Off yer bike

Country and visiting characters were always ~ and continue to be part and parcel of Broadland life.

Ken stops off on his bicycle named 'Jenny' at the public piazza by the bridge ~ Granary Staithe on the Hoveton side of the gentle flowing River Bure. On the rack is a beautiful knarled walking stick fashioned by Ken from a stout branch of a sloe bush, otherwise known as blackthorn (Prunus spinosa). 

More commonly known for its berries in the making of sloe gin, blackthorn wood was also utilised in ancient times by mystics who made divining rods and wands. Other parts of the sloe bush have great medicinal uses.

C