Fall

To Sudbury, for a tour focussed on silk production - the town still has four working silk mills.

This is the main church at the top of the central marketplace, swathed in a swag of netting covered in poppies to commemorate the ending of World War One.  Apparently they asked for 5000 and received 23,000, all hand-knitted or crocheted.  It made an impressive and moving spectacle in the November sunshine.

This is a wool merchant's house in the town, now used as a restaurant.  Note the extensions to the windows upstairs, possibly to allow in more light for weaving.

And these are silk weaver's cottages.  The middle floor would have housed the looms, and you can still see on some of them how the windows have been reduced in size.

In the garden of Thomas Gainsborough's house, both a large mulberry tree and this lovely quince, laden with golden fruit.  We are enjoying one stewed with apple for dessert.

And a sample wall-hanging in the Assembly Rooms, built 1828, presumably as a ball-room, but now the Registry Office.  This is silk woven by Stephen Walters, one of the four companies still operating.

Autumn is blazing away all around us, but not for long, as the weather turns windy.  I spent yesterday afternoon raking up leaves in Paycocke's garden.  There are many more to fall.