Tag Archives: blakeney

11 June 2009

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Bit more than a hiatus there: more of a huge gap. Originally caused by the absence of my computer, which has had its logic board replaced under guarantee by an excellent Norwich outfit called Bite, but then exacerbated (or lengthened) by the revelation from my son that Yahoo 360 is shutting down on July 12 – my birthday. How appropriate. Happily he has the expertise to transfer the whole thing to a new blog site called WordPress, where it will eventually be resurrected. Meanwhile…

Dot has been very busy over the past couple of weeks visiting schools in her DSSO role and today is in Hertfordshire on a research trip (I choose my words carefully) organised by the Norfolk Association for Primary Head Teachers. I had to deliver her to Thickthorn services at 7.30am. Rain bucketed down on the way there, but eased off when we arrived. David is going to create a website for said NAfPHT and was in Norwich yesterday afternoon to chat with Dot and Sue Eagle about it. We had a rather nice lunch, and David sorted out a message that kept appearing on my computer. Good to see him.

We have also passed through a good DCC meeting and an excellent Ambient Wonder organised by Matthew and including a barbecue, which we managed to get through shortly before a torrential downpour put it out quite thoroughly. Perfect, really.

The other major event of the past few days had been our weekend at Blakeney with the Evetts and friends: this year’s reunion, once again at the Manor Hotel. The forecast was not good, but the actual weather was much better, and we managed a five-and-a-half-mile walk on the Saturday, up to Wiveton Downs and returning across the fields to the coast path between Blakeney and Morston. The picture was taken on a minor summit at Wiveton Downs – and I do mean minor. Dot, Julia and Dave in triumphant mood. Food at the hotel was generally good without being spectacular, and we introduced Julia and Dave to the amazing Cookie’s at Salthouse, which I think went down quite well. On the Sunday Dot and I returned to Norwich via Baconsthorpe Castle, which was a bit of a revelation: an unheralded but extensive and picturesque Tudor ruin, together with lake, at the end of a farm track which, once the foliage grows a little longer, will be completely unsignposted. At present the sign is just visible from one direction only. Excellent: keep it secret, I say.

On Tuesday Dot and I found a couple of spare hours to respond to the kind invitation of Ruthli Losh-Atkinson (one of my two collaborative artists in the Twenty Group) and her husband Douglas to tea and biscuits, plus a tour of their house and garden. Both of them are incredibly creative, and the house and garden reflect this: the former is absolutely full of paintings and sculpture; the latter is perfectly organised, yielding a big variety of vegetables and fruit. Apparently they have two large freezers. And motor cycles.

10pm: Dot now back from research trip. Collected her from Thickthorn after visit to hospital, during which I was told I needed another operation, though a much smaller one. However, it will be under anaesthetic and will require a night in hospital. Apparently I probably have a problem with the neck of my bladder. Or, possibly, something else. They will see when they get in there. Not looking forward to it, but I am looking forward to something being done, as the last few weeks haven’t been much fun. As it’s urgent, the NHS should be able to do it within 4-6 weeks (I daren’t ask how long it would take if it wasn’t urgent), so I am asking about getting it done privately. I don’t want it to interfere with our holiday in Scotland or my trip to Hull. At present I’m due for a final pre-op assessment (some of it was done today) on June 29, but events could overtake that.

Now I’m going to bed. Haven’t had enough sleep the last few days. I should of course have mentioned that in the midst of all this, my aunt Vi died at the age of 93. It was great that we managed to get out there and see her in 2007, and she had been very ill recently. She died peacefully, I think. Sent flowers to South Africa. Isn’t Interflora wonderful?

25 June 2007

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Just a shot of my favourite flowers, taken in Suffolk a few weeks ago. Pictures of last weekend’s activities at Blakeney not yet available.

