Keeping sane...

I think I would have gone really crazy the last few months without access to outdoors space. If I ever needed convincing that I really need a garden, I certainly don't now. It has given me a space to create, to watch things grow and develop, to just notice the ever changing light, sights and sounds and quiet place to try to relax. The 'garden in progress' is still just that but there is a sense of anticipation of the next phase, having just filled these beds with almost 200 bulbs for next Spring and Summer.

The snapdragons at the back are a throwback to the flower beds of my childhood and these plants rescued from the 'past it' shelf at the local garden centre for pennies have flowered on their floppy stems all summer, continuing to delight me as much as they ever did.

The nemesia were also unpromising looking specimens but, cut back after planting, have rewarded with endless sweet vanilla scented blooms that lighten the flowerbeds.

Ever favourite perennial geraniums strike me as 'workers' - the soil her is fairly awful even after lots of extra organic material but these were unchecked and just keep giving. What's not to love?

Earlier in the year I retrieved my very sad looking tomato seedlings from a neglected greenhouse. Most didn't survive and those that did struggled to catch up with the season being a bit late to flower and set fruit. Some got blossom end rot and I was convinced at one stage I would not get any ripe tomatoes but the last little surge of hot weather resulted in this surprise after a few days away. And they tasted delicious! Can't beat plant to plate!

And solace can be found in public outdoor spaces too. A combination of house hunting - in multiple locations across the county! - and a need to just walk for the sake of it sometimes, has seen me discovering  new places within a relatively small radius of where I have lived and worked almost all my life. And it is often the little things that can catch your attention and make you smile. Sharing a few crumbs with a robin in a park...

And a late summer wander round a city park (after the best bacon butty I've had in a while from the cafe in the park!) was a reminder of how to keep flower borders full of life, colour and texture even as the days shorten and get cooler.

And in the peaceful bluebell woods where my lovely mum rests eternally, the ferns are lush and green and, from ground level, these tiny mushrooms looked like a forest for fairies...

I am really looking forward to the day I am back in a home of my own and can step out of my door to breathe in the sky and the breeze...but, for now, I am learning to appreciate the grounding effect of the wider world.

S x

special days...

Saturday 29th September dawned with blue skies and a gentle breeze over Ormesby Broad...

Perfect day for a wedding. Months of planning for the celebrations for my middle son and his fiancee, who met 8 years ago at university and are the best of friends.

The Boathouse provided a very special setting for a memorable day, emotional in so many ways. Grown up children, another life stage, former friends not seen for several years...

They had planned simple decorations with a connection to their love of the Lake District. Origami boats for place names, Grasmere Gingerbread, tables based on a map of the Lakes... I was impressed with the level of thought and detail they had put into it, very different to the weddings of the late 80's when my recollection is of a fairly formulaic affair and being told what was required. This was very much their day, with their personalities and preferences apparent. Perhaps its partly a change of time, perhaps their maturity and confidence in themselves (I was almost 10 years younger when I married!) but they had thought with care about family and friends and it was a pleasure to share their day.

The venue was lovely and we woke to another beautiful morning...

...and plenty to reflect on. 

S x

Italianate grandeur at midsummer...

I started my day yesterday with a run - of sorts... Having not run for about 4 years it was more of a walk-run affair but it was good to be up in the early morning sunshine alongside the river and step 1 on the way to my target of getting back to a regular running habit achieved!

I met a friend later at Ickworth House, near Bury St Edmunds. It is a rather imposing building, the Georgian palatial 'folly' of the Hervey family, maintained now by the National Trust. It was such a beautiful day that it seemed a shame to spend it in the darkened rooms required for these buildings of conservation so we opted to walk around the vast gardens and surrounding estate.

Then today, I visited somewhere I have been meaning to for years. Known as the Secret Garden in the   shadow of St John's Roman Catholic Cathedral in the centre of Norwich, the Plantation Garden is the restored Victorian passion of a prosperous local upholsterer and cabinet make, Henry Trevor, who created a quirky mix of Italianate terraces, Gothic features and medieval style walls built from reclaimed bricks and stonework in the hollow of an old chalk quarry.

The entrance is quite unprepossessing and then this surprising space opens out in front of you...

A path leads up the side of the garden before steps leading down to the North end of the garden, where a small summer house tops the terraces.

And the view from the opposite end of the garden of the quite formal central part of the garden...

I loved these walls that look as though they are full of odd bits of interesting masonry and bottles and brickwork...

With opportune ferns sprouting from the gaps in the masonry...

It was very peaceful sitting here and then the sun obligingly came out from behind the clouds and lit up the garden...

I sat and watched this thrush for sometime - I was reminded of my childhood when the tap tap tap of the thrushes bashing snail shells against the patio was a common occurrence. I hardly ever see thrushes any more so it was lovely to catch this one - though it was so busy I struggled to get it in focus!

It was a beautiful space and a welcome place to sit and enjoy some peaceful sunshine...

Midsummers day...goodness, the months are flying by again...

S x

Beeston hill...

It has definitely felt a little bit more autumnal this week so it seemed essential to make the most of another lovely evening. I started off just driving in vaguely the direction of the coast (this is Norfolk...to be fair, that means anything from about 10 to 5 on a clockface from Norwich!) then when I got up to the North Eastern bit of the coastline I had an urge to go 'up' so I drove West along the coast road until I got to Beeston Regis, Sheringham. 

Beeston Hill is one of the highest points in the county, at a 'mighty' 60-odd ft above sea level. Now I appreciate that hardly counts as a 'peak' and it is also known as Beeston Hump or Beeston Bump, so we have no delusions of grandeur!

Nonetheless, as you head up there it gives you a great view over the town and the coast...

This bench had a little plaque to commemorate a couple who loved to spend time here - what a lovely spot to sit and breathe the sea air...

Looking inland you can see across Beeston & Sheringham to the North Norfolk countryside - in spite of common myth, lowland but not entirely flat!

This was one of a number of wartime 'Y' posts - wireless intercept points where messages from enemy shipping were picked up and sent to the Bletchley Park decoding centre. Seems a far cry from the relative tranquility of the place now.

As I walked back towards the town the sun was getting lower in the sky and looked as though it was streaming through the gaps in the clouds...

There were still a few people on the beach, including one fairly small boy with this lovely kite...

I hadn't really noticed the wind turbines in this shot until I got home and put them on the computer; rather like the juxtaposition though - the static uniformity of the turbines with the freedom of the kite, both harnessing the wind. And actually, I quite like wind turbines anyway, something quite beautiful about them - though I know not everyone feels the same!

Surprisingly difficult to capture a kite in reasonably strong breeze, particularly with somewhat excited small boy on the other end of the string! Neither were exactly keeping still!

I do  love the seaside...

Hoping for more sunshine tomorrow...

Sx