Splish Splash in the Land Rover !

This is our last full day on holiday in Norfolk. It has rained all night and although still raining we decide to travel the Byways and BOATs following a route in a magazine.

We start near Holt and soon find ourselves going through the first of many Fords, some a lot deeper than others, some quite scary and all give the car a good soaking. I manage to get out at some of them to take photos.

The journey takes us past Walsingham, so we stop and walk through the grounds to the Chapel. It is very peaceful. The Shrine of our Lady of Walsingham was established in 1061, when according to tradition Richeldis de Faverches prayed that she might undertake some special work in honour of Our Lady.

She built a replica of the house where , in Nazareth, the Annunciation took place. Over the years it has become a favourite place of pilgrimage for Roman Catholics. Today over 250000 pilgrims and tourists visit the site annually.
The final leg of our journey takes us through yet another Ford, this one quite deep and wide, at the side of a mill where the water rushes in. I'm really glad Chris does not break down in the middle I would not have liked to get out and paddle! The sun has now come out as we make our way back to Heacham.

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43 years

25th March 1972, what a happy day.

Chris and I celebrated our 43rd Anniversary by shopping in Kings Lynn and then having lunch at the Brewers Fayre in West Lynn. Just a nice relaxed day.

 

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The Bumpy ride

Tesco car park was the chosen meeting place yesterday morning with Martin, a member of the Green Lane Association. Chris had corresponded with him through the group and he had offered to take us "off roading" in his part of Norfolk.

Most of the route was through The Brecks and boy was it bumpy. The soil is so sandy that is wears away into a roller coaster of a lane. A few deer scamper away from us deep into the woods. A sign saying we are entering into Suffolk means we are now far from home, but the forest gives way to some pretty countryside, the bumps continue!

A quick stop for our packed lunch and we are off again down very narrow lanes that scratch both sides and the roof of the car, not that you'd see any difference to the already scratched paintwork.

At one point we have to find a diversion as someone has Fly Tipped a load of household rubbish right across the lane, Martin says he will report it to the Forestry commission. Sadly this is not an unusual sight and with the high cost of dumping stuff legally it seems to happen more and more.

We say goodbye to Martin and make the hour long drive back to Heacham. It has been a good day and interesting talking to Martin about his adventures. Chris offered to fetch local fish and chips for dinner, needless to say I do not argue and we eat them watching TV trying not to fall asleep.

 

 

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Crochet progress

Monday was a laid back day, we went for a little drive around the countryside and then relaxed watching Top Gun on TV. I did more blocks for my crochet project, so here's my latest photo taken on the spare bed. It seems to have come out a funny colour as the bed cover is white, the wool silver with cream and lavender flowers!

Thought you might like to see the view from the cottage, the swimming pool on the right belongs to the house next door, then the golf course and finally the houses along the sea front, and the sea. The sunsets have been spectacular but so hard to capture with my little camera.

 

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A Laning Adventure

Packed lunches made and the sun is out (even though it is not very warm) we took off on a Green lane adventure in the Land Rover.

The start of our journey was Holme next the Sea, and armed with 71 Tulip map references we headed for the countryside. Many of the tracks and lanes took us through amazing scenery and a few suprises.

The peace and quiet along these off road routes are so enjoyable. Dog walkers, horse riders and bird watchers all say hello as we pass them, being very respectful of their enjoyment.

Unlike many of the routes we drive nearer home there was not a single gate to leap out and unfasten. The wildlife consisted of hundreds of pheasants and an awful lot of hares. In fact I have never seen so many hares, including watching a pair "boxing".

Along one single track road we came across Bircham Windmill, sadly it was not open or I would have been tempted to buy bread flour to take home. Further along we passed the ruins of the 12th Century Church of St Mary, which was excavated in 1998 by the Time Team people. Also along the route we saw towers made of four pillars of bricks, what they are for is a mystery to me.

Anyone know the origin of this stone, it was far from any road along a narrow grassy track? I must try and find out why?

It was a really nice day out, but we were both tired when we got back to the cottage. I again manged to cook a meal in the Aga then it was a TV evening.

 

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Matai Cottage

From the cottage window we can see the sea in the distance, there is a golf course between the house and the sea.

Saturday was not such a nice day, so we decided to just take it easy and not go far, in fact a quick trip to the local Tesco was our only outing. As usual I was up early, about 5.30 and worked on my crochet for a couple of hours until CJ came down for breakfast.

Today was the day I decided to try my hand at cooking on the Aga, something I had never used before. I actually managed to cook bacon and eggs OK. It seems strange to have the heat constantly there at the lift of a lid!

CJ spent most of the day working on his lap top, or should that be playing? I think he was sorting out the Green Lanes that are now open and those with new closures.

 

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Heacham Norfolk

Here we are on holiday for a week in Norfolk. The journey here in the old Land Rover was very interesting, as the Solar Eclipse took place as we travelled along. A very spooky light as the sun disappeared behind the moon.

A quick stop at a Service Station made me smile, all the garage workers were standing watching the eclipse through welding masks, a very strange sight.

