Aldeburgh: 2022

I have been waiting, and it seems like a long time (but it isn’t really), to be able to say “This tea towel is not part of my Guinness World Record, it was bought after the submission” publicly. I wanted to wait until the certificate arrived. While the World Record is 1457 tea towels, I have considerably more than that. The submission was on 12 November 2021, so any bought since then, and that includes Christmas presents as well, would not be included (about 45). No personally designed ones can be included (about 25), obviously no duplicates so I did remove a few (about 10) which are not actually duplicates, but on the same subject, in case the adjudicators felt they were duplicated. I couldn’t bear going through through the submission process again: a ratified catalogue, a filmed ‘counting’ with two witnesses, a photograph of every tea towel with a description, when it was bought etc, a 2000 word statement. The filming alone took six hours, catalogue ratification about two weeks. The description of each, days. Sadly, they wouldn’t take the Blog as any kind of evidence. But I got there in the end and I’m free to buy more to my heart’s content.

This one, from my recent holiday in Suffolk, is delightful. It is of The Scallop designed by local artist Maggi Hambling, and made by Aldeburgh craftsmen, Sam and Dennis Pegg. It is 13 foot high, an iconic sculpture. Unveiled in 2003 as a striking tribute to Benjamin Britten who lived in Aldeburgh and walked daily along the coastline between there and Thorpeness. Maggi was an ardent fan of Britten’s music.

If you ‘google’ this art work, there are loads of sites referencing it, with different interpretations and quotations. It was one of the coastal features that I’ve always wanted to see, so I was excited to find a tea towel of it.

Suffolk definitely is a place to visit, with the wide skies, intriguing coast and delightful villages. We went to Dunwich Heath one day and, from wherever you look, you could see Sizewell nuclear power station. As I said, intriguing.

Oranges: 2022

Just before Christmas last year, Liz and I met up with Lyn and Rob at Anglesey Abbey, a National Trust property. They live in Suffolk and Anglesey Abbey is half way between them and us. The grounds are lovely for a walk, with a heavy duty mobility scooter thrown in, to make life easier. I already have the Anglesey Abbey tea towel so my shopping was focussed on Christmas gifts. But we really enjoyed the visit.

Our recent trip down to Suffolk, involved a ‘break’ in the journey at Anglesey Abbey, which is really close to A14. We had a cheese scone outdoors on the patio, in beautiful sunshine, and then wandered through the shop. I love a National Trust shop, although I was prepared for the fact that there would be no tea towels. I was wrong and, hence, I was joyous. There were loads. I had to be careful about what I chose in order to leave enough to buy when we met up with Lyn and Rob again.

I spent a long time looking through two ranges: there were the Cambridge Imprint ones and Alison Hullyer designs. I went for ‘Oranges’ by Alison Hullyer. I was attracted by the vivid orange colours, contrasting with the unusual dark blue leaves, and, of course, the fact that the whole material is covered with the design. And 100% unbleached cotton and ‘designed in Cambridgeshire’. Don’t you love those little bees collecting pollen from the tiny white flowers? Local and attractive, what more could you ask for?

Now we have a regular venue for meeting up, because they have so many tea towels!!

Another Platinum Jubilee Tea Towel: 2022

On 8 March 2022, I blogged about the first Platinum Jubilee Tea Towel that I had come across, promising to search for others. I haven’t seen many, just this one, no highly decorated ones with big crowns. I wonder if there is a sense of the need to be ‘careful’, not overdo the production of such tea towels. The Queen is of an age, and has been a bit poorly.

So when I was in Suffolk, and Lyn had pointed out this royal tea towel, I thought I needed to ‘snap it up’ while it was available. It is very tasteful, stylish, not garish, just purple and white. The Diamond Jubilee produced a lot of tea towels with pictures through the ages. They can’t replicate those images.

The last ten years has seen some not very salubrious events: Harry and Megan’s wedding and look how that ended, the de-frocking of Harry from his army posts, the death of Prince Philip although there was a tea towel to commemorate that, the behaviour of Prince Andrew and his de-frocking.

