Food , Places

Hurray for Sole Bay

How can you combine two of my favourite things, whisky and the Suffolk coast?

News this week is that the Sole Bay Brewery have found the answer: they have installed a still with the hope that whisky from Southwold will be available in about four years' time.

It's a while to wait, so in the meantime we'll have to settle for the occasional bottle of another favourite from Sole Bay: Adnams East Green, a rather lovely environmentally sensitive beer.

Chilterns and Thames Valley

Next stop Christmas

Distance: 6.85 miles
Ascent: 86 metres
Duration: 2 hours 42 minutes

Walk 14: Cookham, Winter Hill and Cock Marsh

2010 has been racing by, so it was a wonderful surprise to find that Emma and I both had a day off today so could go out for a short walk together. Had we not already been discussing Christmas, the sight which greeted us just west of Cookham Dean would have put the idea foremost in our minds: the 25,000 turkeys of King's Coppice Farm.

This is a gentle walk which comes highly recommended. Besides the turkeys there are picturesque Berkshire villages, a section of chalk downland and a lovely finish along the bank of the River Thames. About a mile before leaving the riverbank there's even a slightly eccentric pub for those essential refreshments.