In Kings Lynn we visited Morrison's store to stock up on food and decided to have lunch there. Their fish and chips are SO yummy.

Also on my list of must do while away, was a visit to The Fent Shop in Kings Lynn to buy more wool for my latest crochet project. It is a strange old fashioned shop crammed full of dress fabric and upstairs racks of wool and curtain fabrics. I choose three shades of Lavender Stylecraft Special wool to make the flowers for my blanket.

Heacham is famous for its lavender fields and we made a quick stop to visit the farm shop.

With time to spare we drove a Byway that joins the North shore to the South shore at Heacham, boy was it bumpy and pot holed, but interesting to see the property along the shore line. Hundreds of mobile homes, all empty at this time of year, were next to rows of beach huts. Further along were houses made of wood standing on concrete pillars to raise them above the beach wall and give views of the sea. A few very nice brick houses all seemed to be empty of life, I bet it is a very different scene in the Summer.

3pm we arrived at Matai Cottage to be greeted by Sarah the owner, more about this later.

 

 

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Silver Grey crochet project

I have made a good start on my Silver Grey crochet project.

Eventually there will be cream, lilac and lavender flowers on every other square and it will be a cover for our bed. At the moment I have all the wool except the lilac and lavender colours, I hope to be able to buy them while away on holiday in a weeks time.

As a born-again crochet person, in other words I had a gap of 50 plus years in my crochet habit, it is quite a learning curve, especially to make the flowers which are part of the granny squares.

Ten squares completed goodness knows how many more I will need!

Mothers Day Celebration

The day started with a visit to Church as usual, except it was not usual as Chris came with me. I love it when he comes to Church with me. The children sang at the start of the Sacrament Service and all the females were given flowers at the end. It was a really nice start to the day.

A quite lunch and afternoon until the family arrived at 4pm with flowers, chocolates and a card.
My family are very special to me and I love seeing them and hearing all the news.

Dinner was cooked and eaten, Richard had brought his famous white chocolate and raspberry cheesecake for dessert... yummy.

Jacqueline had brought along biscuit decorating items and we all set too designing our biscuits to much laughter and an overload of sugar.

My "effort" for which I won a box of smarties!

The biscuit designers!

Success is not to succeed, but to try

HAPPY MOTHERS DAY

I love this embroidery saying that I have just finished.
It will be part of a quilt surrounded with hexagons.  I do not get to work on it as much as I would like, the arthritis in my hand hurts too much when I sew fine things for long periods.

Bunny Treat Bags for Easter

The weather has turned Cold / Grey / Miserable, so time to turn the sewing machine on..

There is a free pattern on www.sewcanshe.com from 2013 called bunny treat bags. A friend told me about this and I decided they would be ideal to use for little Easter Eggs.

I thought I would make one each for my Granddaughters, but then found they are SO easy and quick to make [ I admit I did not put the buttonholes in them] that I have made seven. Each has a little chocolate bunny inside.
Most of the fabric I used was the remains of a Kaffe Fassett Charm pack and some odds and ends from another charm pack.

Home made Easter cards and Easter Egg bunny bags

While I am in the Easter mood, I found some lace I had made years ago and made the pieces into Easter cards together with my latest Hedgehog embroidery.

A basket of Bunnies.

More wool

More wool arrived, at this rate the neighbours will think I am having an affair with the courier! He has called everyday this week!

I was up at 5am this morning and decided not to go back to bed. The sky was the most brilliant red, hope this is not a bad sign on Friday 13th! I managed to make two granny squares for my new project.

Another exciting parcel

Yummy wool

Decision time on our front garden, which having been cleared of plants and treated with weed killer, is now ready for the next stop. It is rather a problem as it slopes away from the adjoining path and is lousy soil. The ideal thing would be to build a little wall to level it off, but the cost is prohibitive. Having stood around looking at it in the freezing cold we have come up with a plan that I think will work. Another job for Chris!

While talking about jobs we have also decided to repaint the bedroom walls to match the crochet cover I am making. At this rate Chris will wish he was back at work.

Clearing the Clutter

Major clear out today. We took a car full to the Charity Emmaus, which runs a home for homeless people and finds them work and a job.  They do such good work I like to support them when I can.

Bags ready to be loaded into the car.

Why cannot I tell any difference around here, there should be lots of empty spaces! Maybe I just have so much "stuff" I need to keep loading the car with things worth recycling and eventually I would notice a difference.

A quick browse round the different charity rooms and BINGO I found a brand new bread maker [ more about it later] that had to come home with me.

The Bread Maker

I have been looking for a new bread maker for some time, as the one I have is on its last legs.
I like a breadmaker that makes the loaf the right way up, not on its side. It has been difficult to find one within my price range.
Yesterday at Emmaus there sitting on a bottom shelf a new Breville twin paddle bread maker. PERFECT just what I wanted and only £40, they retail over £100. The guy in the Charity shop said he had just put it there.
I could not wait to get home and try it.

My first white loaf... yummy