Wild Camping

One of Andy's colleagues has Norfolk family connections who own farmland north of Norwich, and deep within this farmland is a large pond/ small lake which we have been lucky enough to fish twice now.  The first weekend on just one day, and the second occasion for a whole weekend. 

On both weekends, I took plenty of study materials as exams were looming, and I needed to do some serious revision.   The place itself is a botanist's dream, with so many wild flowers and trees - most of which I can't yet identify! 

The owners of this land used to have a house boat - long derelict now - on the lake and use it for weekends - the boat has been taken out of the water and I think the plan is to renovate and put it back for the family to use.  There is a LOT of work to be done!

On the weekend we stayed over, we took Finn with us - although he didn't get to come when we were there just for the day. I think we wanted to try it out first to make sure it was a safe environment for him. Of course, he loved it and while we did manage to keep him out of the lake, we didn't manage to keep him away from the bacon!

East Runton Wander

There is nothing better than an early morning beach walk - whenever Finn and I head to East Runton, we're out of the house bright and early and usually at the beach for about seven thirty.  There are so few people about - apart from other dog walkers and the odd fishing boat - and the light is beautiful.  We are so very lucky to have this as our "go to" beach - and only within a forty-five minute drive.

NGS Gardens - Brundall and Strumpshaw

This year, the National Garden Scheme celebrated its 90th anniversary - since 1927, the NGS has opened over three thousand private gardens around the UK and raised £50million for charities, including MacMillan Cancer Support, hospicecare and Marie Curie.  Each year, they bring out their "Yellow Book" and, one day, probably in the very distant future, I hope to be opening a garden of my own!

Back in May (May!!!) Mum and I headed to south east Norwich to visit two very different gardens - one lakeside property in Brundall, on a steep slope with woodland areas and meandering paths, and the other in Strumpshaw, more formal with lawns and a vegetable garden.

As soon as we got to Brundall, Mum headed for the patio area and declared she'd like to live there!

The lake was enormous! And seemed to be shared by maybe a dozen properties whose gardens sloped down towards it.  Mum and I spent ages sitting and staring at the water, dreaming and imagining peaceful afternoons on a bench, knitting!

This garden was beautiful, so full of different plants and areas - they clearly have help with this garden, I cannot imagine even the most enthusiastic of gardeners would be able to cope with this on their own! 

These two gardens were covered by one admission charge and the other property, in Strumpshaw, had the added bonus of selling tea and cake!  So we headed off a bit further out into the country for sustenance before a good mooch around this second garden.  These gardens were more formal with traditional beds and hedges.

Now I think Mum may very well kill me for posting this next photo, but it's for reference purposes - to show the size of the tree of life!

The fruit and veg gardens were very well laid out, but also quite informal with swathes of forget-me-nots running through it.  I can't resist blue flowers!

And this next garden ornament had us stumped, although I loved it.  I have since discovered it's called a rain chain and I have one too - a souvenir of our Dorset holiday in July, from Stourhead National Trust shop!

So another lovely garden visiting day - my mission had been one garden visit a month this year and I'm already way ahead of schedule!