a woodland talk

This is going to be a very swift blog post, because it is late.  I've just got in from doing a woodland charity talk up in Suffolk.  I don't normally do woodland talks over the border.  The charity divides out territories between speakers on a county basis, and then sticks to them fairly rigidly, so that while I live within ten miles of the Suffolk border, I go right down to Leigh-on-Sea to give talks (Essex) but have never been asked to do one in Brantham, all of a mile the wrong side of the county boundary.

Tonight's gig was originally booked to be a garden talk, to a club I've talked to a couple of times before, up in the Suffolk sandlings.  They are a lovely group, and I was going to enthuse to them about spring gardens, booked long before I had thoughts of parting company with the plant centre. Once I left I and was unable to borrow plants I had to come up with a plan B, so suggested to the organiser that she could either see if the plant centre manager was free that night, or I could do the charity talk which I had all the kit for.  She opted for the latter, which was flattering.

The Suffolk sandlings are a magical place in the evening, as the sun is setting.  The light has a curiously persistent quality, and you almost sense that you are not very far from the sea.  I got a splendid view of the tower of Sudbourne church as I approached Orford, which was glowing a luminous shade of palest amber in the evening light, a mystical view straight out of the canvases of Ravilious or Nash.  Apparently the church at Sudbourne is senior to larger and architecturally more ambitious one at Orford, in the arcane historic hierarchy of the C of E.

Then I sat for a long time in my car outside the village hall, because I'd allowed plenty of time in case of delays.  You can't be too careful with the Orwell Bridge, and I have never yet been late to one of my own talks, whether it is for personal gain or for charity.  If only I had a tablet, or my laptop had a battery life of more than eight seconds, I could have written the blog entry then, but I haven't, it hasn't and I didn't.

I might have got a return booking from my efforts, to go and talk about ponds, which would be nice. I don't as of this moment have a pond presentation prepared, but I'm sure I could write one.  And they gave me what would have been my full normal talk fee for the charity, which was nice of them. I left with dire warnings about deer ringing in my ears, but didn't see any on the way back.