Monday, 25 April 2022

Sunshine for Easter

Hi there everyone 😃

I’m a bit late with my Easter update but thought I’d just check in and let you know what we got up to before I move on to share our latest break in North Wales with you.

Like a big part of the country we were blessed with some glorious weather and the best part of the weekend was spent actually making a start on some spring jobs in the garden … starting with displaying my latest craft project …
I made these air dried clay ‘eggs’ at craft group at the beginning of April. Once they’d fully dried I lightly sanded down the rough edges, gave a couple of coats of watercolour paint, highlighted with sharpies and finished off with a couple of coats of yacht varnish and some ribbon from my stash.

I hung them at varying heights in the magnolia …
It was then on to the more mundane … Martin had finished treating the pergola to its annual wood treatment, having missed it last year, and we decided that we’d have a go at painting some fence panels. As we’d been next door a few weeks ago and cleared all their ivy, which had become a bit of a problem, it seemed a good time to get the panels painted.

We did five in the end and motivated by how smart they looked I decided I’d have a good go at the border and took a few bits out that were either way past their best or due for replacement with something a bit more suitable. I finished it off by sprinkling a good handful of purple poppy seeds, which I’d saved from last year …
It would be just amazing if the border ended up being full of these in the summer 💜💜💜

 One of the plants I took out was a white buddleia that we seem to have been moving round the garden for years. I was very pleased that I’ve managed to find it a new home with Jackie and Phil, who love anything white on the plant front … I threw in the violets for free …
We bit the bullet with our very expensive daphne that we bought last year and seemed to be really suffering. We completely chopped off all of the wilted leafage and are keeping everything crossed that it may make a recovery …
The little greenhouse also had a bit of a dust and brush up. Predictably, for us, one of the cucumbers that we’d bought seems to be on its way out … we are ever hopeful for it’s companion …
… and we couldn’t quite believe how the courgette we bought the previous week is flourishing …
As well as the gardening I did sneak in an Easter bake … the first time trying at millionaires shortbread … another very successful recipe from Jane’s Patisserie. I did have a bit of a Facebook chat with friends about whether it could be frozen, but the question was immaterial in the end it didn't last anywhere near long enough to make it to the freezer ...
Anyway I think that was about it for us … it was lovely to get back out into the garden, without needing lots of layers and we felt that we’d been quite slowly productive and I’m pleased to say that it’s starting to look like a garden again 😃

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Monday, 11 April 2022

Exploring :: The New Year in Norfolk #3 ... Holkham

Hi there everyone 😀

After a lovely day out and late night celebrating bringing in the New Year, Jackie and Phil were up and out for a very long walk on the beach on New Year's Day. Martin and I ... not so much 😂😂😂. We opted for a very lazy morning, though were very impressed when we saw how far Jackie and Phil had walked. It seemed like the Norfolk beaches are very popular for a New Year's Day wander.

We didn't do that much on the 2nd either. Jackie and Phil were heading back home and we just had another really lazy day.

We did manage to get ourselves into gear on the 3rd though and had a pretty full day out exploring Holkham. It had been somewhere we'd driven past a few times whilst we'd been away and definitely wanted to have a closer look.

The car park on the beach side of the main road was totally full so we ended up heading up into the village, where you can park in the car park at the top of the village for two hours for free. We couldn't see ourselves being longer than this so it seemed like a great option.

We didn't really know what to expect or what we would find and we started with a wander back down through the village towards the main road. It really is a pretty little village, with plenty of 'chocolate box' cottages ...



We crossed the main road and decided we would have a wander down the lane opposite to see what we could find ... we knew it led to the beach, but had no idea of how far it might be. We did see people walking towards us with takeaway coffees, so we thought we may be treated to a cafe of some description, so kept on going ...
It was a fair old walk, but it was a glorious day and the views in either direction were fabulous, with plenty of birds and wildlife to spot amongst the reeds and marshland ...

Eventually we found ourselves at The Lookout, where we had very welcome sausage sandwiches and a breather ... 

Now we had a decision to make ... it was a fair walk back, uphill ... and we only had two hours on the car park. But we'd come so far ... could we really go back without seeing the beach? We decided not and headed along the boardwalk into the trees ... surely it couldn't be far ...
As we came out of the trees we could see we weren't really prepared for the shortest walk to Holkham beach ... wellies were definitely the order of the day ...
What we could see from here was stunning ... and it appeared you could opt for a 'non-welly' route to get to the sea ...

