Sutton Hoo

Garnet belt buckle with a butterfly design

Gold pieces - early English coins?

Reproduction of the unearthed helmet.

Sutton Hoo is a burial place of the early English.  The Romans had been recalled to a failing empire, their roads and towns were deserted as the Britons returned to a pastoral life.  Angles and Saxons arrived and pulled together the people under their pagan gods. Apparently if a clever person sat and studied a basic text from our times they would be able to understand it as so many of our words have come from this era. Quite a few I know have trouble reading Shakespeare who wrote only 400 years ago, imagine trying to read 1600yrs into the future - would we know any of the nouns in common usage? (Remember Mark Pagel's findings of the proto-eurasiatic language in my earlier blog - Genes v ideas)

Replica of a stone sceptre - Over 200hrs to recreate

Inside the burial room on the boat buried in the mound.
The body was completely absent - acidic soil destroyed it,
but not the metals or beaver skin Lyre carry case?
Another theory is that the warrior king was lost at sea
so they just left a space for his body.

Venerable Bede, a Northumbrian monk, recorded how Christianity came to the English.  With it came a mini renaissance of scholarly and artistic skills.  Bede also recorded the political issues as rulers fought, pagan vs christian. A ruler of East Anglia, Raedwald, may have been the recipient of a huge hoard of wealth uncovered in one of the burial mounds here at Sutton Hoo just before WWII broke out. He apparently settled religious disquiet in East Anglia by taking his wife's advice and setting up two altars in his Hall, one pagan and one Christian so his people could worship how they chose.  I wonder if Young Princess Elizabeth read the monk's histories of her nation and followed the advice of religious tolerance.



This is a National Trust site with an excellent exhibition hall full of reproductions of the treasures on display in the British Museum and life sized models of what was found. This is good to see because the walk around the mounds does not tell very much at all.

Charlie's nest.

After being left in the boot (in his nest with a window open enough for oxygen but not for theft or hypothermia Nana) while we were in the exhibition hall, Charlie loved sniffing for rabbits, foxes, squirrels and horses on the walk around the mounds and woods. I wondered if, when a dog picks up a scent, they have a picture of the animal in their head if sniffed before. The brambles were ripe but not very sweet. It started to rain half way around the circular path and was quite chilly on the veranda back at the center. Too wet to spot the rare birds many signs warned us not to disturb.

Ladies of the house or naughty servants?

We stopped off in the property's house, 22 bedrooms, servants corridors and areas tiled in white,while family and guest areas had wooden paneling, floors and enormous rugs. It was set up with 1930s furniture, toys, journals, fashions and china.  Dog and I sat in the porch while the others looked around.  An artist had built the house and apparently the South end of the third floor had been the owner's painting studio that faces the mounds. The last owner, a Mrs Pretty, left the property and treasures to the state, she died mid WWII and although she sat in her rocking chair to watch the excavations never saw the cleaned treasure because it was hidden in the London underground along with all of the British Museum's other treasures during the blitz.

Checking the 'What's that bump' info board on the lookout

Willow riveted with the Burial Mounds

More interested in the Pigs next door

A Gar seat - welcome shelter from the wind over looking Deben estuary opposite Woodbridge Riverport.

Brambles - too small for jam!

Even though only Charlie's head could be seen poking out of my coat, we still weren't allowed to sit inside in the warm for avo tea. I may not be tough enough to be a dog person in the UK - just may have to move to France. The onion and cheese pasty was delish and the cream tea finished it off nicely. M was educated as to what a cream tea was by a very informative lady in the queue to as he ordered and then had to explain that he didn't want cream in his tea! A pot of tea+scone+jam+clotted cream = a cream tea.Willow had a giant slice of layered chocolate cake and Petal had a cheese scone and a little bar of Black and Green's White chocolate.

Read: The Cook Wayne Macauley
This novel makes the horse meat as beef issue in Europe sound like a bedtime story. The voice is the main character - Zac. Everything seems a little obsessive but normal until you realise that he never shares his thoughts or feelings with anyone, he prefers to say what will get him ahead, what others expect him to. When his plans fall flat he just finds a way around to continue his ambition to start up his own restaurant with the best food in town. If you are brave enough to read the last chapter you may never eat meat again. Being resourceful just took on a whole other hue.
(The lack of punctuation is hard to read at first but does convey Zac's one track mind.) R18 for ghastly!

"What else are rich and successful people except those who've learnt how to manipulate what's around them a guy dealing in the money market architects designing fancy buildings TV guys making TV shows selling dreams to losers writers and their happy endings.  That's what civilisation is I reckon manipulating nature." p89

In Australia..."We don't have kings and queens and princes and lords if we did maybe this country would be a more honest place but no we'd rather live like hypocrites patting ourselves on the back telling ourselves we're all equal we're not ... Give me a good ladder to climb that's what I say..." p94

"...Trouble is he said I didn't have a clue how much hard work was involved not in getting rich that was easy but staying as rich as the richest you'd been..." p166