Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk, UK

Bury St Edmunds has a great market on Wednesdays and Saturdays. It is a fine East Anglian place. We enjoy going there.  Often fruit and vegetables are as good in the market as in the supermarkets and far cheaper.

There is a small museum in the market square (at the back of the photo) called Moyses Hall in what is, I think, the oldest building there.

Gilbert and Sullivan

Every year a local village stages a Gilbert and Sullivan comic opera in a barn. They are always very good. This year they staged "The Grand Duke". This was a work new to me. As yet, they have still to announce what they will be doing next June.

Sibling Reunion

Earlier in the week my wife, her brothers and their partners met for their annual sibling reunion. This year we met up in Cheshire. Each year we meet in each other's homes and we take it in turns to act as hosts. We have met 17 times. Our turn is next year. As my wife took the photo, she is not in the photo.

Trump State Visit

Now, this is my personal view and others are perfectly entitled to hold different views. Personally I have great difficulty over state visits such as this being funded by my tax money. We pay for the security we provide and for those lavish banquets. Sick.

Cambridge

The centre of Cambridge is certainly colourful. As well as this float (see photo) we had a couple of buskers singing classical opera, which was very good.

Grandchildren

Over the half-term holiday we have seen all 4 of our young grandchildren.

Today, our "London" grandchildren arrived for a few days. The photo shows them with my wife in our garden room.

Mess, but clean mess  😊

Chelsea Flower Show

This is the most important flower show in the UK. Last week my wife and I went there. Tickets were a special birthday present to us both from my brother-in-law and his wife. It was a special members' day, but very busy.

Lisbon trams

It is very hot in Lisbon today with temperatures in the mid 30s C. Lisbon is famous for its historic trams.

In 1755 about 10% of the city's people were killed in an earthquake. It is a great city these days with about 3M people. Portugal was neutral in WW2. The population of Portugal s around 10M.

Easter Money

Although Easter was very late this year, it has not stopped our local John Lewis store which has had Easter goods on sales since just after Christmas. They clearly smell profits.

I expect it will soon be time to display the Christmas stuff, unless they can think of a new way to get customers to part with their money.

No further swallows seen

Although I spotted my first swallows last week, none have been seen this week. With poorer weather they should be hunting nearer the ground, so should be easier to see. Cuckoos have already been seen in Devon.

So, what is this?

This mystery object, about 11 cm across and very light, was spotted on a rural walk yesterday. I welcome your guesses/. It definitely NOT a stone.

When I picked it up the green bits lit up and it said, "take me to your leader". OK, I am kidding!

Tender Moment

This is a real Easter picture!

It shows one of my grandsons holding a lamb. I think you will agree that it is a very tender moment. You can almost sense the love and gentleness in his eyes.

Good news for a change

We seem to be fed lots of bad news (I guess this makes papers sell) but tend to not hear about good news often. So, we end up thinking the world is all gloom and doom. In actual fact the good news far outweighs the bad. So let me bring you some good news for a change.

See https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-47974844

Easter Eggs

Our grandchildren are still young enough to enjoy hunting for chocolate Easter eggs hidden in the garden as the photo shows.

Swallows

Just seen the first swallow (migrant bird) flying over at lunchtime. There may have been some a few days ago, but this was my first positive sighting here. The earliest I have seen them here is April 7th.

See https://www.rspb.org.uk/birds-and-wildlife/wildlife-guides/bird-a-z/swallow/

Coffee in the garden

This morning it was warm and sunny, so we had coffee in the garden for the first time this year.