Three of the people working on our new home yesterday were members of Belinda’s extended family. I think this illustrates how Leiston’s population differs from others towns.

Last night we were at Snape, gaining a musical insight into the lives of Benjamin Britten and Peter Pears. This deserved to be a sell-out performance, but the concert hall was far from packed.

The simple pleasures that living in Suffolk brings, are somehow special.

Belinda’s great grandfather bought this Garrett steam tractor in 1926. Now in 2023 I find myself a trustee of the museum that tells the story of Garretts and how as they prospered, so too did Leiston.

For 25 years, Turnpike Farm was where we lived, worked and had so many experiences, some positive and some from which I learned tough lessons. Now it has been sold and I can at last focus on our new life here on the Suffolk coast.

A chance conversation on a train has led me to see pollarding as much more than a necessary pruning of our two giant lime trees. It’s set me off on a whole new creative journey!

I’ve discovered a new word, that describes how I’ve felt for most of my life. Cherophobia is the fear of happiness. Now I have named it, I have to banish it from my life.

It is understandable that people in Leiston are concerned about the danger of gentrification, but are we examples of that phenomenon?

A piano concert at Aldeburgh’s Jubilee Hall in the morning, a participate workshop in the afternoon, then a chance to watch the BBC Philharmonic orchestra rehearsing. I love living on the Suffolk coast.

I was probably the only person watching Sarah Abliss’s opera Giant, who unlike Charles Byrne, want to be placed on public display after my death.

Buying an electric car has made me realise that if Leiston had plenty of public car charging points, visitors to the Suffolk coast would come and spend a couple of hours in the town while they charge their EVs.

However hard we pretend to be, we are all fragile and vulnerable. I know this perhaps better than most.

In 1847 Richard Cobbold wrote a story based on the life if his mother’s servant. It became a best seller, because he wrote about what he knew, and wrote well. I don’t know the subject of my next book as well as Cobbold knew Margaret Catchpole, so must take my reader on a journey, so that we can find out together.

Both Leiston and Aldeburgh cinemas are independent, both are run on a not for profit basis, but although just four miles apart, they cater for very different markets.

We share our new home with a family of badgers. Capturing video of their nocturnal activities is fascinating.

I’m rather proud that Belinda is now the entrepreneur in our house. Her jewellery business is growling, as more people come to value her creativity, and I’m happy to sit quietly researching my next book. Our future looks bright!

I spent a captivating evening at the new Castle Community Centre on Framlingham, listening to Suffolk writers describing why Suffolk is special to them.

I hope we never take for granted how lucky we are to live just three miles from an arthouse cinema that shows National Theatre live performances.

I’ve never allowed myself to celebrate my successes, but this week, with two milestones passed, I might just manage.

I’ve visited many Quaker Meetings, but here in Leiston, I really feel that I belong.