Ferryside Felixstowe

We rose and breakfasted late, then walked to the main street shops, as Ann had a few errands to do and I wanted to buy some wine. Then we drove to a long beach on the eastern side of the peninsula on which the town stands, and walked from a car park along the coast path as far as the ferry across the river Deben to have lunch at a small eaterie called 'Winkles at the Ferry' by the slipway for a snack lunch.

The shingle beach is about two miles long, and above the coast path along a low ridge are no few than three long rows of attractive simple brightly coloured beach huts. The demand for these exceeds supply. Beach huts are a popular family holiday pastime along the east coast. The local golf course occupies the land behind the sea wall. Off-shore several large banks of shingle protrude from the sea at low tide, but are hardly visible at high tide. The river Deben flows into the sea at the far end of the beach. I imagine these waters must be tricky to navigate with the different currents and tides.

On the north bank promontory of the Deben is a large country house Bawdsey Manor where James Watson-Watt, pioneer of World War radar (RDF) system carried out the first operational trials of early warning radar. It was acquired by the RAF in 1936 as a research station, and served as a tracking station from 1939 until 1980. The iconic radar masts were demolished long ago. Two of the eight Felixstowe Martello towers dating back to the Napoleonic war. One of them has been converted into a family home, the other is empty, unused and has one of the golf greens right in front of it.

The Felixstowe ferry is a motor launch which takes about half a dozen pedestrians at a time across the Deben to Bawdsey Peninsula. The ferry-boat is still summoned from the opposite side with a hand held paddle. No need to modernise further in this lovely rural backwater. 

We were rained upon several times during our walk there and back, but it didn't deter me from taking lots of photos. The coastal landscape is such a vivid contrast to ours in the Vale of Glamorgan. It was a most enjoyable outing.

Ann cooked us supper, and afterwards we watched 'The Dig' on Netflix. It's set in nearby Sutton Hoo, and tells the story of the excavation and discover of the renowned Anglo Saxon burial ship, which we visited when we came over to spend time with Eddy and Ann back in 2012. It's hard to believe that it's nine years since we went there.

O radix Jesse

After a lie-in, a late and lazy start to our day, just spending time together with Ann, eating, talking remembering. A prospective purchaser for Eddie's vintage Alvis arrived at lunchtime, but the start of negotiations was aborted as the car with its ancient magneto system, prone to winter damp, couldn't be started. The car started fine several weeks ago, and it lives in a locked garage, but this is not unusual with ancient cars. Altogether frustrating, as it means more preparation is needed for the next visit. Nothing is ever simple. Daughter Anneke and grandson Stefan arrive late this evening, so we needed to prepare the other spare bedroom for them. This led to a late afternoon expedition into festively decked Felixstowe to buy an air-bed for Stefan to sleep on.

We parked near what remains of Felixstowe's railway station -  just one platform serving the line to Ipswich now stands in splendid isolation flanked by car parks where once there were several rail tracks leading into an simple but elegant brick terminal building with several platforms and wrought iron canopies. Fortunately the architectural features of the old station have been conserved and integrated into a retail centre and Co-op supermarket, a nice piece of adaptation. I've walked the high street many times in the past, but this was the first time I've seen this, and it's been there thirty years.

Today's great 'O' antiphon is a reminder that the one sent by God to rescue his people was to be one of their own kind. The purpose of the evangelists in placing genealogies of Jesus early in two of the Gospels, even though they lack historicity in the modern sense, is to declare that he belongs and is no outsider, either to the Hebrew people, in Matthew's case, or the human race in Luke's. 

O root of Jesse, you stand as a signal for the nations; kings fall silent before you whom the peoples acclaim. O come to deliver us and do not delay.

Jesse is the father of the Davidic clan, and a common ancestor to all those who look to Jerusalem and the hill country surrounding it, as the heartland of their faith and way of life. Because he 'who comes to be our judge'. as both the creeds and the ancient Te Deum hymn remind us, belongs in this specific way, that none of those who recognise him as one of their own can escape his scrutiny, his diagnosis of the aliments of their spiritual lives, their culture of faith. This gives even more significance to the rejection of his ministry and his deliberate killing to exclude him and the offer he brings from their lives. 

While Matthew's Gospel is addressed primarily to a Hebrew audience, from a Jew to the Jews, Luke's genealogy, like his Gospel, tracing Jesus' line back to Adam recognises this not as an 'ethnic' story but one that speaks of our common human condition, and the fatal impulse that can lead us to deny and reject that which is most beneficial for us. Do we recognise this when we appeal to God to come and sort out the messes we make of our lives, of our world?