Category Archives: Norfolk

Trips around the Norfolk countryside

Merry Christmas to all….

Well here it is…Christmas Eve. I have Nine Lessons and Carols on as I type, ‘Once in Royal David’s City’…

This won’t be a long post. I haven’t time to write it really, and I’m sure you won’t have time to read! I just wanted to share a few photos and thoughts before the big day. The snow has mostly gone now, but it has been beautiful…

Higgins has loved his walks, it might be cold but he’s not wading through mud…

I finished the last bit of pre-Christmas preparation a little while ago and iced the Christmas cake. It was a little problematic as my eggs were bigger than Delia’s and my royal icing was rather sloppy, even after flinging in the last dregs of all the icing sugar in the house. I spent quite a while scooping up what was running down the sides and returning it to the top until it started to set. Not my finest acheivement, visually, but I don’t suppose it will affect the taste!

There something familiar about a small figure dressed in red surrounded by snow don’t you think?

It only remains to say, have a very Merry Christmas all you lovely people out there in Blogland, the ones who have faithfully left the comments which mean so much and to the other readers I haven’t met yet, maybe next year? It’s been such fun to meet you on line, and also in real life, lots of love from Higgins and me xxx

P.S. I have some photos borrowed from my sister which made me laugh so much I can’t resist passing them on to all for a Christmas giggle…

…and finally…

(no Higgins…I tried, he ate the hat!)

Taking a Break…

…and taking advantage of a lovely day Higgins and I went for a little hike. I also wanted to test out my new fingerless mitts. The first pair I made were the largest size and are just a tad loose, my hands are long rather than wide. I used the pinky colourway of the wool I bought last week, it’s really pretty.

A much better fit, the middle size on the pattern which you can find on Ravelry, and of course, even quicker to knit.

It’s quite hard to find quiet places to walk amongst all the arable land in our bit of Norfolk but a lot of the fields have unploughed verges…

… and in places there are maps of the permitted footpaths.

Eventually we came to the lane leading to our local broad. Did you know I live on the Norfolk Broads? It’s a area of waterways linking large shallow expanses of water which are thought to be ancient flooded peat diggings. The only way to see them really is by boat, the road network scarely links up with it at all, but we have a small broad in the area which is isolated from the river system and is protected for the wildlife.

I’m ashamed to say I haven’t been there for years, you know how it is when you live near something. However, our little womble took us to the end of the lane and it looked very inviting…

…at the end of the lane we found this…

At the end of a small boardwalk is a reed fence panel overlooking the broad which acts as a hide for bird watching…

There’s a footpath running round part of the broad which we will explore another time, but time was getting on and it was time for Higgins supper…

This morning I had a lovely surprise. Isn’t it exciting to have a present when it’s not Christmas, when it isn’t your birthday, and you really aren’t expecting anything. Lovely Sarah, who won the pom poms sent it as a thank you. It was beautifully wrapped in a recipe with a letter on flowery paper, and a sweet crochet flower to finish it off…

… and inside…

…a notebook and pen, bluebell smellies for the bath, and a dear little fairy cake brooch which went straight on, it exactly matched what I’m wearing today!

We’ll be taking another break soon. Higgins and I are going to the seaside. I’m not sure whether I will be able to post much over the next week or so, but there’ll be plenty to see when we get home again. I’ve had lots of lovely comments and also questions about some of the things I’ve been doing so I will be doing my best to answer questions, and also to get to grips with some tutorials, zigzag crochet and the white crunchy bunting to name but two…

Look out for a postcard from the sunny (I hope) south coast of England!

See you soon…

All Better Now…

Thanks you all so much for all the lovely messages of concern about Higgins when he wasn’t well. He really enjoyed all the kisses and cuddles I had to pass on and it seemed to work. He’s finished all the pills, and is back on form, full of bounce and mischief. As you can see…

He really isn’t supposed to sit on the studio sofa, given that he’s eaten all the corners off the indoor cushions, but somehow, using that ‘bottom that’s made out springs’, he gets there.

After a big walk this morning I tucked him up in bed so I could sneak off to Norwich for lunch, a gallery and a little retail therapy. The King of Hearts is a lovely destination for all of those things and it’s such a shame that due to lack of funds it’s due to close very soon. After a bowl of warm and spicy soup we had a look round the Twenty by Twenty Exhibition, an eclectic mix of East Anglian talent covering print, sculpture, textiles and mixed media.

The retail therapy came courtesy of some of the little independent shops which are popping up in Norwich which is making it more amd more exciting, interesting and dangerous to the purse! Mrs Bobobun wrote about this one a little while ago but I only got there today. It’s lovely!

It’s full of all the stuff I love. I limited myself to a present for my daughter, and as it was so prettily wrapped up in tissue I can’t show you what it is yet!

