Constable country

From St Mary Church in East Bergholt,  we walked along a road, down a woodland path, over a bridge and through truly familiar 'Constable country' following the Stour - a hand-dug river with a couple of locks, one of which is here at Flatford where John Constable did a number of his paintings.  

The lock at Flatford

Willie Lott's Cottage - now the Constable Museum.

We saw the lock, and the place where the dry dock used to be, also Flatford Mill and Willie Lott's cottage which now houses a museum to the painter.

  

Rowing on the Stour.

John treated us to a row up and down the river in a little boat aptly named the "Dot" ...

             

then we had a picnic lunch under a tree.  

Dot and the steers

Poor Dorothy is not very comfortable around cattle and needed rescuing on the way back from taking Oliver to the loo, as they (the animals) had all boldly wandered over to the picnicking side of the field.  I must say, I've never seen such fat steers! 

 Constable's shop

 N. had her first English ice cream of the trip from the village shop in Bergholt, near the tiny building where Constable had his shop (and  just down the road from the  church where John and Dot were married).

Then we were off home to get the clothes off the line and have curry for dinner.