Tag Archives: North Norfolk coast

Pondering on Autumn days…

Autumn Days in Norfolk

Autumn in the UK is a constant source of surprise.

One day it feels like the sun hasn’t even risen, the gloom and rain is unrelenting and all you want to do is to snuggle up inside by the with a hot drink, a good book and a little woolly project. Oh, and in my case, a warm dachshund!)

And then another day will dawn and all you want to do is to dash of to the beach – again with small dog in tow – and breath in some fresh air and listen to the waves shooshing on the sand.

So this has been the week on Planet Penny. The wet days and the gloomy days have made persuading Higgins out of the door quite a challenge and I don’t think he appreciates the delights of the autumn hedgerows AT ALL, but I do…

Autumn hedgerow - Nightshade berries Autumn leaves Min dachshund in coat But then the sun came out, and after a couple of hours battling with a large overgrown honeysuckle in the garden, Higgins and I headed off to the seaside to catch the last of the Autumn light… Autumn on the Norfolk coast Waxham 6 It’s amazing to get there when it’s completely deserted, just me and a little dog, who just runs and runs and runs, and get a bit frustrated when I don’t join in!

miniature dachshund I spend a lot of the time with my head down looking for treasures, sea glass which is a rare find here…Brightly coloured seaweed… seaweed on the autumn beach just appreciating the colours of the sea… Waxham 4 The clocks go back this weekend, I hate losing the evening light, don’t you, so these Autumn excursions will become even more precious.

And talking of the dark evenings, have you entered the giveaway for the Dayight Lamp yet? I’ve really enjoyed reading your comments about what you love best about Winter but there’s still some time left to join in, just enter HERE for a chance to win.

Here’s sending you sun filled Autumn days, and cosy crafty Autumn nights by the fire!

See you soon…x

Just Coasting…

Goodness, it seems an age since I was here! How are you all? It does feel rather that the blog and I are coasting at the moment, what with my preoccupation with my mum. Also, some weeks ago, thinking that this month would be fairly quiet and calm (!) I booked myself on the Photocraft Course which is now in full swing.

I must say it’s very interesting, and the embryonic skills I will have aquired by the end of the course are going to be so useful as I build on them and use them in the future. More of this to come.

But in the meantime, I used the week long break in the middle of the course to have a break myself. With my mum recovering slowly in hospital and with various family members keeping up with the visiting I decided to take myself off to the North Norfolk Coast for a couple of days in a B & B and have a little camera practice.

Now I would say, going on my present record, don’t whatever you do book a holiday at the same time as me if you want good weather!

Because of all the drama around my last trip away I didn’t get to share the photos I took then, but a lot of the time it was like this…

…wet and windy.

And then this time, heading off to an entirely different part of the coast, it was like this…

…and this.

I went to Holkham Hall…

So you sort of get the picture, don’t you? Not really the weather to lift the spirits.

To add insult to injury, the very same bank of fog casting it’s gloom over Blakeney, Wells and the surrounding area was also keeping poor Tim stuck on the gas platform where no helicopters could fly instead of joining me at the bed and breakfast!

All was not lost though and Tim eventually arrived, along with a burst of sunshine and warmth at lunchtime on the day before we were due to return home! We took ourselves off to Holt for the afternoon which is always worth a visit, especially when there is tea and cake on offer!

And having been starved of light and colour for a few days I was so pleased to rediscover Ruth and her relocated shop ‘Glory Days’. The original shop was in Norwich; I loved it and wrote about it here. It sadly closed, but the new location in Holt is perfect, and in such a pretty little flint and brick cottage.

And it’s just so pretty and colourful! If you are in the area, do call in to say hello and get a colour fix!

So on that happier note I will sign off, and hope to be back before long…x

Turf, Surf and Needlefelt Birds

A mixed bag post today, I’ve been lurking inside a lot consoling myself with needlefelt because of the unseasonably cold weather, but then rejoicing in sunshine and warmth when at last we get a brief indication that it’s actually summertime! I’m only wearing TWO layers today, and no thermal fleece!

The wind seems to have blown constantly for months in this part of the UK and we live in the windiest corner of the village, near the remains of the old mill. Wind always seems to make everything worse, doesn’t it? Colder, and so noisy with it whistling around the chimney. Yesterday’s walk was a bit scary, with small branches being blown off the trees. I wasn’t sorry to see some rain for the garden though, and Higgins was relieved that the thunderstorm which hit Norwich skirted around us. Despite all this Mother Nature is flourishing in the hedgerows…

The grass is long enough now to ripple in the wind like water, and is such a lush green…

But, in true English fashion today the weather is completely different. The sunshine in the garden brought the bees to the chive flowers…

I know you are supposed to snip the flowers off if you want nice chives for kitchen use, but how can I deprive the poor bees?

Such a beautiful morning was too good to waste, so Higgins and I headed to the beach before breakfast. What could be better than a deserted Norfolk beach in the sunshine?

The sand is gradually returning after being scoured by the winter gales. Only a couple of weeks ago this stretch was down to red clay.

Higgins was very happy..

And quite intrepid too in the shallows…

…and the pools…

Back home I’m getting ready for the first Needlefelt Workshop next weekend at Art’s Desire Craft Lounge in Norwich. The first one is all booked up and the second one is filling but fear not, further dates have been added to the calendar! The Birds on a Branch piece I created for Open Studios last year is in the shop window because we’ll be making birds, of all descriptions…

This is my latest flight of fancy….

Happy, not Angry Birds!