Arrived at the Manor Hotel fairly early in the afternoon – amazingly the first to arrive, but quickly joined by friends Alan and Rosemary. Booked in: we had a first-floor room with a view of the estuary and a four-poster bed. Actually it wasn’t just a view of a four-poster; it was an actual bed. Also a small entrance hall with table, and a walk-in-and-hit-your-head cupboard.

The other three members of the party arrived as we were unloading and after a pause for thought and recuperation, most of us went down to the Blakeney Hotel for tea and scone. Why the switch of hotels? The Blakeney has a first-floor lounge with a fantastic view out across to Blakeney Point and very tasty scones. That’s not a view of tasty scones but actual tasty scones.

The forecast for the Saturday had been pretty appalling, so we were pleasantly surprised to find ourselves walking throught the Cley Marshes nature reserve in pleasantly warm weather after parking at the new visitors’ centre. We did the three-mile round trip first, taking in the shrinking shingle bank and a new hide. Apparently the shingle bank moves inland a metre a year, but it felt quite secure, though small. Saw lots of interesting birds and flowers. A twitcher showed us a spoonbill through his telescope: we also saw loads of avocet, some redshanks, oystercatchers and lots of other less unusual things with wings. Towards the end we saw a couple of marsh harriers, which were pretty spectacular, and some penguins. OK, I lied about the penguins. We had tea/coffee/ice cream at a ramshackle hut at the end of Beach Road which seemed to double as a library or secondhand book store. Apparently it will be replaced in spring 2007. So the notice said. Whoops. As it wasn’t there, I took a picture of it.

Walked on into Cley village where Dave found a great little tea shop: West Cottage, which had the proud boast that spring tides came up to its wall. So lots of fun there in spring. Nice light meal – I had egg mayonaise roll – but the sky was turning black. When we reached a pottery shop it started raining and looked to have set in. So after a while I took an umbrella and walked back to the reserve for the car. This was further than I had anticipated – about a mile. As I was approaching it, the lightning and thunder was getting so simultaneous that I was worrying about possible damage to the umbrella from a lightning strike, but happily this didn’t happen. I did get pretty wet, however, and after picking up the other three Dot and I drove home so that I could change. Dave and Julia stayed optimistically at the visitor centre in the hope of the sun breaking through.

After leaving the hotel in dry clothes, we found really black skies inland of Blakleney and wrote off the rest of the day. However, magically, when we got to Cley (about two miles) the outlook seemed much brighter, and we all walked out again to a group of three hides in the middle of the marsh. It was from the second one that we saw the marsh harriers.

Back in Blakeney, we repaired yet again to the upstairs lounge at the Blakeney Hotel before returning to the Manor Hotel for the evening meal. In between Dot and I made one more brief trip out to try to find some barn owls: we had received some directions from a twitcher earlier. No sign of them (we were probably a bit early), but it was a delightful little walk in warm evening sun. The evening meal was excellent, and we had coffee etc afterwards as usual, spending much of the time boasting about our grandchildren.

After breakfast yesterday the others headed for home, possibly via Holt and Burnham Market, while Dot and I drove up to Wiveton Downs – another delightful spot new to us, only a couple of miles south of Blakeney. Walked around a bit, but it started raining, and so we got back in the car and drove to Kelling in search of a gallery that a photographer exhibiting at Blakeney had recommended to us. On the way we called at Salthouse Church, where there was an exhibition by Sally Lawford: unusual ideas, and the church was very atmospheric.

The Stable Gallery at Kelling was also interesting: Dot and I were the only ones there apart from the woman in charge, and we ended up having tea and cake, as well as buying a chair for the downstairs loo. Don’t ask.

Back in Norwich we went home, then walked to the Bishop’s Garden for a writers’ event at which InPrint had a stall. Bit of an in-crowd, but quite fun despite the indifferent weather, and at least there was only a smattering of rain. Rupert, Lisa, Tonia there with families. Also met Nick Caistor, Tessa West. Dot decided the look of PVM boxes should be improved and volunteered to help. She’s right: it needs doing.