 630 miles. Yesterday's we only covered about 3-4 miles each way towards the headland at Sharkham Point.

En route we diverted to explore each of the two Napoleonic forts at Berry Head. Human inhabitation on Berry Head dates back to at least the Iron Age and even more ancient history can been seen by examining the fort stones for fossils. The Napoleonic forts, North and South, were built between 1795 and 1805 when England was at war with France. The southern site now has an interesting small visitor centre which has historical exhibits and information about the varied local flora and fauna. There is also a nice cafe here and a bird hide overlooking seabird colonies on the cliffs.

Napoleonic fort at Berry Head