But 70 years as a Queen is something to celebrate and shouldn’t be linked with the events associated with other members of the Royal Family. And I’m still on the ‘look out’ for more Platinum Jubilee tea towels.

Suffolk: 2022

This is one of the five tea towels, bought on a four day trip to Suffolk. Suffolk is definitely a place for stylish tea towels. On our walk through Woodbridge, with Lyn and Rob, Lyn pointed out a small shop

“I bought your Suffolk Dialect here. They have loads of tea towels.”

I rummaged through the display box, and they certainly did. There were three that I already had but I couldn’t resist one I hadn’t seen before. I like the elegance of this, very regal and posh. And good value for money. As I emerged from a tea towel extravaganza, I heard Lyn shout

“They’ve got a Platinum one. Did you see it?”

I rushed back in. Just thought, she’d read my Blog about my search for Platinum Jubilee tea towels! And yes, they did have one. Bought that one too. I think the woman behind the perspex screen must have thought I was potty “Another one?” she said. And off we went.

There were more shops with tea towels but I restrained myself. We walked to the Deben Estuary, sat down for a cup of tea in the fresh air, looking over to Sutton Hoo. It was beautiful. I can see why Lyn and Rob decided to move here, away from the hustle of Hitchin.

Suddenly, Liz says “Where’s your stick?”. In the warmth of the sun, on a casual stroll, I couldn’t even remember whether I took it out of the car, or maybe, I left it somewhere. On the way for lunch we were going to pass the car park. I looked in the car. No stick.

I rewalked the main street, found the ‘tea towel shop’, popped in with “I didn’t leave my walking stick here, did I? Earlier today?”

“What’s it look like?” she said brusquely, as if I was trying to flitch goods from her shop.

There was a problem here. “I have two and can’t remember which I was using. Could be bright red with a pretty floral pattern, unusual, adjusting height, adjusted to a low height, my favourite, or it might be jet black, with a silver and white floral pattern, also adjustable, also for a short person. So elegant”. I could hear the sigh of frustration. She didn’t expect a lecture on walking sticks and shoved the black one in my hand.

“Thank you so much” I said, hurriedly leaving the shop. Much easier to walk, stops me listing to the right side.

A lovely few hours in Woodbridge in the sun, two tea towels, cup of tea by the river, the retrieval of my walking stick, lunch in a garden, returning to the car park where a very prominent parking ticket was displayed. Lot of ranting, Liz revisiting her phone where she had read these four parking spaces were free for Blue Badges, with a promise to challenge the ticket.

It didn’t, however, spoil the day.

Red Flower: 2022

I’ve just come back from a four-day break in Suffolk. We stayed in a teeny, weeny log cabin-type thing on the outskirts of Wickham Market, a village in Deben Valley. With a name like ‘Wickham Market’, I felt they would have a tea towel of their own. I went on the hunt for it. Not a difficult task, because there aren’t that many shops.

Parking in the centre, on the High Street, I was opposite ‘Inspirations’, an independent shop. It was one of those stylish shops full occasional furniture, bedding, coasters, place mats, clothing, knitting wool, pottery, baby toys, cushions, pashminas, soap, jewellery and so much more. There was a whole stand devoted to Sophie Allport’s range, full of tea towels. I have many of hers and they are generic, rather than specific to Suffolk, let alone Wickham Market.

“Have you any tea towels, other than Sophie Allport ones?” I asked the woman behind the counter.

“We’ve got a new range in, Swedish, organic cotton, lots of different styles” she said, retreating, to leave me to ponder. They looked familiar, felt familiar. It suddenly occurred to me. They were like the Swedish one Jai bought for me when she was in Sweden, before those long days of Coronavirus. Made in Sweden by Ekelund, thick and woven with the design on both sides. The designs were beautiful, flowers, birds, very classical. Ekelund tea towels are particularly distinctive in that they are very small, both in length and width, maybe two-thirds the size of the smallest English ones, or even smaller. They felt like miniature curtains.

I flicked through the designs. Many would be a glorious addition to my collection. I looked at the price tags. Shock-horror! £16.50! Not even I would spend £16.50 on a very small tea towel that has no link with the place I was in. There were no other tea towels. Sadly, I left the shop.