We decided to give it a go and headed left ...

It wasn't long before we were starting to get a bit concerned about the time we had and it was hard going for Martin, so he decided to start to head back but I didn't want to give up ... we'd come so far. It was a really lovely spot, but I was flagging and decided to head into the dunes for the shortest route to the sea ...


Finally ...
It is another wide and vast Norfolk beach. I wish I'd had more time to explore, but I pretty much took a few photos, did an about turn and headed back ...

I took a much more direct route back ... deciding I was just going to walk through the mud, rather than take the drier route, as I really was running out of time ...
I soon caught up with Martin and we hightailed it back up the lane and made it back to the car just in time. We were both shattered. It had been a lovely walk, but frustrating that we were so tight on time and had needed to rush back. If I were to visit again, I wouldn't park in the village, as it added a fair distance to our walk.

We weren't quite ready to head back just yet so carried on up the lane and into the grounds of Holkham Hall, where we had further refreshments ...

The Hall wasn't actually open for the season, but we did manage to have a good wander around the outside and take plenty of photos over and through the wall ...




By now, we'd walked far further than either of us had intended and we were more than ready to head back for our last night in Norfolk ... with packing ready for the off the next morning still to do.

It had been lovely to spend some time on the Norfolk coast, exploring new places, and being away for the New Year. We were heading for home refreshed and ready to take on 2022 ... with absolutely no idea of what that first few months would bring 💙💛💙💛💙💛

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Monday, 4 April 2022

Exploring :: The New Year in Norfolk #2 ... Creake Abbey & Wells-next-the-Sea

Hi there everyone 😀

Whilst we were in Norfolk for the New Year one of the places I really wanted to see was the beach huts on the beach at Well-next-the-Sea. We'd already had a rainy day visit to Wells for a look round the centre of the town but had a good day forecast weatherwise so aimed for a re-visit ... taking in Creake Abbey on the way.

As it happened we couldn't have hoped for better weather on a New Year's Eve ... it was cold, but there was plenty of blue sky and sunshine to be had so we started our day with a drive to the abbey, which looked just beautiful in the winter sunshine ...
The whiteness of the stone really glistened in the sunshine ... 
... and there were plenty of interesting shadows to be found ...

It really was lovely and I think it looks like I've actually captured a sunbeam in this next photo ... though it probably really is just a trick of the light or a reflection on the camera ...
We weren't there long but we all agreed it really was a lovely spot and well worth a visit. For us, it was then a quick wander around the craft shops before heading into the nearby cafe for a spot of refreshment ...

From here we headed back to Wells, where we drove down Beach Road to the car park by the beach. It was pretty busy, but we managed to find a space and were soon wandering past the Coastwatch Station and onto the beach.

To say the beach is vast is an understatement and if you've visited yourself I'm sure you will know what I mean. I've never seen anything quite like it. Whilst it can be a dangerous place to wander with an incoming tide, it looked absolutely beautiful, with a pretty permanent natural pool for swimming ... 
I'm sure in the summer months it would be absolutely heaving ... there were certainly plenty of people about, like us, having a New Year's Eve walk in the sunshine ...

Whilst the beach was vast my real reason for wanting to visit was the beach huts, and there were certainly plenty of them to be seen ...

I found them absolutely fascinating, but then I do have a bit of a thing for beach huts. The trick was to try and photograph them trying to avoid having other people in the shot ... though it was doable ... if you're not that keen on beach huts ... you may want to look away now ... I really couldn't get enough of them ...






I really have never seen such a fabulous collection of beach huts ... and with the backdrop of the pine trees and the almost perfect sky, I just couldn't resist keep taking photographs ...
We also couldn't resist seeing what it would feel like to be looking out to sea from our very own beach hut steps ...
It's a fair old walk to the end of the beach huts on the sand and Martin was finding it heavy going on crutches so we didn't go much further but re-traced our steps back along the beach ...
As it was such a glorious day we were hoping to time it right to catch some good photos of the windmill at Burnham Overy Staithe, which has actually been converted to a holiday cottage. It was a bit tricky to get a decent view because of its location, but we didn't do too bad at all ...
We'd had a lovely day ... it had been a lovely way to spend New Year's Eve and something totally different to what we normally would have been doing ... and we still had our New Year's Eve celebrations to look forward to ...

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