Enjoying the cultural side of the county...

I like to think of myself as a vaguely cultured soul. My fondness for sixteenth and seventeenth century music - I've recently discovered the works of Byrd, Dowland and Tallis, for example - brings me gentle pleasure. But I'm not entirely an active seeker of culture in the widest sense. As a Londoner, potentially exposed to some of the best art, music and theatre, I didn't really take advantage of it - there was always a sense that it was always there and that actually turning up wasn't urgent. And then, living in a small village, it became rather more difficult to actually attend any.

But, living in Ipswich, there perhaps isn't that excuse. A county town tends to be a focal point for the cultural life of the county, not exclusively, but nonetheless a focal point. We have some decent regional theatre, Dance East offers mostly modern dance, plus exhibitions at The Hold, Suffolk's archive, sport at Ipswich Town (least said the better just at the moment, perhaps) and some glorious ecclesiastical architecture. We also have some remarkable stately homes in the surrounding countryside.

And so, it was nice to actually partake of some of this over the weekend. On a (Ros-inspired) impulse, we went to see a matinee performance of "Noises Off" at the New Wolsey Theatre, a joint production of the New Wolsey with the Queen's Theatre, Hornchurch, The Theatre by the Lake and Les Théâtres de la Ville de Luxembourg.

I'm not always convinced by farce as an artform, but whilst the play starts somewhat slowly, the pace accelerates as chaos reigns and everything that can go wrong does. By the end, you began to wonder how the cast kept up with it all but a good time was had by all and we left having felt that it was an afternoon well spent.

It's playing the Queen's Theatre, Hornchurch from Wednesday until 7 June so, if you're anywhere near that part of furthest East London, it might be worth a look.

Today was a countryside day, a walk around the grounds of Ickworth House, the ancestral home of the Herveys, a mostly bonkers family who, despite everything, first built and then developed an amazing house just outside Bury St Edmunds. The National Trust's potted family history gives you a taste. There is a valley walk which takes you along the course of the River Lark through fields full of sheep with their growing lambs, which takes about an hour at our pace.

So, a nice weekend, all in all. I guess that I really ought to do more of this kind of thing...