Can you guess?

And I also indulged my wrapping paper fetish. I’m always falling in love with gorgeous paper, and then can’t bring myself to use it! This is double sided, so twice as nice…

Then there is The Book Hive…

..an extremely dangerous place for me since it’s full of books!

And you know what I’m like around books. I bought this one….

I’ve dipped into it , there’s another blog post in my head already!

I had to drop in to see the lovely wool lady on Norwich Market… Really. I had to. I found two more lovely colourways in the wool I used for the fingerless gloves in this post…

and some lovely bright sock wool.

I really need to knit myself some new socks. All my old faithfuls have started to go into holes, possibly helped by having my toes chewed…need I say more?

But I mustn’t start anything else until I’ve finished my latest cushion. I’ve done the granny squares…

…but the latest one has been a bit more ambitious, and has required a degree of ‘frogging’ to get it right. It be all ready for my next post.

Oh dear, there’s a beeping from the kitchen. Time to remove the Blogger hat and put on the Chef’s apron. I’ll leave you with the rose I rescued from the garden before the last bout of nasty weather…

Town and County

I’d already been thinking about Town and Country life when the latest Selvedge Magazine landed on the door mat this morning. Isn’t it strange when that happens?

Last week we stayed in North Somerset for a couple of days visiting family and even though I left there when I was a child I still feel I’m going ‘home’. I love the hills, and the meadows. It seems so green after living in arable Norfolk where the fields are so often ploughed and brown. But I’m also very fond of Bristol as a city and we were lucky to have a beautiful day for a quick visit, and a trip across the river on the ferry to walk around the new development of what used to be the docks.

I love that row of icecream coloured houses perched precariously along the edge, don’t you? I do have an ‘If I win the lottery fantasy’ about buying an apartment just here, very streamlined and minimalist, and trotting off in the evening to a sophisticated little bar before moving on to the theatre. Spending sunday mornings on one of the boats that have been converted into a restaurant reading the papers over a leisurely breakfast and popping off to Bath in the afternoon for a cream tea.

It’s very modern…

This is the Planatarium. Could it be a planet for Penny?

The pigeons always make themselves at home…

The facilities don’t seem to be so good for dogs. Don’r show Higgins…

We also visited Bath, not for a cream tea, but lunch.

I love the warm golden look of Bath…

One day we’ll get there with more time to explore. I rather wanted to go lion hunting. There were apparently 100 lions all over the city to discover, decorated by various artists and groups. These were rather elegant…

But my heart was won by this one…

Isn’t he just fabulous?

Love the curled lip, all that’s missing are the blue suede shoes!

Back home, the lovely weather is over and we’re back to dog walking in the mud.

But there’s lots to see here too. Free food…

Beautiful colours…

A very brave poppy!

And these delicate, amazing toadstools…

So where would you rather be? With what you know about me now can you see me in a minimalist apartment without my mountain of yarn, and textiles and books and stuff? Nope, me neither!

P.S. Tomorrow is the day of the Pompom Bunting Draw from this post. If you are quick there is still just time to leave a comment and enter!

What Happened Next?

Just a little post about a mystery…

We’re having such lovely weather, and now I’m back on my feet my crafty partner-in-crime and I decided we needed a little sea air, acompanied by Higgins, of course.

( Do you like his Super Hero car harness?)

So off to our usual patch of Norfolk coast, absolutely gorgeous and inexplicably for such a lovely day, almost deserted.

The tide was coming in, and exciting little pools were forming.

Suddenly from over the breakwater two little terriers came bustling along, joined by a short lead. Higgins was very pleased to meet them…

…but they were all on their own.

We spotted people walking along the dunes and assumed they were the dogs owners, but ten minutes later they had disappeared over the horizon, and the dogs were back with us. Then we spotted someone lying by the breakwater in the distance and thought ‘Ah, that’s it’ and carried on shell spotting. A few minutes after turning round however, there they were again, and we were worried to see that while one little dog was dashing along happily, the second dog looking completely exhausted, was being dragged.

At this point three women came strolling along with their their own dog and stopped to admire ‘our’ dogs. Once we’d explained they too became concerned so we had a look at their collars where we found three mobile numbers. Alas, only one phone between the five of us and no signal.

We pointed out the distant, recumbant figure and they decided to walk the dogs back that way to see if it was indeed the dogs owner, and failing that said that the dogs couldn’t possibly be left tired on the beach, with the tide coming in and if necessary they would take them home and contact the owners from there.

And that was how we left it. I’m sure it was all fine, they were obviously dog people like us. But how could it happen? I don’t take my eyes off Higgins when we are out. Was the person lying on the sand unwell? What happened next?

We’ll never know…