And, in case you were wondering, there is a winner for last week’s giveaway of a copy of Caroline Zoob’s gorgeous book, The Hand-Stitched Home. Thank you, to everyone who entered with wonderful stitching memories, I really enjoyed reading them. It seems for every school day horror there was also a wonderful teacher or relative who passed on their own love of the subject.

It was so hard to choose, I wanted everyone to win, but there’s only one copy of the book!

Please imagine the drum roll, or the pregnant pause beloved of TV Games shows so that I can announce…the winner is… Nikki Pierce who writes her own blog Tales from Swallow Barn.

Congratulations Nikki, I hope you enjoy your copy of the book and that we see some of your creations on your blog before too long (No pressure or anything!)

I’m off now to put the kettle on. I hope you’ve got your feet up with a cuppa too!

Have a great week and I’ll be back soon…

Sunshine and Flowers

Suddenly it’s Spring! It’s such an overwhelming change too, after a winter which seemed to go on forever. The daffodils at the side of the road, resolutely green and tight budded, responded to the sunshine so immediately you could practically hear the sound of popping as they opened. There’s now a definite green tinge to the brown twigginess of the hedgerows, in a few days Spring will really be busting out all over!

It’s been another busy week, which started with a trip to London. I went to meet the Pinterest Team, who came over from the US to organise a campaign with selected bloggers. And they selected me! Very honoured by that, and very surprised! Anyway, it all happens in May and I look forward to telling you all about it then.

With a little time to spare, I wandered round and went off to see St Paul’s, knowing that in a couple of days I would be seeing it on the news during the coverage of Margaret Thatcher’s funeral. I was too late to go inside, but it is a very beautiful and imposing building, especially with the blossom and late afternoon sunshine.

Back home, Open Studios is fast approaching. We’ve picked up boxes of brochures and postcards and tomorrow we’re off to the Forum in Norwich with our pieces for display in the Taster Exhibition which is on from Tuesday to Friday. I mentioned in this post that I was making a website for our Art Trail so if you would like to know more about us call over to the Two Rivers Trail (and watch out for the gorilla!)

I’m longing to find time to get out in the garden like some others I could mention…

…and Higgins isn’t the only one enjoying the sunshine out there either…

…but at the moment I tend to just wander round with a cup of tea and a camera in my tea breaks.

These little Grape Hyacinths have survived remarkably well considering they are on one of Higgins’ routes round the garden and he’s trodden on them regularly for months!

I’ve done nothing in the vegetable patch, so this little pansy has taken advantage and moved in…

I skived off from working for a couple of hours this morning to visit the beach. We’ve not been for ages as we’ve had weeks of Arctic winds blowing straight of the sea and I didn’t think it would do my sinuses much good! It hasn’t done the beach much good either, as our miles of pale gold sand has been scoured off and deposited elsewhere. The level of the beach must be about 15 feet lower, and there are pools and stretches of clay.

The huge chunks of granite which are part of the sea defences and normally partially hidden in the sand are exposed, and it was quite a feat of mountaineering to get over the top and on to the next stretch of beach.

Higgins really enjoyed the pools…

..and also discovered the most revolting bit of flotsam…or even jetsom..in the shape of a baby’s dummy. He smelt it from about 20 feet away, made a bee line for it and carried it all the way back to the car to put in his toy box!

So this is why I haven’t finished the project that was going to be my Hand Made Monday feature! I’m sure you don’t begrudge me a trip to the seaside though, and I will get back in the next few days when it’s done. I have also taken deliver of a fresh batch of Planet Penny yarn which I need to get back on to the Etsy site so it really is busy, busy, busy at the moment.

Don’t forget, there is still time to join in with draw for a copy of The Knitted Home by Ruth Cross. Just visit the post here, and leave your knitting story in the comments. Do take a moment to read some of the stories which have already been left, some of them really raise a giggle.

Back soon…x

Scandinavian Hearts

Can I call them Scandinavian Hearts if they are made in Norfolk? Well, it’s a style I suppose, and I’m not the only one doing it! I’ve just spent the best part off the day finishing off a collection of them for the craft stall, which is why we decided that despite the grey clouds and drizzle we were going off to the coast to blow a few cobwebs away, (in my case it was Merino fleece!)

I love the beach at this time of the year. It’s deserted and wild and when we came up over the top and out of the shelter of the dune the salt air hit us full in the face.

Very bracing, although actually not too cold. Higgins was in his element, it’s his favourite place for a run, and this time there was the added bonus of the sea whipping up into foam which flipped up into excited blobs which raced up the sand with Higgins in hot pursuit.

He also had a happy, and very brief moment with an orange balloon, (from Kent surprisingly, I said the wind was strong!) which Tim found in the rocks. It danced tantalizingly along in front of Higgins, but by the time I had switched the camera to movie mode the inevitable had happened and the balloon was no more.

But back to Scandinavian Hearts. This seems like a good moment to show you a magazine that arrived during the week with a Planet Penny mention, because it also features ‘Scandi’Style .

The mention is a link to the Planet Penny Crochet Bunting, in a Christmas bunting feature which has some other lovely ideas…

and the Scandinavian Hearts are made from red and white tea towels and are very pretty (and very similar to some I made a Christmas or two ago for my own tree)

But my hearts are needlefelted, and embellished with hand dyed yarn. I really like them just as they are here…

but I know people often prefer to know exactly what to do with them so they are finished off with a hanger and a ribbon bow to hang on a tree.

You will find details of the Craft Fair here, if you are in Norfolk over Half Term it would be lovely to see you. In the meantime do call over to Handmade Harbour for Handmade Monday.

I’ll be back soon…x

Planet Penny

Crafts, Needle Felting, Crochet, Patterns & Tutorials