Bless me father for I have sinned - it has been two days since my last drawing . . . . I have thought about it - lots ! I've taken about 100 photos over the weekend and have plenty of ideas but despite being dragged around everywhere, the Suffolk sketchbook is still awaiting its inauguration !I've drawn with my lawn mower - if that counts - at least there are now some splendid parallel lines in the back garden ! Sorry all you budding gardeners out there - as you can see we don't even have a photo of the now immaculate lawn - maybe next week !
Following last weeks manic attempts to tidy the jungle surrounding the "country seat" I decided to go on the weekly pilgrimage to what must be the largest Waste Recycling Centre in Suffolk ! A very picturesque but nonetheless truly scary place, with dozens of huge skips and massive "Heath Robinson"contraptions, whirling around, pounding the offerings to a pulp ! One such machine, resembling a JCB, has a huge spiked ball on the end of it's hydraulically operated arm and when the skips appear full the machine rumbles along and beats the contents of each skip, squashing everything to a tenth of it's former size.
I did my bit by adding 10 bags a garden waste to one of a collection of green skips, then I found the metal bin and dragged the last remnants of the chicken run up the steps and into the skip. It's always fascinating to see what other people have been putting into the skips and the contents of the green bins were no exception. They seemed to me like a list of what not to grow - Leyland Cyprus and Ivy prunings by the ton ! The contents of the metal bin were more exciting - fridges, washing machines, bent & distorted corrugated iron sheets , rusting unwanted tools, bits of broken engines, scaffold poles, all randomly piled together like some bizarre sculpture from the 1970's!
To recover from this burst of activity we went to the Felixstowe Ferry Cafe, arriving sadly too late to eat but we commiserated with a couple of takeaway cups of tea which certainly hit the spot ! We ambled across the road to the waters edge, slurped our tea whilst watching the ebbing tide rush out at its usual brake-neck speed and generally enjoyed the moment. Within seconds, just on cue, a classic Dutch barge hove into sight, with its traditional stumpy mast and varnished leeboards - and for me - what made the moment was the fact that on the horizon was a Thames Spritsail barge with all sail set with the bit between her teeth ! Sadly you'll have to imagine the last bit as the scale of the photo is so small that the Thames barge is the speck at the top, to the right of the marker post. (I'll scale this up for the forthcoming painting) !
Five o'clock shadow, Deben estuary & Bawdsey Manor.
More about Bawdsey later !
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