I was disappointed to leave Wickham Market without a tea towel, when, from the corner of my eye, I spotted Elizabeth Hospice Charity Shop. In previous Blogs, I have spoken of my lack of success in finding a tea towel in a Charity Shop. Worth a try though, I thought.

On the display table, as you enter the shop, was a tea towel. I grabbed it, in an unseemly manner, for fear someone else would get there first. A bright red flower. Liz and I later discussed whether this was a poppy or some generic flower with a vivid colour. A bargain at £2 and for a good cause. A Charity Shop success. Thank you Elizabeth Hospice!

Sutton Hoo: 2021

We’ve just spent four days with Lyn and Rob, Liz’s sister, in Woodbridge in Suffolk. We’ve been planning this visit ever since they moved there in 2020. The Pandemic held up our plans. We’ve seen their new house over Zoom, and walks they’ve taken through photographs. But not the ‘real thing’. We are very cautious. We booked an isolated cottage and have only had tea in their garden. One day we’ll go indoors, explore the Utility Room conversion, seen their new wardrobes and enjoy a meal with them. Baby Steps.

But what we did do was go walking with them, and there are plenty of places to enjoy.

On the first day, we went to Sutton Hoo, where there is a Tramper. The weather was beautiful. “The open skies of Suffolk” as Rob would say. As we arrived the house, the shop and the main cafe were were closed. ‘Oh no’ I thought ‘no shop, so no tea towel’. Disaster. But no, not a disaster. One of Lyn and Rob’s contribution to my Birthday Tea Towel Challenge was ‘Sutton Hoo’. I had no need to feel ‘hard dun by’. I have my tea towel so I was free to enjoy the beauties and wonders of Sutton Hoo.

I’ve known about the wonders of Sutton Hoo for many years. I have enjoyed reading of the discoveries, with the ‘helmet’ in the British Museum. A recent addition is the Viewing Tower, from where you can look over the burial grounds, a magnificent view. You can even go to the first level in a Tramper. This is a wondrous site, property of the National Trust. Because this site is on the door-steps of Lyn and Rob, we had well-versed guides.

The story goes that in the summer of 1939, as World War II loomed bleakly on the horizon, a discovery was made beneath the earth in a quiet corner of Suffolk. Beneath the sandy soil archeologists revealed the shape of a ship and in the centre was a burial chamber full of the most extraordinary treasures. It took ages to work out what had been discovered, eventually realising this was the Anglo-Saxon royal burial ground with unbelievable richness. The discoveries at Sutton Hoo continue to emerge but there will always be mysteries. It is thought, for example, that King Raedwald of East Anglia was buried in the Great Burial Ship, but that’s not confirmed.

Sutton Hoo provides one of the richest sources of archaeological evidence for this period of the history of England’s development. And I am delighted to be the owner of a tea towel to be a reminder of the nice few days spent with Lyn and Rob. As the tea towel says “Centuries of the every day……..moments of the extraordinary”

And we know that if we visited again, we’d want to return to Sutton Hoo.

Platinum Jubilee: 2022

I need to announce the start of my Platinum Jubilee Tea Towel Collection. It will be part of Royal Celebrations. I only have one Silver Jubilee Tea Towel, three Golden Jubilee ones and, finally, fourteen Diamond Jubilee ones. There are, of course, three Charles and Diana Wedding ones. Catherine and William, Harry and Megan…….There are also the Christening Tea Towels and, sadly, Prince Philip R.I.P.

I imagine there might be quite a range of Platinum Jubilee Celebration tea towels, because we all need something happy and cheerful having survived COVID, the scandals of government, Brexit, the scandal of the Royal Family, Ukraine and because it is a unique event. I aim to collect more.

I wonder what the Queen thinks about the Platinum Jubilee celebrations. Under normal circumstances she would have been accompanied by Prince Philip, now she will be alone. There is no forgetting the picture of the Queen, dressed entirely in black, with a black face mask sitting in Windsor Castle Chapel, on her own, isolated, during his funeral. So sad. I hope she will have company during the many future events.

I’m off to find some more!!