Riverside walk

This morning we did a walk from Mildenhall to the village of Barton Mills and back to Mildenhall along the River Lark.  It was classic kingfisher country, although we saw none. Instead lots of mute swans, mallards and Canada Geese. A delightful walk and probably my longest walk since my stroke a few years ago.

Mildenhall is better known for its US airbase, which is closing. I am not sorry as I found this base very threatening. Mildenhall is actually a very pleasant Suffolk town with some fine buildings, church and museum. Barton Mills is a delightful village too.

Mildenhall Museum

This afternoon we visited the local museum in nearby Mildenhall. Entry was free and it was well worth it!

Sadly our local museum charges £4 entry for adults. It is a much bigger museum in Burwell.   Although I understand why our local museum in Burwell charges, I think they should charge far less and try to recover moneys elsewhere such as donations, gifts and in the new cafe. £4 is far too much.

USAF to leave Mildenhall, Alconbury and Molesworth bases

This will impact our local economy but I am not sorry to see the US leave these bases. They were always sinister places that gave me the creeps driving past.

There was some talk of moving Marshalls plane repairs from Cambridge to Mildenhall. I guess that becomes more feasible now? Of course the negative impact of these places closing as USAF bases is a loss of thousands of local jobs It also means lettings of homes to US airbase personnel will end too.

Mildenhall Museum

Mildehall is about 11 miles from here and today we drove over to see the Museum there. It is quite a bit smaller than Burwell Museum but it opens more often and entry is free. In my view, Burwell is the better of the two, but Mildenhall Museum is worth seeing.

There are lots of artifacts on show including the bones of the Lakenheath Warrior and very good quality reproductions of the Mildenhall Treasure; the originals are in the British Museum in London.

Mildenhall Treasure (very good copies)

Mildenhall activity?

We are located about 10 miles from the US airbase at RAF Mildenhall. For some reason there seems to be a lot of activty in the air overhead tonight.  Usually we hear very little. Is something big planned I wonder? Iraq airstrikes maybe? Personally I hope we do NOT get involved. Wars solve very little.

Passing the bases is always "creepy". It still feels wrong to have all these threatening planes so close. I don't know if the bases at Mildenhall and Lakenheath  have any nuclear weapons. Personally I'd prefer it if both the bases at Mildenhall and at Lakenheath were closed. I dislike such threatening places.

http://www.mildenhall.af.mil/shared/media/photodb/web/2014/06/140617-F-DD985-157.jpg