Under Constable skies

We spent Saturday evening at a party at Fran and Martin's near Bury St Edmunds, and enjoyed the live music from Wytchazle in the marquee on the lawn. We stayed at the nearby Six Bells at Bardwell - this was comfy enough and passed my sausage test at breakfast.

As the forecast was fine, we'd dug out all the 'walking' supplements from the newspaper that we've saved over the years and never used before, and chose a walk in 'Constable Country' around the River Stour. However, we didn't have the relevant Ordnance Survey map, so stopped at two garages and a large Tescos and wandered around Dedham trying and failing to buy it. We therefore started our walk without a proper map and relied on the instructions from the supplement.

The first part of the walk was easy along a lovely stretch of the Stour, under just the type of sky that Constable captured in the famous paintings. We crossed the river at Flatford, visited the Constable exhibition in Bridge Cottage and then were able to buy the elusive map in the National Trust shop.

We'd left the camera at home, and my current phone was out of action, so I had my old Windows phone with me and used that for the compulsory photos of Flatford Mill and Wally Lot's Cottage. There was even a sheep shearing demonstration nearby demanding to be snapped.

The rest of the walk was harder to follow, so it was great to have a map. After a short exploration of the river towards Manningtree, we followed the Stour Valley Way and then  had to scale the great (for Suffolk) height of 100ft. We managed without oxygen. The route back to Dedham had lovely views over the valley.

As this might have been the full extent of the English summer, it seemed appropriate to have an ice cream at the cafe by the river.

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